#wilsons are the epitome of some guy energy

[juxtaposed-nerd]

my favorite thing about daddies cosplay is that out of context you really do just look like Some Guy or my favorite: in the case of the Oaks literally being the crunchiest most granola motherfucker in the room and without knowing that ohhhh that’s Henry Oak the first thought is wow that guy looks really vegan 😭

[officialleotolstoy]

Oh Dolokhov Brainrot We’re Really In It Now, aka Dolokhov playlist annotations!

A note on the cover photo: I don’t really like this one but I got tired of looking at men on Pinterest so I gave up. The window symbolizes the rum window and the smoking symbolizes uhhhhh habitual bad life choices idk

Drinking game take a shot every time I say “it’s about the vibes”

Wrecking Ball - Mother Mother

“I break it just because I can”

This is THEE ‘I am going to cause problems on purpose’ song and that is like his entire narrative purpose!! Argue with me about this one I dare you

The Good, The Bad, and the Dirty - Panic! At The Disco

“If you wanna start a fight you better throw the first punch, make it a good one”

Partially its just vibes, I won’t lie. But also the consistent spoiling for a fight is very in character

Shoot to Thrill - AC/DC

“I’m like evil, I get under your skin”

It’s got I Am Morally Repulsive But Also I’ll Steal Your Girl energy which really hits all of Dolokhov’s character traits. And of course the added bonus of gun imagery.

Mr. Brightside - The Killers

“It started out with a kiss, how did it end up like this”

I added it strictly for vibes, but then I realized the quoted lyric is very much him @ the Kuragins if you take the reading that he refuses to admit he actually like them but grows genuinely fond of them over time even though he initially got to know them with a lot of ulterior motives.

Bohemian Rhapsody - Queen

“Mama, I just killed a man”

The amount of songs that are on these playlists just for what are essentially your mom jokes since Dolokhov loves his mom so much is a little pathetic. But I’m not wrong! I can’t really put it into words but something about this song has Dolokhov energy.

Feel It Still - Portugal the Man

“Give in to that easy living, goodbye to your hopes and dreams”

A good deal of what I find interesting about Dolokhov is the internal conflict he has of knowing he’s become rather wicked and problematic but also not really trying very hard to change and almost enjoying it so a lot of the songs on here are about that, including this one. The “I’m a rebel just for kicks now” also very much screams Causing Problems On Purpose.

The Bidding - Tally Hall

“I like to take advantage of the bourgeoisie”

His whole role in volume one and two is to take advantage of the bourgeoisie! This song also oozes confidence and a sense of superiority that comes from being better than the sellouts in high society, Dolokhov’s not like other girls uwu (he really is, but I don’t think he would admit that).

Say Amen (Saturday Night) - Panic! At The Disco

“I could be better but baby it’s Saturday night”

Embracing his own wickedness! The idea that he knows he could be better than he is but he doesn’t want to take that opportunity...yeah vibes

Wilson (Expensive Mistakes) - Fall Out Boy

“I became such a strange shape from trying to fit in”

This is the epitome of the “woe is me I need to be purified” phase he goes through when he’s into Sonya. Also “I’ll stop wearing black when they make a darker color” reminds me of Comet Dolokhov’s stupid eyeliner <3

Some Nights - fun.

“So what is this? I sold my soul for this?”

There’s a long stretch of this playlist that just boils down to “Woe is me I need to be purified” crisis hours, because Dolokhov’s oscillation between embracing his own cruelty and trying to be a good person is super interesting to me. This song captures the idea that he’s still having fun and there’s some good there, but he’s also aware that he’s losing himself a bit

Roaring 20s - Panic! At The Disco

“I don’t even know me”

“Woe is me i need to be purified” crisis AGAIN. This song gets more to the annoyance with society as a whole and feeling kind of lost in it

Send Them Off! - Bastille

“Help me exorcise my mind”

“Please purify me 16 year old girl! I’m 27 this isnt creepy at all ahahahha”. I do despise Sonyakhov but this has the vibes of a man feeling his own evil and wanting a woman to fix it. Not a great look.

Easy Days (Demo) - Bastille

“I don’t wanna fall back again, back into the easy days”

Near the end of the “woe is me I need to be purified” phase when he’s kind of drifting back to his old ways and he’s like wait no- wait- and then he does anyway because he’s horrible. I also really like the acknowledgment that his horribleness is easy and pleasant for him, and he has to fight against that (and he loses that fight HDJAJJD).

Undisclosed Desires - Muse

“You trick your lovers that you’re wicked and divine”

This is a Dolokhov/Nikolai song I do not take constructive criticism. Undisclosed desires...not being straight...lots to think about! It feels almost like a corruption arc? Nikolai isn’t corrupted nor does their...fling (?) last very long but Nikolai is obviously enamored with Dolokhov despite him being The Worst so I think this fits. I don’t have enough songs for a Nikolai/Dolokhov playlist so I just add those songs to both of their individual playlists

Thnks fr th Mmrs - Fall Out Boy

“Thanks for the memories even though they weren’t so great”

Also mostly a Nikolai/Dolokhov song. This man has never ended a relationship on good terms, huh. Also. Sighs heavily. “He tastes like you only sweeter” never fails to make me laugh when I think about it in the context of Dolokhov post-duel being like oh?? You’re just a stupid WOMAN Hélène your brother and/or Nikolai is hotter than you :/ which is not exactly what I think happened but it makes me laugh to consider. Dolokhov ur bitterrrrr

Dangerous - Royal Deluxe

“I’ll be the last man standing here, I’m not going anywhere”

I feel like this has the vibes of his cruelty, especially in that bit after the Kuragins have died when he and Petya infiltrate the French army.

Another One Bites The Dust - Queen

“There are plenty of ways you can hurt a man”

He will hurt you and kill you so violently :) It’s about the vibes.

White Wedding Pt. 1 - Billy Idol

“It’s a nice day to start again”

In the exact inverse to his “woe is me I need to be purified” phase, he’s like ok yes i will pick up bad habits again and enjoy them because frick you! I read once that this song is about a relapse into drugs, but I’m making it analogous to his relapse into Terrible Person Behavior after Sonya’s rejection. Also the repetition of the phrase little sister does something for my brain idk, after we know he loves his mom and sister it just fits.

Highway to Hell - AC/DC

“I’m on the highway to hell and I’m goin down”

Like White Wedding, it screams acceptance of his problematicness. He knows he’s cruel and evil and he revels in it. This is the phase we see him in most I think.

Back in Black - AC/DC

“It’s been too long, I’m glad to be back”

I think this plays every time he gets reinstated to an army position he lost by being reckless earlier. Just kidding sort of but listen to this song and tell me it doesn’t have Dolokhov vibes. If you do, you’re wrong <3

Poet - Bastille

“I have written you down now, you will live forever”

This is just here cause he ghostwrote Anatole’s love letters and I think it’s funny. It’s MY playlist and I get to choose the barely relevant Bastille songs

St. Jude - Florence + The Machine

“Maybe I’ve always been more comfortable in chaos”

This one’s more scattered lyrics than an overall vibe. “Each side is a loser so who cares who fired the gun” has duel energy also.

Hey Look Ma, I Made It - Panic! At The Disco

Confession: I hate this song. However, it’s about the about the MOM R U PROUD OF ME vibes (she is. Should she be? Probably not).

Rich Kids - Bea Miller

“It’s never enough for the stuck up types”

The not coming from wealth and having to almost scam your way into being part of the aristocratic scene is very Dolokhov. Also in my mind the rich kid he’s roasting is specifically Nikolai.

Money, Money, Money - ABBA

“It’s a rich man’s world”

I’m not SAYING the wealthy man they talk about is Anatole but - [i am shot]. Scheming and clawing your way up to wealth is Dolokhovcore.

