Reese changing Mason

[jammer2]

@King Knut "On the bright side, Mason looked better and better with each game he played here."

There is one thing that scares me, when Mason was pulling off that string of sterling starts, we had 4 regular d-men hurt. I don't think it's a coincidence that our band aid defense looked far better than any semblance of our starting defense could have. Will Mason still look promising with our regular stiffs in the game? Mason didn't have to make to many second saves AND the front of the net was taken care of by Oliver among others. I suspect things will be different for Mason when he plays with our real defense....as sad as that sounds!!!

[radoran]

@King Knut "On the bright side, Mason looked better and better with each game he played here."

There is one thing that scares me, when Mason was pulling off that string of sterling starts, we had 4 regular d-men hurt. I don't think it's a coincidence that our band aid defense looked far better than any semblance of our starting defense could have. Will Mason still look promising with our regular stiffs in the game? Mason didn't have to make to many second saves AND the front of the net was taken care of by Oliver among others. I suspect things will be different for Mason when he plays with our real defense....as sad as that sounds!!!

It will also be different when the games aren't being played against a playoff also-ran. The team really seemed to pick up their play, once they were out of the playoffs... Or did other teams play down to them?

They reeled off wins against playoff teams like Montreal, NYI (twice), Boston and Ottawa and lost to Buffalo and Carolina in the same stretch.

[doom88]

Or simply, Mason was better at squaring up to shooters and controlling rebounds.

[jammer2]

@doom88 I'm really convinced that a big part of Mason playing well at the end of the year was the defense giving him nice sightlines on the puck. He rarely had to duck and jive to see the puck....and he didn't see a whole lot of second shots. The transition game was much better with the rag tag group the Flyers had in the last 10 games. Far less time spent in the defensive zone and usually clean and quick break out passes.

Some will mock this, but I swear part of the reason we were better was the absence of Coburn. I still think the right move is Coburn being the center point of a deal, freeing up valuable cap space and allowing Oliver to be inserted in the top 6. The drop off would not be substantial, so I'd see it as a win-win. The only reason I'm proposing dealing any d-men at all is my perception of overcrowding. This team is better when Oliver and Gus are playing full time, so something must be done to make that happen, and that = trading a d-man.

[radoran]

Or the statistical sample is small enough that it can mean whatever one wants it to mean.

Bryzgalov was 4-3 in April. In his three losses, the Flyers scored two goals.

Mason lost his first two Flyer starts - 1-0 to Buffalo and 4-1 to the Islanders.

Flyers scored 16 goals in Mason's subsequent four(!) game winning streak and he gave up two or more in three of those.

To be clear, I like Mason. I hope he does well. I think he can be successful.

But he played a grand total of six starts with a banged-up Flyers team that was out of the playoffs. He now has the chance the Flyers gave him to prove that he can make it happen for more than six games.

Time to step up in the next 50 games or so and prove you should play most of the next 32. At that point, his talent in winning most of six (or seven) games at a time will become Very Important.

[jammer2]

@radoran Making the playoffs in the East is gonna be tough, there is little margin for error...if either one of these goalies out right stink, I don't think the Flyers will make the post season. I can't see Emery playing 80% of the games, don't know if his health will hold up for that amount of playing time. I can see a 60/40 split, but if Emery is forced to play most of the games, everything unravels quickly. The Leafs will get great goaltending from the tandem of Bernier and Riemer, and those are one of the teams that I figure well be directly competing with for one of the final East spots. Some will laugh, but I think the Leafs tandem will be top 7 - 10 in the league. If the Flyers are not at least in the middle of the pack there for GA, the chances of post season are slim to none.

[NRH]

@radoran Making the playoffs in the East is gonna be tough, there is little margin for error...if either one of these goalies out right stink, I don't think the Flyers will make the post season. I can't see Emery playing 80% of the games, don't know if his health will hold up for that amount of playing time. I can see a 60/40 split, but if Emery is forced to play most of the games, everything unravels quickly. The Leafs will get great goaltending from the tandem of Bernier and Riemer, and those are one of the teams that I figure well be directly competing with for one of the final East spots. Some will laugh, but I think the Leafs tandem will be top 7 - 10 in the league. If the Flyers are not at least in the middle of the pack there for GA, the chances of post season are slim to none.

Didn't Emery start most of the games when they Blackhawks were streaking at the beginning of the season?

