Phightins

I'm not saying they didn't, but neither has come anywhere close to living up to their contracts, Briere specifically. If he plays a full 82 game schedule like he did in this past postseason, then we can reevaluate.

Still ahead of the Marlins, still coming off back to back pennants. Trolling fail.

He overpaid for both of them, there are no two ways about that. At the time everyone loved it because he got the team a quick fix after that horrible 2006-07 season. Now these contracts are holding the team back big time.

The Marlins don't contend?

Not much. The Scott Hartnell and Danny Briere contracts are killing us.

+1

Both are horrible. Case closed. Why the hell would you even think to make this thread?

Worst start of Jamie Moyer's 24 year career. 1+ IP, 9 hits, 9 earned runs. And a lot of dents in the green monster.

Well, this game is not off to the best of starts.

The best part about losing in the Stanley Cup Finals? The offseason is sooooo short. It's almost draft and free agency time already! And then only a bit more than 2 months until training camp!

Holmgren is not good at managing the cap, though. The Hartnell contract sucks, and the Briere contract sucks unless he can produce for 82 games like he did this postseason.

Here are a few reasons, off the top of my head. GAA's of 3.09 and 3.02 and SV%'s of .888 and .887 in the last 2 years respectively, with arguably the top defense in the league playing in front of him. Michael Leighton was not even that bad his last 2 years in Carolina, with a pretty [expletive]ty defense in front of him (2.92, .901 last year). And the age is a pretty big factor. Chris Osgood is 37 and getting worse. Michael Leighton has the potential to be league-average for a few more years. But that's me, the guy who is clueless about hockey.

Ok...so back to the goalie point at hand. The Flyers are going to need to acquire a starting goaltender this summer, I am fairly certain of it. Brian Boucher is under contract for next season, and Michael Leighton is a UFA. I am assuming that after this playoff run, Leighton is going to ask for a pretty significant raise, in either terms of money or years. I would not be surprised to see some team overpay for him. And one thing that I, Fly3rs, and Universe can all agree on is that Michael Leighton is not a great goaltender. So, I think the Flyers will be in the market for a starting goalie. So, what are the options? I don't see much in terms of free agency, unless we want another re-tread goalie, but the Flyers have basically been shuffling through guys like that ever since Ron Hextall left.. I guess they could take a shot on a guy like Dan Ellis, who has showed promise and has been blocked by Pekka Rinne. Chris Mason is another possibility. But if they really want a young potential "franchise" goaltender, they will need to get him via trade, and they will need to give up significant amount. There don't seem to be many options in that area either. One of the Montreal guys? Cory Schneider? Hopefully Homer has a few more tricks up his sleeve, this team needs tinkering, and they do not have many draft picks to use as trade chips. The starting goaltender needs to be addressed, another top-4 caliber defenseman needs to be added, and some forward depth may need to be added depending on if they trade guys away for a goaltender. And they need to do all of this while up tightly against the cap. It will be an eventful summer. Already can't wait for the draft and July 1st.

Osgood now is not nearly as good as he was even 2 years ago when he led them to the Stanley Cup. The reason Jimmy Howard took that starting job this year had just as much to do with Chris Osgood being an old shell of his former self as it did with Howard playing well.

Dallas ranked 9th by my count. And, I am not sure how many more times I need to say that Michael Leighton is a product of his defense before it finally sinks in that it's my point too.

The only 3 top 10 offenses he faced this year (with the Flyers) were Dallas, Pittsburgh, and Chicago. He beat all of them. What is your point?

Very relevant. As a Flyer, he only faced 3 top 10 offensive teams (and he beat all of them).

They just put a ton of money into fixing up that stadium. Good to see them get rewarded with an All Star game.

I was not talking to you directly there, jerkoff. That was a separate observation. But really, did you see Chris Osgood play at all this year? He was horrific.

Also, truthfully, I would take just about any NHL goaltender over Chris Osgood at this point. This is a side point, because obviously this discussion is about Chris Osgood from 1 and 2 years ago, but Chris Osgood today is as bad of an NHL goaltender as there is. Very nice career, but time to hang it up.

I knew you wouldn't address the actual point I made.

Yeah, you usually do look pretty stupid when talking about hockey.

There is one pretty big difference. Lidstrom, Rafalski, Kronwall etc. didn't hit a wall like Pronger, Timonen, and Carle did in the Finals. All of the minutes took a toll on the Flyers guys, not the Red Wings guys. If Osgood's defensemen weren't getting to most loose pucks and clearing most rebounds, I'd be willing to bet that GAA would be right on par with Leighton's. You really are not as smart as you think you are.

Fail.

Lots of Marlins fans use the heat as an excuse for not going to games now. With a retractable roof, that excuse will not work anymore so it will be interesting to see what happens with attendance.