Pauly's Thoughts

So. After the game last night I decided it was time to jump in my Delorean and gun it to 88. I traveled to June 18th, 2010 and stole Paul Holmgren's personal diary as you can see here:

I decided to look at some key dates to find out all of the Flyers information that I wanted to know. Here are my findings:

April 11th 11:30 P.M.

While I was playing with my pretty little princess doll and eagerly awaiting the release of Avatar on DVD in a week and a half, I found out that the Flyers lost to the Rangers tonight and officially did not make the playoffs. My little boy Mikey called me and told me he was very upset with the team, and didn't want to be the Captain anymore, which really upset me. Then he ripped the bong again and started crying about how sorry he was that he just said that to me and he still wants to be Captain. All in all, I still have my little boy, and there is always next year to WIN NOW. I'm going to go open a new tub of ice cream and watch Twilight. Good night moon.

April 13th 9:45 A.M.

Golf outing with Hitler.

May 6th 12:15 P.M.

Lunch with Robert Esche. Later signed to a 6 year, $30 Million deal.

June 18th 10:30 A.M.

Meeting with Eddie Snider.

June 18th 10:45 A.M. - Last Entry

Poopy. Eddie told me it is time to move on. I hate break ups. Where's my Pretty Little Pony, I need a snuggle buddy...

Flyers Game Night: Sink or Swim?

Tonight the Flyers will pretty much decide their own fate. In my opinion they either jump off the cliff or they grasp the edge with all their strength and don't let go. As of now everyone knows Carter is out for the rest of the regular season. As of now most of you know about all the issues in the Ottawa game on Tuesday. For those who don't, I'll do one quick recap:

The Flyers lost. There were about 15 blown calls, going for and against the Flyers. The most obvious were performed by the same player, Volchenkov. First a shoulder elbow some part of the arm to the head of Carcillo and he still made a sick pass to Gagne who couldn't finish it. Then Mr. Vol had a really nasty, dirty hit on Gagne putting him face first into the boards, which should have drawn either a 2 minute minor or a 5 minute major, neither of which were called and it led directly to an Ottawa goal. After the goal, Gagne leaped up to reach Vol's head with his punches, and ended up with 19 PIM and a 7 minute power play for Ottawa (which they didn't score on). Then, with about 3 minutes left in the game, Vol laid down in front of the Ottawa goal, and proceeded to cover the puck with his hand to push it out of the goal (usually leads to a penalty shot) also while the puck was over the line. A LONGGGG review insued after the play and it was determined that Toronto's war room hates the Flyers the puck never crossed the line or it was inconclusive if the puck did go completely over the line. Then the game ended with the score 2 to 0.

Now the Flyers sit in 7th place after they could have jumped to 5th with a win over Ottawa. They enter tonight's game with 3 straight losses, and one win in their last 6 games. I can't really say much else besides that they need to win tonight, or I count our season over. I have already pretty much accepted the fact that we will not win a series in the playoffs if we even make it. I am not throwing in the towel, and I will never do that until the off season has officially begun, but damn it's hard to watch this team lately. Tonight's game is at home against the Minnesota Wild, and it begins at 7. I hope I can write something good about it tomorrow. My prediction, with how freaking PISSED OFF this team should be, 5 to 1 win.

LET'S GO FLYERS!!!

Game Night: Remember the Old Days

And now we move on to the good ole' days and welcome back to the starting goalie position, Brian Boucher (crowd starts cheering frantically, half dies from hysteria). Seriously though, I feel almost the exact same, if not better to see Boosh get back into the creese for us tonight. He hasn't started a game since December 21st, but he is our go to guy for the rest of the season and most likely through all of the playoffs. Boucher's numbers this year are ridiculously deceiving. He is no where near as terrible as it seems, just got unlucky being thrown into games, just to have the team come back and score enough goals for him to end up with the loss. Take at least 3 or 4 of his losses and hand them right over to Leighton and it makes more sense. All of his mop-up duty has started with him getting in, giving up a goal or two because he was rusty, and then playing lights out the rest of the game. Hopefully, now that he's starting, he won't need to let in that early goal and will get the shut out tonight.

As for the rest of the team, if they play like they did when Leights came in earlier this year, Boosh should be fine. Hell, if they played the way they did with Leights I could see him getting a few shut outs before the season is over. The defense needs to tighten up starting with Pronger and all the way down to Parent/Coburn. The forwards need to have just that little bit more jump in their step and get to the loose pucks first. Our last game was great in stretches, and honestly, the bounces will go our way, starting with the game tonight. We can chase Turco/Lehtonen tonight easily just like the last time we played them. If we play good sound hockey, we will break this 13 year(!) winless streak in Dallas. It's time to show the West what we're made of. My prediction 3 to 0 win. Goals by Carter, Lappy, and Prongs. Let's do this, plus I want to win the Flyers Goal Scored By... t-shirt this week!

LET'S GO FLYERS!!!

