SB Nation - Randy Jones

Where Did It All Go Wrong?

Ben Rothenberg — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 19:46:35 -0000

I went looking for a picture of The Spectrum implosion, but then I remembered that hasn't happened yet... Photo via www.companysj.com

View full size photo »

Throughout history, when something goes bad, there's usually a reason. When Marie Antoinette stopped breathing, it was because she found herself on the business end of a guillotine. When the Home Alone franchise went bad starting with the third installment, it was because it lost the underrated albino presence of Macaulay Culkin. In the above picture, Hiroshima was adversely affected because a rather large bomb was dropped on it.

When a building burns down, some expert is able to look through the rubble and realize that the conflagration was caused by faulty wiring in the coffee machine on the third floor (or something). The Flyers were a strong building with seemingly excellent coffee machines, racing out to a 12-5-1 start good for fourth place in the East. But something has short-circuited, and the same team that less than three weeks ago was in position to have home ice in the playoffs is now several teams away from even being in playoff contention.

With that in mind, I'm trying to figure out why this team is going down in flames while the fires are still burning.

Here are a few possible sparks that could have triggered this inferno:

It happened when the Sharks embarrassed the Flyers repeatedly. Having won seven of their last eight and six games over .500 at 12-5-1, the Flyers flew up to the Shark Tank of HP Pavilion, and played like chum. With their new, Olympic caliber line of Marleau-Thornton-Heatley, the Sharks skated circles around the Flyers, repeatedly scoring embarrassingly pretty goals that saw the Sharks have obscene amounts of time to set up a waiting Heatley on the doorstep.

The second such goal was even more embarrassing, as it was of the shorthanded variety.

Tough to imagine any two goals more demoralizing than those two.

It happened when a perceived offsides non-call froze the Flyers and lost them the game in Phoenix. With the game tied at 1-1 late in the third period, Mike Richards and the rest of the Flyers froze after they thought the puck had skipped over the blueline and play would be stopped. It wasn't, and the Coyotes scored a power play goal that gave them the win over an exhausted and demoralized team still wounded from the previous night's game in San Jose. Morale was incredibly low, and was clearly still an issue early in the next game in Colorado, if not beyond.

It happened when Ray Emery stopped being a reliable starting goalie/got injured/was overworked/lost his rhythm/etc. Emery started (and completed) sixteen of the Flyers of the Flyers first seventeen games, going 11-4-1 in those games. His incredible start generally stunned the league, and it looked like the Flyers' gamble on him had paid off incredibly.

But then it all went to hell. Emery has lost his last five, twice being pulled and thrice having a save percentage under 80%. Some say he is injured, but there is not any visible sign of that from watching his play. His confidence, on the other hand, is clearly severely contused.

While exhaustion was clearly a risk because of how many games he was playing, it's interesting to note that Emery's play didn't really deteriorate until he stopped getting starts. Boucher's start in Los Angeles was the first game Emery had sat in in a non-back-to-back situation, possibly throwing off his rhythm or confidence just enough to get him off the rails.

It happened when Darroll Powe and/or Blair Betts got knocked out for a month plus. Even though he generated about as many headlines as a city council meeting on tree care, Darroll Powe was a pretty big part of the Flyers' early successes this season. He scored six goals in nineteen games, which is just about a goal every three games. Without him in the lineup since he got hurt vs. San Jose , the Flyers have averaged only 1.5 goals a game.

And Blair Betts' contributions to the team are incredibly well documented. Before he allegedly dislocated his shoulder while reaching for a puck early in the game in Phoenix, the Flyers were an incredible 10-2-0 with Betts in the lineup. Without him, they are a decidedly less incredible 3-11-1.

It happened before the season ever started. Some may argue that despite this team's impressive 12-5-1 start, they were doomed from the beginning. Nothing in particular pushed them over the edge, but rather this was an organization set up to fail, and the beginning was a mirage.

It happened because after seeing Randy Jones in Los Angeles, they realized how much they missed him. After they allowed themselves to get lost in the eligible bachelor's blue eyes, memories flooded back and drowned the orange and black in a tidal wave of emotions. Since the reality of not having Jones in the organization sank in on that warm California night, the Flyers have earned only two points in nine games.

