Happy Halloween Everybody!

Halloween is a scary time of year. People humping pumpkins, people dressing up as sexy, people eating candy corn. Scary. So what better time to pay tribute to our scariest member of the organization, Riley Cote.

Rockin' Riles has now been dropping the mits for parts of three seasons with the Flyers, but that's not all we here at FGSB think he's capable of. As it stands right now, Riley doesn't really serve much purpose except fighting. He's only getting about three minutes of playing time a game, which reflects John Stevens expectations, but he might be hungry for more. In Juniors Riles handled most of his business with his fists, but actually handled a fair amount with his stick as well. During his last year of Juniors, with the Prince Albert Raiders of the Western Hockey League, Riles finished fourth on the team in scoring with 28 goals and 23 assists in 67 games. The year before he led the team - who was now missing the previous year's leading scorer, Scott Hartnell - with 52 points. There's some potential there, eh?

If you look at the top 15 fighters from the 2007-08 season that played in the CHL (read excluding George Parros and Adam Burish) there's some pretty interesting numbers. (These numbers are obviously skewed because some guys' last year was when they were 17, some played an over-age year, but bear with me or I'll send Riley to your shitty little studio apartment.) Riles is right in the middle of the pack for "best last year of juniors" (tm) in regards to points per game. Feast your eyes on my badass excel spreadsheet:

Pretty surprising right? Seeing as it doesn't really seem like he would even know how to shoot if he were to get the puck in a game these days. Because as far as his career in the NHL goes, there's not really much to talk about when it comes to Riles and the scoring sheet:

That is not good company down there in the basement. Colton Orr can chuck 'em but has no hope of ever compiling two goals in an NHL season. And Andrew Peters only carries a stick because it's in the rule book. But all hope is not lost. I know he's had only one full season, but right now he doesn't look like a guy that can beat a goalie. As his game matures maybe he'll start to gain some confidence and resume his scoring ways. Wouldn't it be nice to eventually have a fourth line that's getting about 7 minutes a game because they're sound defensively? And even your tough guy is good for 20 points? Kind of like maybe...oh I don't know...Dave Schultz?

Get Carter

On a night the city of Philly was still reveling in the Phillies World Series title, the Flyers took on the worst team in the East with what looked like a very hungover effort. I'm still awaiting word, but how could Scott Hartnell NOT be caught streaking down Broad Street on Wed. night? Or how was Scottie Upshall NOT in Old City, pouring shots into co-ed revelers at Swanky Bubbles. Flyers looked poor all night. The peco-powerplay wasn't clicking, and the entire team seemed to be dumpin' and chasing for most of the 2nd and 3rd period. Thankfully, good teams find ways to win against shitty teams. That's exactly what the Flyers did last night, thanks to Jeff "Zeus" Carter.

Cartsie is on fire to begin the year, already with 8 goals and is carrying the team right now. He's making his line mates better and his shots are coming off his stick with purpose. Another player we're glad showed up is Marty Biron. Marty had a great save late in the third period and played solidly all game to allow the deflated Flyers to hang around enough to let Zues firing one home in OT. Gotta love getting 2pts when we play like crap.

It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia...

Congrats to the Phillies, they did it! I hope, as Ryan has stated below, that this winning trend continues. I cannot wait for Richards to bring us the cup. Go Phillies! See you at the parade.

Guess who's back.

Stevie D is back with the big club. Time to get crazy.

Attention Flyers: Get Some

I'm John Stevens. A John Stevens who can see into the future. After yesterday's practice I call a meeting and tell everyone to report to Swanky Bubbles at 7 PM that night. The boys eat a meal and have a couple beers. There's a 4 beer max for guys who are dressing tomorrow and jug of Carlo Rossi for Danny Briere. Right about the time that dinner is ending the Phillies come on a giant screen in the private room we're in. The boys watch the game. And they watch the post game. They see how happy the Phillies are. They see Shane-o run in. They see Ryan Howard play linebacker to the Phillies QB, Brad Ruiz. They see Chase run in. They see J-Ro run in. They see players storming from the bullpen and the bench. All looking for eachother in the melee.

When this is all happening the Flyers are a tiny bit buzzed, except for Briere who is blacked out and smoking right in the bar - they're getting into it. I've hired cars to drive them home and young punks to drive the cars they arrived in home. They go to sleep with a Philadelphia World Championship on their mind. When they arrive to the Wach for they're pre-game skate this morning the locker room is adorned with the front pages of the Daily News, the Del-Co Times, the Inquirer....anything I can find.

And then I wheel in a chalkboard, Fred Shero style, and write on it "Do you want this? Or do you want this?" There's no second "this." That's just me imposing some crazy Shero.
......
When the Red Sox won the world series it was like Shark Week. When those Boston fans got a taste they never wanted it to end. The Flyers, Birds, and Sixers can keep it going. The millions of Phillies fans that congregated on streets called Walnut, Broad, W. Oregon, Loctus....in about a week's time they're going to be looking for their next high. And they're going to pour into the Wach. And this time it will be them who are Hungry For More.

Ilya Kovalchuk's Got It Bad

There were a couple times last night when Thrashers superstar Ilya Kovalchuk controlled the puck with ease as he danced around the Flyers. There were also a couple times when he told referee Mark Joanette to go bang himself. Not even player friendly Pierre Shampoo would stand for that, much less Joanette. Kovalchuk earned himself two misconduct penalties in a row after an errant pass was intercepted by Mike Richards and the Flyers scored a short-handed goal on the ensuing rush. Most coaches would be furious with Kovalchuk's behavior. And if the Thrashers had fans they would have been pretty pissed too. But can you blame him?

How he has managed 254 goals during his six seasons in that hockey wasteland is truly unbelievable. And I'm not even talking about how it must be difficult to get pumped up for games in front of a less than half full building. The Atlanta management has shown no commitment to building any sort of team around Kovalchuk. Last night I saw him out there with offensive threats Colby Armstrong, Todd White, Bryan Little, and Marty Reasoner. Are you kidding me? These are the best compliments the Thrashers management can get for one of the best scorers in the past decade? In seasons past they used to give him at least one stud to play with, but since Danny Heatley and the remnants of his trade left town he's been flying solo. You could argue that Marc Savard was a pretty decent linemate for Kovalchuk, but then you're getting into a chicken or the egg discussion. During Savard's breakout season with the Thrashers in 2005-06 his assist to goal ratio was almost 3:1. 52 of Savard's 69 assists were probably defensive zone faceoff wins to Kovalchuk who cut through the opposition all alone on his way to scoring a career high 52 goals.

