Philadelphia Flyers Blogs

Patrick Kane's drive from an odd angle eluded goalie Michael Leighton in OT of game 6 and the Chicago Blackhawks ousted the Philadelphia Flyers in a taut, thrilling finish to win Hockey's version of the Holy Grail.

Continue reading "Kane's OT Goal Take Hawks To The Stanley Cup"

The Chicago Blackhawks returned to the United Center and beat the Flyers 7-4 on Sunday to take a 3-2 games lead in the Cup Finals.  The Hawks need one more win to win their first Stanley Cup since 1961 when Bobby Hull was a young gunner.

Continue reading "Hawks 1 Win From the Cup"

This is a very good Chicago Blackhawks team.  They have a 2-0 Cup Finals lead over the Flyers and their leading All-stars, Patrick Kane, and Jonathan Toews have been held scoreless.  That shows you the depth of this team.  Thank you Dave Bolland, et al.  Kane and Toews looked sharper in the last game, but still failed to score.  They are getting coaching and watching videos prior to game 3, that is for sure.

Continue reading "Kane and Toews Need to Step Up"

The Chicago Blackhawks won a 2-1 thriller to take a 2-0 series lead in the Stanley Cup Finals.  Antti Niemi, the Blackhawks goalie was simply awesome in net as he made one great save after another to lead Chicago in a pulsating win.  The Finals resume with Game 3 back in Philadelphia.

Continue reading "Niemi Sparkles in 2-1 'Hawks Win"

Who would have thought that the battle of an aging defenseman and a 17-goal scorer would be the top story heading into the Stanley Cup Finals? 

Chris Pronger has made a living of punishing people when they decide to stand in front of his goaltender.  The 35-year old defenseman has amassed 18 penalty minutes thus far in the 2010 playoffs, including many cross-checking and interference calls while clearing out the front of his net.  But he does not seem to ever give it a rest.  Does Pronger seem to get terrified by the mere thought of Byfuglien standing in front with him?  He seemed to downplay the thought when he was asked if the media is blowing the Byfuglien – Pronger battle out of proportion.

Continue reading "Pronger – Byfuglien Battle Takes Center Stage"

We know the Chicago Blackhawkss will open the Stanley Finals at home.  But will they be able to win and hoist the Cup on home ice?  That remains to be seen.  The series starts Saturday night and it will be a rollicking finals.  Both teams will bang the boards and each other.  We may see some fights.  We will certainly see goals. 

Continue reading "Hawks To Hoist Cup?"

Red Sox vs. Yankees. Celtics vs. Cavaliers in game 3 of a 1-1 series. Bruins vs. Flyers in possible series sweep.

There are so many story lines for this Friday night in Boston Sports.

Continue reading "The Tri-fecta, the Trinity, TGIF ..."

Ray Emery was brought in to be the goaltending answer in Philadelphia.  How things change in just a few months.

Emery signed a deal on July 1 by the Flyers for one year, spelling the end for former Flyer goalies Martin Biron and Antero Niittymaki, whose contracts had let out on the same day.  The Flyers then signed Brian Boucher as a back-up, so it was apparent that the team was ready to commit to Emery as the starting goalie.

Continue reading "Lack of Movement May Have Doomed Flyers"

A Golden Effort Falls Just Short By Brad VanFossan I know it’s more than just a hockey game when my 63 year old father is looking forward to watching, and has been watching most of the

Continue reading "Golden Effort Falls Just Short"

There used to be a bumper sticker that said, "Only the Lord saves more than Bernie Parent."

The Hall of Famer goalie, who had two Stanley Cup winning seasons with the Flyers, was in Buffalo signing autographs at Benchwarmers Sports Bar.

Continue reading "Buffalo visited by ghost of hockey past"

The rivalry between the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Philadelphia Flyers got hot again last night. Last night there were a few fights and a scrum.

The game started out rough with a penalty to Philly in the first minute of the game. The Pens would capitalize on the power play very quickly. Only a minute and a half into the game, the first fight started between Adams and Laperriere. Adams would win pretty quickly.

Continue reading "Fight Night in Flyer City"

Philadelphia Sports Fans Are Scumbags

A man was beaten to death in a savage and needless fracas that occurred outside of Citizen’s Bank Park in the final innings of the Philadelphia Phillies 14-6 home win versus the St. Louis Cardinals Saturday night.  

Continue reading "Philadelphia Sports Fans Are Scumbags, ..."

A man was beaten to death in a savage and needless fracas that occurred outside of Citizen’s Bank Park in the final innings of the Philadelphia Phillies 14-6 home win versus the St. Louis Cardinals Saturday night. 

