A Look Inside Paul Holmgren’s Hazy Summer

The amount of rage that ran through my body yesterday after hearing that Simon Gagne had been dealt to the Tampa Bay Lightning was insurmountable. At the time, I had to leave my house before I wrote a blog post completely and totally calling for the end of Paul Holmgren’s tenure as the General Manager of the Philadelphia Flyers. As the day turned into night, I started to think about everything that Paul Holmgren has done this off-season, compared to the things that he NEEDED to do this off-season. Many people are telling me that my criticisms of Paul Holmgren are shortsighted and one-sided, and while I understand their point of view and respect their opinion, I have to humbly disagree with them. I suppose I’ll start from the end of the season, right after we’d lost to the Chicago Blackhawks in Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Finals.

It was mutually agreed on by every Flyers journalist, beat-writer, blogger, and fan that there were just a few things that the Flyers absolutely NEEDED to do this off-season. Solidify a number one goalie, re-sign Arron Asham, Daniel Carcillo, and Darroll Powe, and find a defenseman on the open market who would push our third pairing over the hump. That’s it. So, what has Paul done so far this off-season that has everyone so ticked off? I’ll break it down positionally, because it’ll be easier that way, starting from the tail back end, then I’ll wrap it all up at the end. I apologize in advance if this feels like it’s “all over the place”.

In The Net

Heading into this off-season, our only goalie under contract was Brian Boucher. Ray Emery’s career is toast, for the most part, and many thought that Michael Leighton was sure to get the “thanks for your hard work, we appreciate it and wish you luck” treatment. That wasn’t the case. On the day before the free agency market opened up with a plethora of goalie talent, Paul Holmgren seemingly panicked and threw Leighton a $1.5 million deal. I really don’t hate the Michael Leighton contract. I tend to disagree with a lot of people when they speak negatively of him, but it’s no question that if we had just a SLIGHTLY better goaltender in the finals, we could have won it all. Let’s take a look at Leighton’s numbers, compared to some of the other names the Flyers were rumored to be looking at this summer, shall we? (All stat images taken from player’s team’s respected websites)

Micheal Leighton

Dan Ellis

Chris Mason

Evgeni Nabokov

Marty Turco

Without digging too deep into why I don’t feel like any of these guys would have been any better than Michael Leighton, I’ll try and sum it up as easily as possible.

Marty Turco’s old. His best years are clearly behind him. And even though the Flyers claim to be “looking for a guy to hold us over until prospects are ready,” Turco’s age doesn’t come close to justifying his price.

Evgeni Nabokov went back to Russia, because he wanted entirely too much damned money. I’m still not sold on Nabokov as a playoff goalie, either. Aside from a few instances of brilliance, he never really did show any flash with the Sharks. Both Turco and Nabokov have less than appealing playoff numbers, granted Nabokov is actually over the .500 mark.

I can’t really say I know much about Dan Ellis, but I think there’s reasoning behind that, because not many people do. The Flyers not signing Dan Ellis reminded me a lot of when the Phillies traded away Cliff Lee. Social networks were all about slandering Paul Holmgren for letting go of this gem. If he’s such a gem, why wasn’t he Nashville’s starting goalie in the playoffs? Why didn’t Nashville lock him up? Ellis posted a 2.69 GAA last season, which is just marginally better than Leighton’s 2.83.

My point is, all of these guys would have been fill-in Band-Aid guys, and the same people who are complaining about not signing them, would be the same people complaining about them when they didn’t give us “what we thought they’d bring” between the pipes. We KNOW what we’re going to get out of Michael Leighton, so there’s no sense in starting yet another experiment with another unproven goalie, who will more than likely be shipped out in a year or two, anyway. So, while Paul Holmgren may have panicked and locked up Leighton prematurely, there wasn’t much difference on the open market that would have made this team ALL THAT better in net.

Defense

It’s a rarity in Philadelphia when fans aren’t pointing fingers directly at the man minding the net. This season, instead, fans and critics alike turned their negativity to the Flyers defense. Yes, the same exact defense that was touted as the #1 defense heading into last season and the same exact defense that was supposed to FINALLY bring us the Cup, as the HockeyNews predicted.

This is where things start to get hazy.

The Flyers biggest need on defense was to sure up the third pairing, so we weren’t left guessing who’s stick the next goal was going to come off of when Ryan Parent and Lukas Krajicek stepped onto the ice. Everyone got excited when we traded Ryan Parent back to the team that drafted him in Nashville for the rights of Dan Hamhuis. Hamhuis would have been a great fill for that third pairing gap, but the Flyers were unable to get a deal done prior to the NHL Draft, so his rights were dealt to Pittsburgh in exchange of a draft pick next season. Hamhuis didn’t sign with Pittsburgh, either.