The Thrashers are one of the worst teams in the league, with some of the stupidest jerseys in the league, and a GM who would trade Braydon Coburn for Alexi Zhitnik and a 1st, 2nd, and 3rd for Keith Tkachuk only to get swept in the first round of the playoffs. And he's still there. Picking up $6M guns like Mathieu Schneider. Next season is Kovalchuk's last season with the Thrashers. I will guarantee you that they day 2010 calendars hit the stand in the mall Kovalchuk was the first to buy one and immediately rip it open and circle the day he hopes that he'll be dealt out of Atlanta as a late season rental.

The Real Thing

There are a million obvious benefits to being a pro athlete. The money, the fame, the ladies. There really isn't much of a downside. Sure you get openly criticized from time to time but hundred dollar bills make for softer tissues than you'd think. I know. I had one once. But as usually is the case, I'm not very interested in the obvious. Which got me to thinking - what are some of the lesser celebrated benefits of being a pro athlete? I've been trying to think of some of the smaller pleasures - getting out of tickets, doing what you love for a living, having famous people be fans of yours. Everything I think of seems pretty cool but there's one benefit that far exceeds any I've been able to think of so far - the ability to hug guys in public. When was the last time you hugged one of your friends? Much less a big group of them - all at once. If you and four of your buddies were walking down Broad Street on a crowded Saturday afternoon and just decided to bring it in you could be assured that any number of homophobic slurs would be flying around like Manute Bol three pointers within seconds. When you're an NHL stud and one of your buddies sneaks one by Marc-Andre Fleury it's time to get emotional. Hugging, helmet rumpling, kissing. Don't act like you've never seen it. I swear to good Dimitri Yuskevich kissed Rod Brind'Amour right on the lips after he scored a goal in the mid 90's.

And other sports are even better. Hockey players have too much equipment on to really get a warm embrace. Baseball and soccer players know what they're doing. Is if patting eachother on the butt (baseball) and rubbing injured opponents as they lay on the pitch faking an injury (soccer) weren't great enough these guys get full team hugs going and then jump up and down for some reason. That's a celebration. Think what must be going through their heads - "I am so happy and I'm hugging all of my best friends and now let's hop up and down!" The one thing they'll never take from hockey, and the one thing I would argue that every guy in his 20's is really missing, is a good old-fashioned pig pile. When an NHL player scores an overtime winner, whether it be regular season or in the playoffs, that guy is going down and everyone's getting on top of him. Because that's how happy they are. When's the last time you were so happy that you and your buddies rolled around on top of eachother, hands grasping whatever they can find?

Flyers Gameday: The Trashers

Flyers are down in the dirty dirty tonight to take on the Thrashers. Wierd how the schedule is working out. Now, coming off two real impressive wins, the Flyers have a game against a team they have simply dominated in the past 5 years. The Thrashers have 4 alternate captains, and two goalies that Nitty loves to punk on. Seriously, Nitty is like the AC Slater to Hedberg's Screech..even down to Antero's choice of camo tank tops. Now after that shout out to Niittymaki, I hope Stevens starts him.

FGSB has been scouting all NHL teams this year thanks to Time Warners shitty standard definition Center Ice package, and we've noticed that the Thrashers don't exactly sell out. It might be really empty on a Tuesday night in Hotlanta, especially if Jermaine Dupri is poppin' bottles at strip clubs. Cote and Thorburn might provide all 200 fans in attendance a man-dance, but maybe now that Asham got a taste for punches, he'll keep up his streak of kung-fu on skates.

Simply put, the Flyers are getting back to righting the ship. One important step in that process is beating teams that are overall weaker than you. The Thrashers are not a good team, and the Flyers should be able to put them away. Flyers need to put the game out of reach early, and I think they'll do it. Mike Richards is getting a sexy one tonight, I can smell it. Let's go Flyers. Oh, and if you didn't know, thats Ilya Kovalchuk doing his best Pat Burrell.

Too Good To Pass Up

We here at FGSB fully endorse Jonathan and his Miscellaneous Style.

The 59 second and the 1:55 marks are why we're voting for Jonathan to replace the outdated Kate Smith and God Bless America with this exact video before every Flyers game. Get both starting line ups on their blue lines, turn the lights down, and throw this bad boy on the jumbotron.

If It Wasn't For the Money

Hockey is a business. There's no room for loyalty in the business world. When you and your agent sit down in mid June, just a few weeks from the time you'll become an unrestricted free agent, I doubt you two discuss how many little kids have your jersey in the city you spent the last three years in. The conversation more than likely goes like this - "We're going to get as much money as we can get. I don't care if it means you have to play Buffalo, Phoenix, or Jabip. Whoever offers the most money wins." And I guess the player kind of has to agree with that. These guys make millions but they have a very short window in which to do it. You and I have the luxury of taking 40 years to earn enough to retire. These guys have to do it in 10. Mix that in with an extremely high chance of an injury that could adversely effect their income and the writing's on the wall: get as much money as you can for as long as you can. But you have to wonder when taking a slight discount and building your brand in a city might be the right move. There's two great examples of this in this short season so far in two guys that both happen to be from Pittsburgh: Ryan Malone and R.J. Umberger.

There's no denying these guys had banner years last season. Umberger broke out with 50 points and Malone had a career high 51, both in their contract years. Those point totals aren't exactly astounding but they landed them both in the top third in points by forwards for the season. They're both fairly young guys too, so they were looking to get paid. Both the Flyers and Penguins couldn't afford to match what a team that struggled last year would be willing to offer so they traded their rights in an effort to get something out of the situation. And talk about getting paid....
R.J. Umberger went from a guy that made a little over $1M a year to a guy who now makes about $3M a year. Malone makes that look like nothing. He got a 328% pay increase when the Lightning offered him $23M over 5 years to come down to sunny F-L-A. That's what happens when these fledgling teams only have two guys a piece who notched more than 50 points last season - the organization is forced to hand out big paydays to marginal talent. But you have to wonder if either of these guys are happy right now.

