An idea for next year’s sweaters……..

So we never really go off the beaten path and do feature stuff here. Time to kick that to the curb. Have I ever mentioned my love for hockey sweaters? Perhaps my collection of over 100 of them speaks for itself on that issue, but I’m faced with a daunting task. I have to buy a Flyers jersey FOR SOMEONE ELSE OTHER THAN ME. Gasp! The girlfriend is slowly becoming a Flyers fan (not a puck bunny, under strict orders from Geleff), and it’s time to get her some orange and black. After deciding on purchasing an orange sweater, it got me thinking. With the team sporting the orange full-time, the Winter Classic sweater likely taking over on the road, what becomes of the 3rd jersey? To get some of you that read to comment on an article for once, I’m taking suggestions as to who should go on the back of my own orange sweater that has been blank for far too long. Leading candidate is JVR. The girlfriend wants Carcillo because “he kicks people’s asses”. Looks like I’m doing it right.

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Flyers Sweep Home-and-Home series against Habs, head into Olympic break on 4 game win streak

The Flyers are holding on to the sixth spot in the Eastern Conference heading into the Olympic break, and it’s all because they’ve swept the competition this past week. They finalized things Saturday night with a commanding victory over the Montreal Canadiens. The game was expected to be a blood bath after Friday night’s match-up ended in a brawl, but aside from a few fisticuffs, and a scrap between Ian Laperrière and Ryan O’Byrne just four seconds into the game, it was a fairly calm evening in Quebec.

The fan favorite, and I use the term lightly, in Montreal, Danny Briere, scored his fourth career hat trick to help lead the Flyers in a 6-2 rout over the Habs. Briere hasn’t had a hatty in two years, but he said it felt nice to do it in front of family members, friends, and of course, the lovely Montreal fans casting boos down onto him. Danny scored his hat trick on a beautiful penalty shot move after being tripped up by Ryan O’Byrne late in the third period.

Jeff Carter, Mike Richards, and Blair Betts also added tallies for the Flyers.

The Flyers put in one of their best games I’ve seen in awhile, and because of it, their special teams finally clicked. They were two-for-four of the power play, and even managed a shorthanded goal as well.

Michael Leighton again put in a stellar effort, again reminding me why I think he should be this team’s true number one goalie. He just seems to be extremely confident. We’ll see if Laviolette decides to ride him after the break. I wish he would. Emery just hasn’t been the same since his injury.

The Flyers are 6-2 in their last eight games. Definitely something to be excited about for after the Olympic break. Hopefully the two weeks off doesn’t ruin any chemistry this team had going for them. I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

Just because the NHL is on Olympic break doesn’t mean we are. We’ll be reporting on the Olympics, and more specifically, the Flyers in the Olympics, as the games begin on Tuesday afternoon. Stay tuned!

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Flyers Down Habs 3-2

The Flyers opened up a true home-and-home tonight in South Philly versus the Canadiens.  Fresh off two come from behind wins over the Devils, the Flyers would look to move up in the very tight Eastern Conference race.  Michael Leighton was again in goal for Philly while Carey Price was in for Montreal.  Jeff Carter would get the Flyers on the board first, late in the first period.  Briere picked up the orginal rebound from Carter and sent it out in front where Scott Hartnell had a few whacks at it, only to be stuffed by Price.  But Carter found the loose puck and slipped it by Price for the 1-0 lead.  The Flyers stormed out in the 2nd period scoring twice in two minutes.  Carter added his second to make it 2-0, and Matt Carle scored to make it 3-0.  The Flyers seemed to be in command at this point.  But they would come out a bit flat in the 3rd and let Montreal tget it back to 3-2 with goals from (former Flyer, noticing a theme here folks?) and newly acquired Dominic Moore.  Both the Habs goals seemed to come from our in ability to clear the puck from the zone.  Metropolit’s goal seemed to bounce high off the glass, and nobody could find it, except for him.  With a minute left, Darroll Powe laid out Jaroslav Spacek behind the Montreal net.  The play resulted in 5min major and Game Misconduct for Powe.  The hit didn’t look especially dirty or anything, as Spacek turned just as Powe came in to hit him.  Spacek’s status is unknown.  Montreal pulled the goalie for the remaining time, but was unable to capitalize.  And the Flyers pulled out a 3-2 win.  As the game ended a scrum ensued, with Gionta and Gomez the lead antagonists for Montreal.  Have to wonder what they were thinking mixing it up with Pronger and Lappy.  The whole thing lasted a few mintues until the men in stripes were finally able to separate everyone.  No doubt Montreal sticking up for Spacek and sending a little message for tomorrow night.