This Is Gospel - Panic! At The Disco

I literally have no justification for this other than that i think modern AU Dolokhov would vibe with it. Look at the amount of eyeliner he wears in Comet and tell me he didn’t have an emo band phase. You can’t.

Trouble’s Coming - Royal Blood

This is not about the words at all, it’s more about the vibes. It just sounds Dolokhovish to me, don’t ask me to explain.

Sleep Alone - Two Door Cinema Club

“They’re just ghosts and they can’t hurt him if he can’t see them”

This gives me post-Kuragins’ death vibes, and I can’t pin down exactly why? I think it’s the idea of being very alone and closed off.

Golden Days - Panic! At The Disco

I can’t put a specific lyric to it but it’s the vibes of looking back on your hedonistic youths with nostalgia and rose-colored glasses. Post-Kuragins’ death vibes again.

Go Get Your Gun - The Dear Hunter

“One foot in the grave, the other one’s kickin’ its way right down to hell”

All we see of him after the Kuragins’ death is just him being particularly cruel and reckless, almost careless. This feels like it encapsulates that energy.

The Fallen - Franz Ferdinand

“They say you’re a troubled boy just because you like to destroy”

I’m aware that a good portion of this song is about a Christ figure but I’m going to respectfully ask you to ignore that bit and just focus on all the Sketchy Things the guy does instead. Thank you. He does in fact like to destroy things! Señor Cause Problems On Purpose back at it again at krispy kreme, huh.

[that-yandere-life]

Who Hides In The Darkness-Chapter One: Dinner To Die For

[Thank you so much for all the lovely feedback you all gave on my preview! Here is chapter number one I hope that you all like it!!! If you have the chance could you please give me feedback once again! Thank you for reading! (If you want to be added to the tag list let me know!) <3 <3 <3]

[Trigger Warning: Character Death, Slight NSFW mentioned]

Flashback/Preview-

Holding the mysterious invitation in your hand as you approached the mansion in the attire that had been provided for you. It was clearly a vintage sort of costume party being held by none other than the notorious Tony Stark. Setting your suitcase on the front steps you wondered if anyone else had arrived before you. That question was answered almost instantly as a man you knew to be Happy, Tony’s head of security walked out to greet you.

Taking your suitcase he led the way not saying much beyond his initial introduction and pleasantries. Looking around once you entered the building you couldn’t believe your very eyes. It was quite possibly the most beautiful place you had ever seen let alone gotten to stay the weekend in. Everything around you was perfectly placed and designed, it was hard not to get lost in your surroundings.

“Everyone is already in the main lounge waiting to begin.”Happy said breaking out of your wowed trance like state.

Upon entering you could see all the people you had been working side by side with for the past two years. A group with varying personalities that somehow mesh together to be able to manage to save the world many times over. Giving everyone a quick hello and wave you turned your attention to the front of the room where Tony stood a glass of whiskey in hand.

“Welcome everyone! Thank you so much for joining me in my little venture here this weekend! Now I’m sure you are wondering why you are all here and dressed in these period outfits, I promise all will be revealed shortly! This actually is a competition and I know how competitive you all are so this should prove to be most entertaining.”Tony started off swirling the liquid in his glass wanting to build the anticipation.

“What I didn’t mention in my invitation was that this mansion you are in happens to be haunted. There have been experiences that cannot be explained, and disappearances that have never been solved. So what I propose to you all here before me is this, if you can stay in this mansion for the entirety of the weekend you will win a million dollars cash. Once you agree the doors will be locked and no one can leave unless they forfeit their potential winnings. The period outfits are to enhance the spirit energy since most of the activity seems linked to that specific time in history. Now make your choice, either stay and make your dreams come true… or walk out that door right and never return.”Tony said looking to the small congregation of people surrounding him now whispering to each other in hushed tones.

“I’m in.”You announced shrugging slightly not even really thinking about it, you weren’t worried about being haunted having always felt at ease around most spirits. What you didn’t know was that there was more than spirits hiding in the darkness…

Chapter One: Dinner To Die For-

Once you had been shown to your room you were told to freshen up for dinner, that would start at exactly seven o’clock. Looking around the luxurious suite that had been provided for you, it seemed much fancier than you deserved. A dark oak canopy bed with a deep red silk top comforter, red silk sheets beneath to match, giant fluffy pillows that could be mistaken for actual clouds. Not to mention the mattress probably felt like a dream, it was all of the highest quality available. Lost in thought you didn’t even notice someone standing in your doorway watching you with amusement.

“Like what you see?”A voice called out breaking you out of your concentration, loud enough that you could distinguish that it was your best friend Natasha.

“It’s truly the epitome of no expenses spared. I’m not sure it’s all necessary but that doesn’t mean I’m not going to enjoy it.”You laughed turning to face her now. “Tony does have a certain reputation to maintain I suppose.”You shrugged chuckling slightly.

“A flair for the dramatic is more like it, you ready to head downstairs to drink some wine and have a good ass time?”Natasha asked walking over locking her arm in yours to lead the way.

“But of course.”You reply in an over exaggerated posh accent. “We shan't keep them waiting after all.”

The two of you headed down the tall staircase with intricate designs carved into the railing almost seeming like it was depicting a story as you took your descent. Reaching the bottom you both were greeted by Steve Rogers, Bucky Barnes, and Sam Wilson. “Hey guys, we have been waiting for you.”Steve said with a small cheeky grin on his face. “I must say the period outfits suit you both.”He said with a small bow, just using the top half of his body.

“You clean up pretty well yourself Rogers.”Natasha retorted snickering a little. “Why don’t you ladies lead the way to dinner.”She suggested a smirk plastered across her face knowing that she was slightly antagonizing him but it was all a part of her charm.

“Excuse me, I’m actually a gentleman. May I accompany you to dinner this evening?”Sam asked holding his hand out to you, kissing the top of yours when you took it. “Let’s let them hash this out themselves shall we?”He grinned wiggling his eyebrows slightly making you giggle.

Starting to walk into the dining room you were amazed at how large the table in the center was, and how many people it was set up for. Plates, silverware, wine classes, centerpieces, lit candles, it had everything you could imagine straight out of some gothic horror movie. Sam pulled out the chair that had your place marker set in front of it, pushing it in as you sat down. “Thanks Sam.”You smiled feeling your cheeks heat up slightly at the wink he responded with before taking his own seat.

After a short while everyone had taken their seats and Tony stood at the head silencing everyone for a speech. “Thank you again for being here and deciding to stay for the festivities! We are going to kick this off with a nice feast like dinner, some adult beverages, and finish it off with some decadent dessert. I would like to propose a toast, to a weekend of fun, mayhem, and a good old fashioned haunting good time!”He said raising his glass, the rest having been filled during his rambling. Everyone took a sip before the conversation and laughter broke out once again amongst each other.

Several smartly dressed waiters brought the dinner out placing each dish in front of people with a silver dome cover. Curiously you looked to each side wondering who you were sat next to seeing it was Pietro Maximoff on the right, and Thor Odinson on the left. Thor was engaged in conversation with the person opposite of him so you turned to speak to Pietro. “It’s really over the top isn’t it?”You ask as the waiter removes the cover for you revealing a plate of steaming freshly cooked food.

“It might be, but I think we deserve it. Especially you, you work too hard you need more fun in your life.”Pietro replied smirking a little, clearly flirting with you.

“Oh and what kind of fun might that be?”You asked trying not to let your smile break through just yet but desperately failing.

“I can show you, just say the word.”He whispered into your ear causing your breath to hitch slightly, checking to make sure no one else heard him. “Don’t be shy now, we’re both adults here. It’s not like Stark doesn’t expect something to happen between any of his guests.”Pietro teased quietly still keeping the conversation between the two of you.

