Can the Flyers blue line be successful without Timonen.

With the beginning of the season now just a day away there is still some major concern for the Flyers on the blue line. Defense is clearly their biggest weakness, after losing their #1 pairing of Kimmo Timonen and Braydon Coburn due to health issues. Timonen ,despite his age, was arguably the Flyers best man on the  blue line last season and an anchor that seemed to help Coburn deal with some of the issues he's had in the past. It looks like Andrew MacDonald will be tasked with replacing Timo in the pairing, but MacDonald who has had neutral zone issues throughout his NHL career tends to be the kind of player who spends a lot of time in his own end, something that is unlikely to help Coburn's own shortcomings which tend to be his ability or inability to move the puck well. The good news is if Mark Steit and Nicklas Grossman can return to their post Olympic form from last season, the Flyers will have at least one extremely solid defensive pairing. Grossman and Streit both had shaky stars last year, but once they were paired together they seemed to find their rhythm both defensively and offensively where they account for just under 50% of all shot attempts when paired together on the ice. That leaves Schenn and Del Zoto as the third pairing, Del Zotto who looked like a superstar early in his career is looking for a bit of a resurrection after a disastrous season with the Predators. Schenn is in a similar position after having a tremendously successful seasotn in his first year, he has since regressed to playing like a journeyman third line defensemen, he looks to recapture that year one magic, and Flyer's brass and fans alike are hoping he does so as well. What are your thoughts on the Flyers defense this year? Are you expecting a disaster? Or do you perhaps have a little more faith than most? Photo courtesy philly.com