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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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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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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Our first and last article on the Kovalchuk Sweepstakes

There’s a guy who plays for the Atlanta Thrashers and you may’ve heard of him lately. His name is Ilya Kovalchuk and Atlanta GM Don Waddell is looking for a trading partner to dish the highly skilled superstar. The problem here is, if you remember the whole Jay Bouwmeester situation of yesteryear, Waddell is asking for entirely too much in return.

Eklund has been going rumor crazy as of late saying that there are several big name hockey markets in on the Kovalchuk deal, and a select few “mystery teams”. That’s probably just Eklund being a downright retard, as usual, but we can confirm that the Flyers are one of the big market teams in the deal. The Chicago Blackhawks, Boston Bruins, Philadelphia Flyers, Calgary Flames, New Jersey Devils, Los Angeles Kings and New York Rangers are teams suspected to be involved in the trade talks for the Russian sniper.

If the Flyers were to be involved in a deal for Kovalchuk, they’d have to trade a lot of talent and salary; about $6.5 million worth. Names that are being thrown around the hockey world are Danny Briere, Simon Gagne, Claude Giroux, James Van Riemsdyk, Jeff Carter (even though Homer’s already said he wouldn’t be moved), Scott Hartnell, Braydon Coburn, and Matt Carle on top of some other prospects and players from the Phantoms. Briere, Gagne, and Hartnell all have no movement clauses, so they would have to waive those clauses in order for any of this to come to fruition, and there haven’t even been rumors of Paul Holmgren asking any of them to do so.

I, personally, wouldn’t want to see Simon Gagne waive his no trade clause and be sent away to a terrible hockey market such as Atlanta. It’d be terrible to see a guy who’s been a Flyer his whole career just shoved away like that. Gagne’s always been my favorite hockey player, but if I had to send him away along with one of Carle/Coburn, I’d do it in a second. Gagne wouldn’t do that, though. His family is growing and developing here in Philadelphia, and he’s on record a number of times saying he doesn’t want to leave.

Kovalchuk would likely be acquired as a rental player since it’s rumored that he’s going to be asking for anywhere between $9-9.5 million next season, but that could just be Waddell trying to up his value. NHL.com broke a story today that states Kovalchuk turned down, what would have been, the biggest contract given to any impending NHL free agent player ever.

Waddell said the club offered Kovalchuk a 12-year, $101 million deal, but it was rejected. Waddell said it would have been the highest contract ever signed by an impending free agent in NHL history.

In a nutshell: While it’d be great to have a guy of Kovy’s offensive capabilities on your team, he is too much of a defensive liability on the ice. And for as much money as he wants, it just wouldn’t be worth giving away your future stars for someone who may not even get you to a Cup final. Hockey is a team game made not of one player.

At this moment, it’s hard to say what’s going to happen. Yesterday, Kovalchuk was told that he would indeed be moved within the coming hours or days, but nothing has developed since then. Is Don Waddell asking too much for Kovalchuk? Is Kovalchuk being a greedy NHL player, or do you think he’ll take a paycut just to play in a big hockey market? What do you think the Flyers should/will do? Leave us your opinions in a comment down below. It’ll be good to get some discussion going on here!

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Gameday Preview: Hurricanes at Flyers

Andy isn’t around to cover this game preview, so I get to give this a shot. In an afternoon matchup at the Wachovia Center, the Carolina Hurricanes (15-27-7) take on the Flyers, fresh off their victory over the Rangers. The Flyers have defeated the Hurricanes in the three previous matchups between the two clubs this season, shutting out the ‘Canes in the first game of their season. The Flyers blew out the Hurricanes 6-1 on Halloween, a game Michael Leighton started for Carolina. Their next meeting was a 4-3 shootout win, where Leighton, in goal for the Flyers after being claimed off of waivers, stoned both Carolina shooters in the shootout to secure the victory. It will be interesting to see if Peter Laviolette goes with Emery fresh off of a shutout, or with Leighton against his former club.