“After dinner.”You mustered out under your breath trying to focus on calming down, taking a huge swig of wine gulping it down harshly. At this point you needed some liquid courage in your veins if you were going to deal with the fastest man in the world. Possibly with the world’s largest amount of stamina paired with it. Picking at your dinner it was delicious but you were too distracted by your own thoughts to full enjoy it.

Once the dinner plates had been removed, the wine refilled, and dessert placed in front of you it felt like the time was right. Swiveling sideways in your chair to look at Pietro who was currently stuffing his face with what appeared to be lemon meringue pie. Of course you couldn’t help but chuckle as you used a napkin to wipe off some of the meringue left on his lip. Suddenly his face crumpled into a pained expression taking you off guard.

Foam started dripping from his mouth and he started to convulse in front of your very eyes. Screaming you caught the attention of everyone, shooting out of your chair. “Help him!”You called out looking for Bruce since he would be the only one who might be able to do anything. Eyes filled with tears as Wanda rushed over taking her brother into her arms, sliding out of the chair onto the floor. “What’s happening?!”

“Piet Piet look at me...LOOK AT ME! You can’t leave me, you can’t.”Wanda shouted shaking and begging her brother, the light softly leaving his eyes as the entire party watched on with terrified expressions.

“He’s gone Wanda, there was nothing we could do. It looks like he might have been poisoned, there are very few things that can cause a reaction like that, that fast.”Bruce said shaking his head as he knelt down checking for a pulse.

“NO NO NO NO!”Wanda screamed, heart wrenching sobbing shaking throughout her entire body as Natasha tried to get her to move away from her brothers body.

“Baby you shouldn’t see him like this, he wouldn’t want you to.”Natasha said softly pulling her off the floor and into her chest holding her tightly. “I’m going to take her to her room.”She said leading the poor girl away.

All you could do was stare on as tears fell down your face rapidly, you couldn’t think, you couldn’t speak. Arms wrapped around you gently guiding you to turn away from the sight before you and into them. Burying your face into Clint’s broad chest you couldn’t help but begin sobbing.

“It had to be one of us…No one else is here but us, it’s the middle of nowhere. We need to call the police, this needs to be investigated.”Steve stated firmly looking around at the crowd of people who have become like family to each other.

“Only one problem with that Capsicle… No one has landlines anymore, and there is no service for cells out here in the woods. All the cars are gone, plus no civilization for miles and miles. We are totally isolated, we are going to have to figure this out ourselves. When I said we would be stuck out here for the weekend, I meant we would be stuck out here.”Tony explained biting his knuckle in contemplation. No one knowing if it was him trying to figure out who did it, or what in the hell they were going to do now.

End of Chapter One

Tag List: @beeeb05 , @albinotigerpython

[flauntpage]

Why the Flyers Might be Ready to Give up the Ghost

There are a few story lines many fans will be watching for when the Flyers and Red Wings reconvene tonight at 6 p.m. in Detroit:

Can this white hot Flyers team (12-2-1 in their last 15 games) continue an unexpected, unlikely, and unprecedented run toward a playoff berth?

Will Carter Hart bounce back from a mediocre performance against the first team to play against him for a third time and playing in back-to-back games for the first time, no less? (I am going out on a limb and assuming coach Scott Gordon won’t be putting an important game in the playoff race on the shoulders of Mike McKenna, who will likely be waived Monday. McKenna will still back up Hart as newly acquired goalie Cam Talbot isn’t available today).

Will there be retribution on Detroit’s Anthony Mantha for his cross-check to Claude Giroux’s head while Giroux was on his knees against the boards in the third period of yesterday’s game? (There was no penalty called, although there should have been).

These are all interesting plots to follow as tonight’s game progresses. But it’s not the one I’m going to be watching the most closely.

Yes, they all have varying degrees of interest for me, and yes, they are all good water cooler topics for Monday – for those of you who don’t get the President’s Day holiday.

But there is one more that I want to follow even closer. And actually, it’s a plot line that, until post game yesterday, has simply gone unnoticed by many observers of the team.

It involves Shayne Gostisbehere.

It’s a story that has been brewing for a while now. One that goes back to before Dave Hakstol was fired. To before Ron Hextall was fired. To before there was any talk of considering moving on from the uber-talented but sometimes disconnected defenseman.

Let’s put together a quick timeline after the jump:

1. Gostisbehere’s relationship with the former coaches

This story has to start here. Ghost had two really good offensive seasons in his first three with the Flyers. His rookie campaign was one that energized an entire city. He burst onto the scene with a style of play from a defenseman that has never before been seen in Philadelphia. He was always on the go. Great speed, a wicked slap shot, a willingness to gamble to generate offense, a flair for the dramatic – it was a combination of skills and chutzpah that no other Flyers defenseman has ever had.

No, we weren’t elevating him to the level of a Mark Howe or even an Eric Desjardins, but at the same time, what Ghost was doing was bewitching. Sure, there were some rookie mistakes. Yes, he needed to improve the defensive side of his game, but those flaws would eventually be ironed out because there was no rivaling the impact he had offensively.

Not to mention, he had a bit of a fiery attitude. It was infectious. His energy and drive wore off on not just his teammates, but the fans too. He was the epitome of instant success story before Gritty broke the instant success story mold.

Then came his sophomore campaign and things weren’t quite as rosy. Sophomore slumps suck, but most athletes go through them. Gostisbehere’s was compounded with injuries, including a core muscle injury that required offseason surgery after his inconsistent sequel to his hit movie the season before.

And although a lot of his setbacks were injury-related, Gostitsbehere also didn’t take kindly to being a healthy scratch at one point as Hakstol tried to send a message to his young defenseman.

The message initially worked, as Gostisbehere came off that scratch and played well for a stint, but that’s when the injuries started to nag. Gostisbehere, being the gamer that he is, didn’t want to let the injuries get in the way of him playing, so he gutted his way through them, all the while being coached up by Hakstol and former assistant coach Gord Murphy, who was in charge of the defense before he too was fired last November.

Ghost limped through the rest of the season and after surgery insisted he was going to be back better than ever.

And he was. He came into training camp last season feeling fit and ready to have a resurgence. He was the first interview I conducted last year after starting writing for Crossing Broad and he told me during the 2017-18 training camp that the season was going to be different.

“I’m just going to go out there and play my game,” he told me. “I’m a guy who needs to create and be aggressive and try and be productive for my team. I won’t worry about all the other things that make you think to much out there. I’m just going to do what I do best and take it from there.”

And he did what he did best – finishing with 65 points, fourth-most among defensemen in the NHL, and second-best in the Eastern Conference.

And while it was a wildly successful season for Gostisbehere on the score sheet, there was a little more brewing beneath the surface.

The coaches were frustrated with Gostisbehere’s unwillingness to conform to what they wanted for more than just snippets of time. In turn, Gostisbehere was growing more and more frustrated with the coaches for really harping on him. After all, here was a guy who was producing at an elite level for the team and playing better than every other defenseman on the team not named Ivan Provorov and yet he was taking more internal criticism than most.

It’s understandable that Ghost would feel that way.

But, communication wasn’t always the greatest strong suit for the former coaching staff. And by communication, I mean the way in which a message was delivered. Sure, the coaches could bark out orders, but often, context was lacking.

Murphy was especially difficult to deal with for the Flyers defensemen. And once the 2018-19 season started off so poorly and Murphy was fired for along with Hextall for being a mole for the former G.M., there was a sigh of relief among the defensive corps, especially those on the younger side of things.

