Uninspired Hockey All Around

So, as I said in my last post, I went to the Pitt. vs FLA game last night. I was SO happy to see Florida walking all over Pitt, that was until the 3rd period when one goal by Pitt completely turned the game around and they ended up winning in OT. Florida had a solid two goal lead, and as my fellow Flyers fans will know, a two goal lead is nothing these days in hockey, and always leads to the team sitting back and eventually losing. Anyways, that's enough about that game, onto the pathetic game against COL last night. (P.S., I saw the new Panthers third jersey in person, and it is awful, and so many stupid FLA fans bought it last night, I deff. threw up in my mouth a little). Final score: FLA 2 - Pitt 3 OT.

While I was sitting watching the sad third period of the FLA game, I was constantly checking my phone for updates on the Flyers game. First update I checked, the score was already 2 to 0, and Emery had only faced 4 shots. ARE YOU KIDDING ME!?!? As soon as I saw that, I knew it was either going to be a track meet of a game, or COL was going to have their way with Emery's ass. From what I've read today, Philly again just looked like they did not want to be playing hockey. I don't want this to be a recurring theme throughout the year, but so far it is, and it pisses me off. Again, I will call for Stevens head. If he can't get these guys out on the ice working their asses off to win a game when they need to win one, then why the hell is he behind the bench. I also heard that the "AHL" or 4th line was the most energetic line on the ice for us. That's just sad. Yes, I know these guys are trying to earn a spot on the team, but shit, that's pathetic. I still believe we need a coach to come in and won't be afraid to show a little emotion, and really rip these guys when they play the way they have been playing. Hopefully we will see something better tomorrow when we visit the Islanders, and we BETTER beat them, since my friend who is a huge Islanders fan is coming into town on Thursday for Thanksgiving. And FINALLY I will have NHL Center Ice at my new place by the end of the day today, so I should be able to watch every game for the rest of the year. Final Score: COL 5 - Flyers 4.

Now, I don't give a shit if we have a game tomorrow, I want Stevens to get this team on the ice this afternoon and push them until they puke; he needs to show them we will not accept this lackluster crap we have been seeing.

Looooonnnnngggg Weekend/Col Game

So there was nothing enjoyable about my weekend. I actually stayed at the bar for the entire SJ game just to watch them get there balls stomped on. While watching this horrible site my consumption of alcohol continued to steadily rise the entire time; not thinking about the fact that I had to move on Saturday, and was getting up at 7 in the morning. Needless to say, the move was not exactly fun, but it never is. Final score, 6 to 3 SJ wins.

After an exhausting day, I was just looking forward to watching the orange and black do a number on PHO. I proceeded to hit up my usual watering hole for the game, and yet again, watched as Philly dropped a tie game in the 3rd period. I don't know what the deal is, but I'm going to start pointing my finger at John Stevens again because he needs to get on this team's ass and get them pumped for games. They came out in the PHO game with no emotion and it seemed like they didn't really want to win. Also, we lost Betts and Powe for a little while (how the hell does Betts throw out his shoulder again "reaching for a puck"?) Anyways, this is not a good thing as Betts has been a masterful PKer. So there it was, Final score, 3 to 1 PHO wins (and a bogus "empty net" goal call on Pronger.)

Onto tonight; Philly visits Denver to take on the Avalanche. Right now COL is sitting pretty at the top of the Northwest division and 3rd place in the West. Anderson has been like a god for them this year, as well as a pretty good team effort with 7 players at 10 points or more, lead by Stastny, Wolski, and Hejduk. We also get to see if Duchene is the real deal, which he seems to be. Now, I'm not going to lie, Colorado is my team from the Western Conference. I don't follow them at all like the Flyers, but I do cheer for them out there; now with saying that, I would LOVE to see the Flyers beat the living shit out of them tonight, because we need it more, and because the Flyers are the greatest team in the Universe. With that said, I predict a 6 to 1 routing of the Avalanche.

