Danny Briere is doing little more than taking stick penalties and losing the puck in front of his own goal. But thats still more effort than James van Riemsdyk is contributing to the Flyers these days.
Perhaps Claude Girouxs transition to the responsibilities of centering the first line isnt going to be as seamless as it had appeared through the first week. He is struggling, as is Peter Laviolette with his line combinations, while Brayden Schenn looks pretty much lost.
Meanwhile, its hard to argue that Ilya Bryzgalov has exactly been a Bernie Parent picture of calm, cool economy in the Flyers' goal, and obviously he has had communication problems on when and when not to play the puck. But largely the goalie is off balance because the puck, being sent toward the Flyers' net with too much regularity, keeps changing directions in the last 15 feet, with nobody establishing much presence to clear it away.
The Flyers' biggest issue is their play in their own end, which was their biggest problem down the stretch of 2010-11 and in getting swept by Boston, when Chris Pronger was injured. Now he is again, so connect the dots, while opposition passes go freely dot-to-dot.
Pronger, coming off back surgery and a truncated training camp, appeared before getting a stick in the eye Tuesday night to be about 50 percent of the forceful Pronger the Flyers will need in the playoffs. Yet, his presence still was calming the defensive zone from the goaltender out. Though the Flyers finished off the Leafs regardless on Monday night, Sergei Bobrovsky still was forced to be better than he or Bryzgalov had to while Pronger still was playing.
Dr. Stephen Goldman says Pronger is continuing to progress. So far, Dr. Laviolette cant say the same for his defense learning how to play without their best guy.
Jay Greenberg covered theFlyers for 14 years for the Daily News and Evening Bulletin. Hishistory of the Flyers, Full Spectrum, was published in 1996. He can bereached at jayg616@aol.com.