Missing the Game

So I figured I would have to miss a few games this year, but tonight I will be heading down to watch the Ovechkin-less Capitals play against the Panthers. Should be a good game since the Panthers have been playing quite well lately and the Caps don't have Ovechkin for the next two games because of his suspension. Anyways, onto the Flyers vs Predators game tonight.

We are going to win. That is all. 4 to 2.

Also, if you get a chance, search for the Predators trailer. And I am speaking about the nasty aliens that have stealth and sick weapons to kill people with. Right now there are only clips online, but the full trailer is due to be released on Thursday. Do check it out.

Let's Go Flyers!!!

Tired Flyers

Yes, I will go there. After playing probably their best game of the year on Saturday afternoon, beating the Blackhawks 3 to 2 in an incredible come from behind win, the Flyers started their trip from hell to NY. I can only imagine that every player on the Flyers team was emotionally drained from the effort and physical game they played against Chicago. After that game, they boarded a train for NY. Said train ends up loosing power or something and gets stuck on the train tracks for about 5 hours from what I hear. So long so that the Flyers actually ordered a food delivery to the train...I hope that guy got a good tip. The Flyers had to get off the train and take a bus the rest of the way to NY, arriving at their hotel around midnight or so. The trip from Philly to NY usually takes about an hour by train. This trip took about 7 hours door to door. Also, remember, that was the night of daylight savings, causing the Flyers to loose an hour from that. All in all, they were going to be tired.

They started off the game with a lot of hop in their step, but I still think it was only to get that one goal, and then try to relax for the rest of the game, which is what happened. They opened up the scoring, but shortly there after fell asleep for the rest of the game. What other way do you explain Avery getting two goals against us. So yes, I will not give the Rangers any glimpse of hope that they are actually good. We were tired and we could not get fully prepared for this game. Things will be different come April. Just watch and see.

Game Night: Classic Revenge

It's a lazy day today. Please refer to Flyers Goal Scored By... for your game preview. Also, if you get this in time, get in on the contest! Even know I've rigged the contest and have injected steroids into the players I've chosen, at least you can have some fun! Click here for the game preview and click here for the contest rules. Good Luck! My prediction tonight...extreme revenge, 7 to 2 beat down!

Let's Go Flyers!!!

Our Favorite Little Team

So, most likely against their own personal feelings, the New York Islanders come to town tonight. Currently, the longest winning streak against one team in the NHL is held by the Flyers, and you guessed it, against the Islanders. We have made it 14 straight games over the course of the last three seasons. That's just embarrassing. Although we do play them six times every year, you would think out of pure luck that they would be able to slip at least one of the last 14 away, but to the happiness of all Flyers fans, that has not happened. I personally blame the streak on my good friend Luke, who, back around the beginning of this streak, claimed that no longer were the Islanders his favorite team (after about 15 years of only watching them) and now the Sharks are. He completely jumped ship on his boys, and ran off to one of the best teams during the regular season every year (we all know how they play in the playoffs). So to my friend Luke, I say, tonight makes 15 buddy.

As for the game itself, we will have Leights starting in goal as usual, which after reading Broad Streets blog post arguing for Bouch to start, I am not happy about. Leights should do fine, but we will see Bouch flop around this weekend and give up two soft ones as expected when he gets in. Besides that, everything else will most likely stay the same. I would like to see Leino get in again for Hartnell with the Carter/Briere line, but that is extremely doubtful. Looking over at the Islanders, their savior Tavares has fallen apart and has now scored I believe 3 goals in his last 23 games or something like that. I'm sure he will bounce back at some point, but it won't do anything to help the Islanders salvage this season. My biggest worry about this game will be the Flyers being over confident and playing down to the Islanders level of play, as we have done many, many times in the past. We should be able to walk into this game tonight and win 38 to 0, but we won't. My prediction is this, 6 to 1. I'm going big in hopes that the team wants to prove that they won't play down to a much worse team for the rest of the year. Let's watch Carts, Richie, Briere, Gagne, and the rest of the gang keep up the solid play.

Let's Go Flyers!!!

Hockey Hangover

I hate the Florida Panthers. I have no idea why we cannot play against them AT ALL. I believe in the past 3 years, we have been able to win one game in Florida, and that one game I missed. It was a disgrace to be at that game the other night. The defense was HORRIBLE, the goaltending was even worse, just a complete shit show. The offense looked decent at times, but not great. I will still give the team a pass on this one, but there better be a big turn around tonight. I'm not going to go much further into the game except to make the point that Scott Hartnell needs to be benched NOW. I don't care if we call someone up, or play Powe hurt, anything will be better than watching Hartnell skate around lost, taking stupid penalties and turning over the puck non stop. I believe it was the 4th goal that Hartnell didn't back check hard and it led straight to a goal. He just doesn't seem to have the heart to play anymore. And most of his penalties just come from him being lazy. I'm sick of it and he needs to be taught a lesson. Just give him a couple games in the press box and maybe he will smarten up. It's just not going to work for us. Anyways, moving on.