So, again, doing what he does best, Holmgren decided to panic and pulled the trigger on a trade with the Lightning, acquiring Andrej Meszaros. Again, there were far better options for third pairing defenders on the market, but Holmgren had to have a deal done before free agency started. So now we have Andrej Meszaros who may or may not be beneficial to us this season, and he’s making $4 million on top of all that.

Holmgren then signed Sean O’Donnell. Probably my favorite of his free agency signings this summer. O’Donnell isn’t a superstar defender, but he’s a HUGE physical player who is going to do one thing. Be affective while allowing Chris Pronger and Kimmo Timonen to take a breather every once in awhile. O’Donnell is older than Chris Pronger by a year, but has only missed 5 games since 2005. That’s reliability at its finest, folks. And even if his age does catch up with him, he’s signed for 1 year at $1 million, so it’s a very low risk move.

That brings me to Matt Walker, our newly acquired, $1.7 million making career 7th defenseman. Walked was acquired in the Gagne trade with Tampa Bay, which was essentially Paul Holmgren just giving away Gagne, because there was really nothing else for him to do. Matt Walker will be lucky to crack the Flyers line-up because he’s no more than an overpaid depth defenseman.

There was plenty of defense available on July 1st, instead, Holmgren took the easy way out again. Here are a few names I would have liked to see Holmgren make a run at.

Kurtis Foster ($1.8 million), Anton Volchenkov ($4.5 million), Henrik Tallinder ($3.375 million), Toni Lydman ($3 million), Derek Morris ($2.75 million), Zbynek Michalek ($4 million)

Up-Front

I don’t know what’s been more frustrating. The salary ignorance toward the defensive positions or the ignorance at the forward positions. At the end of last season, Arron Asham, Dan Carcillo, and Darroll Powe were all unrestricted and restricted free-agents respectively. At season’s end, it quickly became more and more evident that the Flyers had no interest in re-signing Arron Asham.

Dan Carcillo also thought it would be a good idea to take the Flyers to arbitration, where he was rumored to be seeking a substantial pay increase from last season’s salary. The Flyers and Carcillo, who was a restricted free agent, agreed to terms on a 1-year, $1.075 million deal, which, in my opinion, is too much for Dan Carcillo to be making, given the fact that Homer had already given Jody Shelley an absolutely terrible monumental mistake of a 3 year, $3.3 million contract.

Signing Jody Shelley to such an alarmingly large contract for a guy of his skillset (or lack thereof) basically gives every player that the Flyers discuss contracts with the right to say, “Well hey, Jody Shelley barely gets ice time when he’s not in the press box, and he makes $1.1 million, so why can’t I?” And do you blame them?

So, we lose Asham, who is a player with a tremendous upside, as he showed us during the latter parts of last season and essentially replace him with Dan Carcillo and Jody Shelly. If you ask me, we get worse. Though, the Flyers and Asham’s agent are still in negotiations, but I just don’t see how he can fit back into the picture.

Then we decided we’d take another player coming back to North America from the KHL who’s desperate for a team and signed Nik Zherdev. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great deal financially, but we don’t really know which Zherdev is going to show up for the Flyers this season. Zherdev says he’s put a lot of work and commitment toward his defensive game, but I just don’t see how that’s even remotely possible in the KHL. Zherdev is likely Gagne’s replacement, and number-wise, I’m pretty sold that it’ll work. That said, I highly doubt that he’ll be able to replace Gagne’s 2-way contributions. Surely, we can’t rely on Jeff Carter for that. So, who’s going to take Gagne’s spot? Briere isn’t a great 2-way guy. It’s up for debate, but I still think trading Gagne instead of Jeff Carter was a mistake.

Wrap-Up

So here I sit on July 20th, 2010. The Flyers are currently $1.52 million under the salary cap. They have 8 defenseman. And possibly a few questions still looming in net. They just traded away the longest tenured Philadelphia Flyer and got absolutely nothing in return. Would the Flyers have had to trade Gagne if they hadn’t acquired Andrej Meszaros and signed Jody Shelley, Braydon Coburn, and Daniel Carcillo to contracts that they don’t necessarily deserve? What about Sean O’Donnell? Was his $1.3 million really necessary with all of the defensive players on the market? All of this remains to be seen, and there are still a few moves probably up Homer’s sleeve, but for now, I remain extremely skeptical of Paul Holmgren’s ability to manage a salary cap era NHL franchise. His mismanagement of this team has done more harm than good to the team this off-season and it’s hard to say if he can dig himself out of it. He sure couldn’t yesterday, so he figured he’d trade Gagne for a $1.7 million nobody.