Ryan Malone went from the Eastern Conference Champions to the already laughable Tampa Bay Lightning. He went from playing on a line with Sidney Crosby, a bonafide assist machine, to having one goal and zero assists in seven games so far this season. Umberger's in the same boat. The Flyers went to the Eastern Conference finals against the Pens last season and Umberger was a key part of that club. He grew up in the organization and knew all the guys but was going to get no where near what Columbus could offer. Umberger has zero goals and two assists in eight games for the last in the conference (I know it's early) Columbus Blue Jackets.

Not even taking into account the personal legacy that they may be destroying by going to these terrible teams, these guys moved to pretty lame markets. Umberger went to Ohio where football and the Dayton Flyers headlines are on the front page of the sports section and Malone went to Florida - enough said. Pittsburgh and Philly are great hockey towns with raving lunatics for fans - how can you beat playing in front of 20,000 screaming fans every night? The strangest thing about Malone might be that he grew up around Pittsburgh. A childhood dream to play for the Pens and when the wacky Tampa Lightning owners flashed the green he left. Left his family, friends, 4th grade teacher. It's all just very interesting.

There's no way to measure whether these were the right moves until when down the road they release their Jonsey-esque books. Were they disappointed to leave the teams they came into their own with? Did they not even care? Who knows. The only thing we know for sure is both of these guys are off to really slow starts and are getting paid tons of money for it - hard to beat that.

"Smoke on the (frozen) waa--turrr. Flyers in the sky."

Whoa. What a weekend to be a Philadelphia sports fan. With every team from the Flyers to the Eagles winning their games this weekend, you couldn't have asked for a better weekend to be down in south philly. The Flyers kicked it off right on Friday night(Richards had 4 apples, dude is unreal) getting a much needed victory in a place where points are always hard to come by. Then, as an 18-hour-later encore, the Flyers suited up and took it to the Devils again. The second game was an instant classic. Knuble, Hartnell, Upshall and Richards have all been playing out of their minds, and watching this team, you can tell that these are the energy guys. Cote, with a giant mouse under his eye from PL3, fought twice on Saturday. I'm pretty sure if I ever got a black eye, let alone punched in the face, I'd be out for 4-6 weeks due to prolonged episodes of crying. If you keep your eyeballs on Cote, you can tell he landed a solid one at the end to send PL3 flying.

The Flyers played hard both games and it paid off. They can build off these two W's and take the momentum into Hotlanta tomorrow night. After watching these two games, you can tell the defence is starting to find its identity, and with the exception of Alberts doing his best Jaro Modry impression, the team is starting to understand how to play smart. I hope Sbisa sticks, kid is really solid out there. I hope Vanannen starts getting more playing time. I also hope Jeff Carter keeps getting me excited with these snipes from wing. Everytime he shoots, I go from 6 to 12...

Oh yeah, there was a smokebomb thrown onto the ice at the end of OT. Possibly because of the no goal call, but whatever it was for/against, it was a stupid. But what can you do, the entire city of Philly is going nuts, idiots are out and about, and stupid shit happens. No one was hurt, except for Chico Resch's nostrils. If you think a smokebomb is bad, just wait and see what happens if the Phils take game 5 tonight.

You're Welcome

Palin Curse my ass. Your Philadelphia Flyers are now on a winning streak that's, not in part but entirely, due to this blog. You see, when we redsigned the blog for the 2008-09 season we made a mistake that cost the Flyers 9 possible points. For that we apologize. But since we've corrected the error the Flyers are undefeated on the road and at home, on a winning streak, and have won two out of their last two games. Although it may seem trivial, the error occured when we were trying to make the site look tougher and put a picture of Riley Cote (the picture above) in the header. Riles looks ready to go, right? But in Friday's staff meeting Henrik from the accounting department brought up the fact the the picture of Riles was actually from the dreadful 2006-07 season. Not sure if you heard but we were pretty bad that season....The old jersey, the short hair, the number 33. Our art history director vomited right on the conference room table. And partially into a box of Dunkin Donuts (don't worry we saved the good ones). So we imdediately took Riley off, moved Gagne over to the right and then added our hero and leader Mike Richards up there. And what's happened since then? Two wins baby. That's what's happpened. We went from 15th in the Conference to 11th in the blink of an eye, and are now only two points out of 7th. Bang-a-rang.

The only bad thing that's happened is that Danny Briere is going to be out for a month. But it looks like we're maybe better off without him. Can you drink red wine while recovering from abdominal surgery? I think I know someone who might be finding that out this very moment.

Count It!

In what looked like it might be a replay of Wednesday's game against the Sharks, the Flyers were able to come out and take last night's game from the Devils by lighting up the scoreboard while playing decent defensively during the 2nd and 3rd periods. There were still some signs of weaknesses that need to be addressed (read faceoffs) but they finally got a win. That most likely means no more talking about whether John Stevens' job is in jeopardy, no more wondering who might be traded for a big defenseman, no more stupid stats about teams from the 70's and how long it took them to get their first win.

This has got to be a huge load of Mike Richards' shoulders. Just to get this one. He's been trying to earn this team a win single-handedly for 6 games and it appears that he finally may have done it with a stellar 4 assist performance. Although his faceoff percentage was no where near where it needs to be he was almost at 50% in the defensive zone. Winning when it really counts.

Cote's fight with PLLL was pretty solid. Tons of punches square to the head - which is always good to see. And I even thought Alberts fight was pretty good with Clarkson, and I'd actually give him the nod in that one. Those three quick body shots right off the bat probably advanced his Rick Tocchet pre-game pasta dinner from his upper intestine to his lower in a matter of seconds.

All in all, the monkey is finally off their back, and now they can get back to playing simple hockey. And everyone can start writing about something else.

Flyers Gameday: The Beelzebubs'

Tonight the Flyers travel into America's armpit and into Newark to play the Devils. All jokes aside, if Flyers fans don't have any plans tonight, take a short road trip and waste your paycheck at their new stadium. Tonight is the first of two games against the Devils, with the home game coming up tomorrow afternoon. We all know the Devils are Flyers-killers, so hoping for the first win of the year, in the Devil's barn, isn't likely. What we can only hope for is an effort that dosen't suck. Win faceoffs...stay out of the box...solid goaltending...and please, for once this year, cycle the puck on the forecheck consistently.

Andrew Alberts is already in the doghouse, so looks like Kukky might get the start. Cote will probably go since he took the night off on Wed. He matches up better against Clarkson, but if P-triple-L is out there, look for him to get all French Canadien all over Cote's ass.

