USA HOCKEY!

So tonight begins USA hockey's run for Gold (or Silver or Bronze). It will be very interesting to see if this team of young misfits can pull off something magical this year. There have been many previews of the team on the web (see: Flyers Goal Scored by..., and Puck Daddy on Yahoo), so I'm not going to waste my time with that. There are exactly ZERO Flyers players on the team, which is pretty much expected since we have what, 3 players on the roster from the U S of A. Out of those three, maybe in the future Carle and Reemer will make the team, most likely Reemer in 2014, but Boucher will never, ever, wear his country's colors to represent (sorry buddy, but you can't hang with Thomas, Miller and Quick). My best guess would be a 4th place finish for the team this year, I hope for better but am trying to be somewhat realistic here.

As for team Canada, we have two Flyers on there with Richards, and Pronger getting the call. Richards will probably play as a 3rd or 4th line center (shows how deep that team really is) and Pronger will most likely be on the top defensive pairing. It will be very interesting to see how they each play, and hopefully Richards can score a few, as well as Prongs. I'm looking forward to watching them play.

As for the Flyers themselves, jump over to a couple good reads on the Flyers SBNation blog, Broad Street Hockey, where they have a couple of great articles discussing Leighton and what to do with him as well as a defense against Flying P's blog post about why Briere has not been getting more heckling from Flyers fans. As for me, I might take some time off the next week or so before diving back into the blogosphere. I hope everyone has a great Olympic Break and Let's Go Team USA.

Extension and Wins

So, as most of you should know, Blair Betts got a contract extension late last night/early this morning for the next 2 years. This is probably the smartest thing Homer has done ever. Betts has been playing amazing for us this year and is someone that we will need moving forward. His skill in the faceoff circle and the fact that he plays a ton of the hard minutes (penalty kill) has been one of those things we have always needed and will always need being the Flyers. So hats off to Mr. Betts and maybe he can thank us by putting in a couple tonight, that would be very nice of him.

As for the game tonight and the last two against NJ, all I can say is WOW. 2 come from behind wins, against a division rival, and a team we may face in the playoffs. That's something to be extremely happy about. Now we play Montreal who is sitting 1 point ahead of us in the standings and we need to win these games. If we can steal these two games from them, then I will have been right on my prediction that they needed to win 6 of their last 8 before the break to be in a good place. These games will not be easy, but they are definitely not that hard. I am hopeing we can slip away with both of these games, and maybe have one of them be a huge blowout.

My predictions: Tonight 6 to 1 Flyers, tomorrow 3 to 0 Flyers. Let's hope for the best!

Let's Go Flyers!!!

"Must Win" Games

First, I apologize for disappearing for a few days. I went in for shoulder surgery on Thursday and have been down since. I made it back to work today, sling and all, and am still having trouble typing since I can only use one hand for the time being. So this is going to be short.

We haven't played over our competition in the last two games. This is not a good thing. We should have walked away from this trip 3-0-0 instead walking away 1-2-0. This is not good and we need to fix it. Tonight, we get back home and face a newly "offensive" New Jersey team. They have added Kovalchuk and all of his amazing offensive abilities, but that is all that he has. By adding him they have put a huge liability to their defensive end. I watched Kovis first game against NYR and he did not back check AT ALL. He sat in the neutral zone and "cherry picked" waiting for a cheap goal or break away. It was evident in their last game that he was not the "huge, season changing" acquisition that they had hoped for since they lost 3-1. I might be talking crazy, but we should be able to take both of these next two games from the division leader. I want to see our superstars play like superstars NOW. I'm predicting a 4 to 1 win tonight, and then a 3 to 0 win in Jersey. Let's see some hustle boys.

Let's Go Flyers!

The Flyers Savior is here...

Yeah, that's right, I said it. Lukas Krajicek will become the Flyers savior for the season. He will defy all odds, start playing like a first line d-man, and blow everyone's mind that he isn't making shit for money at the end of the year. But now back to reality, I really do like this guy. His face does scare the crap out of me, but he can play Lavi's system pretty much just as well as any other d-man on the team. He was jumping up into plays, he was putting shots on goal with a pretty huge slapper, he was being defensively responsible. A lot of this probably helps while playing with an All-Star such as Timonen, but never the less, he did his job. If you didn't notice, he also spent a decent bit of time playing with Oskars Bartulis. I like the addition, and I hope he will continue to prove to everyone that he deserved to go in the first round all those years ago.