So what do you think made the Flyers make a sharp 180 turn from elite to suck? A specific play like in the San Jose or Phoenix games? The Emery bubble bursting? Injuries? Flaws all along? Jonesing for Jones? Or something else entirely?

You Write The Comedy Monday

gallagher — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 17:00:26 -0000

by Jason Redmond - AP

Don'tcha know you want to, Squash the Frenchie, Hey hey, Squash the Frenchie tonight,

View full size photo »

The Blues are hosting the struggling Avalanche later today, but that doesn't mean there isn't time to bask in the Blues' latest win.

What do you think is being said as Randy Jones gives David Perron the figure four on the ice as Justin Williams and Keith Tkachuk look on?

A Statistical Look at the Flyers, through 16 Games

Geoff Detweiler — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 16:45:09 -0000

More photos » by Matt Slocum - AP

Browse more photos »

Once again, I was able to get Tom Awad of Puck Prospectus to give me his most recently compiled data on GVT.

(Here's the link to my earlier story breaking down the VUKOTA projection based on GVT).

The data's most recent update was from Sunday, November 15th, so last week's games against the Devils, Kings, Sharks, and Coyotes are not included. Obviously, last night's game against the Avalanche is also not included.

Needless to say, there are some positives and some negatives through 20% of the schedule. Most interesting is just how good James van Riemsdyk has been, how well Ray Emery has played, and another look at The Pronger effect.

Follow after the jump for the findings.

Here is the table of Tom's results for the Flyers:

	Name	Team(s)	P	GP	G/GAA	A/GA	Pts/SA	+-/Sv	OGIT	DIT	RPM	Val OG	Val D	Val S	Total

1	Ray Emery	Philadelphia Flyers	G	15.2	2.24	34	431	0.921	8.8	1.3	0	6	0.1	0.6	6.7
2	Chris Pronger	Philadelphia Flyers	D	16	4	13	17	13	8.6	7.9	11.2	3.8	2.5	0	6.3
3	Matt Carle	Philadelphia Flyers	D	16	2	10	12	17	8.2	6.8	14.7	2.1	2.6	0	4.7
4	James van Riemsdyk*	Philadelphia Flyers	F	13	4	11	15	7	4.7	3.9	5.1	3.1	0.7	0	3.8
5	Jeff Carter	Philadelphia Flyers	F	16	7	12	19	2	7.5	6	-1.1	3.5	0.3	-0.2	3.6
6	Mike Richards	Philadelphia Flyers	F	16	8	8	16	2	6.9	7.5	0	3.1	1	-0.7	3.4
7	Claude Giroux	Philadelphia Flyers	F	16	1	7	8	5	4.4	3.8	4.4	0.7	0.8	1.1	2.5
8	Kimmo Timonen	Philadelphia Flyers	D	16	1	11	12	-2	8.5	9.1	-5.4	1.8	0.5	0	2.3
9	Scott Hartnell	Philadelphia Flyers	F	16	5	7	12	0	5.6	4.3	-1.7	2	0.1	0	2.1
10	Braydon Coburn	Philadelphia Flyers	D	16	3	4	7	-3	7	8.9	-6.5	1	0.4	0	1.3
11	Danny Briere*	Philadelphia Flyers	F	12	7	3	10	-2	5.6	4.4	-4	1.6	-0.1	-0.5	1.1
12	David Laliberte*	Philadelphia Flyers	F	4	2	1	3	4	1.1	1	3.5	0.7	0.4	0	1.1
13	Blair Betts	Philadelphia Flyers	F	9	1	1	2	3	1.8	2.9	2.4	0	0.7	0	0.7
14	Simon Gagne	Philadelphia Flyers	F	9	1	4	5	2	2.9	2.8	1.4	0.4	0.4	-0.2	0.6
15	Daniel Carcillo	Philadelphia Flyers	F	16	2	1	3	4	2.7	2.5	2.9	0	0.5	0	0.5
16	Arron Asham	Philadelphia Flyers	F	13	3	1	4	-1	2.9	2.8	-2.7	0.4	0	0	0.4
17	Darroll Powe	Philadelphia Flyers	F	16	5	0	5	-2	4.4	4.6	-4.8	0.4	0.1	0	0.4
18	Ryan Parent	Philadelphia Flyers	D	8	0	2	2	-1	1.6	2.4	-1.8	0.3	0.1	0	0.4
19	Ian Laperriere	Philadelphia Flyers	F	16	1	3	4	-1	4	5.2	-3.3	-0.3	0.4	0	0.1
20	O. Tollefsen	Philadelphia Flyers	D	9	0	2	2	-1	2.2	2.5	-2.4	0.1	-0.1	0	0.1
21	Mika Pyorala*	Philadelphia Flyers	F	16	0	1	1	3	3.4	4.1	1.4	-1.1	0.7	0.5	0.1
22	Riley Cote	Philadelphia Flyers	F	4	0	0	0	0	0.3	0.3	0	-0.1	0	0	-0.1
23	Oskars Bartulis*	Philadelphia Flyers	D	2	0	0	0	0	0.5	0.6	-0.3	-0.1	0	0	-0.1
24	Danny Syvret	Philadelphia Flyers	D	13	0	2	2	-3	2.9	3.6	-4.7	0	-0.2	0	-0.2
25	Brian Boucher	Philadelphia Flyers	G	1	4	4	28	0.857	0.6	0.1	0	-1	0	0	-0.9

