See, I am the wrong person to ask -- I think MDZ is a good player, who does have flaws, but is so much better than the other guys, I would be playing him as many minutes as he could stand

That is just my eye test. MDZ would be playing Doughty minutes if it was me, maybe more
- AllInForFlyers

That's my thing, I'm not necessarily saying he's got to play Doughty minutes, but if Gudas & Schultz are the shutdown guys, got to wonder how much worse off they'd be with MDZ or Medvedev.

The fact, that Hakstol was satisfied with Gudas' and Schultz' play during the tying goal sequence, scares me..
- Ondrej F

I watched that again, Gudas literally stands there, lets Fisher get the position in front, and then Schultz gets in and tries to play defense. Gudas didn't even seem to realize Fisher was all alone whacking away at the puck.

His zone exits are fantastic. He doesn't make the first pass available that will just get turned over or the dump out clear that just keeps them hemmed in. He takes his time and makes the best pass. There were a couple times he legit fooled ME with his outlet. And he must've had 3-4 nice one touch through the legs passes to get a controlled exit. Not to mention the goal he assisted on. I mean that equals Manning's point total. Defensively might be a work in progress but he's so good at stopping zone time before it happens (so is Shayne) that it can be covered up. Not to mention with the puck on his stick he might have the best hands of any d man. He seems like a forward at times.

All I know is that an average performance from him is better than half our d corps. Him at his best? We will probably never see it because he will be scratched after 1 goal allowed.
- Mononoke

Here is the deal as I see it. The Flyers are at best, an average defensive team, and a lot of that has to do with goaltending. They're an even worse offensive team. I understand wanting to have players who are hard to play against, and are physical. This is not meant to be a criticism against Radko Gudas, but you're simply not going to be a very good team playing Gudas almost 25 minutes a game! Gudas is a good value and is a very competitive player, but he's more a defensive stay at home defender. It's a passing, shooting, skating game. Players like Medvedev and Gostisbehere upgrade the Flyers skill level. They upgrade the ability to move the puck, and they change what kind of team the Flyers are. There will be some times when teams will take advantage of them down low, but as you alluded to, the idea is to not get to that point.

On the tying goal, it's 6 on 5 with the goaltender pulled. If you look at the play, it's initially 3 on 3 up high, and 3 on 2 down low. That should be reversed. Defenseman in that situation, will have to play between players. That is going to allow players to get position on the defenseman, and just like the Flyers got on the McDonald goal, they got the right bounce and were able to put the puck in the net. If we want to look at a player who did nothing on the play, look at Claude Giroux.