I'm not very optimistic about this game, but I will say that this would be a perfect game to win, so the players can get some of that confidence back. Everyone knows they never win in Newark, so wouldn't it be great to buck that trend tonight, and get the first win of the season?

- Look for Briere and Gagne to play tonight. And if Gagne dosen't play, his "flu" has to be a "concussion"...

- I also hope that someone remind Marty Broduer that he cheated on his wife with her sister. That'll get him all weepy and Dr. Phil-y.

- Holik and Rolston are both hurt, but that still means Parise and Gionta will be right in the mix. Both will end the night with at least a point.

- I'd love to see Upshall, Lupul and Hartnell keep up their good play. Upshall especially has been flying out there for the past 2 games.

- If Biron gives up another one of those wrap-around-completely-lost goals like he did against SJ and NYR, I'm going to cover up my #43 tattoo with a snake eating a skull thats on fire.

- This is the game made for Aaron Asham. His old team, his old coach. If he isn't fired up, fighting and contributing offensivly, I bet they release him. This is his chance to "Phil Collins" the Devils.

Flyers Have 76 Games To Go!

Having no defined audience and not being employed by the Flyers gives me the freedom to call things exactly how I see them when it comes to the Flyers. It also gives me the freedom to work long hours at my actual job and squeeze in posts late at night while drinking a Sierra Nevada for "inspiration." Whenever the Flyers lose, take Wednesday night for instance, I always get a kick out of going to the Flyers website and seeing how they make it seem not so bad. So where as I was thinking "Six loses in a row - are you fucking kidding me?" I knew they would have to put some positive spin on it. They never disappoint. As you can see above they chose to highlight the Flyers never say die attitude while pointing out that they lost in one of the aspects of the game that many people find trivial. I totally get it, and I'll be the first to admit that I'd do the same thing if Comcast was paying my $2,000 cable bill ($10 a piece? come on!). I venture to argue that I might be even better than whoever is currently writing these things up. I'll give you an example: last night I would have gone with something like "Anti-Semitic Refs Cost Flyers Game" or "Roenick Statutory Rape Trial on Hold - Manages to Lure Puck into Net in Shootout." And those are just off the top of my head.

I wish I had kept better track of them after each game this year, because I can't seem to find them anywhere on the website. Recaps yes, rotating lead page no. So here are some guesses. I've gone ahead and mixed the order up to make it into a fun game where you can guess which headline goes with which loss. Any winning submission will receive a free Todd Fedoruk stick handling video. Here we go!

1. Flyers Dominate 2nd and 3rd Periods
2. Flyers Participate in 2/3 of a Game
3. 3 Periods No Problem For Flyers
4. 4 Periods? What Else You Got?
5. Flyers Don't Shoot Just For the Sake of Shooting
6. Flyers Play Two Periods

Mr. Goalie

We never had a Gretzky, Lemieux, Orr, Esposito, or Richard. But we did have a Parent. You might be saying that we have one now too, but if you could hear how I'm pronouncing it in my head you wouldn't be playing the coy game you're playing. They used to say, "they" being dudes in cut-off shorts and softball jerseys, that only the Lord saves more than Bernie Parent. The saying in itself is ridiculous because everyone knows Yahweh never made it out of the minors due to his inability to cover his 6 hole, but it gets the point across. Bernie Parent is a Hall of Fame goalie. And he attends every game. Still.

I'm going to let Tracy Jordan from 30 Rock step in and explain our choice for Bernie Parent's back-up, Ron Hextall:
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Dude scored goals and fought people.
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Thanks Tray.

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Our choice for back-up to the back-up was the most difficult one. You have Roman Checkmanek, Pete Peters, Tommy Soderstrom, Ken "the living zombie" Wregget, Brian Boucher - there were a bunch of quality choices. But we ended up going with Bobby Esche solely because Garth Snow was a cheater, Pelle Lindbergh was a drunk, John Vanbiesbrouck is a racist, and Doug Favell has a silly name that sounds like it's made up.

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The truth is that we don't give a shit about goalies. Like we've said before - anyone who can maintain an 88% save percentage is fine with us.

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And that wraps up the FGSB All-Time Flyers Team. I dare another blog to create a team that could compete with ours. If you have the ball(s) we'll make the game happen. I'll gather all the guys mentioned below, dead or alive, and you'll lose. And then our whole staff will rent a field, crank the hippy jams, and guzzle beer while we talk about how stupid you are to think that Rob Brown deserves to be on any All-Time Greats team besides the Chicago Wolves'.

So easy to score on, you'd think the Flyers were my ex-wife.

Enough talk about that devil women, she's dead to me(Also, a Devils fan). The Flyers get the short end of the stick last night and fall to the Sharks 7-6 in the shootout. Everything was going in last night. Bounces were going both team's way, passes in the offensive zone were finding their targets and the goalies looked like Brazilian transvestite hookers, showing off their gaping holes.

Frustrating and fun to watch all at once, the Flyers never looked like they were in control. Our defense is really bad. We take terrible, and I mean terrible penalties. Alberts interference call and Kimmo's holding call in the first period stick out as "WTF" penalties. They didn't accomplish anything at all, except allowing the Sharks stacked PP to hit the ice.

Briere's goal at the end proved to be exciting, as I felt a little pee come out when he was doing his signature goal celebration. I really thought "This could be it!" But my hockey dreams were crushed for the night when good ol' JR lit the lamp past a deflated Marty Biron to get the win. Nice going by Sharks coach Todd McLellan to give JR a shot, probably his last ever in Philly to win the game for his team. Afterwards, I bet Roenick was caught french kissing Lauren Hart in the tunnel...

So where does this leave the 0-3-3 Flyers? Still winless and 10 points behind NY for #1 in the Atlantic. Do heads roll? Do we see a monster trade go down today or tomorrow? Does Kukky stick as a 4th line forward? Only time, and Eklund's rotten appendix can tell. What do you think? Would a Carter for Boumeester right about now be sexy?

Flyers Gameday: "The Landlord"

Tonight the Flyers finish up their extended home-and-home with the San Jose Sharks tonight at the Wacho Center. The Flyers are win less, and have resorted to calling up Austrian hockey players in order to light a fire under the team's collective ass(it looks huge in those jeans). The entire Flyers organization knows they need to win, we here at FGSB are just hoping that Kristen's theory that only one Philly team can win at once dosen't come true tonight.