First, you can figure out most of the stat categories, but OGIT is offensive/goalie ice time, while DIT is defensive ice time. RPM is Puck Prospectus' adjusted plus/minus, an explanation of which can be found here. Val OG is offensive/goalie GVT score, while Val D and Val S are GVT defensive score and shootout score, respectively.

Second, who gets the credit for three of the Flyers four best players being off-season acquisitions? Having Ray Emery, Chris Pronger, and James van Riemsdyk at the top of this table might be a surprise, but not to anyone who has been watching the Flyers this season.

As the table shows (and you could see for yourself), James van Riemsdyk has been one of the team's best players so far. Using GVT, he's the fourth best Flyer so far this season, and the best forward. At a total GVT of 3.8, van Riemsdyk finds himself tied for 56th place in the entire NHL. For a guy who wasn't even a lock to make the team, that's quite an accomplishment. As far as rookies go, he is listed as the third best behind Washington goaltender Semyon Varlamov and Colorado forward Ryan O'Reilly.

Another pleasant surprise this season has been the play of Ray Emery. Many are still not convinced (and that's understandable) but his performance through the Flyers first 16 games was not easily topped. He was ranked the 10th best player in the NHL - tied with Marian Gaborik - with a 6.7 total GVT. Among goalies, he came in 7th. He also came in 7th for save percentage and was tied for third in goals against average. It may be a small sample size, but these rankings are relative to every other goalie, and he tied for the 10th most ice time in the league. You may have noticed that he gained points for his performance in the shootout - stopping 7 of 9 shots against - in which he is tied for 26th among all NHL players, and tied for 10th among goalies. Now, the skeptical amongst you can point to Antero Niittymaki's stats (8.8 total GVT) which are as good, if not better than Sugar Ray's. They would be right. However, Martin Biron is only at 1.7 total GVT, so... call it even?

Another hard to miss development in the table is Chris Pronger and Matt Carle sitting second and third. Obviously, this is where The Pronger effect shows the extent of its reach. Before the season, most people predicted that Chris Pronger would elevate the play of his partner. But to hear "Matt Carle" and "Olympic team" (let alone "Norris Trophy") in the same sentence is still unusual. Personally, I've always been a fan of Carle's, but not many people would argue that he is in fact, this good. For this one, I'm just going to use bullet points.

Overall, Pronger is ranked as the 16th best overall player in the NHL with Carle tied for 33rd. This equals 1st and 6th, respectively, among defensemen.
Pronger's offensive contributions rank him tied for 20th in the NHL with Joe Thornton, and just above Jeff Carter. No, that's not a typo. Pronger is contributing offensively at the same rate as Joe Thornton.
On the defensive side, Pronger is 5th in the NHL while Carle is tied for 2nd.
GVT ranks Pronger as the second best two-way player in the NHL, while Carle is tied for 12th. Perspective: Anze Kopitar is in 1st, Pavel Datsyuk is tied with Carle, and Sidney Crosby is tied for 18th.
They were first and second in all of the NHL in plus/minus, with Pronger falling from second to third in Relative Plus Minus. Carle maintained his lead in that category.
Carle was tied for 11th in scoring among defensemen.