2. A second chance with new coaches and a new G.M.

In came Rick Wilson as an assistant coach to replace Murphy, a defensive whisperer of sorts, Wilson had been retired and came out of retirement to fix the Flyers defensive woes. The Flyers really wanted to get their top, young defensemen right. Provorov had been terrible for the first two months of the season. Travis Sanheim couldn’t take that next step and his inconsistencies were starting to show. And Gostisbehere needed to get back to being the force he was the season prior.

Since Wilson’s arrival and subsequently Gordon replacing Hakstol, Provorov and Sanheim have had that renaissance. Take yesterday’s game against Detroit out of the equation (Provorov had two bad turnovers that directly led to two Detroit goals and Sanheim found himself out of position on another of Detroit’s tallies) and those two former first round picks have been excellent for the better part of two months.

Since being paired together, they are logging huge minutes, playing against the opposition’s top players and doing a fine job of limiting chances.

However Gostisbehere was still in a funk. He wasn’t generating enough shots on goal. He wasn’t scoring. He wasn’t setting up enough teammates. And without that aspect of his game – where he can be incredibly productive – he was becoming less valuable.

That’s because his defensive game, now in his fourth season in the league, is still lacking as it was when he burst on the scene in 2015-16.

And it’s not just how he plays defensive hockey. The Flyers are actually OK with him just being an average player without the puck if he’s producing at his elite level with it.

However, it’s been his decision-making with the puck or around the puck that has left the Flyers scratching their heads.

Knowing Ghost is one of those players who doesn’t like to be barked at but rather talked to about perceived problems, Gordon has taken a different approach with him.

It’s actually something Gordon has learned about speaking to today’s generation in general. He talks about this at great length on the next edition of our Snow the Goalie podcast, which you can find at the bottom of this post.

In brief, Gordon has learned that today’s generation of player doesn’t just want to know what to do and how to do it, but also wants to know why he’s being asked to do something a certain way.

Gordon finds that without the why, getting the message across or having a strategy applied is a lot harder.

So, Gordon has taken to sitting down with players for lengthy conversations about their game and explaining to them what the expectation is, how it’s going to be reached and why it is what it is.

Gordon had the conversation recently with Gostisbehere, but before we get to that, for the sake of chronology, let’s go here next:

3. Rumblings

The first time I heard about Gostisbehere and not being on the same page as his coaches was on Black Friday. This was a few days before Hextall and Murphy were fired.

I was told by multiple team sources that there was internal concern about where Gostisbehere’s game was at this point in his career and that Gostisbehere (and others) were tuning out the coaches who were trying to get him to improve.

It was in that next week or so where I was reporting a lot of the inside stuff about the Flyers regime as it was being guided by Hextall and was being fed more information about the next GM and the players.

Once Chuck Fletcher took over as GM, I was told there was going to be an evaluation period and everyone was going to be under the microscope. Players. Coaches. Everyone.

During that evaluation period, I was told further that Gostisbehere wasn’t checking off all the boxes that Fletcher needed to see.

His play was too inconsistent. Some of the unexpected offensive struggles were still there and the play in his own end was getting more and more shoddy.

That’s when I was told by someone in the organization, “Don’t be surprised if he’s not part of Chuck’s long-term plan here.”

What do you do with that information? It isn’t specific enough to say he’s definitely being shopped for the trade deadline, but it’s also worth speculating that since the Flyers have depth at defense and goaltending that as they try to move forward to find players to improve their scoring, they could look to trade from those areas of surplus.

So, it became worth speculating on social media and on the Press Row Show and Snow the Goalie. Is Gostisbehere a candidate to be moved? Yeah. Maybe so. It might not be at the deadline. It might be in the offseason. But how does a reliable source of information – one of the same people who told me about Hextall and Hakstol’s firing – tell me that Ghost may not be part of the long-term plan here and then you see he’s signed for four more years at a very palatable $4.5 million cap hit and take that information and NOT assume he’s a trade candidate?

It’s certainly fair speculation.

Follow that up with a Fletcher press availability last week in which he found a way to praise the play of Provorov, Sanheim, Radko Gudas, Andrew MacDonald and Robert Hagg and conveniently forgot the one other defenseman on the team who is playing.

So, I put it out there publicly.

Since then, there has been a lot of talk about Ghost’s future. Many published stories writings or conversations have indicated that it would be silly to move on from him or that it wasn’t even worth discussing. Then Saturday happened.

4. Is there a disconnect?

Here’s a partial transcript of what Ghost had to say following the Flyers crazy 6-5 win against Detroit Saturday, a game in which he scored a goal, snapping an 18-game drought, and then was part of his team’s third period collapse in which they blew a four-goal lead only to survive and win in overtime on a goal by Travis Konecny.

Q: Snapping the goal drought, how much more confidence did you have with the puck on your stick?

“It was good. It was huge. Especially getting it early. I felt good out there… I think the best defense is a good offense. For us to be able to control the puck all the time, it really helps.”

Q: Has confidence been affecting you?

“Not really. I think it’s opportunity. I think being put in the right situations really helps for me.Obviously I can pick up my game a bunch, take care of pucks and be the player I’m supposed to be. I felt like I did that.”

Q: You were the No. 1 topic on Flyers twitter this week. There were think pieces that were pro/con. It’s only human to know when things are being said or things are being written. Do you use that as some kind of extrinsic motivation to continue to try to fuel the fire?

“I really don’t care what anyone says. I know what kind of player I am. I’m going to go out there and play my game. It’s not an easy game to play – the way I play. I’m an offensive guy and I need to be put in the right offensive situations. I got that tonight and I think it really showed.“

The emphasis in his answers is mine and is being used to identify what could be a philosophical difference between Gostisbehere and his coaches.

Ghost thinks he needs to be put in better offensive situations to flourish. This from a guy who plays defense. And also he’s hinting that prior to Saturday he wasn’t being put in those situations.

He played a season low 11:24 against Minnesota Tuesday. Some of that was because the Flyers were shorthanded five times and Ghost doesn’t kill penalties, but even with that, he should be more than 11:24. His season low before that was 13:47 in Montreal and that was a game he got hurt and missed time. Aside from that, he’s had five games this season with between 15 and 18 minutes and 48 games with 18 minutes or more.

So don’t be fooled by that penalty kill excuse – the coaches were sending a message to Gostisbehere.

That’s further evidenced by Gordon saying he had talked to Ghost Friday about what he needs to do better. He explained on our podcast about what he does with players in one-on-one sessions to talk about their game. He dove into specifics about his conversation with Ghost after Saturday’s game, and it sure doesn’t sound like Gordon and Gostisbehere are of the same mindset:

Here’s Gordon:

Q. What have you been saying or doing with Shayne to get him playing more like he did today or to get his confidence back up?

“I think he’s been good once the puck has left our zone. He got into the attack and made plays. But what we talked about [Friday] is getting better on the breakout – making better plays, better reads and not passing off his troubles to someone else when he can possibly do more. It’s one of those things where it just doesn’t happen for you offensively from the offensive blue line in. It doesn’t just start from the neutral zone on an attack. It starts from our goal line and from our net. He’s got to do more to help himself. He actually did that today. There were a few breakouts where I was pleased to see how he went about it and where it took us.”

Q. He said he considers himself an offensive player and needs to be put in advantageous offensive situations. Is that something going forward that schematically or systematically you are going to look to do to maximize his talent in that end, or was it just the way the game broke today?

“To get into more offensive situations you have to play less defense. A lot of that defense he was having to play – not all of it, but some of it – had to do with his decisions and how he was going back for pucks and breaking out. So, when you make that less complicated and you do more to help yourself, you’re going to give yourself more opportunities to go on the attack. I thought he did that today.”

