Philadelphia Flyers Hot Takes: Episode 2

Feb 19, 2015; Philadelphia, PA, USA; Philadelphia Flyers head coach

leaves the bench after shootout loss to the Buffalo Sabres at Wells Fargo Center. The Sabres defeated the Flyers, 3-2 in a shootout. Mandatory Credit: Eric Hartline-USA TODAY Sports

In the second episode of Broad Street Buzz’s Hot Takes we investigate if professional writer Randy Miller from NJ.com can think for himself, whether or not Nicklas Grossmann is bad at hockey, and finish with a twitter exchange I had with a guy who thinks Scott Hartnell is just a minor penalty with an epidermis.

Leave the context and nuance at the at door boys and girls, if you aren’t being condescending or using all caps, you aren’t trying hard enough.

Randy Miller Be Trolling

Randy Miller is not able to think for himself. Apparently believes

‘s word is gospel.

A couple of days ago Randy Miller wrote an extremely passive-aggressive article about whether or not Claude Giroux deserves to keep wearing the “C” for the Philadelphia Flyers.

The article was a joke and he was promptly called out by Broad Street Hockey’s Travis Hughes.

In the piece Randy hit on all the nauseating sports writing clichés we come to expect from a lot of the Flyers’ beat writers:

• Questioning Giroux’s leadership based on his cliché post game answers
  • The irony is hilarious
    • Yeah he wrote that
• Saying Giroux isn’t the reason for Flyers’ struggles, but is
• Comparing him to other team captains like Chris Pronger
  • He was Captain for like 60 games

I wrote a piece defending Giroux last year in wake of the whole Ottawa incident, which was completely blown out of proportion, so this kind of hot take isn’t exactly a new phenomenon. A lot of bloggers who cover the Flyers, including fans of the team, have become quite accustomed to this kind of lazy sports journalism.

Nicklas Grossmann Is Bad

Nicklas Grossmann is not good at hockey.

DocGonzo lays out a pretty unconvincing argument here as to why Nicklas Grossmann is not one of the biggest issues the Philadelphia Flyers have. In fact, it’s been well chronicled that Grossmann is the worst defenseman the Flyers currently employ. While he may not have the same ugly contract as Andrew MacDonald, he is inherently worse.

In no way is Grossmann good at what he’s being paid to do.

While Grossmann may be tied with Mark Streit for the second most goals from a Flyers defenseman this year, in no way is that really indicative of his ability to create offense. In the chart above you’ll see that he actually has the worst Corsi For per 60 minutes.

And to Doc’s point about Grossmann being a reliable stay-at-home defenseman, I’m not really sure what that means. If he is implying that he’s usually playing in his own end for most of his shift then yes, he certainly is a stay-at-home defenseman. Watching Grossmann play hockey makes me want to slam railroad spikes into my eyes.

Hartnell Is A Minor Penalty Disguised As A Human

This guy will take no production over, you know, production.

I have no idea who this guy is. He came out of nowhere to inform me that he would gladly take no production over production. That is a pretty hot take right there.

Did Hartnell take bad penalties every once in a while? Sure. That shouldn’t diminish just how good Scott Hartnell is as a player though. It sure hasn’t stopped him from being really good in his stint with Columbus this season.

Hartnell has a negative penalty differential. Good thing we got rid of him.

I don’t know who’d I would rather have, the guy with 31 even-strength points or the guy with 13? That’s a pretty difficult decision to make. Then again, Hartnell does have a -7 penalty differential while R.J. Umberger is +4 in that department. Makes you think, huh? (not really)

He went on to say that Hartnell isn’t much better than Umberger based on the Columbus Blue Jackets win-loss record. To make the correlation between the individual skill of a player and a team’s overall record is a really dumb argument to make. I guess by proxy that means Voracek and Giroux aren’t elite players because the Flyers are hovering around .500.

Solid logic there.

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