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Bylsma's Blender; Hakstol's Fall |
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The Buffalo Sabres will host Lindy Ruff's Dallas Stars on Monday at 1pm EDT.
On Sunday morning, Dan Bylsma ran his team through the paces in a high tempo practice session.
The Sabres are one of the most mercurial teams in the NHL this season. One minute they are flying sky high and winning games by executing their coach's "fast, north hockey" system to a tee. The next moment, they fall apart and play slow, south hockey and lose badly.
This team cannot play a complete 60 minute game for extended games in a row.
It depends on their opponent and their individual players' attention to detail.
The Sabres are midway through their 2016-17 season schedule and they are no better than a .500 team (16-17-9, 41 points). They take one step forward and three steps back to take three steps forward to take five steps back.
Consistency is not an ally of Bylsma's team.
On Tuesday night, the Sabres defeated the Philadelphia Flyers by a convincing 4-1 score. The Sabres played fast, confident, north hockey and ejected the Flyers out of their barn with emphasis. That win gave the Sabres hope as they had clinched their seventh of a possible eight points in their past four games.
Then, they hit the road for a back-to-back trip. Their charter flight flew them to Tampa, where they were given Wednesday off. The team relaxed in the 80 degree sunshine and humidity. They obviously relaxed a bit too much as they were flattened by Tampa's speed and skill. It was a carbon copy in Raleigh where the Sabres allowed the Canes to skate at top speed through all three zones. The Canes, like the Bolts, had first touch on loose pucks and used their speed to exploit Buffalo's D corps.
For some unexplained reason, the Sabres scored first in both games then fell apart in the final 45 minutes of each game. The result was two undisciplined, uninspired efforts against teams two teams that are close to the Sabres in the Eastern standings. Needing points to stay in the playoff race, Bylsma's Sabres mailed in two of their worst performances of the season in a 24-hour period of time.
For his Sunday skate, Bylsma went to his blender to concoct new forward trios. Sabres fans want Bylsma to sell his god blessed blender on E-Bay. Bylsma's forward lines keep changing on a game by game basis and all hopes for continuity get squashed.
Like a mad scientist, Bylsma's endless pursuit of offensive alchemy.
To Dan's Nutri-Ninja super speed blender we go!
On Sunday, Bylsma opened the lid, dumped in his ingredient, and created another mojo.
Tyler Ennis has missed the last 29 games due to his recent groin surgery. When he plays Monday against Dallas, Ennis will flank Ryan O'Reilly and Kyle Okposo. This line is a real head scratcher in that Ennis was a struggling winger who scored only 1 goal and 1 assist in his first 12 games of the season before being sent to the surgeon. Now, Ennis will be the top line left winger. I get it. Bylsma wants Ennis to use his kinetic speed and great skating to create scoring opportunities for O'Reilly and Okposo. Having gotten killed by the speed of Tampa and Carolina, Bylsma wants to increase his speed quotient by skating the Ferrari-like Ennis with two accomplished a puck possession guys in O'Reilly and Okposo. Ennis and O'Reilly played very well together for Team Canada's gold medal winning squad at the 2015 IIHF World Championships in Prague. I see Bylsma working. He wants to catch lightning in a bottle by deploying Ennis with O'Reilly and Okposo.
I like the continued use of Marcus Foligno alongside Jack Eichel and Samson Reinhart. Foligno creates big ice for Jack and Samson to skate and create in. Foligno bullies the puck away from opponents on walls and moves it quickly to Eichel and Reinhart. Foligno enters Monday's matinee with 8 goal sand 7 assists, and is on pace for season highs in goals and assists. He's skating 15:45 TOI per game and has fully earned the trust of Bylsma. Combined, the 82-15-23 line has 25 goals and 24 assists this season.
On the third line, Evander Kane will ride with Zemgus Girgensons and Brian Gionta. I feel like Kane plays more of a defensive role when he plays on the third line. Kane is at his best when he wheeling and dealing with skilled players who play at his pace and who have similar high end skill sets. Kane has proven time and again that he can hand with Eichel and Reinhart.
It makes sense to acknowledge proven chemistry, isn't it?
Why is Bylsma not rolling Kane with Eichel and Reinhart?
The last time I checked, Kane has 11 goals and 5 assists in his last 19 games. All due respect to Ennis, but Kane needs to be the winger for Eichel-Kane or ROR-Okposo. Isn't it a high priority initiative to stack as many points as possible and earn a playoff berth? Then go with what you know, Danno. If Kane is going to be traded for a top four defenseman in the days and weeks to come, shouldn't he be playing 20 minutes per night alongside the best offensive players on the team and stacking goals and assists like poker chips?
Why isn't Bylsma running Kane-Eichel-Reinhart and Foligno-O'Reilly-Okposo?
Let Ennis ease into the flow on the third line with Girgensons and Gionta.
