I voted "what can you do" because really...what can you do?
The thing is, I didn't really love any of the FA options either. The UFA's were a bunch of career backups (a crapshoot), aging Turco, and Nabokov. I'm willing to ride with Leighton (since we don't have a choice anyway) and hope that he can tighten up his 5-hole issues, but that Kane goal haunts me. I'm going to hate watching Flyers games filled with anxiety because the most inocuous shot might find its way through.
Irony is thy name.
Leighton is a career backup. Hell, that's probably being kind to him considering he was an NHL tweener and waiver-wire fodder before we picked him up.
Any of the free agent options were a better option then going into next season with Leighton and Boosh. Any.
I think everyone shares your fears at this point by the way.
Honestly, if we sign Turco.....I don't think they are handing him the keys and saying drive. He will have to beat out Leighton to get the #1 job. But Leighton/Turco I think one of those goalies has a great year. And more importantly, when one gets cold, a solid replacement is there to take over.
I am going to guess that Turco, coming off a lucrative contract, is pissed off enough that he's going to have to sign a lowball offer. I think being forced to fight for the starting gig will be too much for him to accept.
Right now I am sure that his agent is having him wait the Niemi situation out. I don't see Chicago being able to offer him all that money, but he'd be the guaranteed starter.
My issue is that, I think even Backlund could post a .905-.910 sv% with our team. I genuinely don't believe it's going to be difficult to play behind our squad. As someone (I believe Jester) said earlier, I'm of the belief that whoever is in net will be fine against most squads, but struggle against the better ones.
I definitely agree with that. Hell, can you even remember 1 save in the shutouts Leighton had against Montreal? The Flyers basically controlled the game from start to finish and most NHL caliber goalies would have had similar results.
Against Pittsburgh and Washington, 90% of the goalies in the league struggle. Lets face it, Crosby and Ovechkin are generational talents, if they get open looks - they are going to bury it. However, if we can limit the huge mismatch scenerios we had last year (Towe-Kane versus Parent-Krajicek) at least Leighton/whomever are not going to have to stand on their heads while they dominate in our end for 45 seconds to one minute.
I have never thought much of Fleury or Varlamov, so I don't think those teams have much of an advantage on us in goal. They are better offensively, we are better defensively. It should be interesting games against the best teams, but I like our chances. Their will be games we lose large to those teams, but there will also be games we win by 1 or 2. In a 7 game series, Pronger is such a beast and our D is so deep, we have a shot.
I am very excited about this team. I think Homer has made some big mistakes this offseason, but looking at the end result - I am pretty excited to see this season start. If we sign Turco, I will be ecstatic.
Where's Emery? He's not listed on the roster, Parent gone too.
I see a pattern here. Those two along with Gagne and Tollefsen had injury problems last season, Homer "fired" all four of them. If you sign with the Flyers you better not get injured
No, Tollefsen just blows beyond anything comprehensible.
Dont blame it on injuries because you are just delusional.
If we got knocked out against the Devils or were matched up against the Caps or Pens in round 1 and lost, this wouldn't even be an issue. We probably would have traded for a goalie or signed one. It's because we went so deep into the playoffs that our goalies "proved" they could play and by doing so they magically made everyone ignore how we were "outmatched" by the Hawks.
Adequate goaltending is not the same as having a true #1 goalie, and playing so well with it last season really skewed the perception that we can do better with an upgrade in D and the same goalies next season.
I am going to guess that Turco, coming off a lucrative contract, is pissed off enough that he's going to have to sign a lowball offer. I think being forced to fight for the starting gig will be too much for him to accept.
Right now I am sure that his agent is having him wait the Niemi situation out. I don't see Chicago being able to offer him all that money, but he'd be the guaranteed starter.
On Turco:
1. Chicago is Niemi is gone
2. Philly/San Jose. In either case, he will have to fight for his job.
On your point. Your right, I think that is what is holding him up. He wants #1 and is not getting it from anyone. If the Chicago door closes, I suspect he either signs with us or San Jose or finds more money on a team with a shot at the playoffs, not a cup contender.
P.S. I thought it strange Ellis signed in Tampa with Smith already there. Especially since Smith was the one who beat Ellis out of a job in Dallas. So crazier things have happened.
On Turco:
1. Chicago is Niemi is gone 2. Philly/San Jose. In either case, he will have to fight for his job.
On your point. Your right, I think that is what is holding him up. He wants #1 and is not getting it from anyone. If the Chicago door closes, I suspect he either signs with us or San Jose or finds more money on a team with a shot at the playoffs, not a cup contender.
P.S. I thought it strange Ellis signed in Tampa with Smith already there. Especially since Smith was the one who beat Ellis out of a job in Dallas. So crazier things have happened.
I thought San Jose was going to stick with Niitty and Greiss? If they were going to sign Turco or Theodore (the only two options remaining) then I would think San Jose would have signed either one of them by now considering they would be the only team bidding for them.
Leighton is a career backup. Hell, that's probably being kind to him considering he was an NHL tweener and waiver-wire fodder before we picked him up.
Any of the free agent options were a better option then going into next season with Leighton and Boosh. Any.
I think everyone shares your fears at this point by the way.
That's kind of what I was getting at though. None of them was a sure-thing. I wasn't suggesting that Leighton was/is either, but all of those guys came with question marks; sure somebody might be this year's Craig Anderson, but they might totally flame out here too.