All around a pretty good effort tonight, save for that spurt early in the 3rd period.  The Power Play continued to struggle, failing to convert on numerous chances in the 3rd period.  Leighton looked sharp in goal once again.  Jeff Carter continued his fine play, adding two more goals.  The Flyers are right back at it again tomorrow night in Montreal, for the final game before the Olympic Break.

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Pre-Olympic Trade Recap

With the Trade Freeze going into effect at 3pm this afternoon, teams looked to make a few moves early.  There were two notable deals completed today.

The first was between the Minnesota Wild and the Chicago Blackhawks.  Chicago sent D Cam Barker to Minnesota for (former Flyer) D Kim Johnsson, and D Nick Leddy, a 1st round pick in 2009.  This sure looks like a salary cap move for the Blackhawks.

The second deal involved Ottawa and Carolina.  Carolina sent veteran winger Ray Whitney to the Senators for (former Flyer) D Alexandre Picard and a 2nd round pick.  It’s not much of a surprise that Whitney was moved, as the rumor mill was churning for quite some time.  Whitney was a guy I thought we could use here in Philly for some extra scoring depth.  Following this, the Senators also place Johnathon Cheechoo on waivers.

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Flyers sweep home-and-home with Devils in overtime

Simon Gagne finally snapped his 12 game goalless streak Wednesday night with a dominant shift in overtime, wristing home the winner over the left shoulder of Martin Brodeur. After missing with a shot just seconds earlier, Gagne skated around Ilya Kovalchuk and Patrik Elias before letting go of the game winner in the slot. The Flyers also received goals from Arron Asham and Jeff Carter. Michael Leighton gave up two first period goals, albeit softies, to Travis Zajac and Rob Niedermayer, but settled down to stop 21 shots for the victory.

The Flyers managed to win a game down 2 goals against the Devils for the second straight game in a row, while only mustering a total of 15 shots on goal. The first period started off with those two fluky goals, but the Flyers got a huge response from former Devil Arron Asham to make it a close game. The Devils certainly squandered their fair share of scoring chances, with prized acquisition Ilya Kovalchuk “Jeff Cartering” a few shots off of the glass/wide, and Travis Zajac missing an empty net as well. The hot topic of debate was Scott Hartnell’s no-goal that would have tied the game at 2 at the end of the first. While physics may have told you that the puck was in, the NHL’s war room saw things differently. Cue the “MSG+ didn’t send the correct camera angle” theories.

Jeff Carter buried a wrister off the iron in the second to tie the game, so the no-goal didn’t exactly hinder the offense. Earlier in the day, Carter received the news that he would be a part of Team Canada, as Ryan Getzlaf suffered an ankle injury earlier this week which will put his Olympic status in doubt. The Flyers had a couple of breaks in this game, with Zach Parise missing the game completely due to an upper body injury (which isn’t good for Team USA :/). The Devils also lost Bryce Salvador early on, as he took a high stick in the defensive zone, leaving with vision problems. The Flyers played relatively disciplined, but special teams weren’t the key point of this game. Leighton coming up with the big stops certainly was the highlight of the game, with Gagne’s goal being the icing on the cake.

Upcoming notes: The Flyers play another home-and-home set against Montreal this weekend, before the Olympic break takes over. The Opening Ceremonies for the Games is tomorrow for our Olympic followers. Ray Emery will get 3 weeks, including the Olympic Break, to rest his ailing hip.