Nodl is playing with Carter and Upshall, and Bill "Crazy Legs" Meltzer thinks he gets his first goal tonight. That would be awesome, and very sexual. I'm jumping on the Nodl-wagon and wish the kid luck in getting one tonight. Cote and Shelly will renew their bromance by meeting at center ice and kissing each other with their fists. If Cote can win, the Flyers will win. I pray to Jeabus that Nitty can be as amazing as he was in San Jose. If we get a stud performance from Nitty, a Gagne goal, and more than one PP chance, the Flyers will win their first game of the season.

Mike Richards will be ready to go, and prove that he is the leader of our team. He's going to show up big tonight...checks, shots, kills, timeouts, chirpin', checking out the ice girls and goals. I think he gets the first star of the game. Captain's lead by example, and that's exactly what Richie does tonight in front of 2000 non-baseball fans. Let's go Flyers. Let's go Phillies. Let's go double-victory!

Getting Defensive

You may be as surprised as I was to find out that the Flyers defenseman with the most all-time games is none other than the turtleneck wearing, cigarette bumming Chris Therien. Too bad Therien was a giant pussy with limited offensive ability or he could have made this team. The guys who did make this team are the most revered and skilled defenseman the Flyers have ever had. For those of you think the first pairing might be Dimitri Yuskevich and Janne Ninnima, let me walk you through my selection for the top 6 Flyers defensemen of all-time.

1st Pair: Mark Howe and Kimmo Timonen
There's no arguing with the numbers - Howe had 480 points in 594 games as a Flyer . The son of Gordie Howe didn't fall far from the tree even though he was a defenseman, as he was one of the best two-way defensemen of the '80's. He anchored the Flyers defense to an Eastern Conference Championship and was the runner-up for the Norris Trophy 3 times. Kimmo, although only having been with the Flyers a short time, is one of the premiere two-way defensemen of the modern era. The Finn has put up six 40 point seasons in a row (two of them over 50) while defending the opposition's top players. He's going to be a valuable part of the Flyers organization for the next 5 years.

2nd Pair: Eric Dejardins and Joe Watson
Rico, as some people call him and I do not, played almost as many games as Therien, but was actually good. He served as captain of the Flyers when there wasn't a suitable one and averaged over 1/2 a point a game during the clutch and grab era. I'm not sure that Joe Watson can be summed up any better than Hockey Legends did:

Joe Watson was a salt-of-the-earth player who had to work harder than most to earn his spot at the top of the hockey world. He was gifted in no aspects of his game, save his sense of team spirit and his commitment to take the sum of his average parts and raise them into a greater whole.

Talk about being born to be a Philadelphia Flyer. Arron Asham could take a couple lessons from Watson, and maybe in exchange Asham could teach Watson how to make Chicken and Broccoli. Watson was a key member of both of the Flyers Stanley Cup teams. Always ready to block shots, great positionally, and almost 200 points in 746 games as a Flyer.

3rd pair: Moose Dupont and Jimmy Watson

If Dave Shultz was the face of the Broad Street Bullies Andre Dupont was the right fist. Moose became an offensively gifted defenseman after being traded to the Flyers, but never gave up his penchant for the rough stuff. During his first three full seasons with the Flyers, two of which ended with Stanley Cup parades, he had 91points and 706 penalty minutes. If I had to compare him to a modern day Flyers defenseman... I wouldn't. The younger brother of the aforementioned Joe Watson, Jimmy was lucky enough to win the Stanley Cup in his first two seasons. He was a little more offensively gifted than his older brother and managed almost the same number of points in over 200 less games. Jimmy was a five time All-Star and let me tell you something - he deserved it. I had the honor of being coached by him when I was 15 so I know firsthand - great guy, huge head. The fact that that guy could walk, much less play in the NHL while he was lugging that wrecking ball around, is a miracle.

Tomorrow the goalies!

Flyers All-Time Greats Team

Bobby Clarke was obviously the greatest Flyer of all-time. Over 200 more games and 300 more points than any other player to have thrown a Flyers jersey over their head. As if that weren't enough he then served as the Flyers General Manager for 19 seasons and still remains a part of the organization today. This doesn't mean that if I were creating an all-time Flyers team he'd be on the first line. Because he wouldn't. As a matter of fact he'd be on the 4th line. Before all of you old-timers fill up your Depends with stool let me present the forwards that comprise my All-Time Flyers team and spend the remainder of this entry defending them:

Now, back to Bobby fans. As I said before, there's no doubt that Clarke is the greatest Flyer of all-time. But I'm creating this team on the basis that all players, when competing against other all-time teams, will be at the height of their talent and be injury free. It is simply an undeniable fact that Eric Lindros is the most skilled hockey player to ever play for the Flyers. His 1.36 points per game far exceeds anyone else who ever donned the Orange and Black. And he played during a period in the NHL when holding and hooking were as common place as back checking and working in the corners - because they were one in the same. Peter Forsberg is actually second on that list with 1.15 points per game, and even though Clarkey had more points and higher points per game than Rick MacLeish I think even my dad would admit that MacLeish was a more gifted scorer. And that's why Bobby ends up on the 4th line. But don't be confused into thinking that this 4th line is going to have the same role as today's Riley Cote 3 minutes a game 4th line does. This 4th line is going to play, baby. And possibly be one of the stronger, more cohesive lines out there.

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1st Line: Barber - Lindros - Kerr
Bill Barber is fast. Eric Lindros is big and fast. Tim Kerr is big. This line has all the components of every great line in Flyers history. Picture Kerr and Lindros working the puck in the zone. No defenseman would be able to stop these monsters.

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2nd Line: Propp - Forsberg - Leach
This might be the highest scoring line on the club. Leach is as natural a scorer as the game has ever seen and Propp can bang it home from anywhere. You put one of best passers and puck handlers of all-time in between them and you're going to see some results that you like. Results like goals.

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3rd Line: Recchi - MacLeish - Tocchet
All goal scorers, all hard workers. This line on the fast break would put the fear of God into the Caps all-time best goalie, Pete Peters.

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4th Line: LeClair - Clarke - Dornhoefer
I want these guys out there against Lupul - Gretzky - Kurri. Not only can they shut down the opposition but they're going to get some goals too. Clarke and Dorny digging in the corners. Johnny Vermont waiting on the doorstep. Pick your poison.

