First a couple thoughts on the NYR game.
Lundqvist >>> Mason. He was frigging awesome and I believe that he won the game for the Rags. Things would have been very different if we managed to score on at least one of our first PP opportunities. Lundqvist was huge and did not let that happen. Mason could not do the same for the Flyers and the momentum switched.
I have been thinking this for a while now, my patience with Gostisbehere is officially over. He is average at best offensively and he is most definitely a defensive liability. I do not like him at all. I do think the Flyers are still in a building phase. We will need to grow the D before we are ready. We do have a 3-4 year window to win a Cup. Giroux is 28, Voracek is 27 (I know! He's already played 8 seasons), Simmonds is 28, Schenn is 25 and Couturier is 24 . Simmonds has the shortest contract. He's got this year and then another two. The others are signed fairly long term and for good money. Konecny will be a good player and Provorov will be an elite option on D. We are in a fairly good place and we will continue to get better.
We need at least one of Morin or Sanheim to be a top pair dman and skate with Provorov. We also need this to happen fairly quickly so we can work within our 3-4 year window. Our defense is where improvement is needed. Mason is an average goalie. If he has excellent defense in front of him, he will be fine. Ideally we would get an upgrade in the next couple years, but its no longer our biggest concern. Gostisbehere needs a defensive rock to skate with him. A guy like J-Bo would be great. He is too much of a liability to have him skating with Manning. Dont get me wrong I do like Manning. He can take care of himself for the most part, but he cannot look after the mess that Ghost leaves behind as well. Its too much to ask of him.
I think its clear that Provorov is our best dman right now at the age of 19. This is both good and bad. He has no business being our best dman, but there it is... He is. We should have better options than a 19 year old, but we do not. Playing that many minutes will help his development, but he shouldn't be our best guy. We cannot make a real playoff push this year. I think we'll make it, but would not be surprised with a 1st round exit.