Spinorama

I can only guess they were tired from the Bruins game. I was a little disappointed they didn't come out with the same tenacity. But like ya said, a win is a win and I'll take it. Sestito. Nice pass. Probably luck but nice none the less! Bob. Nice game win dance! part of me wondered if that was a "in your face Mr. $10mil man" (couldn't bring myself to use the obvious univ... cliche)

9 of 12 forwards gone from that list. I realized the team was overhauled but never paid THAT close attention to exactly how many. If i was to guess, off the top of my head without running through the lines mentally, I don't think I would've guessed 9...

I've said otherwise already. you keep bringing it back here. I never said every big hit that occurs in the game needs to result in a fight. but in this case, where the dude was obviously taken advantage of and blown the heck up, retribution in my mind was not out of hand here. the dude was slow getting up even after the fight, that's enough for me... but that said that doesn't mean I apply that to every big hit that occurs and I never said I did either... yet here you are still stuck there.

but isn't that... thug hockey jk bro lol, i know what you mean

amen! with Gus, I honestly haven't been able to form an honest opinion of him because of my limited exposure to him but in my mind, if a newbie is on D and I'm not yelling at him, that means he's doing his job well. ugh bryz... if only he could've been half of what he was advertised to be. What's the average at now for goals needed to be scored to guarantee a win with this guy? 4ish? I'd take him only giving up 2 a game at this point, even for his $10mil. Hopefully he figures out how to reach that point by the POs but as I believe it was @flyercanuck who said, at this point what you see is what you get. I've even stopped making excuses for the deflections that have plagued him and the team this year. Okay, redirects like those from Carle aside, a goalie should always be in at least sound position to make saves both unexpected and expected (sounds positioning covering the unexpected). But man oh man, like you said, the shots he SHOULD have?!? beyond painful to watch at this point.

I want to see Schenn type hits 10 times a game and even more. But that doesn't mean I want the other team to just take it either! What kind of pansy club lets their team get pushed around, clean or not? I liked the hit. I thought it was within Kelley's right to stand up for his teammate. I thought Schenn did the right thing by answering the call. I honestly don't care about discussing whether or not the fight disrupted the flow of the game. What about the fights that start game? It keeps the game from starting. Or fights that start periods. or what about fights that start at the drop of the puck on a faceoff? They all keep the play from happening so big freakin deal. If fighting is getting in the way of hockey so much and is a problem then the league should just ban it and get it over with. But as long as you allow fighting in a sport, I think it's ridiculous to say when it's right and wrong. You wanna go, you challenge. The other guy accepts? you have a fight. period. Besides, I'd much rather see guys dropping the gloves because they actually took offense to something that happened in game over seeing Shelley drop the gloves with the opponent's resident tough guy in the opening minutes of a game because it's his job to fight. nothing happened yet, what are you fighting about? At least with the play we're talking about the players involved had something to want to fight about... well, maybe Kelley did at least.

Schenn's hit was a phenomenal hockey play! Kelley's reaction was exactly what the Bruins needed. If a Flyer was sent to the ice on a clean textbook style hit, I wouldn't want the O&B standing around with towels mopping up the blood of their own player that's for sure edit: oh and while I don't disagree with you... that may have been a clean hit but it looked like the guy was injured on the play as well. It'd be one thing if he bounced back up but that wasn't the case there.

well, keep focusing on the idea that you think my idea is to jump every one that lays out a clean hit and we'll be here forever. I've pointed out several times that's not what I'm all about. Find the post that has me talking about how to send message and exact revenge without being a jackass and you'll see where I'm really coming from. You're taking things that I've said here and putting them up as if that's what I'm ALL about and that's just not the case. But I do stand by the notion that players are allowed to challenge (read clearly, NOT JUMP) each other to a fight, at any time during the game, for whatever reason they damn well please. I've clearly indicated that I want my team to play tough. I want them to stand up for each other. And if someone wants to challenge another player to a fight after a big hit then that should be accepted. The other player doesn't have to accept. And in the situation with Hartnell, well that's a league issue. If a player gets jumped and has no other recourse then to defend himself, then the refs need to get a clue and not punish the player (Hartnell) in that situation. Don't give each 5 for fighting and then 2 to the guy that started it. Just give the guy that started it 5 and let Hartnell go back to the bench.