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Tomorrow we'll be back with the top 6 defensemen and the top 3 goalies.

Flyers bring up Nodl

Today, the Flyers recalled Andreas Nodl to the team to replace Steve Downie and Jared "Alabama-slama" Ross. Both Ross and Downie haven't done dick yet this year. We here at FGSB think the move may just be to get Downie a lot more playing time, as his 6 minutes a game on the very unproductive 4th line just isn't cutting it for a top prospect. Either that, or it's to get him angry....and you don't want to see Steve Downie when he's angry. (Incredible Hulk now on DVD!)

I don't know where Nodl fits in. If he's just replacing Downie on the 4th line, then what gives? Nodl has 3 pts in 5 games this year, but I can't see him being a major sparkplug to get the team their first win. Downie can do that with a good check or fight, when he is surrounded by the right teammates. Maybe the move is more of a wake up call to other under-performing forwards. (I'm looking at you, Upshall, Metro, Asham, Knuble, Lupul) Either get your shit together, or see yourself in another team's colors. Nodl will be wearing #14, so he's hoping he can channel his inner-Ron-Sutter.

What Could Have Been

When I was a little boy I used to wake up at 3 AM, an hour before even my dad would get up for Saturday morning practice, unable to sleep with visions of lifting the puck dancing through my head. Things were pretty simple. I loved the smooth ice. I loved the sounds. I loved that my dad tied my skates like I was the king of some winter kingdom. I also, maybe surprisingly, loved to read. I'd stay up late at night, just me and my flashlight, rereading one of the hundred or so books I kept under my bed on a nightly basis. There's one book that I used to constantly reread that I've only been reminded of recently. It was about these two kids who had a magical table hockey set. They'd play their upcoming game on it and inevitably the real game would have the same story-line with the same outcome. I loved it. I must have read it 500 times. Growing up I would do the same thing with my magical table hockey game - the Sega Genisis. It was easy, as I played for the Junior Flyers so my team's colors and even some of the players numbers were already in the game. If we weren't playing as straight-forward a match as say the Little Caps I'd choose a team that had similar colors to our upcoming opponent and play it out. See what was going to happen. I was #25 back in those days because my favorite player was Kevin Stevens, but needless to say when the "Chk" line got out there Keith Acton was lugging the mail and dropping it off right in the mailbox every time.

Now that I'm an adult I don't need a magical table hockey set. I know what's going to happen. Everyday. But for 30 minutes last night I took a trip back in time and replayed the Flyers Saturday night game versus the Sharks on the FGSB Office's Xbox 360. Video games have changed a bit... We were kind enough to post the lines that should have played on Saturday night but John Stevens obviously wasn't reading. So we ran a simulation to see what would have happened if he'd followed our advice. Our conclusion was this - put us on the bench so we can put Ossi Vaananen on the powerplay.

1st Period
Typical 2008-09 start. Mike Knuble high sticks Jonathan Cheechoo on the opening shift. Cheechoo shows Knuble what he thinks of that by putting one in on the ensuing powerplay. But then only a few minutes later, on a Flyers powerplay, Joffrey Lupul does what he hasn't been able to do all year and beats Nabokov high over his glove. 1-1. The scoring frenzy in the first 5 minutes means it's time for the big boys to do what they do best. Except this time Riley Cote goes untouched while TKO-ing Jody Shelley with two punches. Ah if real life were only like this. With about a minute left in the period and Joe Thornton sitting in the box for tripping, Ossi Vaananen, quarterback of the 2nd powerplay unit, let's a laser rip off of a faceoff win and the Flyers are headed into the intermission with the lead.

Flyers shots - 13, Sharks shots - 18
Scoring Summary
1, SJS, J. Cheechoo ( Thornton)
1, PF, Lupul (Vaananen)
2, PF, Vaananen (Eminger, Knuble)

2nd Period
During a fast paced second period with few stoppages the play is back and forth, and fairly even sided. That is until the dirty fourth line gets out there and Scottie Upshall feeds Arron Asham in the slot for a one-timer that finds the net with only 2 minutes left in the period.

Flyers shots - 19, Sharks shots - 27
Scoring Summary
3, PF, A. Asham (Upshall)

3rd Period
The Sharks dominate the play right out of the gate. They'll end up having 50% more puck possession than the Flyers but hey, what did you expect. Except in this reality Nitty stands on his head for 20 straight minutes. And when Gagne nets the empty netter with assists from Knuble and Briere all that's left to do is for Andrew Alberts to two punch Jody Shelley.

Flyers shots - 27, Sharks shots - 42
Scoring Summary
4, PF, S. Gagne (Briere, Knuble)

Three Stars - Nitty, Ossi, Knuble

Don't we wish. Maybe before Wednesday's game we should see what happens when we play before instead of after. I doubt that a contraption as advanced as the Xbox 360 could be as magical as a table hockey set, but now is the time to start trying everything.

Finally a Good Game. And a Win.

Last night there was some great end to end action, some good work on the powerplay, and some nard-nosed penalty killing. In Trenton. New Jersey.

The Reading Royals came back from a 2 -1 deficit at the beginning of the third to beat the Trenton Devils 4 - 2 in their second game of the season. Thus assuring Matt Herneisen's year as captain does not start of similarly to that of Mike Richards'. Herneisen had both of the Royals scraps, one as challangee and one as challanger. During the first one neither got any good shots to the head but I'm sure Matt Cohen's ribs and kidneys aren't looking forward to the next Royals - Devils matchup.

The remainder of former Yale Bulldogs hoping to ascend the ranks to the NHL should take note - don't fight a 5 year veteran of the league for your first fight. Hopefully someone will get the second one up on Youtube at some point because despite my Sudafed and 3 beer haze I distinctly remember that kid's head popping off his back a couple of times . Welcome to the ECHL Yalie.

If you live in or near an ECHL town you should check a game out at some point. The tickets are a fraction, and by fraction I mean like 1/8, the price of comparable seats to an NHL game and the action is just as exciting. There aren't any players out there with multi-million dollar contracts which you'd be surprised to find out results in you not thinking they "owe you" anything. It's just a bunch of guys that love playing hockey and are hoping to move up the ladder to the show. They're all extremely high skilled and high energy. It makes for a great night.