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Why trading for Marty Turco is a horrible idea

The Stars recent acquisition of former Thrasher goalie Kari Lehtonen almost certainly means the end of Marty Turco’s career as a Dallas Star. The end of Turco’s tenure in Dallas instantaneously jump starts the rumors of Turco being traded to Philadelphia.

Marty Turco is 34 years of age and is clearly on the downswing of his career. It’s clear that Turco still has the ability to be an effective goalie in the NHL, but he has Marty Biron syndrome. Turco lets in some terribly soft goals and doesn’t have the best positioning I’ve ever seen. He’s become disliked in Dallas and fans are ready to move on from the Turco era.

Nick Kypreos of Rogers’ SportsNet first broke the news of Philadelphia being interested in Turco’s services on Twitter:

Dallas/Atlanta still waiting for trade call to complete Kari Lehtonen deal. Dallas/ Philly talks ongoing for Marty Turco.

On the other hand, you have TSN’s Bob McKenzie who is reporting that the Flyers aren’t as interested in Turco as the Chicago Blackhawks are.

Whichever way you look at it, this is a terrible idea. Why?

Marty Turco comes with a $5.7 million cap hit which is absolutely insane for a goalie of his skill level. He doesn’t deserve that kind of money and he flat out will not be able to fit here unless the Flyers move a big money maker. Namely, Danny Briere and Scott Hartnell, Simon Gagne, or Jeff Carter. Briere and Gagne have NTC’s, and Jeff Carter has already been deemed untouchable by Paul Holmgren.

In order for this to work, the Flyers would have to do several things that they’d end up regretting, one of which includes trading for a 34 year old goalie who can barely play anymore. That, and the Flyers don’t need a goalie.

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Thrashers trade Kari Lehtonen to Dallas

The Atlanta Thrashers have traded goaltender Kari Lehtonen to the Dallas Stars for top prospect, Ivan Vishnevskiy and a 4th round draft pick in 2010.

This trade adds Lehtonen to an abundance of goaltenders in the Dallas Stars system, however, with all four of them set to become unrestricted free agents this summer, this move makes a lot of sense.

Lehtonen has had his share of issues this season, but has been reliable for the Thrashers.

With the rumors surrounding Marty Turco’s immediate future with the Stars, it’s been assumed that they were looking for some youth in-between the pipes.

The Stars give up a young, defensive prospect who is small, quick, and mobile who has tremendous offensive talents. Picture a young Sergei Zubov. Vishnevskiy was a fan favorite, and rightfully so. However, his play was nothing but potential.

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Gameday Preview: 2/10/10 – Flyers vs Devils Pt. 2, snow edition?

To say that the Flyers have all the momentum heading into tonight’s home-and-home rematch against the Devils is an understatement. The Flyers stormed back from a 2-0 deficit on Monday night to beat the struggling Devils in a crucial Atlantic Division match-up. The Devils have now won just three of their last ten games. They’re struggling, and the Flyers need the points. Badly. The Flyers currently hold the eighth and final playoff spot, tied with the 9th place Bruins, and just one point behind the Montreal Canadiens, with 61 points.

The Flyers did a good job Monday night of keeping the threat of  Ilya Kovalchuk to a minimum. He’s been fairly average against the Flyers throughout his career. He didn’t show many signs of life until the later parts of the third period on the power play. Even then, he was rocketing shots high and wide constantly. He was, for the most part, a non-factor. I don’t expect that to be the case tonight. Kovalchuk got his first practice with the Devils yesterday since being traded to the club. He’s now had time to start understanding his line mates and Lemaire’s system.

The lines will remain the same as they were on Monday night. Michael Leighton will remain the starter while Emery sits out with his hip injury. Newcomer Ville Leino is still not being added into the line-up, and it appears that Peter Laviolette wants to tell the media that he has no use for him in the system, but he doesn’t know how.