this would've been the perfect season for the Flyers to develop a goalie. Even after they got their supposed number one, everyone still wrote this season off as a rebuilding year anyway with all the new forwards and all the rookies. ugh, I can only imagine what would've been if the Flyers took that goalie money and got a decent back up or a short term no.1 and spent the rest bolstering the D a little more. I agree that the D pieces that have come in really have done well considering. MAB is coming along nicely. He's looked pretty darn good considering that even though he isn't replacing Pronger, it must weigh on him a little to know that he in there cause Pronger isn't and might want to step his game up a little more than if he was just your average rookie. I can't wait for Gus to start putting in some "damn, nice play Gus!!!" performances but since he isn't giving me much to complain about, I'll take that as a good thing. Heck, Even Marshall was okay when in there.

I'd love to see the NHL put together a highlight reel of hits and what is deemed late and what isn't. I know what I think is late and what isn't but I honestly can't tell by the way the refs call them. I've seen guys pass a puck, then get hit a good few moments after the puck is gone, at least long enough for the incoming player to pull up or change direction. yet those are deemed "finishing my check" hits. But then you see hits where someone gets hurt and all of a sudden that little soft zone gets tighten up and plays where the puck was passed away only a second before contact was made, clearly not enough time for the incoming player to pull up or change direction and all of a sudden it's a late hit. on point: 1. suspension worthy? nope, his arms were tucked all the way in. He did follow through but when the hit was made, those arms were down. Was it late? maybe, but the ref didn't think so. Besides, Sestito got a cross check to the face on that play, shouldn't the question be the otheer way around? 2. maybe. since it's Sestito, probably. It looked like he hit him in the chest but his shoulder could have very easily clipped the guy in the face. At 3:50 it really does look like a clean hit. By 4:15 I'm ready to say no. 3. no. blind side yes, up high, no. The angle at 2:46 shows the point of contact was clearly mid to upper body be definitely not the head. ps, at about 2:06, it sounds like the guy is either saying either Sestio or Sesteal (could be a fun nickname)

back to the situation at hand. I have no problem with players sticking up for each other. And personally I have no problem with players challenging other players who just laid someone out cleanly or not to a fight I'm not saying jump the guy, I'm saying challenge). They have each other's backs. That's the bottom line. I'm laughing right now thinking of a scenario "hey man, this game's gonna be tough... are you with me??? "only if you get cheap shotted!!". If an opposing team has a player who can hit and hit hard but still clean, I'd want my team to send a message to that player that none of his stuff will be tolerated. I'm not gonna watch a player go down just because a hit is within the rules... the end result is still an injured player and my team won't stand for that. I loved Schenn's hit. I love that the Bruin stood up for his teammate and I loved even more that Schenn backed his sh!t up. I gained a great respect for every player involved in all aspects of that circumstance and to me, it shouldn't be any other way... oh, wait, I'd take that instigation penalty away from the Bruin. There is no difference between a player skating up to another player and challenging him to a fight after ANY circumstance during play and two guys agreeing to fight before the puck is even dropped. if two guys agree to go, then they agree to go. The only time the instigator should be called is if one guy clearly drops the gloves first and starts throwing before the other guy agrees to fight. There are plenty of clear signs that just because the other guy is fighting back, it's not so clear he really wants to go. With Schenn, he saw the challenge and accepted it (even said so in a post game interview) so the Bruin shouldn't have gotten an instigator.

I didn't say I was fine with the defense, I said that the Flyers thought they were fine. haha

Indeed!