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Flyers Free Agency Opening Day Round-Up & Grades

For hockey fans around the world, July 1st is simply a hockey holiday. For Flyers fans, July 1st usually means many tense hours of waiting to see how the team’s current general manager is going to handcuff the team this season. Paul Holmgren may have done just that today, unless he has some more moves up his sleeve.

As of now, it’s really hard to say, but it’s easy to speculate. So, here’s a recap and some grades of everything that happened today in Flyerdom (aside from our blog being mentioned by the Philly Daily News on Twitter, which makes me incredibly happy).

Jody Shelley
Former Team: New York Rangers
Contract Worth: 3 years, $3.3 million ($1.1 million per)
Grading the Signing: Can I go lower than F?

A text message came across my phone earlier to alert me that the Flyers had signed Jody Shelley to a 3-year, $3.3 million contract. I legitimately thought it was a joke at first and until this very second, as I type this, I’m still absolutely baffled that I had to find out this was a real signing. The fact that we signed Jody Shelley isn’t what is making me absolutely irate. What is bothering me, is the fact that Jody Shelley is being paid $1.1 million a year. Jody Shelley entered the NHL in the year 2000. Since then, he’s scored a mere 17 goals and has a total of 49 points. Yes. In 10 years, Jody Shelley, who is making $1.1 million with the Flyers for the next three seasons (unless God saves us and he’s traded), has scored 17 goals.

I can’t wait to hear Paul Holmgren’s explanation on the Jody Shelley signing, because I really want to know what was going through his head when he offered Shelley this contract. Last season, Shelley made $725,000. Last year, he scored two goals, both against the Flyers in the 81st and 82nd games of the season. Sure, Jody Shelley fights. Jody Shelley is a tough guy. However, Paul Holmgren can’t justify this contract to me like he did with Dan Carcillo and tell me that Jody Shelley is “going to be a fan favorite,” because that’s simply not going to happen and even if it did, there’s no reason to have a $3.3 million fan favorite, when you are letting Arron Asham walk away. Simply mind boggling. I can’t find the positives here. If you see some bright light at the end of the tunnel here (no, I’m not talking about the end of Shelley’s contract), leave a comment, please.

Sean O’Donnell (who is not Jody Shelley)
Former Team: Los Angeles Kings
Contract Worth: 1 year, $1 million
Grading the Signing: B+

Just shy of grading O’Donnell an A here, but not going lower than a B+. While I would have loved to see plenty of other names backing our blue line, the experience and grit that O’Donnell will bring creates another solid pairing for the Flyers and can effectively relieve Timonen and Pronger from their big minutes. Don’t look for O’Donnell to score a lot of points, because that’s not his game. In 1,104 games, O’Donnell has just under 200 points. He’s a defensive defenseman by the book. A guy who isn’t afraid to lay you out coming across the blue line. Frankly, that’s something I’ve been dying to see on this Flyers team for quite some time. In the +/- category, O’Donnell has finished in the minus category just three times. Twice early in his career with the Kings, who didn’t have particularly good teams and once with the Minnesota Wild in 2000, their expansion year. Overall, O’Donnell is a +85 in his 15 year career. Don’t expect many goals to be scored while Sean is on the ice.

Only downside? O’Donnell is 39 going on 40. That makes him older than Chris Pronger. One has to worry about the potential of injury, but O’Donnell has missed just 5 games since 2005. But now he’s playing under the Flyers wonderful medical staff, so…….

Another note to this signing: O’Donnell was on the 2007 Ducks team that won the Stanley Cup. Also on that team? Chris Pronger. O’Donnell said that his friendship with Chris Pronger swayed him into signing here.

Hopefully a solid addition to our blue line, but questions remain.

Andrej Meszaros
Former Team: Tampa Bay Lightning
Contract Worth: 4 years, $16 million ($4 million per year)
Grading the Signing: C+/B

The Flyers acquired Meszaros in a trade with the Lightning minutes before the free agency rush started. Looking at this trade from a player specific aspect, this isn’t a bad deal at all. Meszaros is young (drafted by the Senators in 2004) and in the latter stages of his development. He faired pretty well on a Tampa Bay team that wasn’t all that spectacular. You won’t see much of Meszaros on the first two pairings. In fact, you probably won’t see him there at all unless he can out-play the $3.2 million Braydon Coburn.

