In the offseason, the Philadelphia Flyers did a complete overhaul of their team. It included trading two of their leading scorers, signing a number one goaltender, and signing James van Riemsdyk, better known as JVR, to a new contract.
The organization signed van Riemsdyk to a six-year deal worth around $25.5 million. They did the deal over six years so the cap hit would only be about $4.25 million per year.
In the 2010 playoffs, van Riemsdyk made a name for himself while playing with another Flyers star in Claude Giroux. JVR had seven goals with no assists for the Orange and Black before they were swept right out of the playoffs by the Boston Bruins.
General Manager Paul Holmgren was expecting van Riemsdyk to make up for some of the scoring lost in the Mike Richards and Jeff Carter deals, but so far that hasn’t happened this year. He only has nine goals in 31 games played, but he has missed some games due to injury.
He also has 10 assists for a total of 19 points and is also a plus one. van Riemsdyk started the season playing with Giroux and Jaromir Jagr, but that didn’t work out so he was demoted to the third line with the emergence of rookie, Matt Read.
Van Riemsdyk just doesn’t look like the same player as he was in the playoffs last season, but that could be because he’s trying to play through an injury. He is not playing hard along the boards since he just takes the body of the opponent, and then swipes at the puck a couple of times before giving up on the play.
He also isn’t standing in front of the opposing goaltender so he can get the easy goals or the rebound goals. Even if he just set the screen in front of the net so the goalie couldn’t see where the puck is going, then his teammates could score more goals.
Van Riemsdyk’s ice time has steadily decreased in the past four games with Coach Peter Laviolette demoting him to the fourth line. He only saw 9:36 of ice time in the Flyers last game against division rival, the Pittsburgh Penguins.
The Orange and Black need van Riemsdyk to contribute like he did last year if they want to go anywhere in the playoffs or even to just make the postseason. If he is injured, they need him to get healthy and back to playing the way he did in the 2010 playoffs.
Hopefully, van Riemsdyk picks up his game before he gets benched again like he did last year or traded.
Way too soon to give up on JVR, Probably the usual High Expectations everyone has placed on his after having a very good Playoff run last Season.. But this is what happens to many young players who still need to learn what it takes to be consistent on a game in and game out basis.. He is lacking in confidence and his play reflects that… Maybe send him down to Minors for a coupld weeks/ a month to get his mojo back, but this what happens when teams and fans go ga-ga over a player who has a hot-stretch for a month or 2 but still isn’t a proven player yet..The Flyers did not have to do that big deal on JVR after 1 Season of play amnd probably only added to the hype,expectations and the pressure that goes along with it ,so that’s there own fault if you ask me.. .
I think it would not be unreasonable to trade JVR. If you look at next year’s contracts, they don’t have enough room to extend Carle and Voracek while keeping a full roster. Something’s going to give, and with Timonen nearing the end of his career and Pronger possibly already at the end of his, it would be a shame if what gave was more of our defensive strength.
They do have Bourdon and Gus, possibly Marshall, possibly Bartulis as prospects or cheap depth at defense. However, I’d hate to have to count on any of them as a 4th defenseman for a full year at this point in their careers. The year after, they can replace Timonen’s contract with another big defenseman contract, but that will be hard to do for next year.
Amazing Story. Roy Halladay for the save? Only in the Amazon. (And not the online one.)
Halladay, runner-up for the Cy Young Award in the National League, showed he could tame the deadliest of rivers just as effectively as he tames opposing lineups for the Philadelphia Phillies. On a recent fishing expedition to Brazil with buddy Chris Carpenter of the St. Louis Cardinals (and former major league closer B.J. Ryan), the Good Doctor helped to rescue a local fisherman who had been wounded by — gulp — an anaconda.
Top that, Clayton Kershaw.
Bassmaster Skeet Reese broke the news his blog that he and Halladay saw a man sitting “bare naked” on a tree by the side of the river. But he wasn’t there scouting major leaguers who just happened to float by:
What we were able to figure out is that he was fishing in the river for tropical fish to sell for aquariums when he got attacked by an anaconda.
The snake apparently bit him on the [butt] but he was able to free himself before the snake wrapped him up. Instead the snake wrapped around his motor on the back of his little 14 foot dugout canoe and tore it off the back of his boat. Doc and I helped him gather his gear and flip the boat back over and then towed him home. You could definitely see the bite mark on his [booty], but he was able to fight it off; amazing.
Man, that’s better service than AAA. Now, anacondas aren’t venomous, but that’s only because it would be so unfair. They’re among the longest snakes in the world, and they … well — you’ve seen the movie — they squeeze you ’til you’re able to fit in their belly.
Already like Indiana Jones in so many ways, Halladay surpasses him as an adventurer because he’s apparently unafraid of snakes.
You also might be wondering: Where in the world was Carpenter while all of this was going on? Was he like Marlin Perkins chilling in tent while Jim Fowler wrestled tigers out in the bush on “Wild Kingdom”? Not quite. Now, don’t get too excited by this, Cards fans, but Carpenter injured his toe on the trip, banging it on the side of the boat. He also caught some nice fish — apparently everyone did — and he shot a caiman (a cousin to the American Alligator). Shot it. Take note, Nyjer Morgan!
Say, did they get any video of this trip? Not because the tale is unbelievable, but so we can release it as an “Anaconda” sequel. As Zoo with Roy noted, the only thing that would have made Halladay’s and Carpenter’s trip better would be Cube saying:
“There’s snakes out there this big?”
Speaking of hip-hoppers, Game the rapper is going to write about Halladay on his next album, too. The legend of Roy Halladay just grows as his career ERA reduces.
And another thing: What’s with all of these major leaguers taking potentially dangerous vacations in the offseason? Halladay and Carpenter on the Amazon … R.A. Dickey scaling Mount Kilimanjaro with Kevin Slowey … Yankees’ GM Brian Cashman rappelling again. Is the excitement of a pennant race not enough?