I think it's safe to say Chris Pronger has a lot to do with how well Matt Carle is playing. Aware that this is probably getting a little long, I'll finish it up with a few assorted thoughts. (More bullet points!)

Claude Giroux is known as a good defensive player, and it shows in his defensive GVT - second best among Flyer forwards at 0.8. And while you may have guessed Blair Betts (0.7) was third, he is tied with two others: James van Riemsdyk and Mika Pyorala. I can hear your surprise.
Darroll Powe's offensive value through 16 games was equal to Simon Gagne's through 9. That speaks more to Gagne's injury than Powe's ability, but it's still interesting.
David Laliberte's offensive value through 4 games was equal to Claude Giroux's through 16. That will happen when you score twice as many goals in a quarter as many games.
We can mostly agree that Danny Syvret played his way out of the Flyers lineup. But Steve Eminger, Luke Schenn, Hal Gill, and Nick Schultz were tied with him in total GVT and Brett Lebda, Ruslan Salei, Andrej Sekera, Jeff Woywitka, Luca Sbisa, Brendan Mikkelson, Andrew Ference, Aaron Ward, and Jack Johnson were all worse.
For those wondering, Randy Jones through three games has a GVT of 0.5, but only a 0.1 defensive rating; the same defensive value as both Darroll Powe and Ryan Parent.
Lastly, remember that clamoring for Mike Komisarek in the off-season? He's tied for the third worst skater in the league with a total GVT of -1.3. Also, Jay Bouwmeester is tied for 190th with a 1.8.

Much thanks to Tom Awad for giving me this data again. Hopefully, this will become available more frequently and with less hassle. Any questions, just ask. I have his entire spreadsheet if there's anything you want to look at.

Thursday Morning Fly By: Primeau speaks, Win a Boston trip

Travis Hughes — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 16:32:32 -0000

More photos » by Mark J. Terrill - AP

Browse more photos »

Your daily dose of Philadelphia Flyers news...

Last night's NHL scores... Flyers 3, Kings 2 - FLA 6, BUF 2 - DAL 3, DET 1 - PHX 3, MIN 2 - EDM 6, COL 4
Recaps of last night's/this morning's squeaker in LA from the AP, NHL.com, the Inquirer, Daily News, Bucks Co. Times, CSN Philly, the Kings (and much more at Kings Insider), FGSB, and Flying P.
Several articles about Randy Jones playing the Flyers for the first time. [Inquirer] - [Daily News] - [CSN]
Keith Primeau speaks on living life with head injuries. [Daily News]
This story was posted by Geoff in the FanShots yesterday, but I wanted to put more of a spotlight on it here. Apparently, Metro Philadelphia thinks that Darroll Powe is a defenseman. I've reached out to the editor for comment, so hopefully we'll have more on this later. [Metro]
The Phantoms won last night 2-0 over Toronto. Tim McManus: "How do you have a winning record (8-6-1-0) when you’ve scored just 34 times in 15 games? By only allowing 37" Johan Backlund has been great. [Post-Star]
Adirondack has a game on Thanksgiving. Really, AHL? [Phantoms]
The worst call all season. And I don't think this can be topped. From Wings-Stars last night... [Puck Daddy]
CSN is giving away a trip to Boston for the Winter Classic. [CSN]
I firmly believe the Flyers are contenders; they got better over the summer and they’re used to playing without Simon Gagne anyway. They had great special teams last year, and Chris Pronger has been playing at a Norris Trophy level so far this season. [Hockey Or Die]
Become a fan of Broad Street Hockey on Facebook. [Facebook]

Pyorala Powers Flyers 3-2 Win Over Kings

Ben Rothenberg — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 06:57:20 -0000

More photos » by Mark J. Terrill - AP

about 1 month ago: Los Angeles Kings goalie Jonathan Quick, left, tries to stop a shot by Philadelphia Flyers left wing Daniel Carcillo, right, as Kings' Matt Greene defends during the first period of an NHL hockey game, Wednesday, Nov. 18, 2009, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

Browse more photos »

[Recap] - [Boxscore] - [Complete Coverage] - [LAK Reaction]

These 10:30 PM ET start times are pretty rough. It's already an hour into Thursday here in the East, so I'm going to cut right into the bullet points:

Big Flyers fan presence in LA, as per usual. There was an enormous Flyers flag in the corner to Quick's right throughout the first, and around the rest of the arena there was a ton of visible orange. Good on the Flyers to give the faithful a win.
I'd give Brian Boucher a B+ for his performance in this game, his first win of the season. The first goal he allowed was easily the softest goal a Flyers goalie has let in all year, but he only let in one more after that, making 37 saves on 39 shots. Good numbers, but he looked far from rock solid or even steady for most of the game. But a win is a win is a win.
Speaking of shot totals, the Flyers got absolutely dominated in this category for the first time all year, almost getting doubled up by the count of 39-20, including a ridiculous 21-5 deficit in the third period. For a team that regularly breaks 40 in this category, it came out of nowhere. The Flyers did get a lot of pressure and puts down low in the Kings end, though, so the numbers are a little scarier than the reality was. And the bigger numbers, 3-2, are the ones that matter in the end.
The diving backhand Mika Pyorala netted for his first career goal is the stuff of dreams. He was playing notably better for the rest of the game, hopefully indicating that scoring a goal lifted a big weight off his shoulders and will let him regain the free flowing form he showed in the pre-season.
James van Riemsdyk is looking more and more like a legit threat to win the Calder Trophy with every game. His goal was super aware and super pretty, and he's just generally pretty super. It's been a long time since the Flyers had a guy this great out of the gate, not since Simon Gagne, at least.
Speaking of young guys, that Drew Doughty fellow they've got over there is ridiculous. Glad he's not in the East.
The shot with under 20 seconds left that snuck through Boucher's legs and squeaked along the goal line definitely took years off the life of any Flyers fan watching.
The win was the Flyers' seventh in their last eight games, which is pretty friggin' awesome.
The win also puts the Flyers in sole possession of third in the Atlantic, and only three points behind Pittsburgh with three games in hand.

After the jump, Travis' pregame questions answered, the video highlights from the game, and your comments on the win.

The Flyers have allowed only six goals in the first period, best in the league. The Kings are close though, only allowing 11 in the first period, good for fourth in the league. Does anybody take over the offensive flow early? Los Angeles controlled the offense early and often, outshooting the Flyers 11-6 in the first frame, and 39-20 overall.
How does Randy Jones play in his first game against his old team? Pretty well. He got a couple nice shots off from the point, and handled himself real well in an interview with FSN Los Angeles.
How does Brian Boucher play with something to prove after a terrible first outing? It's been awhile, so is there any rust? He was by no means great, but got the win in the end. Rust definitely looked like a factor, especially on that first goal.
Does David Laliberte come back where he left off last week as an NHLer? Laliberte was fairly invisible for most of the game, but he was during his first stint as well. Ended as a -1, but didn't have too bad of a night out there.

Comment of the Night

Pyro gonna score tonight…hopefully.

>> flyrsfrk05

Highlights:

Kings Gameday: What Do You People Want From Me?

RudyKelly — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 19:53:26 -0000

Next Game

Los Angeles Kings
@ Florida Panthers

Monday, Nov 16, 2009, 4:30 PM PST
BankAtlantic Center

Complete Coverage >

Look, leave me alone. I've been moving and I haven't had TV or anything so I haven't really been able to watch the last 2 games. I listened to the Thrashers game (at least until 6-0 when I angrily turned it off)* and completely missed the Lightning game, which sucks because Wayne Simmonds introduced someone to the Meat Train and Rob Scuderi got hurt and a goal was called back in overtime and the Kings won in a shootout. But yeah, I was moving so I can't fill your head with tantalizing visions of Earl going down on a guy or vivid tales like the time I farted in the shower and water was running down my crack so I thought I had pooed for a second. Nothing to see here, folks.

*It sucks when you're listening to a game in your car and something goes wrong because you can't really get angry. You'll yell, "Fuck!" and then raise your hand to hit something but there's nothing you can really hit and so you'll just kind of freeze before you angrily twist the dial on your radio, but the knob is like an inch big and doesn't take much effort to turn so you end up using way too much force and slamming your hand against your window or something.

But anyway, the Kings lost Rob Scuderi so Randy Jones is playing. There, now you can go back to forwarding cat videos or whatever the hell it is you people do when you're not pestering me for information. God, the pressure of this job sometimes. Man, I need a break.*

*Puts on worn VHS of 3 Ninjas, unzips pants

Prediction: Kings win, 2-1. Tomas Vokoun has 50 saves, Quick has 10.

