Does the shortened season favour the flyers?
 

What do you guys think? It should be good for Timonen but we have a fairly young line up.

so wait. are they having any kind of mini camp or are they having a few practices and then the games begin right away? i forget what happened in '95

Meszaros will be back quite soon, but Kimmo wont like this.

I'm not sure. It's gonna come down to going on a run at the right time and staying healthy. If the flyers catch their annual flu bug with a week left to go, I will cry. Team chemistry will go a long way. A strong start by a team will be hard for others to overcome. I'm not sure on the record, but it feels like over the last 2 years the flyers were strong starters.

imo, yes. Rested defense, Meszaros will be back, Timonen won't have to play quite as many games, Schenn will have lost all that weight from his Toronto days ;p.

I'm hoping and praying that Mesz is back and healthy. I strongly believe that a healthy Mesz is the X factor for the defense this year. With Mesz healthy that gives us a pretty strong top 5 d men. We're lacking a true number 1 I suppose but I have stated in the past how I believe Coburn is a number 1 at this point.

That will be released once the tentative agreement is finalized and the NHL allows teams to make appropriate plans known.

Back in 1994, there was a camp in September and then the lockout happened. The big news in the September camp was Dmitri Yushkevich's weight. He went overseas to play and returned to the January camp (after the lockout had ended) in game shape. There were scrimmages opened to the public, one at the Spectrum which drew about 13,000 fans as I recall. My guess is that something similar will happen but again, that won't be released until the NHL authorizes teams to inform the public of such details.

It could be hard for Kimmo, because even though there are only 48 games to play, they will be more condensed. It will be good for young players who aren't used to long seasons, though. Also, Giroux usually has an explosive start and it could lead him to a art ross.

The Leafs also had strong beginnings the lasts years, maybe it's their chance to get in the playoffs! :laugh:

Here's hoping the time off has Kimmo back to where he was a couple of seasons ago.

Hopefully Briere can turn it on earlier this season. He usually doesn't start til game 83.

as others have said, sure Kimmo will be playing less games in the long run but they are trying to squeeze in 48 or even 50 games in a relatively short period of time.

i really can't say if this will benefit the flyers. the way i see it almost any team could get hot and make the playoffs. like i wouldn't be surprised if the islanders are in the mix down the stretch. similarly the flyers could go all Jekyll and Hyde and drop a bunch straight after a decent start or something, next thing you know there on the outside looking in.

It was rumored the NHL would try to stick the the existing schedule as closely as possible, so there might not be too many added games. That has to be a benefit to Timonen, which is great for the team. Remember, we're just about at the halfway point. It's not like they have to add 15 games to get to 48 or 50. It might just be an extra game every 2-3 weeks, and tacking an extra week or two onto the season isn't beyond reason.

Shorter seasons favor coaching more than talent. Over a wide sample, systems and bounces will get normalized by talent. The smaller amount of games, the greater effect quality coaching has on the results.

Agree with Yuio, young players stand to benefit from the short season. Rooks and sophomores who haven't built the kind of marathon endurance the NHL demands won't get ground up enough to hit the 60 game wall.

Hopefully Byrz plays steady at the very least, in a shortened season I believe the goalie is key, I'm not worried about the forwards that much, the D should be healthier, Mez in peticular, Kimmo should benefit from less games also, here's to G coming on like a superhero, and the Hobbit showing up sooner than game 1 of the playoffs

Disagree. If anything, it would be the opposite

I'd say for the fact that we have some older players, especially D-men, that get to play a shorter season and aren't as winded or tired by playoff time.

Think about the playoffs. Winning series has way more to do with quality coaching (and reliable goaltending, of course) than it does with the actual talent level on the ice, that's why you get upsets and sweeps. The ability to identify and fix problems quickly, and to play to your roster's strengths has way more of an effect as the sample size gets smaller.

With that said, I would say immediate adaptation is probably Laviolette's strong suit, so the Flyers will be just fine.

It helps. Kimmo Timonen got 3 months off, and Andrej Meszaros may not miss any games

I honestly think that Edmonton has a stellar chance of winning the cup in a shortened season as long as their goaltending doesn't suck ass. All of their top players have been tearing it up in the AHL. They get on a nice roll to start the season and keep it up they'll be in good shape.

Big if.

Edmonton? Really?

I personally think that is his weakness. The guy plays his system and never changes the system even when it isn't working against a specific team in the playoffs. Granted it is a good system.

It always seems to take the Flyers D time to gell initially . I see it no different this season. I do know that losing streaks need to be limited to 3 games at any given stretch of the shortened season. Also teams with depth will fair well since there will be lots of lower body injuries...

I think it's pretty fair to say this team makes the playoffs. Playing so many in division games will keep us battle tested for the post season. Just hope we don't come out of the shortened regular season too banged up playing 28? in division match ups.