[radoran]

@radoran Making the playoffs in the East is gonna be tough, there is little margin for error...if either one of these goalies out right stink, I don't think the Flyers will make the post season. I can't see Emery playing 80% of the games, don't know if his health will hold up for that amount of playing time. I can see a 60/40 split, but if Emery is forced to play most of the games, everything unravels quickly. The Leafs will get great goaltending from the tandem of Bernier and Riemer, and those are one of the teams that I figure well be directly competing with for one of the final East spots. Some will laugh, but I think the Leafs tandem will be top 7 - 10 in the league. If the Flyers are not at least in the middle of the pack there for GA, the chances of post season are slim to none.

I'll take the over on that.

[King Knut]

I'll repeat that I think this is bunk.

Reese "coached" Boucher and Leighton to game 6 if the cup finals.

Bob was a stubborn & cocky Russian rookie adjusting to the NHL game. It could also be said that the coaching Reese started lead him to a Vezina.

Before that Emery reemergence as a quality keeper under Jeff.

Bryz can't be factored into equations... I can't imagine He paid Reese much mind anyway.

And Mason only got better working with Reese a a Flyer (If you'll recall his first games were kinda shaky and the year he was having in Columbus kinda stank).

GAA is a flawed stat for the position IMHO that has more to do with the defense than the goaltending in most cases.

Reggie needed to but Jeff... Let him have a semi sane and somewhat healthy goalie for more than half a season before we judge him.

I was wrong earlier, it was actually 8 of 12 goalies that have dropped in numbers when having Reese coach them. But otherwise he shows only a negative difference in his players even if its not .

[doom88]

I'll repeat that I think this is bunk.

Reese "coached" Boucher and Leighton to game 6 if the cup finals.

Bob was a stubborn & cocky Russian rookie adjusting to the NHL game. It could also be said that the coaching Reese started lead him to a Vezina.

Before that Emery reemergence as a quality keeper under Jeff.

Bryz can't be factored into equations... I can't imagine He paid Reese much mind anyway.

And Mason only got better working with Reese a a Flyer (If you'll recall his first games were kinda shaky and the year he was having in Columbus kinda stank).

GAA is a flawed stat for the position IMHO that has more to do with the defense than the goaltending in most cases.

Reggie needed to but Jeff... Let him have a semi sane and somewhat healthy goalie for more than half a season before we judge him.

Except for the Bob is stubborn and cocky part, I agree. Bob was focused on improving and did so noticeably every month as an individual element.

[OccamsRazor]

MCA died a few years back, the Beastie boys could use you to make a comeback.

Not to pile on but that is RUN DMC....not Beasties....semantics! !!!

[Claude Monet]

Just waking up in the beautiful Pacific Northwest.  I have not burned yet and want to say thank you for a wonderful thread.  It has been a while since I read one of these.  WOW!  Time to get high and go camping now.

[flyercanuck]

I'll repeat that I think this is bunk.

Reese "coached" Boucher and Leighton to game 6 if the cup finals.

Bob was a stubborn & cocky Russian rookie adjusting to the NHL game. It could also be said that the coaching Reese started lead him to a Vezina.

Before that Emery reemergence as a quality keeper under Jeff.

Bryz can't be factored into equations... I can't imagine He paid Reese much mind anyway.

And Mason only got better working with Reese a a Flyer (If you'll recall his first games were kinda shaky and the year he was having in Columbus kinda stank).

GAA is a flawed stat for the position IMHO that has more to do with the defense than the goaltending in most cases.

Reggie needed to but Jeff... Let him have a semi sane and somewhat healthy goalie for more than half a season before we judge him.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Bob? Stubborn and cocky? You meant Bryz, right? Bob, from everything I ever heard was easy going, friendly, hard working and a pleasure to be around.

 

 

 

[NRH]

Not to pile on but that is RUN DMC....not Beasties....semantics! !!!

Well yes, because those lyrics don't match any song by either rap trio.

 

But what do I know, you're just one of many following the opinions of your friends before you.

Edited August 26, 2013 by NarrowRoadHeros

[LegionOfDoom]

Me: "Bob was a rookie and has an all access pass for his messups whether in the first inning or after the 4th quarter double overtime it's all the same."

J2: Really? I think Bob had WAY to short of a leash in the playoffs that year, one bad period and he was never spotted again, despite playing his heart out in a tough loss the game before. I often wonder how different things would have been if Lavi went back to Bob at some point, cause with a talent like that, if he got hot, he could have won it all.

 

 

Bob was almost put in a situation, dammed if you do dammed if you don't. I believe he should of not been shelved for so long after a mistake. And the goalie carousel was the coaches doing.

It's like you get a flat going down an ice road and instead of coasting and tapping the gas pedal at the right times, you leave the foot on the gas as the leg freezes up.