When you take a look at this deal from outside the box and see what was also available earlier today at this price, it kind of makes you double take on Meszaros’ name a little bit. A few of the options that were available on the market today and their salary cap hits: Kurtis Foster ($1.8 million), Anton Volchenkov ($4.5 million), Henrik Tallinder ($3.375 million), Toni Lydman ($3 million), Derek Morris ($2.75 million), Zbynek Michalek ($4 million). Most of these guys have more upside than Meszaros or would be a better fit to the Flyers system.

Braydon Coburn
Contract Worth: 2 years, $6.4 million ($3.2 million per year)
Grading the Signing: B-

Another one of those in the “hard to grade” category. If we are grading this contract based on the Coburn of last regular season, this is stupid. If we are grading this on the Braydon Coburn we saw in the playoffs and in the Finals, this isn’t that bad of a deal. Coburn had a fairly abysmal regular season and three-quarters through the season, many people didn’t think he’d even make it to this point. Coburn’s stats didn’t do justice to his mindless play, because they weren’t bad. His decision making and turnovers were horrible and showed no signs of turning around.

Coburn was simply brilliant throughout most of the playoffs and the Finals and only showed a few mental lapses; but nothing like we got used to during the regular season. His physical play began to dominate the opposition and his ability to choose a smart outlet pass (one of his weaknesses) got increasingly better as the playoffs went on.

It’s not the greatest contract the Flyers have ever offered a player, but Coburn definitely has the talent to make it worth it. Question is, which Coburn will show up on October 7th?

Michael Leighton
Contract Worth: 2 years, $3.1 million ($1.55 million per year)
Grading the Signing: B-

The feel good story of this past season will have another couple of chapters added on to it.  Arguably, the biggest question for the Flyers heading to July 1st was between the pipes.  The only guys under contract were Brian Boucher and Johan Backlund.  And it was likely that Backlund would be given the starting job in Adirondack to get playing time.  Essentially, leaving the Flyers with one NHL goalie.  At the draft, they kicked the tires with Evgeni Nabokov. The two sides soon found themselves far apart, and Nabokov hit the market this afternoon.  Secondly, there were rumors of the Flyers showing interest in Dallas’ Marty Turco.  The Flyers offered Turco a deal but he turned it down, believing that there would be a good market today for his services.  At this time, both Turco and Nabokov remain UFAs.  Then last night, the reports surfaced that Leighton and the Flyers agreed to an extension, before he was set to hit the market as an UFA.  At that point in time, it seemed like a really great move atleast from the money stand point.

As today progressed, the Leighton deal changed its looks frequently.  As the Flyers acquired Sean O’Donnell and Andrej Meszaros to give the third defense pair a significant upgrade, this looked like a great idea.  Then, some of the other UFA goalies started to go off the board, and this wasn’tlooking as nice.  Potential targets like Dan Ellis (TB $1.5 million per over 2 years,) Chris Mason (ATL $1.85 million per over 2 years,) Antero Niittymaki (SJ $2 million per over 2 years,) and Marty Biron (NYR $875k per over 2 years) went for the same money, if not cheaper.  And all of those guys are proven guys, as compared to Leighton.  That’s not saying he can’t handle it, but do you trust him as much as those guys that have held the #1 spot before?  And does the addition of what can now be considered a legitimate third defense pair changed your opinion at all?