The Hurricanes have been abysmal this season, stacking their roster with veterans off of a run to the Eastern Conference Finals. That has landed them in the basement of the Eastern Conference, with many Hurricanes fans already set on drafting Taylor Hall first overall. While their play of late has been better, the team is looking to move a number of their veterans with no-trade clauses, and has somewhat started the rebuild by anointing Eric Staal captain of the team. Veteran Rod Brind’ Amour, a Philadelphia fan favorite in the 1990′s, has been among the worst in terms of plus/minus in the NHL for the past two seasons, and may be playing one of his last games in front of the Philly faithful.

The Flyers come in off of a hard-fought win over the Rangers on Thursday night. The physical play was on another level, as a number of scrums and fights broke out, and the Flyers returned to their effective intimidation style of old. However, with a number of players riding hot streaks into this game, most notably, Jeff Carter, James Van Riemsdyk, Mike Richards, and Chris Pronger, the Flyers should be look to continue those streaks and exploit the weak Carolina defense. Through their previous two matchups, almost all of the goals have been scored at even strength, which should make this game an interesting one. The Flyers have managed to pounce on teams early lately, scoring the first goal a number of times. Hopefully the team comes out with some energy, and doesn’t perform like they did in a 4-0 loss to Toronto earlier this month. Also adding distraction are news reports about Calgary Flames GM Darryl Sutter was in attendance Thursday night to discuss a trade with the Flyers, which has started the spectulation of numerous rumors, with the most amusing being Dion Phaneuf for Jeff Carter (which would make me sick, personally).

Other Notes:

• Cam Ward is starting his 18th straight game for the Hurricanes.
• Mike Richards has 14 points in his last 14GP.
• Jeff Carter has 7 goals and 15 points in his last 13GP.
• Daniel Briere has 13 points in his last 13GP.
• Chris Pronger has 10 points in his last 8GP.
• Aaron Asham has 8 points in his last 9GP.
• James van Riemsdyk 10 points in his last 9GP.

Injury Report:

Hurricanes: Erik Cole (upper body), Tuomo Ruutu (upper body), Scott Walker (shoulder), Joe Corvo (leg)

Flyers: Danny Syvret (shoulder), Ryan Parent (back)

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Better effort helps Flyers swat away Jackets

The Flyers chased away another goalie tonight. This time, Mathieu Garon was the victim. Garon allowed five goals on thirty Flyer shots and was finally pulled late in the third period.

There are two stories to tonight’s game. One which I’ll get into a little bit later. However, first I need to talk about Jeff Carter’s tremendous effort tonight. I’ve been really hard on Jeff Carter as of late, but over the last five or six games, he’s starting to heat up. Tonight was no different. Carter finished tonight with 2 goals, an assist, and a +/- rating of 2. He was all over the ice and tried to elude skating down the wing and firing the puck into the goalie’s chest, which has been quite the normality for him since the middle of last season. He seems to be getting away from that, though. Jeff Carter played in the center of the ice tonight more than I have ever seen him play there. He made cuts, shot the puck with his head up, and wasn’t afraid to maneuver into spots where there was a Columbus defender. Carter now leads the team in points with 45 and it’s so nice to see him finally turning on the jets.

The team as a whole started tonight’s game with a flurry of chances and didn’t show many signs of slowing until Jeff Carter put their first tally on the board just 58 seconds into the game after forcing a turnover just inside the Columbus defensive zone. Carter would break alone on Garon and put a nifty backhander into the back of the net to start the scoring.

Peter Laviolette put it perfectly when he said, “I thought it was one of our best first periods.” I can agree with that. Although the Flyers did show a few moments of sloppy hockey throughout the game, it’s to be expected. They were clearly the better team tonight, and even though it came against a lowly Blue Jackets club who are also struggling for wins, this is not the time of the season to take any team lightly, and the Flyers didn’t do that.

