Flyers Player Power Rankings: Giroux rules, Ghost pushes, Simmonds eats and McDonald bleeds

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Shayne Gostisbehere, who's becoming a local hero, made a strong case for the No. 1 spot but Claude Giroux was able to hold it down for a fourth week. It would help the rookie to not have Giroux assist all his game-winners. Other movers on the week were the goalies, who each produced wins in impressive fashion and Colin McDonald, who scored, then bled all over the media.

Evgeny Medvedev returned to the lineup and impressed, while Nick Cousins was added from the Lehigh Valley Phantoms. Sam Gagner smashed his face on the ice and had to go to the hospital. He’s out for awhile.

The Rankings:

  1. (-) Claude Giroux - If Shayne Gostisbehere is the Flyers’ Adele this season, Giroux has been its Justin Bieber -- takes heat but ultimately produces catchy song after catchy song. Over the last week, Giroux scored a team-high six points in four games and earned his first fight major of the season in a bout with the New York Islanders’ Nick Leddy. He’s slowly creeping up on a point-per-game pace with a team-leading 19 points in 24 games.

  1. (-) Shayne Gostisbehere - All Gostisbehere does is end games. He has three goals this season, two game-winners and has notched three points in his last four games. He would surely be No. 1 on this list if Giroux wasn’t such a big part of the rookie’s production.

  1. (last week: 6) Wayne Simmonds - Forget Thanksgiving, Simmonds waited until Saturday to eat. He put up his best game of the season against the Rangers with two goals, an assist and all-around great effort. Simmonds was the engine that finally got his line (featuring Matt Read and Sean Couturier) going.

  1. (last week: 3) Jake Voracek - The good news for one-goal Voracek is that despite being sunk to the fourth line, he still managed four points (all assists) this week, second only to Giroux. The bad news is he still didn’t work his way off the fourth line, managing just six shots over that span.

  1. (last week: 4) Sean Couturier - Notching a goal and assist might not sound like much, but it’s a cause to celebrate for Couturier. Prior to his two-point week, the center hadn’t score since October 20th against the Dallas Stars. That’s 13 games. Couturier’s been vital in helping his line put on pressure, so it was only a matter of time until pucks went in.

  1. (last week: 9) Steve Mason - Michal Neuvirth had a 33-save win on Friday and Mason outdid him with a road shutout over the Rangers on Saturday. Not a bad weekend for Flyers goalies.

  1. (last week: 10) Michal Neuvirth - You keep expecting Neuvirth to regress and he keeps putting it off. Of goalies with at least 10 games played (there’s 39 in total) Neuvirth ranks No. 1 in save percentage with .939. That’s ahead of No. 2 Henrik Lundqvist (.936) and No. 3 Carey Price (.934).

  1. (last week: 5) Brayden Schenn - Earning his time on the first line, Schenn rewarded coach Dave Hakstol with a goal and assist in four games. He averaged 17:06 TOI per game over that span, good for fourth among forwards. To put that in perspective, Voracek only averaged 16:57.

  1. (last week: 8) Michael Del Zotto - He earned his first goal of the season on a season-high seven shots against the Nashville Predators on Friday, then followed it up with an assist against the Rangers on Saturday with a team-high 29:20 TOI. Asked to play a more shutdown role this year, if MDZ can get the offense going, watch out.

  1. (last week: not ranked) Colin McDonald - In the span of three games, McDonald went from a guy you didn’t know existed, to the gritty heartbeat of the team’s holiday success. He scored a key rebound goal against the Predators, fought someone and took post-game questions while his right eyebrow leaked blood. It might sound weird, but this Flyers team may have needed some quality mucking and grinding.

  1. (last week: 20) Evgeny Medvedev - He’s back! Tapped to play after sitting six games, the Russian picked up an assist on a Colin McDonald rebound goal and was above average against the Rangers. Makes you wonder why he was benched to begin with.

  1. (last week: 7) Luke Schenn - He started the season as a scorer but Schenn is better suited at avenging violent hits to his defensive partners.When Rangers’ defender Dylan McIlrath injured Nick Schultz, Schenn fought McIlrath. Simmonds said it changed the game. Whether it did or not, Schenn was involved physically and that’s a good thing for the Flyers.

  1. (last week: 11) Radko Gudas - If someone told you that Gudas would average 23:21 TOI over four games, you’d probably expect the Flyers to do poorly in those four games. Very poorly. They actually went 3-0-1 and he had eight shots.

  1. (last week: 12) Scott Laughton - Moving to wing with the call-up of Nick Cousins, Laughton only averaged 9:58 TOI this week but still registered a pair of assists. However, two shots in four games simply won’t cut up if Laughton wants to stay productive.

  1. (-) Pierre-Edouard Bellemare - The Flyers have rattled off 19 consecutive penalty kills and jumped their unit to 15th in the NHL. They couldn’t have done that without penalty kill center Bellemare, who averaged 2:15 TOI per game shorthanded this week, good for second among forwards on the team.

  1. (Last Week: 14) Chris VandeVelde - VandeVelde led the Flyers’ red-hot penalty kill in time on ice with 2:18 per game, while putting up seven shots in four games. He’s a solid utility player, but Bellemare gets the ranking edge as a result of his position.

  1. (last week: 13) Matt Read - He isn’t a bad player, but inconsistency has kept Read down. On Saturday against the Rangers, the productive Read showed up, hitting Simmonds on the tape with a perfect pass that led to a beautiful 5-on-5 rush goal -- his first point in 10 games. He finished the week with 12 shots in four games. Now he just needs to pot some.

  1. (last week: not ranked) Nick Cousins - Oh, hey, Cousins is back. He played in two games, averaged 8:34 TOI, scored no points and had no shots. He’s just getting his feet wet.

  1. (last week: 16) Michael Raffl - The invisible man, Raffl has gone 11 games without a goal and has just one score this season. His disappointing year is one of many reasons the Flyers are struggling to produce this season.

  2. (last week: 19) Taylor Leier - After a shotless week prior, Leier was starting to make an impact before he was sent back to the AHL in favor of a center in Cousins. He’ll be back eventually.

  1. (last week: 18) Nick Schultz - Things were getting slightly better for Schultz on the offensive side of things with seven shots in his last seven games (he had five shots in his first 17 games). Then, goony McIlrath took his head off, derailing progress.

  1. (last week: 17) Brandon Manning - With one assist this season and no shots against the New York Islanders, Manning, who was improving next to Gostisbehere, was replaced by Medvedev in the lineup against the Predators and Rangers. With Nick Schultz injured, Manning might get another shot at staying in the lineup.

(last week: 22) Vinny Lecavalier - First, he was surpassed by Taylor Leier, then it was Nick Cousins. We likely won’t see Lecavalier on the ice again for the Flyers outside of emergency roster duty.

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