Leighton Starting at the Garden Tonight; Olympian Flyers

Michael Leighton will be starting tonight in Madison Square Garden in what will be the Flyers last game of 2009 before the Winter Classic at Fenway on Friday. Laviolette still has not decided on who will start in Boston according to Flyers OnTheFly. Flyers look to go for four-straight tonight to carry momentum in what will be an exciting outdoor match-up on Friday. Wish I could have gotten tickets.

They also reported that Oscars Bartulis has been selected to the Latvian Olympic hockey team as well as Ole-Kristian Tollefsen for Norway. Pronger and Richie have both made Team Canada with Prongs getting the ‘A’ along with Crosby as Niedermayer will be wearing the ‘C’. Carter is apparently an alternate and will play if anyone goes down.

Flyers Go for Four Straight

A lot has happened since the last time I posted. A few more losses, Christmas, and some busy days for myself so I apologize for not posting. However, the Flyers have won their last 3 games and look to do it again at Madison Square Garden tomorrow night. This Rangers team is beatable and the Flyers played a decent game against them last time but they failed to capitalize on their chances and were not exactly tight in their own zone. Hopefully they can solve Henrik early to take some pressure off of a possible start by Leighton who has even surprised me with his somewhat solid play as of late. Boucher should be able play tomorrow night, but that won’t be announced until tomorrow most likely. This is the last game before the Winter Classic, so let’s see if they can do something with this.

Time for a Rebound?

After how excited I was about Tuesday night’s game, I’m a little timid about tonight’s. Will tonight make or break our season? No, but I sure as hell am tired of getting commented on these Facebook groups to bring a Winter Classic at Beaver Stadium between the Pens and Flyers. These kids think they know everything about hockey because they watched us get smashed the other night. That’s all they talk about, and yet I bet over half of them don’t even know who Mario Lemieux or Rick Tocchet is. I guess Philly sucks according to these guys, but I’d take it over Pittsburgh any day. That city is miserable.

Besides that, the Flyers have a big game tonight. Blair Betts returns to the line-up after re-injuring his shoulder. Will he be our savior tonight? I’m hoping for it. Nodl and Backlund were sent back to Adirondack.

Come on Flyers, you need this. I need this. Your fans need it. Send Pittsburgh home without any points. Get the two points tonight and practice hard until Saturday afternoon when the Rangers come to town. Let’s do this.

Fail.

Furious, angry, helpless, pissed off, agitated.

That’s how I felt last night when I watched that game. I can’t even tell you what happened last night…

The good news?

We have another crack at them tomorrow and Flyers OnTheFly has reported that Blair Betts will return for that game. Gagne and Powe are set to come back within a game or two of Thursday.

Remember, the Flyers are 10-3 with Betts in the line-up, so maybe that’s something to look forward to. If they do not win on Thursday, I expect something drastic to happen. Those rumors of Pronger getting the ‘C’ or someone getting traded? Very likely if it comes to that point.

The Pennsylvania Rivalry Continues

Last night’s game by the Flyers was one of the best games I’ve seen them play all year. They came out hungry, went after the puck, and I’ll be damned if they lost even ONE one-on-one battle along the boards last night. A notable performance was that of Claude Giroux, who was everywhere fighting for the puck. The whole team played great even after OKT went down and the defense had to pick up for his injury. The third period last night was their best third period of the season. They came out revving to go and thats what they need to do EVERY game. It was a team effort through and through. Although last night was great, I hope they put it behind them. Tonight is the night where we figure out whether this team is really turning it around.

No Where to Go But Up From Here

The Flyers got mauled by the Devils on Saturday. For some reason, my love for this team led me to believe everything was going to be okay and they’d pull through because they had lost so many games prior. Flyers are 2-8-0 in their last 10… and tonight they face the Eastern Conference 5th-seeded Boston Bruins in their last game before they face each other on New Years Day at Fenway (rhyme!). Then tomorrow and Thursday will be a home and home with the Pens before wrapping it up with a home game on Saturday hosting the Rangers. This team needs to get through this week, and hopefully with some points. Here’s a few things to think about:

-Some of our injured players are going to be back sometime next week at the earliest. Powe, Betts, and Gagne have all been getting ready to get back on the ice and we cannot forget how valuable all 3 of these guys are, especially defensively. All of them are great penalty killers and are very effective in the offensive zone as well.