Bylsma is going to have to call up a center from Rochester to play on the fourth line. However, after Sunday's practice, Bylsma said that he might forego the call up from Rochester and instead play Nic Deslauriers at center on Monday versus Dallas. Is Bylsma serious> Deslauriers was drafted as a defenseman then converted him to a fourth line winger. Now, Bylsma is thinking about playing Deslauriers at center?! Cal O'Reilly and Jean Dupuyare capable centers in Rochester. I'll bet that they love the idea of Deslauriers playing center in Buffalo instead of them.
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The Philadelphia Flyers are a veritable dumpster fire that is raging out of right now.
The goaltending is not very good, to put it kindly. Their defense is soft and sloppy. Their forwards are allergic to back checking and cannot play on the defensive side of the puck with consistency.
The Flyers were spanked 5-0 on national TV by the Capitals on Sunday afternoon.
The were slapped 6-3 in Boston on Saturday afternoon.
After winning 10 games in a row in December, the Flyers are now 2-7-2 in their past 11 games.
The Flyers have many, many deficiencies. Perhaps their most glaring areas for improvement is D-zone structure, terrible goaltending and a serious lack of 5v5 goal scoring.
On Saturday afternoon in Boston, Hakstol made Shayne Gostisbehere a healthy scratch against the Bruins. “Ghost” played well in Philly's 5-4 shootout win over Vancouver On Thursday night. Hakstol benched him against Boston.
On the offensive side of the puck, Gostisbehere continues to be dominant.
Gostisbehere has four goals and 15 assists for 19 points in 42 games this season.
The Flyers defense corps has an NHL high 102 points scored in 46 games this season.
Hakstol cannot get his highly offensive D-men to play on the other side of the puck. They are often caught below the battle and too often allow opponnets to beat them deep with speed and physical fore checking.
The Flyers D-men have been exposing the goalies to far too many odd man rushes that lead to goals against. Hakstol benched veteran Radko Gudas on Thursday night. Hakstol turfed Gostisbehere on Saturday afternoon.
Mark Streit, the 39 year old veteran playing on an expiring contract, played on Saturday afternoon for the first time in a month due to injury. Streit was -2 in the 6-3 beatdown in Beantown.
Veterans Nick Schultz and Michael Del Zotto are pending UFA and have taken turns struggling in their own end if the rink this season.
Flyers fans are voicing their displeasure of the benching of "Ghost".
Andrew MacDonald has been a frequent offender in games this season yet hasn't been healthy scratched yet. MacDonald has two goals and 10 assists for 12 points in 36 games.
Gostisbehere is Philly's best defensemen and scratching him has infuriated the fan base to say nothing of his teammates.
Hakstol is the boss afterall.
The Flyers have scored 127 total goals in 46 games. However, only 65 of their goals have come 5v5.
The Flyers have been existing by killing opponents with their man advantage units. The Flyers have have scored 36 PPG in 46 games, which ranks them at 4th overall on the PP in the NHL.
However, the Flyers are ranked #17 in 5v5 scoring. The Fly Boys are averaging only 1.66 goals per game at even strength.
The forwards cannot score if they cannot get the puck on their stick in a timely manner.
Hakstol's D corps, including “Ghost”, has some serious flaws in breaking the puck out tof it's own end of the rink. It's a constant struggle to feed the biscuit to the forwards at even strength.
Opposing scouting reports call for getting pucks deep and using a two-man aggressive fore check to batter the Flets against their own glass.
The Flyers have recorded a power-play goal in three straight of their past four games, operating at 50%, by going 5-for-10.
Five of the Flyers last eight goals have come on the power play.
Claude Giroux continues to lead the NHL in both assists (17) and points (21) on the power play, while Brayden Schenn leads in the NHL in power-play goals (11)
The Flyers have five players in the NHL's Top 9 for most time-on-ice on the man advantage: Giroux and Jakub Voracek rank 1 & 2, Wayne Simmonds and Shayne Gostisbehere rank 5th & 6th respectively and Schenn ranks ninth.
What's my point?
Teams have learned that the secret to success against the Flyers is to stay out of the box and to dominate them at even strength. The Flyers live and die with their power play. These days they are dying because they cannot score at even strength. Their goaltending is a mess as a result of their offensive D corps using their end of the rink as a place to rest and collect their breath in between joining the rush to the o-zone,
Mark my words.
Ron Hextall is about to make a trade, or two, to improve his even strength scoring. Hextall is going to trade a defenseman for a top six forward. I would not be surprised at all if Hextall dangled Shayne Gostisbehere as trade bait to catch a big fish forward (see Evander Kane or Matt Duchene) who can add immediate even s when he trades a D-man for even strength scoring to the Philly lineup. Hextall knows that he has rookie Ivan Provorov to fill the void. Hextall also has the luxury of calling up one or two of his blue chip D prospects in Travis Sanheim or Sam Morin.
The Flyers have allowed 4+ goals in 8 of their last 11 games.
The Flyers have won just four of their last fifteen games. They have lost nine straight road games.
According to reports, captain Claude Giroux held a player's only meeting after the 5-0 skunking in Washington. Ron Hextall's will be the next voice the struggling Flyers will be hearing.
The Flyers are now off on an NHL-mandated one-week bye week.
I expect changes to the Philly roster.
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