How Flyers are Doing in Vancouver

Mike Richards – A standout player on the Flyers and in the NHL overall, but not on this national team.  Richards had

Richards

one goal in the first game, and has registered 0 points since then.  He hasn’t gotten a ton of minutes, and a quick experiment playing with Crosby yielded no results.  As the level of competition for Canada got tougher, the entire team struggled, so it’s not just him.  However, like everyone else there, he was selected for a reason.  While he’s more than capable of being a scorer, that’s not his role here.  He does not have to do everything.  His value comes in defense, toughness, and leadership.  He alone has a strong enough personality to get his team going, and I really hope for his personal sake that he can.  I don’t want a defeated and confidence-shaken captain returning after this tournament.

Chris Pronger – He’s on the ice during all facets of the game, and I hear his name called a lot.  I’ve seen flashes of good

Pronger

play from him in all three zones.  However, this is an underachieving Canada team(so far), so I can’t praise him too much.  As of now, he only has 1 assit after the preliminary round.  He’s one of the older guys, and he too needs to step things up.  He’s a big guy, with decent speed, and excellent hockey IQ. I think he’ll be more effective at the tournament, and for the Flyers, if he starts hitting a little harder.  He seems to be playing like a smaller guy, settling for rubbing people off the puck, using his positioning and stickwork to create turnovers.  Most of the time that’s fine, but once in a while you need to make statement. The entire Canadian squad isn’t just going to wake up from line changes and getting yelled at by Coach Babcock.  The players have to do it themselves, and Prongs is the perfect guy to do it.

Kimmo Timonen – So far Finland has played as everyone expected to, and the results show it.  Kimmo scored a

Timonen

pair of powerplay goals in the 5-0 destruction of Germany.  Those goals are good enough to tie him for the team lead.  Suprisingly, he doesn’t have any assists. I missed the first two Finland games, and can only judge him on the third.  He looks just as reliable as usual.  He positions himself perfectly, and times his hits just right so he can get the puck away from people.  If his team can go deep, and he can provide a little more offensive spark, he can make a case for the tournament allstar line-up.

Oskars Bartulis – He’s a respectable -2 on a team that’s been outscored 19-4 in three games.  And it’s not for a lack of

Bartulis

playing time, as he stands third on the team in that category.  I haven’t really focused on Team Latvia either, so I haven’t made note of how he has played.  Let’s just hope that the experience of playing with and against the best players in the world can help him when he gets back to the Flyers

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