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Wednesday, November 18, 2009

California love and hockey into the wee hours

Put on a pot of coffee and grab a handful of Pixie sticks people because this is going to be a late one.

Tonight the Flyers take on the Los Angeles Kings of Anaheim at 10:30 p.m. as they begin a five game road trip that includes stops in San Jose, Denver and exotic Long Island.

10:30 p.m.? What do they think this is? A playoff baseball game? Ah well, I'll be watching. I have nothing of any great importance to do tomorrow, no classes to attend. I think it summarizes my life perfectly that I have no classes on Thursday, but THREE on Friday.

Some guys have all the luck I suppose, but as always, I soldier on with only the mildest fits of complaining.

So the Flyers... ah yes. Well, these ain't your grandfather's L.A. Kings. Wayne Gretzky's former mates are off to a very impressive 13-7-2 start and are currently riding a two game winning streak.

And someone named Anze Kopitar is not only leading THEM in points, but the entire league to the tune of 14 goals, 18 assists for a total of 32 points. Never in a million years could I have predicted such a thing. Sure, everyone knew Kopitar was good, but he's halfway to tying his point total from all of last season and we haven't even had Thanksgiving dinner yet.

The Kings have become Philly west in recent years and not just in terms of their on-ice lineup. Former Flyer goalie Ron Hextall works in their front office and former Flyer coach Terry Murray handles their coaching duties.

As for the players, well look no further then former punching bag turned Paul Coffee imitator Randy Jones, who has four points (2 goals and 2 assists) in four games since headin' out Californey way.

And then there's Justin Williams, who will be out to prove tonight that the Flyers shouldn't have traded him all those years ago for whoever it was they ended up trading him for. I honestly can remember but the name Dave Babchuck is jumping out to me... we'll see...

Lest we forget, Michael Handzus, who allegedly is suing current Flyer Scottie Hartnell for stealing his hair style. Hartnell could not be reached for comment on this matter.

The orange and black have had good luck against the Kings in recent years, but they look like a whole new team, so far anyway. Here are a quick Three Keys...

1.) Shut down Kopitar

2.) Give Boucher A LOT of help (Boucher will be starting his second game of the season tonight, giving Ray Emery a much earned night off)

3.) Beware the revenge of Randy Jones

Player to watch: Claude Giroux

Monday, November 16, 2009

P.S.

I found the file! In my email. It is no where to be found on my actual hard drive. I am confused, but relieved. I was in no mood to retype that.

Good night for the Flyers, good night for us all. Hoozah!

Let me know how the (Sort of) LIVE! 3rd period work for you. If you liked, perhaps I can do more of that nonsense. Maybe even a whole game... break is fast approaching. Preparing for finals... pishaw I say!

Flyers win 3-2

Caps vs. Rangers tomorrow on Vs. Not a bad game. Rematch of last year's Eastern Conference Quarterfinal match. I'll watch it if I remember its on that is.

BIG if.

Great D from Hartnell there. He was out of the play and then right back in it. Good steal!

Look at Dan Carcillo playing big minutes late in the game! Sure, he's on a line with Betts and Laperriere, but who would have thought Danny would ever be in this situation when he got here last season?

Here we go! One minute left in the third period!

Brodeur is eyeing the bench, but the Flyers have hemmed him in thus far...

He made it out.

Pyoralla dumps it to center, big clear.

Well that was a wonderful display of sportsmanship from the Devils. Love Langenbrunner, their "captain" sitting on top of Ray Emery after the Devils score an utterly ridiculous goal with .06 seconds left on the clock. Then we got watch watch Langenbrunner jaw with Richards, Carcillo and probably Dave Schultz for five minutes while the officials tried to make heads or tails of the penalty situation.

Keep in mind that there was less then a second left. The game was over because no one can score a goal from center ice in .06 seconds. Not possible. Game's over. Flyers win 3-2. JVR with the game winner, and the Devils road win streaks ends in Philly at 9 games.