Continue reading "Philadelphia Sports Fans Are Scumbags"

As you probably already know, the Flyers acquired Chris Pronger and Ryan Dingle from Anaheim for Joffrey Lupul, Luca Sbisa, their 2009 1st round pick, their 2010 1st round pick, and a conditional 3rd round pick.  I’ve been seeing a lot of mixed reactions regarding the trade. The majority of them tend to be that it was way too much to give up. My thoughts…we clearly paid a VERY heavy price, however, I am absolutely thrilled with this trade. I will admit, the thought of Pronger leaving after his one year is up, makes me cringe a bit, but I do believe Holmgren has every intention of signing him to an extension. Ideally, we can sign him to a reasonable 2-3 year deal (sadly, I think that’s optimistic) and we can lose the salaries of one of, if not both of, Jones and Carle. If those things were to happy, my grade of this trade would go from a B to an A.

Continue reading "Analyzing the Chris Pronger Trade"

Well, you got what you wanted Gary Bettman; your top team is facing your boy in the spotlight.  Everything this season has led up to this great moment; the top plays on ESPN, the featured stories on NHL.com and most importantly, the reminiscing of the last Stanley Cup Final in 2008.  Players and coaches have already begun talks of how exciting the series will be.

Continue reading "Hey NHL, We Don't Care!"

Part 3 of my “Goaltender Options for the Flyers” series will include a couple of “international” goaltenders, and additionally, I will give you my final opinion on what I’d like the Flyers to do.

Continue reading "Goaltender Options for the Flyers - Part 3"

Part 2 of this series will include Restricted Free Agent options as well as possible acquisitions via trade.

In Part 1 of this series I covered some of the more realistic Unrestricted Free Agent options for the Flyers in their quest to acquire a starting goaltender. In addition to the Unrestricted Free Agent options, there are several viable Restricted Free Agent options. The benefit of restricted free agents is that they are all young…that is, after all, why they are restricted free agents. They are often times coming off their entry level contracts, and just haven’t played enough seasons to be eligible for unrestricted free agency. The bad part about restricted free agency is that, depending on how much the player is signed for, the team is required to pay some sort of draft pick compensation.

Continue reading "Goaltender Options for the Flyers - Part 2"

With both Marty Biron and Antero Nittymaki scheduled to become free agents, the Flyers are left without an NHL caliber goaltender on their roster. Clearly, the Flyers plan to acquire a goalie in some manner this offseason.  This past March the Flyers signed 27 year old Swedish goaltender Johan Backlund. It was only a one year deal, and I don’t believe the Flyers ever considered that he could possibly be their starter next season. At best Backlund could be a relatively cheap backup option. There are quite a few options for the Flyers, however there is no clear cut #1 option. Part 1 of this entry covers the Unrestricted Free Agent Goaltender options.

Continue reading "Goaltender Options for the Flyers - Part 1"

I thought I’d give a top 10 list a shot, and I thought defenseman was the place to start. I’ve noticed that the thoughts regarding the top 10 defenseman in the league are quite erratic, and there doesn’t seem to be a widely accepted pecking order. So I present you with mine. I’ve taken all around play into consideration. Both defensive and offensive abilities have been considered.

Continue reading "My Top 10 NHL Defenseman"

One of the most common conversations I see among Flyers fans, or hockey fans in general, is that the Flyers are in cap “hell.” With big contracts in place for Richards, Carter, Gagne, Timonen, Hartnell,  and Briere, the extension for Joffrey Lupul kicking in next season, the expiring Hatcher contract, and the perpetual resident of Long Term Injured Reserved Mike Rathje, it isn’t a horribly farfetched statement. The common rebuttal to such a statement is that the Flyers can just trade Lupul because, frankly, he’s unnecessary (an argument for a later time), and gain roughly an additional $4.25 million in cap space. That is of course barring taking back any roster players. More often than not, these people are scoffed at for believing that Joffrey Lupul has any trade value.

Continue reading "The Myth About Joffrey Lupul's "Untradeable" ..."

     It's funny I started writing a blog yesterday that was very detailed about the Sixers game quarter by quater commentary.  However in the midst of writing my first blog about the Sixers the computer gimped and everything was lost. Luckily enough the Sixers third quarter blunder, did not jeopardize their lead and they won. Unfortunately the Flyers who were 3-0 in the game were eventually bested by Crosby, Malkin, and crew. John Stevens in my opinion does not seem to be the same coach who has won the Calder Cup! The main problem with Flyers hockey in the last 20 + years is the dump and chase it truly is a sign of weakness to offensive teams that are fast and accurate on goal. We will talk more of the Flyers next year!