We kept going down the road of the Stanley Cup Finals but unfortunately that bus ended up loosing control and crashed 20 feet from the finish line. 

 

The blame game falls on the coach, he has the final say who is on the ice when.(whether he listens to upper management or not), the Gm for selecting the players who will have a chance to play on the squad, and the owner, for not getting involved enough or in the Bryz case, too involved and causing a dominoe effect down the chain of command.

 

Reading comprehension can be a tricky thing when you are in a situation and have tunnel vision.

Reese bottom line can be a good coach, with certain type of players. But just like the coach in the corner of a boxing match, you can yell out what to do, but it is up to the player to take it in and follow through.

 

Reese as a goalie coach, I believe is a bit pre mature at this moment with our situation. And will still be a little premature after this one year contract year for our goalies. They're just touching ground this year and might not have enough time to of been situated before they might take off again to another city. So again we need a two - three year window to minimally judge the goalie coach, coaching the same goalie. I think if you have him coaching a player for 3 + years, take those stats, whether the goalie coach is on the same team or not. and add up those player/goalie coach stats and that might give you a clear body of work to judge him by.

[Lindbergh31]

"Hockey has periods not quarters"

What are we going to hear next? Faceoff specialists are like long snappers?

I smell the stench of Kuato from where I am sitting.

In any case, I think that Reese may be able to inspire healthy competition from the Flyers two current goalies. I am not sure how helping Mason out means getting him to play deeper in the net, but time will tell.

It also doesn't hurt that Emery has played in Philly before so he understands the fanbase and Mason got a little taste of it last season. It should be interesting to see which goalie takes the bull by the horns and runs with the number one position.

[Bertmega]

@Lindbergh31

 

I actually miss the goalie controversy lol. I think Emery may stun some people, but if Mason can regain his Calder form, we may have a nice goalie for years to come.  

[murraycraven]

@Bertmega...

 

I woud think that Emery is going to take the reigns this season although I am pulling for Mason.  The kid has done everything right since coming over but I can't recall many good goalies that regained form after years of mediocity or flat out suckage.  Mason has the talent but I am not banking on him.   At the end of the day I think he will just be another name on the long list of past Philly goalies that were blah.  I hope I am wrong but that is just my gut feeling...

Edited August 27, 2013 by murraycraven

[Bertmega]

@murraycraven

 

Sadly I think you are right.....

 

I am wondering when the optimism wears off for me lol. 

[murraycraven]

@ Bert...

 

I am optimistic but just cautiously optimistic (very)!  LOL...

 

He has the skill and looked very solid in net for the few games he played.  He was square to the puck and his puck skills are really like having another deffender out there... I hope it all works out but in the interim I would put my money on Emery.  I think as a 1A and 1B they will be fine in net as long as our defense is healthy - which is a huge concern.   

 

It will be interesting but at least we gave up one loon and have two team guys in net who will not be a distraction for a young team.   As a tandem I am really excited to see what they can do... hopefully, one of Emery or Mason grab the job w/ stellar play.

 

man... I wish camp would start!!

[flyercanuck]

@Bertmega

 

@murraycraven

 

 Let's face it...unless Laviolette finally realizes you have to play TEAM defence to win, these guys don't stand a chance.

[murraycraven]

FC:

 

Well, there is the whole defense thing and you are spot on about Lavy.   Maybe this year he really is "tweaking" the system to provide more team deafesnse.  

[radoran]

FC:

 

Well, there is the whole defense thing and you are spot on about Lavy.   Maybe this year he really is "tweaking" the system to provide more team deafesnse.  

 

As long as he isn't "twerking" it...

 

[murraycraven]

There is no twerking in hockey Rad! 

 

 

The only time I twerked in hockey was when I would involuntary convulse watching Bryz give up another ****** goal or ducking out of the way of a shot!!

Edited August 28, 2013 by murraycraven

[Flyskippy]

@Bertmega

 

@murraycraven

 

 Let's face it...unless Laviolette finally realizes you have to play TEAM defence to win, these guys don't stand a chance.

I think Lavi realized it -- albeit too late -- last season when they won 10 of their last 15.  Once he stopped trying to play defensemen in roles they could not fill (Coburn is not Matt Carle and cannot be, for example) and closed the gap between the forwards and defense, they got a lot better.  That's with a depleted D corps, too.  If they go with the same defensive scheme with their regular 6, they can make some noise and make the playoffs.  I have no doubts.  This team has a 2007-08 sort of "feel" to it.