As for the Flyers? I'm sure they'll announce attendance at Wednesday's game at around 12,000 or so but actual filled seats might be around 84 after a fifth consecutive loss. Philadelphia fans have no time to waste on a team that may or may not (most likely the later) show up when they already have a team that's been showing up for over 6 months.

Sink or Swim

Tonight the Flyers enter the Shark Tank. Literally. The Sharks are 4-1 so far this season, having beaten the Ducks once and the Kings twice while finding time to handle the Blue Jackets this past Tuesday. Not the hardest opening schedule (read Philadelphia Flyers). They did, however, show that they're human last night when their attempt to wash, rinse, and repeat was foiled by JS Giguere. This is the first game of a stretched out home and home whose second half won't be played until Wednesday in Philadelphia.

The Sharks are off to a good start this season under rookie head coach, and former Red Wings assistant, Todd McLellan. They're a team that's incredibly strong on offense and not too bad on defense either. Up front they have names like Thornton, Marleau, Cheechoo, Michalek, and Clowe. On defense they added Rob Blake and Dan Boyle over the off-season. Most likely because the Flyers had already gobbled up Steve Eminger and Tim Ramholt.

There's three players who will be of more interest to Flyers fans than the skilled guys already mentioned:

JR - No text messages were sent out this summer so it must mean that Jeremy Roenick is still kicking around in California. On the verge of his two thousandth game he's decided to stick around and take one last shot at Lord Stanley's cup. At 38, he's relegated to a role on the fourth line but you can count on him being up to his old antics during any one of his six shifts out there.

JS - Bet the farm that the Shark's enforcer is looking for revenge on Riley Cote after last year's ass-whomping in Philly. Rumor has it he Kelly Youngblooded the shit out of anywhere for 4 -7 punching bags this summer in preperation for tonight's game.



Brian Boucher - Last year Bouche had the chance to earn an NHL job so we let him leave the Phantoms for San Jose. Maybe he can return that favor by replacing the contents of Evgeni Nabokov's water bottle with ground up Slim Jim's. Or even better, by starting.

The Flyers are bringing the worst record in the NHL into San Jose tonight. All the coach only, captains only, and player only meetings in the world won't get them two points if they don't come out tonight and play ice hockey. Fast skating, smart positioning, good passing, disciplined hockey. They don't need to make the playoffs tonight, they just need to win one game.

Here are our dream lines:

Gagne - Briere - Knuble
Downie - Richards - Metropolit
Hartnell - Carter - Lupul
Cote - Upshall - Asham

Timonen - Coburn
Alberts - Vaananen
Eminger - Sbisa

Amber Alert: Philadephia Flyers

It's hard to find anything positive to say about the Flyers in their 2008-2009 campaign so far. I'm trying to remain upbeat about them based on what I see from Gagne, Kimmo, Richards and Sbisa. But while writing this post, that's all I could think of... Carter continues to forget that he can be a stud, but he does show flashes of it. Riley Cote looks like he goes out on the ice to punch, not to win. He's more or less clocking into his 9-to-5, not trying to get his team pumped. I think the best thing for him is to get worked one more time, maybe a bit bloody, to get his nasty edge back. Daniel Briere has been quiet, as has Upshall, Metro, Hartnell, Knuble and Lupul. This team shows streaks of flashiness, but never dominance.

The Flyers need to get consistent scoring from all lines to win. That's how they're built. When thats not happening, they rely too much on a patch-worked defense that isn't quite gelling yet. (I hate those Dr. Scholls commercials). Marty Biron needs to stop doing interviews for Flyers TV, TSN, Comcast, and VH1 and start remembering why he's our #1.

I wish we could get a gimme game against the Isle, but that's not going to happen. Up next is two games against the Sharks, a tough Western division foe who likes the color Teal way too much. For the Flyers sake, they need to win both games, to get some mojo back. If not, we're looking at a tough uphill climb in our own division before we even cut into the Turkey. Go Flyers.

Oh Captain My Captain.

Quick update on our favorite ECHL player, Matt "The Bone" Herneisen. Today Matt got voted the Captain of the Reading Royals, a Toronto Maples Leafs affiliate. The Bone got voted the captain on a 20-0 vote...that's just pure dominance. Herneisen plays with heart, sticks up for his players, and shows leadership not always seen in professional hockey. Congrats Hernie, and kick some Elmira ass tonight!

Disregard Previous Headline - Flyers Skip Denver

I haven't read anything yet so I don't know what the players and coaching staff had to say about last night's loss, but it basically doesn't matter. Last night's game was an absolute embarrassment. From start to finish. Jeff Carter's face during his interview between the first and second period said it all - he was plain old embarrassed. He couldn't even look the Alpine Sports commentator in the eye. He wouldn't even look at the camera. He looked like someone in one of those movies where they're keeping a video diary in a situation where they're pretty sure they're going to die - "We've used our last flare. The radio's running out of batteries. I'm not sure how much longer we have." There are a ton of things they're not doing in general - no support, no urgency, a lack of confidence in their play as they move up the ice, a lack of concentration. I mean, what more needs be said than after the first period the shots were 17-3? The Flyers looked so worried to make a mistake defensively that they couldn't even think about doing something offensively.

Probably the most glaring example of the Flyer playing horribly could be seen during 4 on 4. Every single one looked like a powerplay for the Avs. The Avs defense would get it in their own zone and make some passes to eachother or up ice and they'd carry it in and literally set it up. At even strength. If we managed to get the puck we just wanted to get it out of harms way so we'd chip it up the boards or flip it up the middle.The same could be said for 5 on 5. From Kimmo Timonen down to Andrew Alberts. We can't move the puck up as a unit. And the onus for that is as much on the forwards as the defensemen. Donovan McNabb can't hit his receivers if they're not open. So sometimes he chucks it of bounds. Sometimes meaning a few times a game, not every single shift.

I followed the game pretty closely last night and certain players stuck out:

Mike Richards is trying to do everything. Including turn the puck over high in the Flyers zone more than any other player. He should concentrate on the small things. Such as earning that extra foot before icing the puck when you're line is so tired that Danny Briere hardly makes it to the faceoff circle before the puck is dropped on the ensuing faceoff.

Braydon Coburn had an extremely bad game defensively and was nonexistent offensively. He and Sbisa were taking awful angles on the Avs forwards all night in the corners. Sbisa looks calm to be sure, maybe a bit too clam. On multiple occasions he got his pocket picked in the defensive zone on plays that should have developed into breakouts.