What We May or May Not Lose

• Thank you so much Jody Shelley, for effectively ending Arron Asham’s tenure as a Philadelphia Flyer. During Ash’s two years here, he embodied nearly everything it meant to be a Philadelphia Flyer. Unlike several other goons who I won’t name at this point in time, Asham isn’t typically known to take stupid penalties and for a guy who plays as physically as he does, that’s surprising. Asham, in my opinion, is more deserving of any money that Holmgren would give Carcillo or Shelley. Asham creates scoring chances, and while his finishing skills are lackluster, a chance is a chance for someone else to bury home, which this team proved time and time again last season. Letting Asham walk was a severe mistake and now we have Jody Shelley to thank.
• Daniel Carcillo and Darroll Powe are both RFAs and should come fairly cheap. In my eyes, Carbomb is a downgrade from Asham and will likely be more expensive. He will also end up in the penalty box more than Asham would have. “Fan favorite” or not, it’s clear that most of the time, Carcillo doesn’t know how to channel his emotions properly. We’ve seen it time and time again. Darroll Powe, when not on the penalty kill, skates fast and hits people. That’s pretty much all he does. He’s definitely not a high energy guy that you want to lose, but the Flyers just don’t have a spot for him in my eyes, unless it’s Shelley’s spot. I think he’d fit great on a team like the Coyotes who play a high tempo, fast paced game.
• Just a few hours ago, Nick Kypreos of SportsNet tweeted that the Flyers may be looking to unload Simon Gagne’s contract to clear cap space (thanks, Shelley). Simon Gagne is my favorite player of all time, so I simply can’t sit here and write something unbiased in reference to this. To me, Simon Gagne needs to retire a Philadelphia Flyer. If there was anyone I wanted to lift the Cup this season, it was Simon Gagne. Flyers fans of my generation probably can’t remember a time without Simon Gagne. Bias aside, Gagne is VERY injury prone. He’s missed 83 games in the last three seasons, mostly because of concussions; an injury we’re all too familiar with. My buddy Travis over at BroadStreetHockey summed this up perfectly and wrote what I can’t, because it’ll hurt too damned much. So, go there and read for yourself. You’re welcome, Travis.
• Oh, and Jody Shelley. Are you KIDDING me Homer?! Seriously?!

That’s all. Stay tuned over the course of the next few days. We’ll have plenty more good stuff for you to read.

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Flyers re-sign Michael Leighton

According to various sources the Flyers have agreed to a deal with goaltender Michael Leighton.  It’s suspected to be a two year deal at $3.1 million ($1.55m cap hit.)  This doesn’t mean the Flyers are settled on Boucher and Leighton, and it wouldn’t be a surprise to them target one of the UFA goalies starting tomorrow.  That would likely mean Leighton would serve as the backup.  So what happens to Boucher then?  Waivers?  Buy-out? Trade?

Stayed tuned tomorrow for lots of UFA Day coverage here at WBIO.

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Can I has goaltender?

So, remember that time we rode a backup onto the playoffs, lost that backup to injury, and then were forced to ride the original backup to the playoffs instead? Yeah, fun times. The goaltending issue has been a fun one in Philadelphia over the past 15 or so seasons, with a revolving door in net. The latest hope was Martin Biron, who was quickly dismissed after looking for too much money from the Flyers this past offseason. This season, Paul Holmgren went outside the box, and plucked Ray Emery off the free agent market to serve as the team’s starter this season. Signed to a bargain contract upon his return to the NHL, Emery was looked at as a redemption type project for the Flyers. Emery previously started for the Senators, and lead them to the 2007 Stanley Cup Finals, losing to the Ducks. Locker room troubles in the capital city left him without a home in the NHL, instead forcing him to take his game to Russia and the KHL. While he put up good statistics, his most famous play came after he snapped at a trainer who tried to place a hat on his head. Not surprisingly, Emery ended up in Philadelphia after that incident.

Emery’s play through the season was solid enough to carry the Flyers through the early part of the season. A hip injury sidelined him around the holiday break, but he came back to play after that. The same hip injury would eventually claim his season prior to the Olympic Break, leaving the Flyers without their starting goaltender, scrambling to find a netminder to plug the gaping hole in net. Brian Boucher, certainly a name familiar to Flyers’ fans, was signed as the backup this season after serving as Evgeni Nabokov’s backup for the past two seasons in San Jose. Boucher actually signed with the Philadelphia Phantoms prior to the 2007-08 season, and performed well enough to be plucked from the team by San Jose, right before the AHL playoffs. Boucher had to carry the team during Emery’s absence, but was saddled with a few losses during the team’s dull showing in December. Boucher now finds himself the starter for the rest of the season now that Michael Leighton is gone for essentially the season.

If you still followed the team in 2006-07, you might have caught a glimpse of Michael Leighton. Originally drafted by the Chicago Blackhawks, Leighton saw time during Chicago’s low days, where Eric Daze led the team in scoring, despite playing in only about 45 games due to back problems. Leighton would have stops in the Buffalo Sabres and Nashville Predators organizations before finally being claimed off of waivers by the Flyers. Leighton had a good first stint with the Flyers, winning a couple of games in an otherwise dismal season. He had a solid few games with the Phantoms before the Montreal Canadiens plucked him off of waivers. Leighton spent the past two seasons in the Carolina Hurricanes organization, being named AHL goaltender of the year in 2007-08, also making a record 98 saves against the Phantoms (irony) in a 5-overtime game in the playoffs. Ryan Potulny (remember him?) would score in that overtime to end that game. Leighton spent 2008-09 as Cam Ward’s backup, seeing about 20 games and performing well enough to keep the job for this season. Leighton initially stumbled out of the gates, getting lit up by the Flyers in a 6-1 loss that Andy and I attended. Leighton would eventually be on waivers by December, where the Flyers snatched him away, obviously having seen his previous body of work.