Along with Jeff Carter’s two goals, Chris Pronger, Arron Asham, and Dan Carcillo also added onto Garon’s goals against statistic tonight. Asham’s goal came on a beautiful feed from Claude Giroux, Chris Pronger’s goal came on another nice feed from Danny Briere (weird to see Pronger in front of the net like that), and Dan Carcillo left Garon clueless when he shot through a screen and added the Flyers fifth goal.

The Good, and the Bad

The Good

• Claude Giroux being moved back to center paid off big time tonight. He was amongst one of the most noticeable Flyers on the ice. His assist on Asham’s goal was a thing of beauty, and that wasn’t the only play of his that made me say, “wow”.
• The Flyers showed tonight that when they actually try to play hockey, they’re good at it. For the first time in awhile, I saw more than two or three rushes with sustained pressure and it was definitely key in helping them to victory when you look at how tonight’s goals were scored.
• I already said my piece about Jeff Carter, but his second goal which he scored off the face off was one of the better things I’ve ever seen him do.

The Bad

• Like I said earlier, it wasn’t much, but the Flyers still showed signs of breaking down and playing some sloppy, scrambled hockey. This is definitely something they’re going to have to cut down on as the end of the season nears, and match ups become more and more crucial.
• Ray Emery looks better, but the rebounds he’s kicking out are beginning to worry me. Does he need another game to get them back under control, or is this a weakness that’s recently been exposed? I guess we’ll find out.

I mentioned that there were two stories to tonight’s game, and the second belongs to former Flyer RJ Umberger who, was by far, the Blue Jackets’ best player tonight. Umberger tallied two goals and was a pest in our offensive zone.

Late in the third period, Rich Nash fired a shot from just above the circle that made its way into the back of the net. The crowd originally thought that RJ Umberger deflected the puck into the net, and immediately began throwing their hats onto the ice. Ironically, tonight’s giveaway to fans entering the game was an orange Flyers hat, so everyone had something to throw. About a half minute late, Flyers famed PA announcer Lou Nolan came over the loudspeaker and whispered, “RJ Umberger did not score a hat trick.” The crowd erupted into laughter and applause.

After the game, Umberger spoke to the media:

“With them noticing the effort I put in here and how much it meant for me to be a Flyer, you know, it was a great feeling.”

“I left here on pretty good terms,” he said. “It wasn’t my choice. When I was here, I loved every minute of it. It’s a great city, I tried to be part of the community and really buy into the Flyers’ mentality.

“I owe a lot to this organization – Paul Holmgren and Bob Clarke gave me an opportunity in this league. There’s not a minute that goes by that I don’t think about this place.”

We miss you, too, RJ.

This goes to show what a blue-collar, hard working attitude will get you in Philadelphia sports. Some of this city’s athletes should take note.

One more note, RJ Umberger was given tonight’s second star selection of the game. When announcing Umberger’s name, Lou Nolan mistakenly exclaimed, “Tonight’s second star is a Flyer, ehm, excuse me, a Blue Jacket, RJ UMBERGER!”

We’ll see ya Thursday when the Rangers come to town.

[Quotes from this article courtesy of CSNPhilly.com]

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According to Paul Holmgren, Jeff Carter isn’t going anywhere

Get off of HockeyBuzz, because Eklund is wrong again.

According to ESPN.com’s Pierre LeBrun, Paul Holmgren has put all of the Jeff Carter rumor buzz to rest.

“We’re not trading Jeff Carter,” Philadelphia Flyers GM Paul Holmgren told ESPN.com on Saturday.

The 25-year-old forward is earning $5 million this season and $5.5 million in 2010-11, the last year of his deal. He’s basically been a point-a-game player for two years now, and that’s good production for his salary.

But when the Flyers struggled in the opening three months of the season, no player had his name dragged through the trade rumor mill more than Carter.

“I don’t know where all these rumors are coming from,” said Holmgren. “We are not trading him, I can tell you that.”

Jeff Carter’s production this year, compared to last, is painful to look at. It’s clear that he is not the same confident player he was last year, and since opposing teams have figured out his style of play, they have been shutting him down easily.

