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!

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

Sleeping Flyers lose to Minnesota, 2-1

Two mistakes by Michael Leighton, sleeping offense, and a stunning performance by Anton Khudobin. That’s the story of tonight’s game. And that’s really all I’m going to talk about here.

In his first NHL start, the rookie Anton Khudobin made 38 saves on 39 shots. A lot of those shots were put right into his chest, though. The Flyers made Khudobin look better than he probably is. Or maybe he’s good. Who knows. I don’t.

As I said, there were a lot of shots put into the chest of Khudobin. The Flyers need to acquire someone who can put the puck into the net. And they need to do it fast before they’re too far down in the standings for it to matter.

Michael Leighton was at fault for both goals tonight, but those weren’t the reason for the loss tonight. The Flyers can’t score. You must score goals to win hockey games. Michael Leighton kept the Flyers in the game tonight. Easily making up for his mistakes.

I don’t have much else to say. I’m sorry. I don’t want to go off on a tangent about how I think the Flyers need to rebuild their team and stop relying on free agency, because that’s just stupid right now. But, fuuuuuck.

Gameday Preview: 2/6/10 – Flyers vs Wild

The Flyers are hoping to bounce back from Wednesday night’s loss to the league’s worst Oilers with a win tonight against the Minnesota Wild. Tonight’s game will conclude another Flyers road trip with, hopefully, a 2-1 record. The Flyers have won 6-of-9 games against the Wild all-time.

Tonight’s big story lies in-between the Minnesota pipes. Both Niklas Bäckström and Josh Harding are out of the line-up tonight. Bäckström has the flu, and Harding is still nursing an injured hip. The 23-year-old rookie, Anton Khudobin will make his NHL debut tonight for the Wild.

Ray Emery is expected to be back in net tonight for the Flyers. He was a scratch from Wednesday’s game with rumored groin soreness, and/or disciplinary issues. I’m willing to go with groin soreness. Emery seems to have cleaned up his act. I hope. He’s been playing well recently, and I think giving him the night off on Wednesday was a good idea.

Three Keys to Victory:

• Break the trend – The Flyers have been getting stonewalled by back-up goalies all season. That needs to end tonight.
• Generate offense – I know this kind of ties in with beating a back-up goalie, but the Flyers weren’t the best at capitalizing on their offensive opportunities on Wednesday against the Oilers. This offense is just too inconsistent.
• Continue the defensive play – The last two games for the Flyers have been awesome defensively. Team defense has been a key as of late, and the team is really buying into that. It’s shown. Keep it up, and the goals will start to come. I hope.

It is still unknown whether or not Ville Leino will play for the Flyers tonight. Paul Holmgren has asked him to join the team, however. If you weren’t aware, the Flyers acquired Leino from the Red Wings this morning in exchange of Ole-Kristian Tollefsen and a 5th round draft pick in the 2011 Entry Draft.

Update 1:17PM - Ray Emery will miss tonight’s game with tightness in his left hip. Michael Leighton will get the start again, per Paul Holmgren.

Flyers acquire Ville Leino from Detroit, in exchange for Ole-Kristian Tollefsen

Ole-Kristian Tollefsen’s short, injury-plagued stint with the Philadelphia Flyers has come to an end. The Flyers traded the 25 year old defenseman and a fifth round draft pick in the 2011 Entry Draft this morning to the Detroit Red Wings in exchange of forward Ville Leino.

Ville Leino was orginally signed by the Red Wings in 2008 from Jokerit of the Finnish League. Ville Leino has played in 55 NHL games over two seasons, and has scored 9 goals and tallied 7 assists. Last summer, the Wings re-upped his contract, signing him to a two-year deal.

The kid’s apparently got skill. From the little I know about him, a few Red Wing fans have filled me in and say he’s a pleasure to watch, and has tremendous potential.

Here’s a clip of Leino’s first NHL goal:

The Flyers lose defenseman Ole-Kristian Tollefsen, who has been troubled by injury for the majority of the season – a big worry at the time of OKT’s signing was his ability to play without getting injured. Tollefsen became expendable last week when the Flyers signed Lukas Krajicek.

WE BELIEVE IN ORANGE 2010 trade deadline coverage

I said new features would keep coming, didn’t I?

This isn’t much of a feature, but in the coming days I’ll be making the site accessible to all of your 2010 NHL trade deadline coverage. We’ll be covering a lot of the rumors, trades, and failed trades up until the March 3rd deadline.

If you’re tired of reading Eklund’s jargon, you’re always welcome here.

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