Big win for the orange and black. They needed to get back in the win column after a less then stellar effort against the Sabres on Saturday. Two bad plays by Broduer result in two Flyers goals and that's the ball game folks.

Player of the Game: Ray Emery (33 saves on 35 shots.)

Play of the Game: Brodeur's reaction after passing the puck right to the Flyers' JVR for what turned out to be the game winner.

Still no file. I'm worried...
Flyers outshooting the Devils 6-0 with 8 minutes left to go in the third period.

Devils go from no shots for over half the period to 2 shots in rapid succesion. Emery stands tall in net.

High sticking penalty to Danny. Bad times. He needs to stop with these nonsense PIMs.

Dangerous power play chance from Berfors of the Devils butthe Flyers kill it of. Powe and Carter I believe just worked a real nice 2-1 following the kill, but the shot went into the wrong net... ala the safety net. Still, a good penalty kill there from the orange and black. Still no file...
Ah yes. Dave "The Hammer" Schultz giving an interview. The man was inducted into the Flyers Hall of Fame this evening.



No penalty, must have been an icing of some kind...



Not hockey related, but for the life of me I can't find a file on my computer. I have NO idea what I saved it under. I'll lkeep you posted on this as well...

Decent chance by the Flyers there. Good work from JVR and Carter. Of course, the refs gave Brodeur the benefit of the doubt with that early whistle blowing play dead.

Great move from JVR! No finish on it, but a solid move from the youngin'

GOAL! JVR! His fifth of the year. Marty Brodeur sent it right to him for a beautuful wrister. Great shift from Briere, Carter and JVR. They really dominated the Devils and it ends up in the net. Nice to see hard work get rewarded.

Yahoo is saying the goal was unassisted, which may be fair. I think Carter tipped the puck in on Brodeur, but it was Marty who really set up the goal.

Still no luck on the file :'(
This is Devils hockey. There has been 1 (!) combined shot between the two teams over the first seven minutes of the period. Wow. Play stopped for some reason. Possible Flyers penalty? A Devil ended up on his rump as the whistle blew, so we shall see..

PECOOOO POWER PLAY!!

That was a rough looking high stick Danny just got hit with.

Never mind, just watched the replay. Looks like Danny got hit in the shield, but he did a great job of selling it. It was definitly a penalty. Just not as bad as it looked...

Nice chance intially, now were just floating around center ice. Yay. I'm always amazed at how high the Flyers PP is ranked. It seems whenever I watch, they can't get pucks in deep. They meander around center and look generally disorganized.

Like that. PP over. Bad job guys...
Some good defense there by Kimmo Timonen. As if there was any other kind from him.

Ryan Parent has had a solid game. When he's healthy, he makes the D much better.

Scarf?

What the heck is around Jaques Lemaire's neck?

LIVE (Sort of): Flyers 2, Devils 1 after 2 periods...

We'll see how this works as I try and offer some commentary on the third period of tonight's game.

Goals by Scott Hartnell and Darroll Powe have gotten the Flyers ahead as we enter the final frame. Claude Giroux has 2 assists.

The Devils added a late 5-3 power play goal by David Clarkson, a guy who when he keeps his gloves on seems to be able to score some goals. Last year, Clarkson netted 17 goals, while compiling a not-too-shabby 164 PIMs.

This is a huge game for a number of reasons. For starters, Flyers vs. Devils games ARE always huge. It is the way of things for two teams located literally a hop, skip and a jump from each other. Ok, not literally, but sort of literally. The hop would have to be really far.

There's also the whole divisional rivalry thing.

Tonight's game, however, holds an extra special importance as the Devils need the game to tie the record for consecutive road wins. They currently sit at 9. The boys from NJ are a good third period team, so this should be a battle.

I'll keep you posted as I work my way through various homework assignments. Isn't this time of year wonderful?

Thursday, November 12, 2009

Not just another game for Emery

Where the heck have you been!?! I've been sitting right here at my computer for the last week or so, patiently awaiting your return. I mean, you only went out for a pack of cigarettes! Your dinner just kept getting colder and colder, and then I got tired of looking at it so I put it in you desk drawer.

I'm not sure why I put it there. I was upset at the time. By the way, your desk is covered in ants. I don't think its related to the dinner thing.

Oh yeah, and the Flyers have won THREE games since you walked out. Three. And O-K Tollefson and James van Riemsdyk got hurt. I hope your happy...

What's that? It was actually I who abandoned you while all of this was taking place? But, that's impossible. I'm usually so reliable... oh wait. No I'm not. Apologies.

Look, I blame school and the poor economy for my absence. And swine flu. I had swine flu. That's where I was. Cough, cough. Still think I have a touch of it, so you may want to stay away. The doctor said I got it from eating some undercooked bacon... or something.

Hey! The Flyers play at home against the Ottawa Senators tonight! Game starts at 7 p.m. Rumors were floating around about Danny Briere and possibly JVR playing tonight, but who knows? We will see come game time.

Honestly though, there is exactly ONE story on people's minds as this game approaches and that is Ray Emery taking on his former team. The very same team that ran him out of Canada, out of the NHL and all the way to the KHL.

Emery has been a revalation in his first two months with the Flyers, going 9-3-1 while displaying the form that helped lead the Senators to the Stanley Cup finals in 2007.

Here are three things to watch.

1.) Balanced offense- This is big for the Flyers, but its HUGE for the Senators, who for the last few years were a one line team with Danny Heatly, Danny Alfredsson and Jason Spezza carrying the entirety of the offensive load. Now, Heatly is a Shark and the team actually has a second line capable of putting pucks in the net. Mike Fisher has put up impressive numbers thus far this season and never count out newcomer Alex "The Enigma" Kovalev, who always likes to make life difficult for the orange and black.

2.) Ray Emery- Razor needs to keep his world famous emotions in check as he takes on his old team. He can't get caught trying to do too much or over-thinking things.

3.) Put pressure on Ottawa's goalie- The duo of Pascal LeClaire and Brian Elliot have not impressed so far this season. They have a combined 2.83 GAA and .897 S%. Both have dominated in their past, and the Flyers will have to work to make sure they aren't the team that turns things around for the Sens netminders.

Player to Watch: Ray Emery

Monday, November 2, 2009

3 Keys vs. Lightning

Woah boy. I'm cutting it close to the start of the game. Thusly, this will be short.

1.) Shut down Stamkos- 10 goals so far this year for the sophomore speaks for itself

2.) Get good chances- They were outshot by the Hurricanes, but still managed a blow out victory after losing a bunch of games where they were outshooting their opponents. Looks like this is an example of quality not quantity.

3.) Cool off Lightning- They are on a 4-0-2 run. The Flyers have been playing inconsistant hockey as of late to the tune of winning three, losing three, winning two, losing two, winning one... please don't finish the pattern orange and black!

That's all. Sit back and enjoy the weird 5 o'clock start. You and me, we'll talk more later...

Sunday, November 1, 2009

Cheers, jeers and pushes

So this weekend the Flyers played their all important 11th game of the season, which means its time for the customary 11th game look back at what has transpired so far. Now I know, you're probably saying to yourself: "if I read one more of these '11th Game Lookbacks' I've going to hit myself in the head with a brick 11 times.

To that I say: I feel your pain but I must do this. It's my pretend job and it's the 11th game of the year. What kind of blogger would I be if I ignored this milestone? Not a very good one is the answer to that rhetorical question.

Now, I figured that the best way to handle this situation would be to hand out cheers, jeers and pushes to the three most deserving players in each category.

Three Cheers

Matt Carle

In his second year with the Flyers, Matt Carle has gone from the guy that we traded Steve Downie for to we got THIS guy for just Steve Downie? Really?!?! Carle is tied for the team lead in points with 12, leads the team with 10 assists and is among the league leading defensemen in each category. What a difference playing with Chris Pronger can make. In fact, I seriously considered putting Pronger in here solely for what he's done to Carle. I mean Pronger has been real good so far, but Carle looks like a different player.

James van Riemsdyk

JVR went from being a darkhorse candidate to make the team out of camp to the team's third leading scorer despite missing two games with a head injury. JVR has certainly lived up to his second overall draft selection thus far and, even better, he hasn't beaten any cabbies up over 10 cents yet, so in a way he has been even better then #1 pick Patrick Kane. As good as the offensive numbers are, van Riemsdyk is currently rated a +4 and has only taken two penalties thus far. Good defense, good discipline AND good offense at only 20 years old? My god. Could be something real special going on here...

Ray Emery

Ah yes. The much maligned Ray Emery. The man who once was paid a hundred bucks to eat a cockroach. The man who blazed down Ottawa's freeways like his tailpipe was on fire. The man who was banished to the depths of Russia, only to emerge and play pretty darn good hockey. Who would have thought? Emery's numbers haven't been spectacular (6-3-1, 2.46 GAA, .915 SV%, 1 SO) but they have been real solid. Considering he spent all of last year playing against inferior (Sorry KHL) competition, I'd say that Razor has adapted pretty well to coming back to the big leagues. And I expect him to get even better as the season progresses.

Three Jeers

Brian Boucher

Emery's backup has been less than spectacular thus far. Granted he's only had one start (0-1-0, 4.00 GAA, .860 SV%) but he had an even worse preseason. As much as I've enjoyed watching Emery, I don't think he can pull a Marty Brodeur and start 79 games this year. Emery's going to need some help and the Flyers are going to need to be able to trust Boucher against teams that don't play in Toronto or Long Island... knock on wood.

Simon Gagne

One goal and four assists through nine games isn't going to cut it from a former 40+ goal scorer. And now he's hurt and on long term injured reserve. Great. I love Simon but this season has been a bust thus far. Hopefully he gets himself healthy and tears it up in the second half.

Braydon Coburn

Until Saturday's two goal explosion vs. the Hurricanes, the highlight of Coburn's season had been the goal he put in his own net against the Penguins. His -8 rating got him bumped off of the second defensive pairing, but an injury to Ryan Parent seems to have helped him get his old job back. Maybe the two goals and the almost demotion will wake up a guy who was once relied on to shut down Alex Ovechkin.

Three Pushes

Claude Giroux

Giroux may be enduring a bit of a sophomore slump as far as his point totals are concerned (one goal, four assists) but he has shown flashes of the player that he was in last year's playoffs. He still makes the same dazzling moves and unbelievable passes, the only difference is that this year they haven't been showing up on the score board. As long as he keeps playing the way that he is, the stats will come around. Giroux is simply too talented for them not to.

Danny Briere

Briere had a solid camp and started the year looking better then he had in a long time, then he hit a wall. Now he's hurt. Five goals and two assists aren't terrible numbers, and prior to the injury, Briere looked great, but he seemed to have been bitten by the same bug that got Giroux. Plays well but doesn't end up on the score sheet.

Kimmo Timonen

To be fair, this hasn't entirely been Kimmo's fault. It's sort of hard to get tagged for a minus rating when your defensive partner puts the puck into his own net, as Braydon Coburn did. It's also hard to get tagged for more minus ratings because your defensive partner can't seem to keep his head on straight in his own end. Again, see Coburn. The problem is that Kimmo is a top tier NHL defenseman and he is currently sitting a -8. Not pretty. Kimmo has been inconsistent, possibly as a result of Pronger stepping in as the team's top defender. Whatever is going on for Kimmo, he'll sort it out. You don't play all those years in Nashville without learning a thing or two about dealing with hardship after all.

So there you have it. Feel free to share your own rankings as you see fit. Please do! I need some comments. Heck, if you think my list is garbage tell me. I'm open to criticism. Sure, I'll definitely cry if you say my list is garbage, but I'm still open to criticism. I just don't take it well...