-They are going to be worked and worked. I don’t see Laviolette giving up any time soon.

-There’s been talks of trades if the Flyers don’t pick it up before the month ends, but I’m not sure how much I believe that.

-Turnover extraordinaire Braydon Coburn is out with an ankle injury so OKT will be back in the line-up. Maybe he can do some good? I’d like to see Parent or Bartulis paired with Timmonen.

-At least the Eagles are in first.

-…they can’t get much worse, right? They’re getting some key players back and this team is built for a playoff run. They need to get their heads out of their asses and play as a team. If Richie does not get his troops fired up, do you think they might emasculate him and strip him of his ‘C’? I don’t think they will, but someone needs to lead and this team needs to win. Feelings aside, if Pronger’s the better man to lead this team at this point, maybe the 24 year old needs to take a back seat for a bit. The Calder Cup Champions need to get over the loss of their favorite coach and grow a pair and play some damned hockey, because that’s the only way they’re going to win.

Battle Up the Turnpike

The Flyers are going to be at the Prudential Center tonight in an Atlantic Division match-up against the New Jersey Devils. The Flyers have played pretty well against them this year, as you remember they opened their season at New Jersey and won 2-0 and also won the second match-up of the series 2-1. This time around, they will be without the likes of goaltender Ray Emery who was simply amazing at times during those times. The Flyers cannot go too much longer without putting some wins together. Losing in this league is tough enough with the way the Flyguys have been playing, but 2 in a row is something they have to avoid to get them out of this slump. They currently sit at 14-14-1 which honestly, is absolutely terrible considering the expectations and talent that this team has. If there was any time to start getting on the winning side of the puck, do it tonight in the division.

As for Thursday night’s game hosting the Senators, it was a good effort from the guys but not enough. Too many penalties, turnovers were abundant, and shooting for the glass and the logo happened all too much. Plenty of great chances even strength and on the power play but they simply could not cash in. Hopefully tonight they do less of that and more of what they can do to win.

Blair Betts and Darroll Powe are scheduled to come back within the next 2 weeks and Gagne has been practicing recently although I hope he comes back fully healed. I like the way some of the young guys have looked personally, especially Laliberte and Kalinski. But we cannot overlook the importance of Powe and Betts who for one are great penalty killers, and also generate some great shifts in the offensive zone with their respective lines. My hope for eventual lines upon their return:

Carcillo-Betts-Lappy = Who can forget what this line did for us during our winning streaks?

Hartnell-Carter-Briere= I just really like this line. Briere has been playing great since his comeback from injury, and I’ve noticed his back-checking has improved immensely under Lav’s new system.

JVR-Giroux-Powe= JVR and Giroux are a great pairing although Giroux is totally fine at being a top six forward. Powe could really work along the boards and set up Giroux to get him to make a play. Of course, Powe and JVR would be down low working the crease.

Asham-Richards-Pyorala= Asham and Richards simply play well together. The few times they’ve been together this year, I just feel like they were doing good things on the ice. Pyorala is also one of the most underrated Flyers at the moment and we can’t discount his play in all 3 zones.

Hope they win tonight. One more thing… here’s an open note to Mike Richards:

SHOOT THE DAMNED PUCK ON THE POWER PLAY!

Also, if you’re into Philly sports apparel, check out Philavania. They have great, original merchandise there and I just recently got the Broad Street Bullies shirt from them. Decent prices and flat-rate shipping. Check them out!