I guess I should've specified that I didn't mean that for every nice check, one of our guys needs to go out there and pick a fight. But at the same time, I don't have a problem with someone sticking up for a teammate, even if that means skating over to the guy who just laid out someone and challenge them. What's the problem with that? If it's a challenge, and then both guys agree to drop the gloves and fight, the problem is? How's that worse then two guys saying "hey, wanna go" at a faceoff? That premediated crap is annoying but a fight that occurs in the heat of the moment is wrong as well? When is it okay to stand up for your team and drop the gloves? At this point why don't you just suggest take fighting out of the game then cause if a heat of the moment play isn't grounds for fighting, then what is? Blatant cheap shots? then you'll argue that they usually end up with the team getting a power play and fighting that that situation is wrong cause you rob your team of a good scoring op... it's okay to not like fighting in the sport though. I forget what thread it is in but I actually agree with you in terms of taking numbers and hitting people back. You'll see what I wrote there about team toughness and being able to send the other team a message without actually being a jackass about it. However, I have no problem with a player wanting to kick the crap out of someone who just laid out their teammate. If you can't stand up for your team then, you may as well abolish fighting from the sport cause then it really does have no place

the Flyers thought they had a strong defense and the acquisition of Bryz coupled with the Pronger led strong defense was supposed to bail out the lack of offense we were supposed to have traded away and allow the forwards to get used to playing together. Things have certainly changed since the start of the season but the Flyers thought they were fine on D in the offseason.

haha, sad stat

@Digityman Great hit. I really hate that players have to fight after delivering what is a great hockey play. If it's dirty, fine, go after the guy. But going after a guy for a hockey play is bs IMO. I'm gonna go ahead and disagree with this concept. As a player, if I'm on the bench and I see a teammate get freight trained and now he lay out cold on the ice... I'm gonna wanna "get that guy" clean or not. He took out my teammate, doesn't matter if he did it clean. it's called being tough and taking care of your own. No one said you have to play dirty for someone to come around and police the team. You don't want guys taking runs at your teammates, you stand up for them no matter how they go down. There's no way as a coach I let me team stand idle if they are dropping like flies and say "well hey guys, they were all clean hits, the rest of you aren't allowed to get mad, or send a message to the other team to get them to stop" . I mean seriously, if the other team wants to freight train my team into oblivion, well as long as it's clean, more power to them? and I'd instruct my players to let it happen so long as it's clean?.... yeah, no fkcing way

that was a fantastic hit! I never knew he was that kind of player

I wondered the same thing when I saw him take the ice. I'd have taken any of the players you listed

HA! at this point, why you heff to ask?

sounds like a good plan to me

I love Sestito in the lineup. I just looked at Shelley him and Holmstrom and wondered how they were gonna roll that line. Turned out Lavi put Sestito on the third line. I liked that move cause you want to have to toughness spread out and he obviously possesses more hockey ability than Shelley and I liked Holmstrom staying on the 4th as opposed to the third because then you have some decent hockey ability to make up for the lack of it that you get with Shelley. Team toughness couldn't have been better today. I'll take the point but they deserved to win.

we'll be lucky if that line see's 4 min of ice

I think something needed to be done as well. Team toughness is what you want to promote, especially in these situations. Most of the posts I read here seem to be the voice of reason that you can't just go out and seek retribution for hits like that. Sure, that's cool, but who said that you have to have a guy go screaming towards the player in question waving a flag that reads "I'm coming for you for what you did to Danny!" Of course that kind of approach will get you time in the box, put the team down a man and leave the game open for a come back. But why can't everyone on the team see those plays and take it upon themselves to make sure they start laying into guys, and maybe start targeting the softer players or guys who can score. Maybe that guy didn't deserve it but hey, your teammate roughed up our guy so guess what, you're gonna get the business. Keep it clean and keep it between the whistles... just keep it frequent and extra tough. There are ways to send messages to the other team without being a blatant jackass about it.

not until the off season. I think revisiting that during the season will only be another distraction.