Onto a quick recap of last night:

The best game of the season so far for every aspect. Defense, offense, (sort of) special teams, goaltending. It was all there for the entire team. The Richards goal from the Gange "smack the puck out of the air, perfect with no bounce for Richards to slam home" play was pretty intense and very lucky. Giroux's ridiculous backhander that completely fooled Kippy was sweet. And it's funny, after the game he was asked about it and he actually said, "I wanted to go forehand, but the defense got back and I had to shoot backhand". He really did make Kippy look stupid. Besides that, as I already said, it was one hell of a game and hopefully we can keep it rolling as we get to Edmonton. If we play another game like this against the lowely Edmonton squad, it will be about 6 or 8 to 0. I can't wait to see it. (Philly 3 - Calgary 0)

Let's Go Philly!!!

BAG SKATE!!!

Although these are kids, this is exactly what every single player on the Flyers should look like after practice until they start to play a full 60 minutes every game. And they won't get breaks from this until they do it at least five straight games. I'm sick and tired of watching them just give up on games when they have a two goal lead. I know, it's the usual for Philly and it has been this way for many, many years, but at some point, it has got to change. Laviolette is not the type of coach to put up with this crap. I mean look at this face, does that look like someone who is going to sit back and let his team under-perform?

This Saturday will show us all nothing at all about the Flyers; unless they lose. If they win, it goes into the bucket of "We Own the Islanders", but if we actually lose to them, then there is a glarring "we play down to our opponents level". It is going to take a good solid 5 or 6 game win streak against some decent teams to change my feelings on this team and this season. If we can pull that off right before going into the Olympic break, then I can see us in the playoffs this year and making a decent run, possibly to win the Cup. If we can't pull that off, I will not be surprised at all to find our season ending before the playoffs even begin. We have eight games until the break, that means we need to go at least 5 and 3 or 6 and 2. Deep down inside I think they can do it, but it all depends on what they think and what they do. A win tomorrow afternoon will make this weekend 10 times better, so please Philly, I beg you, beat the crap out of the Islanders like usual and let me enjoy my weekend even more.

FAIL

I haven't been this angry about a hockey game since game 6 of the playoffs last year. HOW? I ask, HOW the hell do you give up on this game? Drop your asses out. From watching this game we don't deserve to make the playoffs this year, and we probably won't. Just absolutely pathetic.

On another note. The rules need to be changed so when a fucking goalie like Hedburg rushes out of the net, he can be put on his ass just like any other player. And in such situations, if he loses his helmet, that's his fault and he deserves a puck to the face if it happens...Just my thoughts.

As for the Flyers, you can never, EVER have even one day off for the rest of the year, because things like this happen when you think you are better than you are.

The One Man Team

Yeah, no joke, that really is Ilya Kovalchuk wearing a kilt for some reason. Guys still a pimp though.

Anyways, tonight we have Kovalchuk and his AHL teammates in town. It really is pathetic that there really are only 3 or 4 good players on this entire team. Also, as everyone knows, they are trying to deal off Kovalchuk for what seems like will be as many draft picks as they can possibly get. He truly is a superstar, and by far the second best winger and Russian in the NHL, behind only Ovechkin. Even though we lost to Atlanta in our last outing, which was our first lost to them in the previous 14 games that we played them, and that was when we forgot how to play hockey and right after that game, Stevens got the axe. Well, now we are back to playing real hockey, and are doing quite well at it. I believe we are 11-4-1 in our last 16; pretty impressive. Games against ATL are also made easier because all we have to do is shutdown Kovi and we should be fine. Since we have two shutdown defenseman that play on different lines, that job works out perfect.

As for the Flyers' players getting points, the two big guns right now are Carter and Pronger who have been playing very well. Emery has been steady since coming back, which is always a good sign. I have this feeling JVR is going to have a good game tonight, and I think it all stems from reading so many articles about Myers and Duchene and how the Calder race is all about them, which I find to be complete bullshit. JVR is playing third line minutes at best, and is still producing as many points and as good of play as those two dicks. If they don't take into account those things when looking at the Calder this year, I'll be pretty angry. Besides that, look for the Flyers to come out on fire this game after having three days to think about losing to the dreaded Pens and how awful the powerplay was. I'm expecting a HUGE win tonight. Biggest win of the year. I'm going with 9 to 2, and that's at most 2 for ATL.

LET'S GO FLYERS!!!