Back to Posting

Well that was a lot longer of a hiatus than I thought it was going to be. A lot has happened since I last posted. The Flyers were starting their road trip and I was in Pittsburgh so I couldn’t watch the games. Then Phish was in town for two days and nothing productive was done, and then Thanksgiving, and then classes started back up and I’ve been pretty busy. So, I’m back… and oh yeah, a lot happened in Flyers country.

Here’s a quick review of the events leading up to last night’s game:

-Flyers were 2-8-0 in their last ten.
-During that span, the Flyers did not score a goal in over 2 games.
-The power play has been struggling immensely.
-Emery was put on the IR yesterday.
-And oh yeah, John Stevens was fired and Peter Laviolette was hired.

A lot of happenings, and the Flyers pulled out a win last night at home against the Islanders 6-2. They’ve been saying the Flyers needed their young leaders to step up, and they did. Richards got it going with a power play deflection and a short-handed goal. Then Carter gets it going with a power play goal and and even strength goal. Then Giroux finishes it off with two of his own, one being on the power play. So that took care of some problems right there with goal-scoring and power play efficiency taken care of.

As for Emery, he is undergoing surgery today for an abdominal muscle injury that has been torn and will miss approximately 6 weeks. Brian Boucher will be carrying the load for the Flyers but also expect Phantoms call-up Johan Backlund to get a chance to show his stuff sometime over the next week or so because the Flyers are going to be playing a lot of games before this month is over.

“It could be a coaching thing or maybe just a slump this year but we need to be more consistent. I’d rather be consistently good then play great at times and falter at times when we need to play better. The Penguins and Rangers were victim to this during the year and got a new coach and they turned their seasons around. I’m not saying to fire Stevens because he’s proved he can coach our team. He just needs to know that he better come up with a better plan next year or his job may be in jeopardy.”

That was a quote from my season review that I posted back in the summer. As you can see, the Flyers could not wait any longer and needed to find someone to shake the team up. John Stevens is of course the scape goat in this situation and it is not necessarily all his fault the Flyers were playing so bad, but sometimes you have to make a change like that in order to set yourselves up to win. I don’t have many problems with Stevens, and I hope he takes the offers that Holmgren offers him within our organization and stays with us or finds another job somewhere.

However, Laviolette is a guy I’m starting to learn about and like. You could see his system starting to take more effect against Montreal after they got a practice in, and last night against the Islanders they seemed to understand it more and get some offense going (6 goals woot!). It is not going to be easy for our Flyers this year, but maybe that’s a good thing. Let our young core group learn their lessons now and get them out of the way and it WILL make them a better team in the long run.

The Flyers have a very important month before the Winter Classic on New Year’s Day. It’s an Eastern Conference Showdown month as they host the Senators tomorrow and visit the Devils on Saturday. Then they go to Boston before having a home-and-home with the Penguins next week. This continues with games against the Lightning, Islanders, Hurricanes, Panthers, and two games with the Rangers. If the Flyers were to get some wins and start climbing their way back up the standings, now would be a great time because the opportunities are going to be there.

Flyers Start Road Trip Off Right

The Flyers held onto a win last night as Brian Boucher got his 2nd start as Flyer in Los Angeles last night. He was pretty solid albeit the first goal, and the Flyers looked really good as a team. Notable performances include Richie’s line with Hartnell and Pyorala, Oskar Bartulis, and of course the Betts line centering Carcillo and Lappy.

I’m not going to be able to cover the Flyers this weekend as I’ll be out of market because I’m visiting Pittsburgh this weekend. Look for more updates beginning of next week possibly, although a certain band is going to be in town for a 2 night stint and I’ll be at both.

Flyers End Devils’ Streak at Home

The Devils came into the Flyers house last night looking to make history but came up short as the Flyers played to a 3-2 victory last night. After a great ceremony honoring Flyers great Dave “The Hammer” Schultz, The Flyers jumped to a 1-0 lead with Darroll Powe putting a puck past Marty Brodeur with a great pass from Giroux after a great read from Asham. Some game notes: