Gabbing about bears, hockey and the fall of Rome... not necessarily in that order

I've always admired and respected the bear.

What a glorious (inglourious?) and noble creature the bear is. Hangs out in the woods for most of the year, swipes pic-a-nic baskets at its heart's content and basically enjoys all the things that go with being a large, furry mammal.

I would be remiss to forget to mention my favorite part of "bear-life," which is of course hibernation. That's right, once winter rolls around your average bear will find itself a nice warm cave to curl up in and sleep away the cold weather. What a life. If only I could somehow sleep away these winter months and wake up on the verge of being a college graduate.

Ah hell, I'm not sentimental. Rouse me from my slumber about 45 seconds before graduation and I'll be fine. I don't need one last, five month long victory lap.

Dear god! This is supposed to be a blog about hockey and hear I am talking your ears off about bears and graduation! What was the root of this craziness? Ah yes, hibernation. While I may not be sleeping straight through until spring, I'm going to be doing my best bear impression over the next month and enjoying doing absolutely nothing of value over Christmas break. No sir, no job for me. I'm free as a bird. A big, dumb bird with no direction in life, that is.

I shouldn't say that I'll be doing NOTHING over break. I mean, I'll have to eat at some point and it seems unwise to stop breathing. Outside of doing the things that will keep me alive, I plan on taking it easy... and blogging, which in some circles is considered taking it easy. Not by me though. Never by me.

Recently I read an article that listed blogging as the world's third most dangerous profession, right behind lion mane comber and publicist for Meghan Fox. Despite the dangers of the "web log," be they real or merely the result of eating spicy food very late at night, I will soldier forth, resuming my goal to bring you all things Flyers during this very long and dark month of December.

Yikes. I can't believe that it has taken me so long to mention the Flyers, who are actually the whole purpose behind this blog. As I mentioned early, I won't have a job over break so be prepared, brave readers, for more ugly manifestos of this nature proclaiming my love for beavers and wolves and all manner of furry mammals that would kill you and your entire family if you ever gave them the chance.

Mark my words.

So hockey. How about it? The Flyers lost (again) on Thursday to the Penguins, but hey it was in a shootout so who really cares? I mean outside of Gary Bettman and the fringe fans that the game-ending spectacle caters to, that is.

I missed the whole thing due to a prior commitment, but I heard good things. They seemed to battle and gained themselves a point against a team that, according to the current NHL standings, the Flyers aren't even playing the same sport as anymore.

The real test boys and girls is coming up tomorrow when the New York Rangers plural (formerly Ranger, singular) visit for a 1 p.m. matinee. I say plural because this ain't your last year's Ranger team! No more of that sitting back and letting their beastly goalie Henrik Lundqvist do all the work. Those days are gone, baby, gone.

Now the Rangers like to sit back and let Henrik Lundqvist (13-13-3, 2.55 GAA, .920 SV%) AND Marian Gaborik (24 goals, 21 assists, 45 points in 32 games. Only four LESS points then number two and three on the Rangers scoring list combined) do all the work. See? Totally different. Granted now that I said that, Ales Kotalik is going to score seven goals tomorrow and assist on 14 others, but oh well. The point needed to be said, regardless of the jinx factor that comes with it (knock on wood for good measure anyway).

If I were Flyers Coach Peter Laviolette, I'd put Chris Pronger and Kimmo Timonen together and have them just follow Gaborik every time he touches the ice, which if recent trends hold true will likely be closer to 30 minutes then 20. But hey, I'm not him so we'll just have to see what happens. Hopefully, the Flyers can build on their good effort against the Pens and if they do, guess what? They suddenly have points in three of their last four games and look primed to show just how premature their recent obituaries were. Or, they'll just roll over and yell at the undertakers to bury them faster, they haven't got all day.

Eww, got a bit morbid at the end there. Must be the cold weather. Or Tuesday's 6-1 drubbing at the hands of the Pens. Either or...