Welcome to this week’s 3-on-3, a weekly look back at the Orange and Black. The Flyers went 2-1-1 in four games last week, getting five out of a possible eight points, good enough to keep themselves in fourth place in the Eastern Conference. Let’s get to this week’s 3 “Hot” and 3 ”Not” players of the week.
3 “Hot”:
- Scott Hartnell: “Harts” continues his recent torrid pace with six goals in four games including a hat trick against the Bruins on Sunday. His 25 goals puts him at sixth place in the NHL and only five goals away from tying his career best of 30 in a season, set three years ago. Scott’s 44 points is second on the team and his plus-18 leads the team as well. Hartnell is also fourth on the team with a relative Corsi of 7.4, showing his improving all around play and how good he has been at even strength this season.
- Matt Read: The rookie from Bemidji State has continued to have a very strong freshman campaign for the Flyers. Matt had two goals and two assists in four games and was a plus-2, putting him at plus-12 for the season, tied for third-best on the team and among all rookies. Read also leads all NHL rookies in goals with 15 and is third overall in rookie scoring with 31 points, four points behind Edmonton’s dynamic but injured Ryan Nugent-Hopkins.
- Claude Giroux: Although his goal scoring has slowed down,Giroux continues to dish the puck and pile up assists. His six helpers in the last four games have raised his point total to 55, three behind Pittsburgh’s Evgeni Malkin for the scoring lead. “G” continues to have an MVP type season and it is only a matter of time before he lights the lamp again for the Flyers.
3 “Not”:
- Braydon Coburn: Coburn had a sub-par week, posting a minus 3 in four games for the Flyers. Coburn needs to be a steadying force in the absence of captain Chris Pronger, especially with two rookies in the lineup on defense. His minus-1 for the season is unacceptable for a top-four defenseman on a presumed Stanley Cup contender.
- Everyone but Sergei Bobrovsky against the Islanders: The team’s complete lack of “jam”, as coach Peter Laviolette likes to say, was disturbing and lead directly to the defeat, their first against the Islanders in eight games overall. It also snapped a 13-game home win streak against their rivals.
- Shootouts: Ilya Bryzgalov has yet to make a save this season in the shootout (0-for-5) and the Flyers are tied with Carolina with zero shootout wins this season. Since its institution for the 2005-06 season, the Flyers are a brutal 19-37 in the post-regulation skills competition.
That’s all for this week’s 3-on-3, join me next week when we review Tuesday’s game against Florida and look back at the first half of the season at the All Star break.(The column will now be published on Tuesdays.)