It’s been rumored that Carter’s name was the lead name in a trade proposed to Philadelphia by Montreal which would send the Flyers goaltender Jaroslav Halak. However, with the strong play of Michael Leighton and Ray Emery’s progressing health, as well as veteran back-up Brian Boucher, all of those rumors just seem ridiculous at best. Jeff Carter’s name has also been included in Ilya Kovalchuk talks, but those have since simmered down.

Anyway, Jeff Carter isn’t going anywhere, so don’t believe anything you read.

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A couple of Six Packs over the Weekend

So, Andy and I were able to witness the 6-1 drubbing of the Hurricanes in person. Unfortunately, we were also treated to a lackluster Halloween Costume Contest that Lou Nolan would simply dub, “pretty shitty.” Some big things stood out to me during that game:

• Matt Carle looks dominant so far. He’s obviously playing with confidence being paired with Pronger, and looks like the Hobey Baker award winner from seasons ago. He’s racking up assists so far and has shown a great feel for the offensive zone. His goal in this game was the result of him taking control on the powerplay and banging in a wrap around that Leighton horribly overplayed.
• Chris Pronger looks comfortable and has been worth the price of admission most nights. His passes are on the tape, and his shot has been deadly accurate this year. The first goal was set up off another one of his slappers. He’s been dominant on the PP and has been fine in his own zone to this point.
• The Timonen-Coburn pairing was broken up, and both responded well. Timonen chipped in with an assist and looked more comfortable. Coburn finished off a broken 2-on-1 with JVR and also buried a bomb from the point, notching both goals in the third. Together, the two have looked lost, but perhaps this showing gets them going once again.
• Ryan Parent played and had an assist, but left after re-aggravating an injury.

• JVR has gone from potential bust to star in an offseason it seems. He’s using his size to his advantage, scoring a great goal by driving the net and deking out Wallin and Leighton with a weak backhander, but he’s also showing that he’s not afraid to at least get somewhat physical, responding to a challenge from Andrew Alberts. I’m sure the time in the weightroom helped, as he looks stronger and more determined this year. Could be shaping up to be a darkhorse candidate for ROY.
• David Laliberte, who I assumed would be called up with Briere’s injury, responded with a goal and an assist his first NHL game. Considering he was in the ECHL 2 seasons ago, he’s had a monumental rise. He has the talent to stick around and produce from the looks of it, and has some chemistry with Carter it seems. I’m seeing why he stuck around so long in camp. The hot streak he went on at the end of last year with the Phantoms doesn’t seem to be a fluke.
• Arron Asham is awesome. Enough said. This needs no explaining.
• Somehow, the great check of the game was not the monster shot Laperriere landed on Carcillo that had Andy and I in stitches. :/
• This game got physical, and the Flyers responded well. Bonus points for escaping without Conboy biting anybody this time around.

Monday night’s game was almost a replay, as the Flyers dropped the Lightning by a 6-2 final. They didn’t dominate this game like I thought they did against Carolina, but they made their shots count and embarrassed Mike Smith to an extent. Carter had a pair of nice goals, as well as setting up Laliberte for another one. Pronger had a couple of sweet assists to Richards on the night, and I thought Claude Giroux had an excellent game, with a highlight reel pass back to Pronger on the 5th goal. The points haven’t been there for Claude, but as long as he’s moving his feet and working his magic with the puck, you know he’s on. The only negative was that Syvret had a relatively poor game in limited action, and the third line seemed to get burned on the TB goals. Stamkos ripped a laser which nobody would have stopped, and the Halpern goal was crappy to say the least. Overall, an excellent past 3 days for the Flyers and their fans.

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Flyers Fall to Panthers

After almost a full week off and some relaxing team bonding in Ft. Lauderdale, the Philadelphia Flyers took on the Florida Panthers Friday night at the BankAtlantic Center.  What began as a commanding start to the game soon led to a Flyers team that lost all their drive and fell to the Panthers 4-2.

Arron Asham and Claude Giroux both scored a goal for the first time this season as the team experienced their first loss on the road.

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