On a personal note, I will not be able to watch this game tonight since the owner of my company just gave me 2 of his season tickets (dead center ice, 12th row) for the Panthers vs. Penguins game tonight. It would be great to be able to watch Pitt get beat in person while the Flyers take care of business in Colorado.

GO FLYERS!

Please Refer to the End of Jaws

I am feeling extremely unmotivated today. Gotta move all of my crap to a new appartment tomorrow, so that's going to be hell, but once there, the joys will be plentiful. Anyways, onto the topic of tonight's game. We visit the Shark Tank to play against the number one team in the NHL, SJ Sharks.

This team scares the crap out of me. With a number of players that will more than likely be playing for their respective countries in the Olympics, it should be interesting. The Sharks just finished off a four game road trip that wasn't exactly good to them. At home, they still have not had a regulation loss. Not good. But hey, Philly loves to be the team to shatter dreams. With Nabokov in net, and players such as Marleau, Thornton, Heatley, Boyle, and Clowe, nothing is going to be easy. Also, Philly lost 4 to 1 in the last meeting, and Philly has won one game in the 2000s, and haven't won in the Shark Tank since 1999. Time to kill that.

As for Philly, we are one of the hottest teams in the NHL right now along with SJ. Although the standings don't show it, we also have 4 to 5 games in hand over all the other teams. Look for JVR to keep up his streak, Richards to lay down some big hits and hopefully big points, Carter to get going, and of course the Pronger/Carle pairing in the back. This will be Carle's first return back to the lands of SJ since his departure to Tampa Bay. Time for him to shove it right in their face for letting him go, and pot 2 goals and an assist with a plus 3. Alright, that's enough. Everyone enjoy your weekend and hopefully I will be speaking with you all on Monday with 4 more points in our pockets.

GO FLYERS!

Well, That Was Interesting

Quick and easy, busy day at work today.

That first period was just flat out ugly, and someone needs to give Boosh a slap on the wrist for that sad, sad excuse of a goal he gave up. L.A. should have only gotten a half a goal for that one. Also, it seemed like the team was trying to adjust to the ice surface...I hate teams that play in a warm climate and also have basketball played in their arena. Anyways, after giving up that pathetic goal, it seemed to pump life into the entire line-up. Play got better throughout the period.

The second period was nice to see, although it really was a lot of back and forth. But watching Philly finally come from behind and take the lead was awesome. Something most of us Philly faithful don't get to see very often. Also nice to see Pyorala get his first goal; here comes a streak of 10 straight games with goals, I can feel it.

The third period was all BOOSH. Although the team fell back on their heels once they got that deadly two goal lead (I hate it when they have a two goal lead), Boosh was playing well enough stopping all but one of the 21 shots fired at him. He deff. gained some of my trust back with that. Oh yeah, and Reemer with another game winning goal is starting to get really really nice to see.

Overall, it wasn't that great of a game, but the two points are ours and we are now off to the Shark Tank, which is never fun. I'll be at the bar for that one...

I Fart in Your General Direction, Silly Kings

And so as everyone already knows, the first game of the five game road trip begins tonight against the Kings. Surprising to almost everyone, the Kings are one of the best teams in the league so far. The incredible play of Kopitar has had quite a hand in this matter as he leads the NHL in points. Now, in my opinion, this is a good thing. This team has pretty much zero secondary scoring, although they do have a good line to muck it up with our work horse line. I expect to see either the Richards line or the Giroux line really light it up tonight.

Another positive fact is that a prominent defenseman and forward are out with injuries. Now I never like to live off the fact of that, but whatever, I will more than happy too tonight. Expect to see a very good powerplay from Philly playing against a terrible penalty kill from LA. If they take even 2 penalties, I expect to see 2 powerplay goals.

