The Flyers have a complete off-day again today from practice while they are doing the second day of their team bonding retreat in Florida. The team does not play again until taking on the Southeast Division leading Panthers in Sunrise on Sunday.
While there still nearly 85 percent of the regular season to go, it is not too early to look at a few recent trends, both positive and negative, to watch in the games to come:
POSITIVE
* Ilya Bryzgalov has now played well in four straight starts. On the game winning goal in OT of the Tampa game, he would likely have been able to cover the rebound a split second later if Andrej Meszaros had tied up Brett Connolly. Although Ian Laperriere questioned on CSN's Post Game Live show whether Bryzgalov could have prevented the rebound in front off the initial Dominic Moore side angle shot, it looked like a tough one to avoid.
* Jakub Voracek built off his break out game against the Blue Jackets with a solid game against Tampa Bay. Apart from playing a major role in the Flyers' lone goal of the Tampa Bay game (putting a shot on net from the point, that was accurate and deflectable for goal scorer Scott Hartnell), Voracek used his size effectively on the walls. He was not credited with a shot on goal in the game, but that did not take away from a good effort.
* If the Barry Ashbee Trophy were awarded for the first six weeks of the season, Kimmo Timonen would be the winner by a country mile because Chris Pronger missed so much time with injury. Timonen has played like the All-Star caliber defenseman the Flyers had grown accustomed to seeing over the years, not the banged up and seemingly aged player we saw in the stretch drive and at times during the playoffs last year. Apart from his reliable play in his own end of the ice, Timonen is also in the league-wide top-12 for points by a defenseman.
* The faceoff department is pretty much the only Sean Couturier's game where he's looked a little overmatched. However, even in that department, he really is not doing all that badly compared to other rookie centers in the NHL. Among the rookie centers in the league who have
regularly taken draws, only New Jersey's 21-year-old Adam Henrique has won more than he's lost.
NEGATIVE
* It is awfully tough to make a 1-0 lead stand up an entire game, but the bigger picture of the Flyers' game on Thursday is that the team needs to do a better job of coming away with two points the vast majority of the time when they score first. In their 15 games played to date, the Flyers have scored first in 12 of the games. That's nice to see, but true contending teams come away with more than 6 wins (6-3-3 to date) out of 12 games where they score first.
* The power play needs to get back in synch again now that Pronger has returned to the lineup. After a torrid start, the Flyers have slipped below the benchmark 20 percent (19.2 percent success overall) on the season. Over the course of the season, there are going to be games that need to be won on special teams rather than at even strength.
* Plain and simple, Andrej Meszaros needs to get back to playing the way he did last season. He played his best hockey last year as Sean O'Donnell's partner, and has really struggled to be a take-charge defenseman this season with added responsibilities on his shoulders. He had been in the league long enough now that he should be able to function better in a "senior partner" or at least equal partner role in whatever pairing he's on.
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Thank you to everyone who listened to yesterday's FlyersBuzz podcast and entered the drawing for the Flyers-Coyotes tickets. We had six dozen entries within the span of two hours before and during the show, so we will definitely be running more ticket contests in conjunction with our ticket sponsor, hockeytickets.ca
Congratulations go out to our winner of the Flyers-Coyotes ticket drawing, Steve Perry of Yardley, PA. Enjoy the game, Steve!
Our next ticket contest will be a trivia contest on the Flyers blog, which will likely begin on the week of Nov 28. The prize will be two tickets to see the Flyers take on the defending Stanley Cup champion Boston Bruins at the Wells Fargo Center on Sat. Dec 17.
Also, a reminder that hockeytickets.ca will be providing a 10 percent discount to all Flyers' HockeyBuzz readers on ticket orders of $150 or more between now and Dec 31. Enter the promotional code "FlyersBuzz" on your order for the discount, which can be used in addition to any other discounts or promotions their site is running.
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