Continue reading "Sixers Go up 2-1 and the Flyers Lose their Series!"

Welcome everyone to my first post here on the hockey blogs! I know I am a Floridian, but hockey certainly runs through my veins. Today, I will first be talking about the Eastern Conference. And...how about them Bruins! They look like the team they were when the season started. I was a bit concerned about them in the middle of the season, I mean after all they lost to the Panthers and the Lightning in one road trip. I did not think they were contenders when the playoffs started, but I am starting to rethink that now. Their power play gives me nightmares. Bruins in sweep, I say.

Continue reading "NHL Playoffs Rock On! First the East"

Goaltender Antero Nittymaki has won the starting job from Marty Biron.  After a solid weekend of play, Nittymaki had Philadelphia analysts talking about a goalie controversy.  Coach John Stevens proved them right this week, announcing that Nittymaki would be the starter until further notice.

Continue reading "Nittymaki Gets the Nod"

Jeff Carter helped the Flyers stay lucky, scoring two goals and handing out one asist in a 3-2 win over the Thrashers in Atlanta on Sunday.  Antero Nittymaki made several outstanding saves in net, helping hold off a third period surge from Atlanta.

Continue reading "Still Lucky..."

Just what the doctor ordered.  The Flyers completed an amazing comeback in Boston this afternoon, beating the Bruins 4-3 in overtime when Randy Jones fluttered a shot from the blue line that bounced off the leg of a Boston defender and into the net.

Continue reading "Flyers Finally Get a Lucky Bounce"

The Flyers announced today that two key players will not be joining the team for their trip to Boston today.  The Flyers are scheduled to take on the Bruins in the second game of a home-and-home series tomorrow afternoon.

Continue reading "Sick and Tired Of Being Sick and Tired"

The Boston Bruins walked into the Wachovia Center last night and showed the league how they have taken control of the Eastern Conference.  They played a puck control game, won the battles in the corner, and peppered goaltender Marty Biron with rubber most of the night.

Continue reading "Bruins Prove They Are the Class of the East"

A big thanks to everyone who participated in the "Inbound Link Contest".  We have a winner!  A big congratulations go out to Marija.  Thank you for all your hard work on this.  While we had a lot of people participate, Marija was able to win with only 4 links!  So it wouldn't have taken a lot to win this contest!  We'll be having another contest soon so stay tuned.

Continue reading "Inbound link contest winner announced!"

To try and motivate our bloggers to get inbound links we're going to have a contest to see which blogger can get the most inbound links to their blog. The contest begins now and ends July 31st, 2008. To be entered in to the contest all you have to do is go out and get as many websites to link to your blog as you can and at the end of the month send us an email listing all those links. All links must be active from August 1st through August 7th when we'll be judging the entries - a winner will be announced on August 7th. All entry emails must be received by Midnight on July 31st, 2008. You can email them to sportsfan@nbabasketballonline.com

Continue reading "Inbound link contest - Win $100!"

No need to wait until June- Alex Ovechkin is your Hart Trophy winner.  Here are the winners for Round 2 of the 2008 NHL Playoffs:

The “thanks for showing up” award goes to Sean Avery’s spleen, which ruptured along with the Rangers playoff hopes in Game 3 at the Garden.  In a series where the Rangers needed to find a way to get uberstars Sidney Crosby and Evgeny Malkin off their game, Avery was held in check.  Luckily, he all but wrapped up a new contract in the previous series against the New Jersey Devils.

Continue reading "2008 NHL Playoff Awards - Round 2"

As recently as three weeks ago, the Vancouver Canucks were the front-runners in the sweepstakes for the highly-touted Swedish superstar Fabian Brunnström until the organization fired GM Dave Nonis.

Continue reading "Nonis Firing Costs Canucks Brunnström"

 

  “Potential” has always been the buzz word swarming around the 14 year career of Alexei Kovalev.  After the New York Rangers made him the first Russian player selected in the draft’s opening round, his second season culminated with a dramatic Stanley Cup victory over fellow countryman Pavel Bure.  Kovalev’s play elevated in each successive round of the 1994 Stanley Cup run and fans could only wonder where the wunderkind’s ceiling was. 

Continue reading "Ridin' with the AK - Montreal Canadiens ..."

The Monday After Selection Sunday is my favorite part of March Madness.
You might be thinking that my grammar is poor for starting most of the words in that first sentence with capital letters, but I really think that this day should receive its own special billing. It's just as important as Selection Sunday because the bracket study begins and the snub arguments start.

Continue reading "NCAA tales of Team X and Team Y"