Q. What did he do to make it better for himself and not pass of his problems to others?

“If you go back to the puck and you don’t want it or you don’t want to be the guy making the play,  you’re not going to do the work to hustle back and get it. You’re not going to do the work to shield the puck. Do things that are deceptive – make the forechecker think you are doing one thing when you do another – if you are not going to do that work that doesn’t show up on the stat sheet, you’re going to make it easy for the forecheckers. So, you have a team that’s coming with two guys on the forecheck and you’ve got time to go back and get the puck and you just throw the puck to your partner that has somebody breathing right sown his back and he can’t make a play but you had an opportunity to make a play – it’s those situations that he can be better at.”

Again, the emphasis is mine. And that last answer is the winner – which is why the whole thing is emphasized. Gordon is basically saying Ghost doesn’t try hard enough to make plays in his own end and often puts his defensive partner in a bad position by passing him the puck when he shouldn’t.

Really, all three of Gordon’s answers are pretty damning to Gostisbehere. You wanted to know why the Flyers are frustrated with him? Here’s a good chunk of it publicly, from the coach and not being whispered through me.

So, that’s why I’m going to be watching Ghost specifically in today’s game more than anything else. I want to see if this public message hits home. I want to see if Ghost gets it, or if he still falls into the same old habits that have frustrated the organization.

And if he does the latter, then that’s a real world indication of why the Flyers would consider moving on from him, as I was told a while ago, and no complex statistical analysis can say otherwise.

For more Flyers coverage, be sure to check out The Press Row Show pregame and intermission shows before and during home games via Facebook Live on the Crossing Broad Facebook page and Periscope via Anthony and Russ’ Twitter accounts. Also, listen to our Flyers podcast Snow the Goalie ([iTunes] [Google Play] [Stitcher] [RSS]), leave a 5 star review, and follow us on Twitter:@AntSanPhilly @JoyOnBroad

The post Why the Flyers Might be Ready to Give up the Ghost appeared first on Crossing Broad.

Why the Flyers Might be Ready to Give up the Ghost published first on https://footballhighlightseurope.tumblr.com/

[flauntpage]

Why the Flyers Might be Ready to Give up the Ghost

There are a few story lines many fans will be watching for when the Flyers and Red Wings reconvene tonight at 6 p.m. in Detroit:

Can this white hot Flyers team (12-2-1 in their last 15 games) continue an unexpected, unlikely, and unprecedented run toward a playoff berth?

Will Carter Hart bounce back from a mediocre performance against the first team to play against him for a third time and playing in back-to-back games for the first time, no less? (I am going out on a limb and assuming coach Scott Gordon won’t be putting an important game in the playoff race on the shoulders of Mike McKenna, who will likely be waived Monday. McKenna will still back up Hart as newly acquired goalie Cam Talbot isn’t available today).

Will there be retribution on Detroit’s Anthony Mantha for his cross-check to Claude Giroux’s head while Giroux was on his knees against the boards in the third period of yesterday’s game? (There was no penalty called, although there should have been).

These are all interesting plots to follow as tonight’s game progresses. But it’s not the one I’m going to be watching the most closely.

Yes, they all have varying degrees of interest for me, and yes, they are all good water cooler topics for Monday – for those of you who don’t get the President’s Day holiday.

But there is one more that I want to follow even closer. And actually, it’s a plot line that, until post game yesterday, has simply gone unnoticed by many observers of the team.

It involves Shayne Gostisbehere.

It’s a story that has been brewing for a while now. One that goes back to before Dave Hakstol was fired. To before Ron Hextall was fired. To before there was any talk of considering moving on from the uber-talented but sometimes disconnected defenseman.

Let’s put together a quick timeline after the jump:

1. Gostisbehere’s relationship with the former coaches

This story has to start here. Ghost had two really good offensive seasons in his first three with the Flyers. His rookie campaign was one that energized an entire city. He burst onto the scene with a style of play from a defenseman that has never before been seen in Philadelphia. He was always on the go. Great speed, a wicked slap shot, a willingness to gamble to generate offense, a flair for the dramatic – it was a combination of skills and chutzpah that no other Flyers defenseman has ever had.

No, we weren’t elevating him to the level of a Mark Howe or even an Eric Desjardins, but at the same time, what Ghost was doing was bewitching. Sure, there were some rookie mistakes. Yes, he needed to improve the defensive side of his game, but those flaws would eventually be ironed out because there was no rivaling the impact he had offensively.

Not to mention, he had a bit of a fiery attitude. It was infectious. His energy and drive wore off on not just his teammates, but the fans too. He was the epitome of instant success story before Gritty broke the instant success story mold.

Then came his sophomore campaign and things weren’t quite as rosy. Sophomore slumps suck, but most athletes go through them. Gostisbehere’s was compounded with injuries, including a core muscle injury that required offseason surgery after his inconsistent sequel to his hit movie the season before.

And although a lot of his setbacks were injury-related, Gostitsbehere also didn’t take kindly to being a healthy scratch at one point as Hakstol tried to send a message to his young defenseman.

The message initially worked, as Gostisbehere came off that scratch and played well for a stint, but that’s when the injuries started to nag. Gostisbehere, being the gamer that he is, didn’t want to let the injuries get in the way of him playing, so he gutted his way through them, all the while being coached up by Hakstol and former assistant coach Gord Murphy, who was in charge of the defense before he too was fired last November.

Ghost limped through the rest of the season and after surgery insisted he was going to be back better than ever.

And he was. He came into training camp last season feeling fit and ready to have a resurgence. He was the first interview I conducted last year after starting writing for Crossing Broad and he told me during the 2017-18 training camp that the season was going to be different.

“I’m just going to go out there and play my game,” he told me. “I’m a guy who needs to create and be aggressive and try and be productive for my team. I won’t worry about all the other things that make you think to much out there. I’m just going to do what I do best and take it from there.”

And he did what he did best – finishing with 65 points, fourth-most among defensemen in the NHL, and second-best in the Eastern Conference.

And while it was a wildly successful season for Gostisbehere on the score sheet, there was a little more brewing beneath the surface.

The coaches were frustrated with Gostisbehere’s unwillingness to conform to what they wanted for more than just snippets of time. In turn, Gostisbehere was growing more and more frustrated with the coaches for really harping on him. After all, here was a guy who was producing at an elite level for the team and playing better than every other defenseman on the team not named Ivan Provorov and yet he was taking more internal criticism than most.

It’s understandable that Ghost would feel that way.

But, communication wasn’t always the greatest strong suit for the former coaching staff. And by communication, I mean the way in which a message was delivered. Sure, the coaches could bark out orders, but often, context was lacking.

Murphy was especially difficult to deal with for the Flyers defensemen. And once the 2018-19 season started off so poorly and Murphy was fired for along with Hextall for being a mole for the former G.M., there was a sigh of relief among the defensive corps, especially those on the younger side of things.

2. A second chance with new coaches and a new G.M.

In came Rick Wilson as an assistant coach to replace Murphy, a defensive whisperer of sorts, Wilson had been retired and came out of retirement to fix the Flyers defensive woes. The Flyers really wanted to get their top, young defensemen right. Provorov had been terrible for the first two months of the season. Travis Sanheim couldn’t take that next step and his inconsistencies were starting to show. And Gostisbehere needed to get back to being the force he was the season prior.

Since Wilson’s arrival and subsequently Gordon replacing Hakstol, Provorov and Sanheim have had that renaissance. Take yesterday’s game against Detroit out of the equation (Provorov had two bad turnovers that directly led to two Detroit goals and Sanheim found himself out of position on another of Detroit’s tallies) and those two former first round picks have been excellent for the better part of two months.

Since being paired together, they are logging huge minutes, playing against the opposition’s top players and doing a fine job of limiting chances.