On a site related note, content’s been low this week. I’ve been smashed with school work. Our podcast wasn’t recorded because my headset decided to break at the last minute, so recording it would have been impossible. Stay tuned for updates, though.

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A comeback against Brodeur? With our offense? Nooo…

It happened, folks. Five minutes into the second period, I said to myself, “This game is over.” The Flyers offense looked terrible. Passes weren’t being completed and the simplest of breakouts and defensive plays were being terribly misplayed. It was a miracle that the score was as low as it was at that point in the game.

Shortly after that, Jeff Carter delivered a debatable hit to Anssi Salmela (I’ll have more on the hit later in the post), just a split second after he put the Devils 2nd goal behind Michael Leighton.  The hit seemed to be the energy boost that the Flyers needed, as terrible as it sounds to say that. From that point on, it was all Flyers. James van Riemsdyk got the Flyers on the board early after a crafty move and shot beat the NJ defender and flew by Martin Brodeur. Seconds later, Jeff Carter finally hit an open net on a 2-on-1 pass from Scott Hartnell.

When the third period started, the Flyers came out and showed that they were the better team and wanted to win this game. Mike Richards broke the tie on the power play on a pretty pass from Kimmo Timonen was dished out from behind the goal line. That was all the Flyers needed to beat the Devils tonight.

Once the Flyers woke up tonight, they showed us a great defensive effort and they generated a ton of offensive opportunities. When you’re playing a goalie like Martin Brodeur, you’re going to need all the opportunities you can get. Michael Leighton was awesome in goal tonight, too.

Part two of this home and home series is Wednesday night in New Jersey.

As for the hit, here’s a video of it first.

This hit looked so much worse in the arena and until I got a few more looks at it, I was convinced that it was a dirty hit on Carter’s behalf. Once we slow down the replay, though, it’s not as bad as people are going to make it out to be. Is it a suspendable hit? Probably, but not deserving. Anssi Salmela was skating through the slot with his head down. As hockey players in peewee, we’re taught not to do that. Always be aware of your surroundings, and have your head on a swivel at all times. Salmela did none of those.

The argument that everyone will bring up here is that it was a late hit, but was it? Had Leighton made the save, the rebound would have been right on Salmela’s stick for an easy tap in had Carter not pushed him off the puck.

It’s a tough call to make, but we’d like to know what you think. Drop a comment down below.

Oh, by the way, our podcast debuts tomorrow! Stay tuned for that! Goodnight everyone!

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Gameday Preview: 2/8/10 – Flyers vs Devils

In two games, the Flyers have scored one goal. They’re in an offensive slumber. Again. If they want to stand a chance against the New Jersey Devils tonight, who are 4-5-1 in their last ten games, they’re going to need to put more than one puck into the net. It’s coming down to the wire, and these divisional games are crucial. The Flyers need points, and they need ‘em now.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last week, you probably know that the Devils acquired Ilya Kovalchuk, Atlanta’s prized sniper, who is undoubtedly one of the best goal scorers in the league. With the return of Patrick Elias to the line-up, Kovalchuk is an even bigger threat. Not to mention his abilities on the power play. I have little doubt that the Flyers won’t shut down the Devils offense, because the defense has been awesome the last three games. I’m just worried about being able to come back from a 1-goal defecit. How miserable is that?

It’s unknown who is going to start in goal tonight. The Flyers didn’t have practice yesterday due to inclimate weather conditions. It’s also unknown whether or not newly acquired Ville Leino will play tonight, and if he does, where he’ll play. Bill Meltzer is reporting that there have been “indications that Leino will replace Darroll Powe on the left-wing on the Jeff Carter line,” but nobody is certain.

The Devils are too good when they’re playing with the lead, so it’s absolutely crucial for the Flyers to hop on them early and keep the goals coming. Falling behind in the first period will be unacceptable, and we’ll be talking about another loss in tonight’s recap.

Recap will be a little later than usual tonight; I’ll be at the Wachovia Center taking this one in.

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