Tonight we play the Buffalo Sabres who have been realing pretty bad lately. They dropped the division lead to the Senators before the break and then followed it up with a loss to Pitt and Wash. They are an easy target and as they always say, KICK THE DOG WHILE IT'S DOWN! Miller will be in net for sure, and if we pepper him with shots right from the beginning and possibly pot one or two, he will be completely off his game. We cannot allow him to get into his groove because then he is almost impossible to beat. I am really looking forward to this game since the last one was such a let down.

I am hopeing that Lavi will be smart and quit switching up the lines so much. Give these guys some time to get some chemistry. Or else, switch them and let them all play together for more than one game. Here is my ideal set up, just personally:

Gagne-Richards-Briere
JVR-Carter-Giroux
Asham-Powe/Lieno-Hartnell (But place Lieno in Harnell's spot if Powe is healthy)
Carcillo-Betts-Laperriere

First line is just deadly with all our best players except maybe Carter. Second line is two good playmakers that can feed a true goal scorer. Third line is grit with a little skill, and the fourth is just a power house. Why not give it a try?

Anyways, I hope we can actually make something happen tonight. This is a big game with Buffalo just ahead of us in the standings and we can pull closer with this win. Also, we have Boston 2 points behind and Atlanta 3 points behind. We need to pull away NOW! What better way to go into a four game home stand than with a nice win against a team we need to beat. Let's see it happen. My prediction, 4 to 1 Flyers!

LET'S GO FLYERS!!!

Flyers vs Panthers

This is where I will be tonight, actually, in about 3 hours from now, preparing to watch our Flyers destroy Florida. Florida was supposed to have a fire sale today on the trade deadline, but really only moved some minor pieces out and nothing back in. They still have Vokoun in net, they still have Booth and Horton, they still have a terrible team. This is one of those games that we should usually walk right over the team and at least escape with a 2-2 record against a much weaker team, but for some odd reason, Philly plays TERRIBLE in south florida. I've gone to all of their games for the past three years and saw them win ONCE! I actually did miss the second game here last year because of my brother's wedding, and they won that, but whatever, they still don't play well here. With all the problems Florida has right now, we should easily be sitting with a 6 game win streak at the end of the night.

As most of you know, the Flyers did not make a single move at the trade deadline, so the team you see right now is the team you will see hoisting the cup at the end of the playoffs. Personally, I have absolutely no problem with that. This team is VERY good and is starting to show that they are. I would have liked to see Hartnell walk away, but we can't win everytime.

My seats are dead center ice, across from the benches, 11 rows back. Again, I will have my Richards winter classic on, and my girlfriend will have her Carcillo winter classic on, and we will be with two Panthers fans. All I want to do is just rub it in their face at the end of the night when Philly walks away with ease from this one. So with that, I bid you ado.

LET'S GO FLYERS!!!

Update: Emery Out for Season

Homer has finally come out and told the media that Emery is out for the remainder of the season and will be having hip surgery to hopefully save his CAREER. This is terrible news for Emery, but I have been seeing this coming for a long while. I hope the best for him and hope he can one day come back and play, but now it's all on my main man Leights! Unless, of course, we trade for a goalie such as I have heard Roloson's name thrown around, which I think is a terrible idea. Anyways, LET'S GO LEIGHTS!!! and LET'S GO FLYERS!!!

And We're Back!

Welcome back to the real world of hockey everyone. First and foremost I would like to congratulate Richards and Pronger on bringing back Gold medals and Timmo for bringing back a Bronze. Good work gentlemen, now you must turn those into a Stanley Cup!

Take a good look at the picture above, because there is about a 95% chance that this will be the man between the pipes leading us to the Cup this year. With Emery going on LTIR (although he can be taken off anytime) it does not look like there is a good chance of him coming back and playing as well as he can. That leaves us with the good old Michael Leighton. A lot of people are still nervous about having him as our backbone, but I for one am more than happy to see him in there. He has at least proven to me that he can handle it. When you begin your time with a new team by going 12-3-1, that has to mean something. This guy is on a mission to prove that he is a capable starter in the NHL and he is doing one hell of a job so far. Yes, there have been a few lapses when he has given up a soft goal, but it is few and far between. This team is good to go, but maybe adding Hamhuis or Torres would be nice, but I have this feeling neither will go through and the team you see now is the team you will see hoisting up the Cup this year. Now, moving forward.

Tonight we play the TB Lightning. I lived in Tampa when they won the cup back during the '03/'04 season. It was pretty cool to live right down the street from the stadium and walk to games whenever I felt like it and it's a unique atmosphere over there. Anyways, they could give the Flyers a little bit of a fight tonight if they can look past some of the issues they have gone through recently (Ass. Coach change, New Ownership, etc.). Even still, I see the Flyers walking away with this one in a 5 to 1 victory (and that one will of course be Stamkos). I can't wait for this game and am beyond elated that Flyers hockey is back!!!

P.S. I will be in attendance at the FLA vs Flyers game tomorrow night, dead center ice, opposite of the benches, 11 rows back. I'll be rocking my Richards Winter Classic jersey and my girlfriend will have on her Carcillo Winter Classic jersey.

LET'S GO FLYERS!!!