However Gostisbehere was still in a funk. He wasn’t generating enough shots on goal. He wasn’t scoring. He wasn’t setting up enough teammates. And without that aspect of his game – where he can be incredibly productive – he was becoming less valuable.

That’s because his defensive game, now in his fourth season in the league, is still lacking as it was when he burst on the scene in 2015-16.

And it’s not just how he plays defensive hockey. The Flyers are actually OK with him just being an average player without the puck if he’s producing at his elite level with it.

However, it’s been his decision-making with the puck or around the puck that has left the Flyers scratching their heads.

Knowing Ghost is one of those players who doesn’t like to be barked at but rather talked to about perceived problems, Gordon has taken a different approach with him.

It’s actually something Gordon has learned about speaking to today’s generation in general. He talks about this at great length on the next edition of our Snow the Goalie podcast, which you can find at the bottom of this post.

In brief, Gordon has learned that today’s generation of player doesn’t just want to know what to do and how to do it, but also wants to know why he’s being asked to do something a certain way.

Gordon finds that without the why, getting the message across or having a strategy applied is a lot harder.

So, Gordon has taken to sitting down with players for lengthy conversations about their game and explaining to them what the expectation is, how it’s going to be reached and why it is what it is.

Gordon had the conversation recently with Gostisbehere, but before we get to that, for the sake of chronology, let’s go here next:

3. Rumblings

The first time I heard about Gostisbehere and not being on the same page as his coaches was on Black Friday. This was a few days before Hextall and Murphy were fired.

I was told by multiple team sources that there was internal concern about where Gostisbehere’s game was at this point in his career and that Gostisbehere (and others) were tuning out the coaches who were trying to get him to improve.

It was in that next week or so where I was reporting a lot of the inside stuff about the Flyers regime as it was being guided by Hextall and was being fed more information about the next GM and the players.

Once Chuck Fletcher took over as GM, I was told there was going to be an evaluation period and everyone was going to be under the microscope. Players. Coaches. Everyone.

During that evaluation period, I was told further that Gostisbehere wasn’t checking off all the boxes that Fletcher needed to see.

His play was too inconsistent. Some of the unexpected offensive struggles were still there and the play in his own end was getting more and more shoddy.

That’s when I was told by someone in the organization, “Don’t be surprised if he’s not part of Chuck’s long-term plan here.”

What do you do with that information? It isn’t specific enough to say he’s definitely being shopped for the trade deadline, but it’s also worth speculating that since the Flyers have depth at defense and goaltending that as they try to move forward to find players to improve their scoring, they could look to trade from those areas of surplus.

So, it became worth speculating on social media and on the Press Row Show and Snow the Goalie. Is Gostisbehere a candidate to be moved? Yeah. Maybe so. It might not be at the deadline. It might be in the offseason. But how does a reliable source of information – one of the same people who told me about Hextall and Hakstol’s firing – tell me that Ghost may not be part of the long-term plan here and then you see he’s signed for four more years at a very palatable $4.5 million cap hit and take that information and NOT assume he’s a trade candidate?

It’s certainly fair speculation.

Follow that up with a Fletcher press availability last week in which he found a way to praise the play of Provorov, Sanheim, Radko Gudas, Andrew MacDonald and Robert Hagg and conveniently forgot the one other defenseman on the team who is playing.

So, I put it out there publicly.

Since then, there has been a lot of talk about Ghost’s future. Many published stories writings or conversations have indicated that it would be silly to move on from him or that it wasn’t even worth discussing. Then Saturday happened.

4. Is there a disconnect?

Here’s a partial transcript of what Ghost had to say following the Flyers crazy 6-5 win against Detroit Saturday, a game in which he scored a goal, snapping an 18-game drought, and then was part of his team’s third period collapse in which they blew a four-goal lead only to survive and win in overtime on a goal by Travis Konecny.

Q: Snapping the goal drought, how much more confidence did you have with the puck on your stick?

“It was good. It was huge. Especially getting it early. I felt good out there… I think the best defense is a good offense. For us to be able to control the puck all the time, it really helps.”

Q: Has confidence been affecting you?

“Not really. I think it’s opportunity. I think being put in the right situations really helps for me.Obviously I can pick up my game a bunch, take care of pucks and be the player I’m supposed to be. I felt like I did that.”

Q: You were the No. 1 topic on Flyers twitter this week. There were think pieces that were pro/con. It’s only human to know when things are being said or things are being written. Do you use that as some kind of extrinsic motivation to continue to try to fuel the fire?

“I really don’t care what anyone says. I know what kind of player I am. I’m going to go out there and play my game. It’s not an easy game to play – the way I play. I’m an offensive guy and I need to be put in the right offensive situations. I got that tonight and I think it really showed.“

The emphasis in his answers is mine and is being used to identify what could be a philosophical difference between Gostisbehere and his coaches.

Ghost thinks he needs to be put in better offensive situations to flourish. This from a guy who plays defense. And also he’s hinting that prior to Saturday he wasn’t being put in those situations.

He played a season low 11:24 against Minnesota Tuesday. Some of that was because the Flyers were shorthanded five times and Ghost doesn’t kill penalties, but even with that, he should be more than 11:24. His season low before that was 13:47 in Montreal and that was a game he got hurt and missed time. Aside from that, he’s had five games this season with between 15 and 18 minutes and 48 games with 18 minutes or more.

So don’t be fooled by that penalty kill excuse – the coaches were sending a message to Gostisbehere.

That’s further evidenced by Gordon saying he had talked to Ghost Friday about what he needs to do better. He explained on our podcast about what he does with players in one-on-one sessions to talk about their game. He dove into specifics about his conversation with Ghost after Saturday’s game, and it sure doesn’t sound like Gordon and Gostisbehere are of the same mindset:

Here’s Gordon:

Q. What have you been saying or doing with Shayne to get him playing more like he did today or to get his confidence back up?

“I think he’s been good once the puck has left our zone. He got into the attack and made plays. But what we talked about [Friday] is getting better on the breakout – making better plays, better reads and not passing off his troubles to someone else when he can possibly do more. It’s one of those things where it just doesn’t happen for you offensively from the offensive blue line in. It doesn’t just start from the neutral zone on an attack. It starts from our goal line and from our net. He’s got to do more to help himself. He actually did that today. There were a few breakouts where I was pleased to see how he went about it and where it took us.”

Q. He said he considers himself an offensive player and needs to be put in advantageous offensive situations. Is that something going forward that schematically or systematically you are going to look to do to maximize his talent in that end, or was it just the way the game broke today?

“To get into more offensive situations you have to play less defense. A lot of that defense he was having to play – not all of it, but some of it – had to do with his decisions and how he was going back for pucks and breaking out. So, when you make that less complicated and you do more to help yourself, you’re going to give yourself more opportunities to go on the attack. I thought he did that today.”

Q. What did he do to make it better for himself and not pass of his problems to others?

“If you go back to the puck and you don’t want it or you don’t want to be the guy making the play,  you’re not going to do the work to hustle back and get it. You’re not going to do the work to shield the puck. Do things that are deceptive – make the forechecker think you are doing one thing when you do another – if you are not going to do that work that doesn’t show up on the stat sheet, you’re going to make it easy for the forecheckers. So, you have a team that’s coming with two guys on the forecheck and you’ve got time to go back and get the puck and you just throw the puck to your partner that has somebody breathing right sown his back and he can’t make a play but you had an opportunity to make a play – it’s those situations that he can be better at.”

Again, the emphasis is mine. And that last answer is the winner – which is why the whole thing is emphasized. Gordon is basically saying Ghost doesn’t try hard enough to make plays in his own end and often puts his defensive partner in a bad position by passing him the puck when he shouldn’t.

Really, all three of Gordon’s answers are pretty damning to Gostisbehere. You wanted to know why the Flyers are frustrated with him? Here’s a good chunk of it publicly, from the coach and not being whispered through me.