Kings Roofie Hurricanes, 5-2

RudyKelly — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 21:00:00 -0000

More photos » by Karl B DeBlaker - AP

There are 4 faces in this picture and they are all hilarious. (AP Photo/Karl B DeBlaker)

Browse more photos »

-The Kings defeated the Carolina Hurricanes last night, 5-2, on the backs of Alexander Frolov and Randy "The Date Rapist" Jones*. The game was close until the middle of the third but the outcome was never really in doubt; the Kings were pushing the action almost the entire game and simply had more skill than the depleted Hurricanes line-up.

*What the hell kind of sleaze bag is this guy? He has some sort of weird crusty mustache thing going on. He just looks like the type of guy that enjoys taking girls' virginity. I get the feeling he and Justin Williams would not look out of place at the party Jennifer Connelly provided the entertainment for at the end of Requiem for a Dream.

Alexander Frolov had 2 assists on the night, a pretty fake slap shot and pass to Justin Williams that led to Randy "High School Gym Teacher" Jones' goal, and another beautiful assist on Wayne Simmonds' goal to ice the game. Frolov collected the puck behind the Hurricanes net and faked like he was going to take it out wide; when the defenders came to him, he slipped it between them to a wide open Meat Train in front of the net. It was a solid night all around for Frolov and he was congratulated on his play by Terry Murray after the game... wait, no he wasn't. What a surprise.

Randy "Your Girlfriend's Co-Worker who Always Touches Her Back" Jones, meawhile, ended up with 2 points on the night in his Kings debut. Jones filled in for Sean O'Donnell, which makes sense since Sean O'Donnell is old and could probably use a break every now and then. The Kings will still use O'Donnell most of the time because he's their rock on the penalty kill and provides security for the rest of the Kings' defenders, but it's nice to know the Kings have someone like Randy "Guy Who Volunteers to Ref AYSO Games Even Though He Has No Kids" Jones to help out on defense if someone gets hurt.

Erik Ersberg played last night in Jonathan Quick's stead and was... okay, I guess. He allowed 2 goals on 24 shots, but the first goal was pretty bad to let in. I'll let him slide on the 2nd, since it was more of a screw up by the defense than Ersberg that led to the goal. He didn't play well enough to justify playing him over Jonathan Quick, but he played well enough to at least let Quick know that he needs to step it up.

Overall, the Kings won a game they should win. Hooray! Now on to a game I am really stoked for: the Thrashers, tomorrow night. Just think of it: Kopitar v. Kovalchuk (if he plays); Doughty v. Bogosian; Fro v. Maxim; Randy Jones v. her unwillingness to drink anything offered to her. Should be an awesome game.

Monday Morning Fly By: Injuries around every corner

Travis Hughes — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 11:00:40 -0000

by Matt Slocum - AP

View full size photo »

Your daily dose of Philadelphia Flyers news...

Last night's NHL scores... ATL 3, STL 2 (OT) - EDM 5, COL 3
It was a weekend of injuries around the NHL, and brutal ones at that. Most notably, Carolina goaltender Cam Ward suffered a horrifying laceration to his upper left leg on Saturday night when Columbus' Rick Nash's skate came up and caught him. He'll miss at least three weeks, a devastating blow to an already suffering Hurricanes team. [Canes Country]
In Detroit, winger Jason Williams will miss at least two months after breaking his right fibula -- that's his leg, for the uninitiated. [Winging It In Motown]
Alex Ovechkin has been sidelined for about a week now, and in an interview with Puck Daddy, he said that he'll be out about four-to-five weeks. Not so fast, AO. [Japers']
In Pittsburgh, they entered Saturday night's game in San Jose without Evgeni Malkin, Sergei Gonchar, Tyler Kennedy, or Maxime Talbot. Add Kris Letang to the list, as he fell with a shoulder problem. He could be out a while, too. [Pensburgh]
Of course, the Flyers weren't exempt on the injury front this weekend. With Simon Gagne, Danny Briere, and Ryan Parent already out, James van Riemsdyk and Ole-Kristian Tollefsen didn't complete Saturday's game. OKT has a concussion and JVR has a fractured pinky finger. Each are listed as day-to-day. [CSN Philly]
As if it were some kind of foreshadowing, Puck Daddy published a list of the top 10 most brutal NHL injuries of the last decade on Saturday afternoon. Randy Jones' hit on Patrice Bergeron and Patrick Thoresen's "potentially ruptured testicle" each make the cut. [PD]
While Danny Syvret has been less than impressive as a Flyer this season, the guy he was traded for, Ryan Potulny, is getting a chance with the Oilers. Until now, he has only played in eight NHL games since the June 2008 trade. [Oilers]
Spectrum seats go on sale today at 10 AM. [BSH]
The Phantoms played once this weekend and fell to archrival Albany 3-1. [Post-Star]
If you don't venture past the main column of this site, you a) have tunnel vision and b) missed out on some good discussion of the current standings system, started by mikefive over the weekend. [BSH FanPosts]
Ron Hextall selling Canada Dry ginger ale, just because. [YouTube]

