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Meltzer's Musings: 12/23/10

December 23, 2010, 11:44 AM ET [ Comments]
Bill Meltzer
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • RSSArchiveCONTACT
After today, I will be taking a two-day mini-break. I'll pick up again on Sunday. I wish a happy holiday season to all HockeyBuzz readers and a safe and merry Christmas to all those celebrating the holiday.

I thought today would be a good time to look at some of the more pleasant developments with the Flyers so far this season. I've picked out three early gifts the club has received through the first three months of the season to date.

1) The early emergence of Sergei Bobrovsky. I was not in favor of having the rookie start the season in the NHL. European goalies typically need a season to adjust to the angles on the smaller rink and young goalies in general usually benefit from experience in the AHL. But Bobrovsky's talent and work ethic have made his transition surprisingly smooth. He's hit some bumps in the road of late, but that's only to be expected.

No young player, especially a goalie, can avoid facing some adversity, and you learn more about a player from how he comes through the tougher times than from his initial success. As for the talk that the league has "figured out" Bobrovsky, it's hogwash. Yes, there are scouting reports and film on him now, but the "shoot high" book on Bobrovsky applies to almost every goalie in the league. He's got a strong glove hand.

Above all, Bobrovsky just needs to stay aggressive and stay confident. He'll be fine.


2) The unexpected scoring prowess of Andreas Nodl. The Austrian's emergence this season just goes to show why sometimes a club needs to be patient with a player who struggles offensively his first couple seasons. Nodl came up as a scoring prospect and remade his game to be more defense-oriented; which prolonged his stay in the organization when the goals came more slowly than hoped at the AHL level and not at all with the big club.

He showed last year in the playoffs that he could be effective in a checking role. Now, given the opportunity to play on Mike Richards' line at even strength, the goals have been coming, too. Entering this season, I think most people would have been satisfied if Nodl scored 10 goals for the year. If he continues playing the way he has in the first half, he's got a shot at 20 goals.


3) The collective play of Andrej Meszaros and Sean O'Donnell. Meszaros has been worth his hefty salary and O'Donnell has shown that he still has something left in the tank. Before Chris Pronger went down, the combination of Meszaros and O'Donnell gave the Flyers their steadiest third pairing in many, many years.

Now that the club will be without Pronger for over a month, Meszaros is going to have to play top pairing minutes while O'Donnell serves as senior partner to Oskars Bartulis. All I can say is that the club's defensive outlook looks much brighter with Meszaros and O'Donnell on board than it would have if last year's club was trying to survive a lengthy period without Pronger.

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The current installment of the Daily Drop at Versus.com looks at my picks for the all-underrated NHL team. On another note, I think the Devils made the best possible move for all parties in making a coaching change sooner rather later, as discussed prior to the move in yesterday's Daily Drop.

This week's Across the Pond at NHL.com looks at the sweeping changes that struggling Modo Hockey has made this season, with updates on Markus Naslund, Peter Forsberg, ex-Flyer Niko Dimitrakos and other former NHL players.
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