So, that’s why I’m going to be watching Ghost specifically in today’s game more than anything else. I want to see if this public message hits home. I want to see if Ghost gets it, or if he still falls into the same old habits that have frustrated the organization.

And if he does the latter, then that’s a real world indication of why the Flyers would consider moving on from him, as I was told a while ago, and no complex statistical analysis can say otherwise.

For more Flyers coverage, be sure to check out The Press Row Show pregame and intermission shows before and during home games via Facebook Live on the Crossing Broad Facebook page and Periscope via Anthony and Russ’ Twitter accounts. Also, listen to our Flyers podcast Snow the Goalie ([iTunes] [Google Play] [Stitcher] [RSS]), leave a 5 star review, and follow us on Twitter:@AntSanPhilly @JoyOnBroad

The post Why the Flyers Might be Ready to Give up the Ghost appeared first on Crossing Broad.

Why the Flyers Might be Ready to Give up the Ghost published first on https://footballhighlightseurope.tumblr.com/

[flauntpage]

Why the Flyers Might be Ready to Give up the Ghost

There are a few story lines many fans will be watching for when the Flyers and Red Wings reconvene tonight at 6 p.m. in Detroit:

Can this white hot Flyers team (12-2-1 in their last 15 games) continue an unexpected, unlikely, and unprecedented run toward a playoff berth?

Will Carter Hart bounce back from a mediocre performance against the first team to play against him for a third time and playing in back-to-back games for the first time, no less? (I am going out on a limb and assuming coach Scott Gordon won’t be putting an important game in the playoff race on the shoulders of Mike McKenna, who will likely be waived Monday. McKenna will still back up Hart as newly acquired goalie Cam Talbot isn’t available today).

Will there be retribution on Detroit’s Anthony Mantha for his cross-check to Claude Giroux’s head while Giroux was on his knees against the boards in the third period of yesterday’s game? (There was no penalty called, although there should have been).

These are all interesting plots to follow as tonight’s game progresses. But it’s not the one I’m going to be watching the most closely.

Yes, they all have varying degrees of interest for me, and yes, they are all good water cooler topics for Monday – for those of you who don’t get the President’s Day holiday.

But there is one more that I want to follow even closer. And actually, it’s a plot line that, until post game yesterday, has simply gone unnoticed by many observers of the team.

It involves Shayne Gostisbehere.

It’s a story that has been brewing for a while now. One that goes back to before Dave Hakstol was fired. To before Ron Hextall was fired. To before there was any talk of considering moving on from the uber-talented but sometimes disconnected defenseman.

Let’s put together a quick timeline after the jump:

1. Gostisbehere’s relationship with the former coaches

This story has to start here. Ghost had two really good offensive seasons in his first three with the Flyers. His rookie campaign was one that energized an entire city. He burst onto the scene with a style of play from a defenseman that has never before been seen in Philadelphia. He was always on the go. Great speed, a wicked slap shot, a willingness to gamble to generate offense, a flair for the dramatic – it was a combination of skills and chutzpah that no other Flyers defenseman has ever had.

No, we weren’t elevating him to the level of a Mark Howe or even an Eric Desjardins, but at the same time, what Ghost was doing was bewitching. Sure, there were some rookie mistakes. Yes, he needed to improve the defensive side of his game, but those flaws would eventually be ironed out because there was no rivaling the impact he had offensively.

Not to mention, he had a bit of a fiery attitude. It was infectious. His energy and drive wore off on not just his teammates, but the fans too. He was the epitome of instant success story before Gritty broke the instant success story mold.

Then came his sophomore campaign and things weren’t quite as rosy. Sophomore slumps suck, but most athletes go through them. Gostisbehere’s was compounded with injuries, including a core muscle injury that required offseason surgery after his inconsistent sequel to his hit movie the season before.

And although a lot of his setbacks were injury-related, Gostitsbehere also didn’t take kindly to being a healthy scratch at one point as Hakstol tried to send a message to his young defenseman.

The message initially worked, as Gostisbehere came off that scratch and played well for a stint, but that’s when the injuries started to nag. Gostisbehere, being the gamer that he is, didn’t want to let the injuries get in the way of him playing, so he gutted his way through them, all the while being coached up by Hakstol and former assistant coach Gord Murphy, who was in charge of the defense before he too was fired last November.

Ghost limped through the rest of the season and after surgery insisted he was going to be back better than ever.

And he was. He came into training camp last season feeling fit and ready to have a resurgence. He was the first interview I conducted last year after starting writing for Crossing Broad and he told me during the 2017-18 training camp that the season was going to be different.

“I’m just going to go out there and play my game,” he told me. “I’m a guy who needs to create and be aggressive and try and be productive for my team. I won’t worry about all the other things that make you think to much out there. I’m just going to do what I do best and take it from there.”

And he did what he did best – finishing with 65 points, fourth-most among defensemen in the NHL, and second-best in the Eastern Conference.

And while it was a wildly successful season for Gostisbehere on the score sheet, there was a little more brewing beneath the surface.

The coaches were frustrated with Gostisbehere’s unwillingness to conform to what they wanted for more than just snippets of time. In turn, Gostisbehere was growing more and more frustrated with the coaches for really harping on him. After all, here was a guy who was producing at an elite level for the team and playing better than every other defenseman on the team not named Ivan Provorov and yet he was taking more internal criticism than most.

It’s understandable that Ghost would feel that way.

But, communication wasn’t always the greatest strong suit for the former coaching staff. And by communication, I mean the way in which a message was delivered. Sure, the coaches could bark out orders, but often, context was lacking.

Murphy was especially difficult to deal with for the Flyers defensemen. And once the 2018-19 season started off so poorly and Murphy was fired for along with Hextall for being a mole for the former G.M., there was a sigh of relief among the defensive corps, especially those on the younger side of things.

2. A second chance with new coaches and a new G.M.

In came Rick Wilson as an assistant coach to replace Murphy, a defensive whisperer of sorts, Wilson had been retired and came out of retirement to fix the Flyers defensive woes. The Flyers really wanted to get their top, young defensemen right. Provorov had been terrible for the first two months of the season. Travis Sanheim couldn’t take that next step and his inconsistencies were starting to show. And Gostisbehere needed to get back to being the force he was the season prior.

Since Wilson’s arrival and subsequently Gordon replacing Hakstol, Provorov and Sanheim have had that renaissance. Take yesterday’s game against Detroit out of the equation (Provorov had two bad turnovers that directly led to two Detroit goals and Sanheim found himself out of position on another of Detroit’s tallies) and those two former first round picks have been excellent for the better part of two months.

Since being paired together, they are logging huge minutes, playing against the opposition’s top players and doing a fine job of limiting chances.

However Gostisbehere was still in a funk. He wasn’t generating enough shots on goal. He wasn’t scoring. He wasn’t setting up enough teammates. And without that aspect of his game – where he can be incredibly productive – he was becoming less valuable.

That’s because his defensive game, now in his fourth season in the league, is still lacking as it was when he burst on the scene in 2015-16.

And it’s not just how he plays defensive hockey. The Flyers are actually OK with him just being an average player without the puck if he’s producing at his elite level with it.

However, it’s been his decision-making with the puck or around the puck that has left the Flyers scratching their heads.

Knowing Ghost is one of those players who doesn’t like to be barked at but rather talked to about perceived problems, Gordon has taken a different approach with him.

It’s actually something Gordon has learned about speaking to today’s generation in general. He talks about this at great length on the next edition of our Snow the Goalie podcast, which you can find at the bottom of this post.

In brief, Gordon has learned that today’s generation of player doesn’t just want to know what to do and how to do it, but also wants to know why he’s being asked to do something a certain way.

