10-18-2012, 07:37 PM
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#6
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MVP
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Re: Bringing a Parade to Broad Street(NHL13 BAGM)
Season Preview
OFFENSE The Flyers surprised many "experts" by scoring more goals than the 2010-11 team last year, even after trading star players Mike Richards and Jeff Carter in blockbuster deals. The key reason was the amount of goals scored by the youngsters. Matt Read, Sean Couturier, Wayne Simmonds, and Jakub Voracek combined for 85 goals. Another main factor was the emergence of Claude Giroux. Giroux led the Flyers with 93 points, while being a key reason in Scott Hartnell's career year. Coming into the 2012-13 season the Flyers have to lean on the young players even more and will expect a lot more after the loss of James van Riemsdyk(Trade), Jaromir Jagr(UFA) and Matt Carle(UFA). The only key addition to the offense was bringing back former Flyer Ruslan Fedotenko. Jakub Voracek is expected to fill the opening in the top line, after the departure of Jagr, with Giroux and Hartnell. Brayden Schenn showed some promise and should center a line of Briere and Simmonds, while Couturier will hold the fort and score some goals with Matt Read and speedster Eric Wellwood. This is arguably one of the best young offensive corps in the league and Peter Laviolette has a million line combination at his disposal
Player to Watch: Daniel Briere
Saying Briere had a off year is an understatement. He scored only 16 goals during the year and will be heavily depended on to rebound. His $6.5M cap hit is leaving fans with a bitter taste for his regular season play, but his playoff numbers almost make up for it.
Defense Last year was a heartbreaker for Flyers fans as Chris Pronger suffered a serious eye injury and a potentially career ending concussion. The defense was left without a serious bite to the blueline and a huge hole. Paul Holmgren tried to remedy this issue by offering huge deals to UFA Ryan Suter(Signed with Minnesota) and RFA Shea Weber(Nashville Matched). His deadline acquisition of Nicklass Grossmann will help the blueline get it's bite, but his deal for Pavel Kubina did little for the team as he was scratched during the playoffs. Holmgren made a deal with Toronto to acquire Luke Schenn for van Riemsdyk, a move he hopes will unleash Schenn's potential with a change of scenery. Erik Gustafsson and Marc-Andre Bourdon will be looked to continue their development after solid NHL debuts. The loss of Matt Carle is a big hole that only adds more to 37-year old Kimmo Timonen's plate. Timonen was visibly tiring during the playoffs and Peter Laviolette will more than likely cut his time to keep him fresh. Brayden Coburn has the potential to be the #1 defenseman in Philly for a while and lead the blueline. The defense corp as a whole needs to tighten up and not let teams get multiple shots on Bryzgalov. This defense is substantially worse without Pronger and with an aging Kimmo Timonen. They will make or break this team's playoff hopes.
Player to Watch: Luke Schenn
While he won't have the pressures of Toronto to deal with, he is still expected to perform. His saving grace is that he isn't being looked at as "that guy" like he was in Toronto and he should learn from Kimmo Timonen. It will be interesting to see how playing on the same team as his little brother will effect his play.
Goaltending Ilya Bryzgalov had a rude awakening on what it was like to play in front of a passionate crowd. When Bryz is on he is on, as evident by his superb play in the month of March. But he has been plagued by inconsistent play and hopefully after his adjustment period last season he can over come that and be the $5M+ goalie the Flyers signed him for. Journey-man Micheal Leighton is going to be the backup goalie and should see 10-15 games. Gone is Sergei Bobrovsky, whom was traded to the Columbus Blue Jackets to be in contention for the starting job.
Projected Finish: 6th |
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