And we get to visit the piece of $(*& Randy "I bet against the Flyers the whole time I played for them" Jones. So far in four games he already has four points. The little bastard also potted a shorty in their last game. I really hope someone beats the crap out of him early in the game since we ARE paying half his salary. We will also be seeing the old man himself, Handzus. I'm just as surprised as you he hasn't blown out a hip yet, but good luck to him once Pronger lays him through the boards.

My prediction on the game tonight: Philly 6 - LA 2

Richards: 2g, 2a
JVR: 1g, 1a
Carter: 2ppa
Powe: 1g, 1a
Giroux: 2g, 2a
and some other random assists handed out, probably to Pronger and Carle.

GO FLYERS!!! Time for six in a row (including Monday's win)

Oh No

I just felt like taking a look ahead at this nice little road trip that we have coming up and I don't like what I see. So we have games every other night, with a back to back this weekend. The teams we play, in order are L.A., SJ, Pho, Col, and finish with NYI. Two of the five shouldn't be a problem. But look at the standings for the other three:

That's just scary. A number 1 and 2, with a 4. Luckily the back to back is Pho on the second night which as I said before should be rather easy.

Now I already hear it..."Blah blah blah, L.A. and Col really aren't that good and are just lucky right now." Personally, I would like to believe that, but then again they are almost a quarter through the season and still sitting near the top of the West. I'm not trying to be a pessimist, but our boys are going to have to work their asses off the next week to come out of this with more than 4 points. I believe they can, and I also believe they can come out of this with 10...We will just have to wait and see...

No Record for You NJ

After a great ceremony for Dave Shultz induction into the Flyers HOF, we had a pretty impressive hockey game. The most impressive part to me was the work ethic and skill of our defense. We finally actually looked like one of the best defensive teams in the NHL.

I believe the total was 26 blocked shots, and while watching our penalty kill, it was AWESOME to see how many guys (especially Betts and Laperriere) sliding down on the ice to make sure the puck wasn't getting to the net. Emery was doing his part, a couple impressive saves, but for the most part he was not really challenged.

I ate my words of being upset that Giroux was moved to the 3rd line, since he had 2 assists (although one was on the power play). But even still, Powe/Giroux/Asham still looked very good. All in all, it was a good game and if we put that kind of skill and performance on the ice through this west coast field trip we will walk away with a lot of wins. Some quick stats to note from last night:

Powe, JVR, and Hartnell all netted goals.
Giroux had two assists.
Emery moved to 11-4-1 (with a .923! SV%)

Next game is tomorrow against the Kings at 10:30. LET'S GO FLYERS!

The Devil Comes to Philly...

Alright, so as most, if not all should know, Dave "The Hammer" Schultz (badass nickname) will be entered into the Flyers HOF tonight. Congrats to Schultz and his four incredible years with the team.

Now, after that introduction and the motivation that Philly should have to stick the big one to NJ tonight, I expect things to get going fast and very dirty. Some eye gouging, haymaker, punch in the liver action. The only way that Philly can survive the 9 game win streak(!) that NJ has on the road will be to force the Jacques Lemaire BS game play style into the Flyers "We are too fast and physical for you" style of play. If the Flyers don't score one in the first 10 and two before the end of the first, I will be nervous. JVR will be back in the line-up running with the usual Briere and Carter line. Pyrola has somehow jumped onto the Richards, Hartnell line (which I do not agree with AT ALL) and Giroux gets dumped to the 3rd line. I really like Giroux and think he can play if they give him enough games and time to learn how Richards and Hartnell play. Anyways, as I said, we need to come out fast and crazy (I want to see a Car-Bomb domination of Clarkson in the first 5 min.), then we will walk over NJ and the burning hot coals they have brought with them like those crazy Africans (or whatever) from Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls. Gentlemen (and Ladies), tonight will be a fight. Get ready to crack open those beers, or Svedka, and let's watch a great Philly victory.

P.S. The game is on Versus at 7:00 EST for those of you who aren't screwed by Direct TV.