Kings claim Randy Jones, now a Flyer in payroll only

Travis Hughes — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 20:41:38 -0000

via daylife.com

View full size photo »

The Randy Jones era is officially, unequivocally over in Philadelphia.

Called up from Adirondack and placed on re-entry waivers a day ago by the Flyers, Jones was claimed by the Los Angeles Kings today, just before the 24-hour window to place a claim was closed. The move means the Kings take all of Jones' rights, but the Flyers have to pay half his salary without getting anything in return. He makes $2.75 million this year (and his contract expires in July), meaning that Philadelphia is on the hook for about $1.37 million. That money goes against the salary cap.

It's a smart move for the Kings, who essentially get Jones at a price he's actually worth. As Flyers fans know quite well, his performance with the orange and black was not worth his hefty salary, causing him to fall out of favor with the faithful, before eventually doing the same with management. His demotion to Adirondack was a clear indication from Paul Holmgren and company that a mistake was made when Jones was given that contract back in July of 2008.

This move is painful for us in Philly. Some may look at the plus side and say that Jones is off the roster, but the fact of the matter is that the guy did have some worth, and the fact that we're now getting nothing for him while still having the insult of paying half his contract is plenty of fuel to make us bitter. In fact, it's really unacceptable.

Here's what former Flyers head coach and current Kings head coach Terry Murray had to say about Jones, courtesy of LA Kings Insider:

"Well, he’s a pretty good player. He’s a player who plays in all situations. He can play on your power play. He’s a good penalty-kill defending player. He’s a pretty good all-around player, so when he does get into the lineup, there won’t be any hesitation in any one of those situations."

Murray also said that Jones is "thrilled" to be getting back into the NHL.

Flyers put D Randy Jones through re-entry waivers; should the Predators bite?

Dirk Hoag — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 18:05:19 -0000

More photos » by Julie Jacobson - AP

8 months ago: New York Islanders' Richard Park, left, battles for the puck against Philadelphia Flyers' Randy Jones in the first period during an NHL hockey game Saturday, April 11, 2009, in Uniondale, N.Y. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson)

Browse more photos »

The Philadelphia Flyers have reportedly put defenseman Randy Jones through re-entry waivers as they recall him from the AHL, which means that any team that wants him would split paying his salary 50/50 with Philadelphia.

Given the Predators' struggles early this season, is it worth bringing in a veteran for only half of his $2.75 million salary?

Randy Jones

#6 / Philadelphia Flyers

Height: 6-2

Weight: 200

Born: Jul 23, 1981

Year	Team	GP	G	A	P	+/-	PIM	PPG	GWG	SOG
2003	Flyers	5	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	5
2005	Flyers	28	0	8	8	-6	16	0	0	21
2006	Flyers	66	4	18	22	-14	38	0	0	67
2007	Flyers	71	5	26	31	8	58	1	0	103
2008	Flyers	47	4	4	8	8	22	1	2	45

This, from Randy's scouting report on his profile page:

Scouting Report

Assets	Has good size and solid puck-moving skills. Is capable of logging important minutes and will play the body. Can also chip in with some offense.
Flaws	Is extremely inconsistent in the hitting department and could stand to play a more physical game. Must tighten up his defensive-zone coverage.
Career Potential	Top six defenseman.

Poll

Should the Nashville Predators claim D Randy Jones?

Yes

29 votes

No

55 votes

84 votes | Poll has closed