Philadelphia Flyers Player of the Week: Max Talbot

It was difficult to pick a player of the week when I considered how poorly the Philadelphia Flyers have been doing recently. Right now the team is in crisis mode and they’ll really need to improve a lot in order to jump to the eighth seed and get a playoff spot.

So who could possibly be their player of the week?

Well here’s a hint: it’s not Jakub Voracek. This week I’m giving the nod to Maxime Talbot.

Talbot has  not been that active this season. He did not even score his first goal until the Flyers took on the Washington Capitals in the first game of Simon Gagne’s return. However, I feel that Talbot was a huge role in the Flyers logging two wins last week.

Talbot became more noticeable in the Flyers 3-2 victory over the Buffalo Sabres on Mar. 10. Of the three Flyers who scored, Talbot was one of them. That’s when I started to pay more attention to him on the ice.

He was not as present in the Flyers game against the New Jersey Devils last Wednesday, but then again neither was the rest of the team. Talbot did come back in a big way for his team on Friday in the re-match with the Devils by scoring the only Flyers goal in the game. The Flyers went on to win in a shootout in an overtime, and they had Talbot to thank for helping guide them there.

Despite the Flyers losing in Florida to the Tampa Bay Lightning on Monday night, Talbot was present in this game as well. Alongside captain Claude Giroux, Talbot scored one of the two Flyers goals in the game.

For his improvements on the ice this past week I’m giving Talbot the Player of the Week title. I’d like to see him return to his former glory. At least enough to watch him play some playoff hockey, but that’s going to have to be an overall team effort.

Let’s go Flyers! Deanna Vasso is a Flyers writer for www.rantsports.com, you can follow her on twitter @dmvasso.