I'm 100% NOT happy going into the season with Leights/Boosh...all I'm saying is I didn't really love any of the other options that got tossed around either. I wanted him to trade for Vokoun.
lol. You don't even attempt to hide your trolling attempts now.
1) You're posting insane ******** on a board of a team you're not a fan of.
2) You skip just about every post that doesn't take you seriously and/or calls you out.
I find it amusing that anyone takes you seriously anymore.
Where is OKT playing by the way? Last I heard he was playing for the Detroit Ravenclaws or in Iraqipakistan or some ****.
1) Not trolling but simply a fact. All those players I mentioned are gone, and they all had issues with injuries last season. In fact they all had surgery, which I find interesting.
It's easy to see the Homer style.
2) Of course, I'm on these boards to discuss, not to fight.
Tollefsen signed with Modo in Sweden, I'm sure you know. A pretty respectable league I'd say. And half this team are Norwegians, so he's close to home and very happy.
Not really comfortable with it. I wasn't comfortable with it from the trade deadline last year either, but it seemed to work out until game 6 of SCF. I'll give it 10-15 games before it either blows up in Homer's face or it looks like a masterstroke.
If he signed with Modo, why are you still here?
Go to the Sweden boards.
He's not my wife you know. And he better not use my mouth as a holster if he wants to keep his noble parts.
Relax. I'm an NHL-fan, and you've probably noticed that I usually hang around teams with Norwegian players, since I happen to be one myself. So I'm outta here when it all starts, think I'll become a Rangers fan this time.
1) Not trolling but simply a fact. All those players I mentioned are gone, and they all had issues with injuries last season. In fact they all had surgery, which I find interesting.
It's easy to see the Homer style.
2) Of course, I'm on these boards to discuss, not to fight.
Tollefsen signed with Modo in Sweden, I'm sure you know. A pretty respectable league I'd say. And half this team are Norwegians, so he's close to home and very happy.
Carcillo had surgery... what happened there?
I thought OKT and Homer had a plan for a long-term stay for OKT here... you had the inside scoop! WTF happened there?
am i comfortable , yes am i confident, no. this wasnt a team built on goaltending before and it still isnt. i still see boucher as a nice veteran guy you can plug in when you have to. he did get hot for us at the rightr time. laviolette seems to have a lot of faith in leighton, i dont but ill concede that he did a nice job of not letting the first shot in and our improved defense should help us in that area. leightons numbers were better in the playoffs but i think bouchers play was actually the better of the two.the biggest saves that had to be made were early in the playoffs and game 0 to get us in. i dont mind going into camp with two 1b guys trying to earn a 1a spot. i also like the message that sends to backlund and bobrovski. that if you can play like a legit number 1 guy the opportunity is there to bypass either of those guys. competition is a good thing. ill be alot less cool with this if they go in with any of these guys anointed the starter as there isnt a reason to do so. bobrovski could be the most expensive but even 1.75 mil isnt much past backup money.
i keep thinking back to the year donovan mcnabb came into the nfl. theyve built a nasty defense to clear pucks out and get good angles on the puck and theyve set two very achievable benchmark players in front of him. its as if holmgren is setting up the ideal situation to introduce a young goaltender.
Let me start with a staement that neither of these goalies are superspectacular players, who can steal the game, and I would prefer someome more solid as a starting keeper. But, the market was not really abundant with this type of goalies. We had either graying veterans or "may be promissing" prospects.
It has to be said that theis tandem took us to the game 6 of SCF, and had Leighton won that game 6 we would have named streets after him in Philadelphia.
We have a much more solid defence this season.. and Leighton will have a full camp and a season to work with the coach, who made an average goalie to become a Stanley Cup finalist.
Let's hope for the best and enjoy upcoming season.
P.S. Let's also hope that Homer has brains and balls to trade for THE goali at the trade deadline if nedd arises
Turco/Leighton combo (if do-able) would make for a exciting season.. i look forward to seeing it happen..
would love to be at the training camp and watch the goalies fighting for starter position..
Quote:
Originally Posted by phillyfanatic
I voted Yes - I was hoping Leighton would come back early from injury in the playoffs, play well and show that his regular season was no fluke. He did that, got spanked in the finals, but I am OK with Leighton to start the season. I understand this will come with a major flaming.
My preference would be Leighton/Turco, but if we started the season tomorrow, I have confidence in Leighton - especially in front of this team. Sorry, I should have just left this post alone.....
It really sucks we couldn't pick up Biron because he got a diddly crap contract. Now there is who? Turco and Theodore? Hopefully Holmgren can get one of them on a 1 year deal for cheap and waive/trade Boucher.
It really sucks we couldn't pick up Biron because he got a diddly crap contract. Now there is who? Turco and Theodore? Hopefully Holmgren can get one of them on a 1 year deal for cheap and waive/trade Boucher.
I've been wondering if Biron was offered a contract or not?
edit: I'm guessing not because he would probably be paid at least a bit more here, and would probably have a shot at playing more games here than behind Lundqvist.
You know what else is? Giving Leighton the reins. Why not? He's a good guy! He deserves it! He's paid his dues!
Pay no attention to his NHL statistics and his body of work as a whole. Matter of fact, don't even pay attention to how he looks when you actually watch him play. Holmgren has shown that he knows exactly what he's doing -- so let's just sit back and enjoy the Michael Leighton years.
Stats >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Watching someone play