Gordon finds that without the why, getting the message across or having a strategy applied is a lot harder.

So, Gordon has taken to sitting down with players for lengthy conversations about their game and explaining to them what the expectation is, how it’s going to be reached and why it is what it is.

Gordon had the conversation recently with Gostisbehere, but before we get to that, for the sake of chronology, let’s go here next:

3. Rumblings

The first time I heard about Gostisbehere and not being on the same page as his coaches was on Black Friday. This was a few days before Hextall and Murphy were fired.

I was told by multiple team sources that there was internal concern about where Gostisbehere’s game was at this point in his career and that Gostisbehere (and others) were tuning out the coaches who were trying to get him to improve.

It was in that next week or so where I was reporting a lot of the inside stuff about the Flyers regime as it was being guided by Hextall and was being fed more information about the next GM and the players.

Once Chuck Fletcher took over as GM, I was told there was going to be an evaluation period and everyone was going to be under the microscope. Players. Coaches. Everyone.

During that evaluation period, I was told further that Gostisbehere wasn’t checking off all the boxes that Fletcher needed to see.

His play was too inconsistent. Some of the unexpected offensive struggles were still there and the play in his own end was getting more and more shoddy.

That’s when I was told by someone in the organization, “Don’t be surprised if he’s not part of Chuck’s long-term plan here.”

What do you do with that information? It isn’t specific enough to say he’s definitely being shopped for the trade deadline, but it’s also worth speculating that since the Flyers have depth at defense and goaltending that as they try to move forward to find players to improve their scoring, they could look to trade from those areas of surplus.

So, it became worth speculating on social media and on the Press Row Show and Snow the Goalie. Is Gostisbehere a candidate to be moved? Yeah. Maybe so. It might not be at the deadline. It might be in the offseason. But how does a reliable source of information – one of the same people who told me about Hextall and Hakstol’s firing – tell me that Ghost may not be part of the long-term plan here and then you see he’s signed for four more years at a very palatable $4.5 million cap hit and take that information and NOT assume he’s a trade candidate?

It’s certainly fair speculation.

Follow that up with a Fletcher press availability last week in which he found a way to praise the play of Provorov, Sanheim, Radko Gudas, Andrew MacDonald and Robert Hagg and conveniently forgot the one other defenseman on the team who is playing.

So, I put it out there publicly.

Since then, there has been a lot of talk about Ghost’s future. Many published stories writings or conversations have indicated that it would be silly to move on from him or that it wasn’t even worth discussing. Then Saturday happened.

4. Is there a disconnect?

Here’s a partial transcript of what Ghost had to say following the Flyers crazy 6-5 win against Detroit Saturday, a game in which he scored a goal, snapping an 18-game drought, and then was part of his team’s third period collapse in which they blew a four-goal lead only to survive and win in overtime on a goal by Travis Konecny.

Q: Snapping the goal drought, how much more confidence did you have with the puck on your stick?

“It was good. It was huge. Especially getting it early. I felt good out there… I think the best defense is a good offense. For us to be able to control the puck all the time, it really helps.”

Q: Has confidence been affecting you?

“Not really. I think it’s opportunity. I think being put in the right situations really helps for me.Obviously I can pick up my game a bunch, take care of pucks and be the player I’m supposed to be. I felt like I did that.”

Q: You were the No. 1 topic on Flyers twitter this week. There were think pieces that were pro/con. It’s only human to know when things are being said or things are being written. Do you use that as some kind of extrinsic motivation to continue to try to fuel the fire?

“I really don’t care what anyone says. I know what kind of player I am. I’m going to go out there and play my game. It’s not an easy game to play – the way I play. I’m an offensive guy and I need to be put in the right offensive situations. I got that tonight and I think it really showed.“

The emphasis in his answers is mine and is being used to identify what could be a philosophical difference between Gostisbehere and his coaches.

Ghost thinks he needs to be put in better offensive situations to flourish. This from a guy who plays defense. And also he’s hinting that prior to Saturday he wasn’t being put in those situations.

He played a season low 11:24 against Minnesota Tuesday. Some of that was because the Flyers were shorthanded five times and Ghost doesn’t kill penalties, but even with that, he should be more than 11:24. His season low before that was 13:47 in Montreal and that was a game he got hurt and missed time. Aside from that, he’s had five games this season with between 15 and 18 minutes and 48 games with 18 minutes or more.

So don’t be fooled by that penalty kill excuse – the coaches were sending a message to Gostisbehere.

That’s further evidenced by Gordon saying he had talked to Ghost Friday about what he needs to do better. He explained on our podcast about what he does with players in one-on-one sessions to talk about their game. He dove into specifics about his conversation with Ghost after Saturday’s game, and it sure doesn’t sound like Gordon and Gostisbehere are of the same mindset:

Here’s Gordon:

Q. What have you been saying or doing with Shayne to get him playing more like he did today or to get his confidence back up?

“I think he’s been good once the puck has left our zone. He got into the attack and made plays. But what we talked about [Friday] is getting better on the breakout – making better plays, better reads and not passing off his troubles to someone else when he can possibly do more. It’s one of those things where it just doesn’t happen for you offensively from the offensive blue line in. It doesn’t just start from the neutral zone on an attack. It starts from our goal line and from our net. He’s got to do more to help himself. He actually did that today. There were a few breakouts where I was pleased to see how he went about it and where it took us.”

Q. He said he considers himself an offensive player and needs to be put in advantageous offensive situations. Is that something going forward that schematically or systematically you are going to look to do to maximize his talent in that end, or was it just the way the game broke today?

“To get into more offensive situations you have to play less defense. A lot of that defense he was having to play – not all of it, but some of it – had to do with his decisions and how he was going back for pucks and breaking out. So, when you make that less complicated and you do more to help yourself, you’re going to give yourself more opportunities to go on the attack. I thought he did that today.”

Q. What did he do to make it better for himself and not pass of his problems to others?

“If you go back to the puck and you don’t want it or you don’t want to be the guy making the play,  you’re not going to do the work to hustle back and get it. You’re not going to do the work to shield the puck. Do things that are deceptive – make the forechecker think you are doing one thing when you do another – if you are not going to do that work that doesn’t show up on the stat sheet, you’re going to make it easy for the forecheckers. So, you have a team that’s coming with two guys on the forecheck and you’ve got time to go back and get the puck and you just throw the puck to your partner that has somebody breathing right sown his back and he can’t make a play but you had an opportunity to make a play – it’s those situations that he can be better at.”

Again, the emphasis is mine. And that last answer is the winner – which is why the whole thing is emphasized. Gordon is basically saying Ghost doesn’t try hard enough to make plays in his own end and often puts his defensive partner in a bad position by passing him the puck when he shouldn’t.

Really, all three of Gordon’s answers are pretty damning to Gostisbehere. You wanted to know why the Flyers are frustrated with him? Here’s a good chunk of it publicly, from the coach and not being whispered through me.

So, that’s why I’m going to be watching Ghost specifically in today’s game more than anything else. I want to see if this public message hits home. I want to see if Ghost gets it, or if he still falls into the same old habits that have frustrated the organization.

And if he does the latter, then that’s a real world indication of why the Flyers would consider moving on from him, as I was told a while ago, and no complex statistical analysis can say otherwise.

For more Flyers coverage, be sure to check out The Press Row Show pregame and intermission shows before and during home games via Facebook Live on the Crossing Broad Facebook page and Periscope via Anthony and Russ’ Twitter accounts. Also, listen to our Flyers podcast Snow the Goalie ([iTunes] [Google Play] [Stitcher] [RSS]), leave a 5 star review, and follow us on Twitter:@AntSanPhilly @JoyOnBroad

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