• March 28, 2024

Its Waynes World and Thankfully Matt Read is Living in It

For all the talk lately about what trades the Flyers should or shouldn’t make, it’s worth crediting Paul Holmgren for bringing Wayne Simmonds to Philadelphia this offseason because he just had one heck of a game against the Nashville Predators, who fell 4-1 to the Flyers this evening.

Simmonds had his first two-goal game with the Flyers, increasing his goal production to fifteen on the season and one less than his previous best in the 2009-10 season. He also had a ridiculous ten shots on goal, accounting for more than a third of the entire team’s output.

“I love playing with Wayne Simmonds,” said Matt Read. “If he’s in the corner, he’s going to come out with the puck. He’s a workhorse… he’s always winning puck battles and you’re always having the puck in the offensive zone.  Like you saw tonight, he won the puck battles in the corner, came out of the corner, shot and it went in for our first goal.”

Read had been playing with Simmonds and Sean Couturier, but coach Peter Laviolette shuffled the third and fourth lines again to balance the line-up. Read centered Tom Sestito and Harry Zolnierczyk while Brayden Schenn centered Zac Rinaldo and Simmonds.

“They’re not necessarily experiments,” said Laviolette.  “We’re whacked with injuries constantly here. It’s been hard to navigate. As guys come back, changes in the line-up have to be made. It’s part of the game. If it were up to me, I’d rather just go status quo with the line-up and push forward until it needs to be changed, but we had to change the lines tonight because Zac came back in the line-up and Holmstrom went down… that will happen when others come back or others go out again.”

Read also contributed on the scoreboard, earning his 16th of the season shortly after a penalty to Scott Hartnell had expired. Read started that shift on the penalty kill.

“We have a great penalty kill. The four guys that are mainly out there work so well and communicate,” said Read. “The D that are out there are so smart and they know when to jump on the plays and stuff like that. It helps when you have a couple penalties in a row and you can kill them off. It builds a lot of momentum for you and kind of puts the other team on their heels.”

Simmonds gave credit to Read as well. “Anyone [here] can score on any given night. Reader is playing on the fourth line, [but] he could be on our first line.”

Claude Giroux closed the game with an empty net goal that Jaromir Jagr generously set up for him.

Ryan Suter, the defenseman on the Flyers’ wish list, ended Ilya Bryzgalov’s shutout bid earlier after the team played garbage hockey for about five straight minutes in front of him. To his credit, Bryz was excellent all game, turning away 26 of 27 shots from the Predators.

“He looks really sharp to me. He seems focused in there,” said Laviolette. “He’s working hard in practice. His practices have been solid. I think that oftentimes your practice reflects your game… he’s been sharp in practice and I think it’s followed right through to the game.”

If the theory holds true that Bryz just needs playing time to stay sharp, the Flyers could opt to start him in net for both afternoon games this weekend, but that could be asking a lot. For what it’s worth, I wouldn’t mind seeing Sergei Bobrovksy start on Saturday against the New Jersey Devils and give Bryzgalov a test in the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden on Sunday.

Either way, he has earned the starts.

For the latest Flyers news and updates, you can follow me on twitter (@JoshJanet).

Josh Janet

Josh Janet was raised in Northern New Jersey, but by an odd set of circumstances, is a Philadelphia sports fan. While recently converted to the Phillies, Josh is a diehard Flyers fan and can be expected to stay on top of the latest NHL news.

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DCar
DCar
February 3, 2012 3:00 am

Minus the Bryz debacle thus far, Homer has pressed all of the correct buttons. This might be the best bunch of young dudes, that I’ve seen on any team since Crosby & Malkins first years.