Monday's Blow

Just a short recap of the game on Saturday.

Flyers first period = Sad

Flyers second period = Just as sad

Flyers third period = Crap, now we need to play...crap, it's too late, but Jeff Carter still worked it on the shorty...

In a nutshell, Philly kind of needs to come and actually play for 60 minutes if they want to win a game, and no stupid penalties, yeah, I'm looking at you Car-Bomb. I still like you as a player, but just not in that way...

I'll have a pre-game write up later today for the game against the Lava-like hot Devils, it may not be pretty, but a big bounce back win would be nice...

Flyers vs. The Slugs

Since I don't know the next time I will be in front of a computer (I never get on mine at home) I figured I would make my pre-game post now.

So tomorrow at 7:00 P.M. EST, the Flyers will be taking on the Buffalo Slugs, crap, I mean Sabres. Looking at the past 5 games, since that's all I care about, the Flyers are 5-0-0, and the Sabres are 2-3-0 including a loss to the Flyers last Friday. That was the only game against the Flyers so far this year and the score was 5-2. The Flyers are looking to keep their win streak alive, and they are also playing the team they are tied with in the Eastern Conference right now (so they better f-ing win). Here are some small notes going into the game:

Flyers Players to Watch:

Refer to previous post, + Ray Emery and Daniel Briere.

Also how Parent and Tolle will play coming back from injury.

Sabres Players to Watch:

Tim Connolly: 4g, 11a, 15pts
Derek Roy: 3g, 9a, 12pts
Jason Pominville: 4g, 7a, 11pts
Ryan Miller: 10-2-1, 1.82 GGA, .940 SV%

The one out of those that scares me to death is Ryan Miller. Although I do believe stellar defense has been a large help for him, he is still an incredible goaltender.

Anyways, I do expect this to be a very good and hard fought game by both teams. Look for the Flyers to come out fast and quick, and also to put a lot of pucks on Miller. You never know what can happen when you throw pucks towards the net (see last game/Betts). I know I will be enjoying a cold beer and watching this game open to close.

GO FLYERS!!!

Introduction and 5 Straight Wins

So, I decided with all of the information that I read about the Flyers and because I love the that I would start a Flyers blog, since I read about 5 different ones every day. Anyways, I'm Sean, a diehard Flyers fan that is stuck in south Florida and only gets to see them play live two times a year against the god awful Panthers. Enough about me time for some Flyers stuff.

So, as I write this, the Flyers are in the process of destroying teams that, well, they should be destroying. During this streak which started October 31st, we have a 6 to 1 win over Carolina (worst team in NHL), a 6 to 2 win over TB, a 5 to 2 win over Buffalo (when they were slumping), a 2 to 1 win over shitty St. Louis, and a 5 to 1 win over Ottawa. That makes it 24 to 7 goals for vs goals against. Now that is impressive, but to keep that up will be tough. On to some player stats over this streak:

Mike Richards: 2g, 2a, 4pts, +4
Jeff Carter: 2g, 5a, 7pts, +5
JVR (Reemer): 3g, 4a, 7pts, +5
Scott Hartnell: 3g, 4a, 7pts, +5
Chris Pronger: 1g, 7a, 8pts, +8
Matt Carle: 1g, 2a, 3pts, +8

So, interesting to see some of those, especially from Mike Richards doing so, so compared to the rest, even Carle is 1 point less, but +4 better. Personally I'm starting to think it's his linemates through this stretch, but he could also just be on a mini-semi cold streak. Anyways, that enough for the first post. I will try to post 3 to 4 times a day, except on weekends I'll be lucky to get even 1 post a day in (usually too much time spent drinking and playing Modern Warfare 2). Feel free to comment and let me know what you like and dislike. Peace.

(Oh yeah, and shout outs to Ryan and Fran over at Flyers Goal Scored by..., and Matt over at The Orange Army for getting me to want to start the whole blogging thing)