If I told you Michael Leighton would be the starter for the Philadelphia Flyers a year ago, you’d laugh at me. If I told you he’d have a save percentage hovering around 92%, you’d spit whatever you’re drinking out in my face. If I told you his injury probably would seal another first round exit this season in the playoffs, you’d probably be on the floor already laughing. Welcome to reality. Leighton’s play with the Flyers has been remarkable, as he’s virtually saved (oh look, a pun) the season for the Flyers with his inspired play. While some fans have done nothing but spend 3 months trying to discredit his great play, he’s won 16 games in the meantime. Still prone to the occasional bad goal, Leighton’s relaxed play was very evident, as he made some huge saves, and displayed a flashy glove hand when needed. He provided the stability in net that the Flyers hoped to have with Emery in net. During the game in Nashville, Leighton made contact with Steve Sullivan, and subsequently sprained his ankle, while will sideline him for the rest of the season (insert sad face).

So now, the season rests on Boucher’s shoulders. He’s shown the ability to just go nuts and have huge hot streaks, so the Flyers are rolling the dice and are hoping for the best with Boucher. The more interesting picture is his backup, and who exactly it will be. Typical Philly luck will probably see Boucher suffer an injury or something else crazy, so this is a bit more important than it seems. Johan Backlund, who has had the best seat in the house to watch Greg Gilbert’s horrid coaching this season, is currently hurt and isn’t available to be the backup. Backlund has had a decent first season in North America, giving the Phantoms to win every night. John Grahame was signed to a PTO for some reason this season down in Adirondack, but was signed by Colorado for some reason. Yes, I know his mom works in the front office. Unfortunately, stopping pucks isn’t as easy as having your mom work in the front office.

Jeremy Duchesne, who was probably the worst of the Flyers’ goaltending prospects at the season, has had a pretty good season that has seen him play a couple of games in the AHL, securing a shutout. He finally had somewhat consistent play in the ECHL this year. I certainly wouldn’t want to dump an NHL playoff series on him, but he’s the best option right now over everything else we have. Michael Teslak, who probably was above Duchesne at the start of this season, has had a horrible year, and hasn’t sniffed a save percentage over 90% this season. Not good. Teslak is currently part of a mashup of goaltenders in Adirondack. Kris Mayotte, who is horrible (I’ve seen him play in person) is currently the backup right now. He’s marginal in the ECHL, and for some reason keeps getting signed to PTOs. For some reason, the Phantoms are trying to find someone worse than Grahame. Eeek. The current starter is Carter Hutton, who I’ll cover in another article. He’s on an ATO out of college. So you can see, fun times in Philadelphia goaltending today! Godspeed Michael Leighton.

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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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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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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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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.

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Former Flyer buries his old team late in game, Flyers fall to Oilers, 1-0

The Flyers just lost to the NHL’s worst team. The Flyers just lost to a player they used to call their own. Ryan Potulny buried the Flyers tonight with just 16 seconds left in the game, after Darroll Powe was taken to the box on a high sticking minor. The Flyers traded Ryan Potulny for Danny Syvret, and Potulny now has 12 goals – just as many as Scott Hartnell.

Defensively, the Flyers showed up again tonight. They held the Oilers off of the scoreboard until the final minute of the game and were suffocating for the second straight game. Michael Leighton was fantastic, but he was given no support from the Flyers offense. The Flyers had 30+ chances to bury the puck tonight, and failed to capitalize on any of them. That’s the reason the Flyers lost tonight. Claude Giroux had a golden opportunity, but rang a shot off of the post. I don’t mean to discredit Jeff Deslauriers, either. He played a phenomenal game and was a huge reason that the Oilers came away with a W tonight.

Ray Emery was scratched prior to tonight’s game and it has been reported that he’s experiencing some soreness in his groin. Was scratching him tonight precautionary, or is there a larger problem that will keep Emery out of action for longer than we’d like? I’m all about the Leighton train, though. Let’s see where he takes us, if Emery is indeed injured.

The Flyers finish out their western road trip on Saturday against the Wild.

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