Joffrey Lupul played horribly. Some might attribute it to his new position but that would just be an excuse. When the Flyers had 30 seconds of power play in the first period, and they actually controlled the puck in the Avs zone, instead of setting it up he took a shot from a mile out that was a mile wide and when it cleared the zone he had effectively killed the entire penalty for the Avalanche. His turnover at the end of the second period needs no analysis - you just don't do that. You don't put yourself in a position to make that mistake.

John Stevens had a number of questionable calls from the bench. Such as putting the fourth line, including Riley Cote, out with less than a minute in the first. Guess what happened. Kimmo Timonen tried to force a pass to a forward who was no doubt open but out of position and he ends up having to haul down the Avs player who intercepts the pass. At the end of the second he had Eminger and Alberts out with less than a minute left. They didn't exactly stifle the 3 on 2 that developed after Lupul's turnover.

Basically no one played well last night. When the opposing announcers of an 0-3 team are saying things like "took it away ever so easily" and "you can't have a much better period than that" something is seriously wrong. The Flyers powerplay can't even set up unless it's a 5 on 3. Their penalty kill was abused, with the Avs passing into the box at their whim. Ryan Smyth looked like Wayne Gretzky. The Flyers need to figure something out soon. You can't spend the year relying on trick goals. If having NHL players clear the zone, lift a stick, or almost cycle can't be regarded as positives then there were none. That's something you'd laud an AHL team for if they were playing against an NHL club. Maybe we'll be doing so soon enough if the organization decides to send the Phantoms out to San Jose.

Flyers in the Mile High City

Tonight the Flyers take on the Colorado Avalanche in a do or don't game between two teams who are winless in their first three contests. Hopefully the clubs can strike an interconference deal that ensures they go to overtime and then handle it from there. This way both teams earn a point and neither of them is any worse for the wear, as neither's position in the standings effects the other. The Avalanche's season has gone much the same way the Flyers has - loss by 1, loss by 2, loss by 1. This is an interesting matchup, in the sense that one of the teams will have four losses to open the season and be in need of a shake up and the other will be "headed in the right direction." This might be motivation enough for a playoff-like atmosphere, as both Colorado and Philadelphia are pretty great hockey cities, and no player on either team wants to be traded to Florida in a slow start deal.

The Avalanche look pretty much the same as they have for a century with Joe Sakic, Paul Statsny, Adam Foote, Milan Hedjuk, and Wojtek Wolski in the lineup. We saw Ryan Smythe in an Avalanche uniform and his Claude Lapointe knock-offs when the Avalanche beat us 2-1 last season, but the 'lanche added a part of Flyers folklore during the offseason in Darcy Tucker. Tucker and his pubic hair covered face were brought in to lend some leadership to a fairly young club, but so far they've only added an assist. I wouldn't expect any orchestrated rough stuff tonight as the Avalanche don't really have a goon. Fighter Cody McLeod has apparently decded to challange for the Rocket Richard Trophy this season and Cody McCormick is good for about 5 fights a year and he's already used up one.

If you're sober enough to watch that little black biscuit tonight it should be a pretty entertaing game. If you and a bottle of Jack with a bow on it made from your right shoelace are roaming the streets in search of Matt Stairs the 9 o'clock start might give you a little trouble. Better to stick to our in-depth recap provided tomorrow....

It Don't Get No Better Then This

Talk about Mucking and Grinding. Head of the National Hockey Writer's Association Kevin Allen came up with this beauty of a headline on Monday afternoon. Forgive us for going all Jay Leno on your ass, but that's nothing compared to what Kyle Quincey seems prepared to do.

Asham for a Pat LaFontaine 8x10 (e137)

I was praying at Kate Smith's grave today when she rose from the dead to give me the hottest trade rumor since Bouwmeester for Scott Munroe(e4) this Summer. In an unprecedented 4 team trade the Buffalo Sabres, New York Islanders, and the New York Rangers have agreed to split the services of Arron Asham in exchange for each giving Flyers GM Paul Holmgren a signed 8x10 glossy of Pat LaFontaine in their respective uniforms. As this story is still breaking, like the Earth as Smith's corpse hand punched through it from below, it's still only in the 100's. When contacted by my super secret source, me asking questions to my Magic 8-ball, Holmgren had this to say:

FGSB: This is a pretty unprecedented move Homer. What was your reasoning behind it?
PH: Try Again.

FGSB: Can you confirm or deny that you traded an actual player for three pictures you could've gotten off e-Bay?
PH: Yes.

FGSB: Are we the sexiest prognosticators since Phil the dancing groundhog?
PH: Better luck next time.

There you have it. Keep your eyes peeled on the trade tracker. This one's going through at any minute.

Postive Step My Ass

It's really difficult to take a subjective look at something you think about so objectively. Pile on top of that the Philadelphia fan's general attitude towards his teams and I'm lost. But is it just me, and I would like to ask this question to say a Red Wings or Kings fan - someone who has no opinion about the Flyers or me being a Flyers fan, but do the Flyers ever seem to have control of a hockey game? For a shift even, much less a period? Watching last night's game I felt like I was in a time warp back to last season's playoffs, where the Flyers were always on defense but somehow managed to get a couple sneaky goals.

I know my point of view is skewed, and in some cases it's empirically supported. The Flyers won an abysmal 24 of 60 faceoffs. If you had me guess I would have said 10. They also outshot the Penguins 30-28. I can only remember about 15 real shots. They supposedly had 9 shots on the 6 powerplays they didn't score on. I don't remember any of them. We have five all-stars out there. They have four defensive specialists. We can't even get a good opportunity on a 5 on 3? Three games in a row! Fleury didn't have to rob anyone all night. The Flyers beat him with two deflections - not a purposeful shot in net all gosh darn night. If you asked me to guess time of possession I would say it was at least 3-1 in favor of the Penguins. They were just sticking there big butts out in the corner and warding our D-men off, eventually to cycle out of the corner and rip one at Nitty. Even when the Flyers were in the Pens zone it looked like they were scrambling around chasing a bouncing puck or taking "shots" from the corner.
Last night it just felt like it was a matter of time. And then it was. If you watch that clip again you have to wonder what Lupul was doing in the offensive zone. And then Briere. Brooks Orpik looked like Bobby Orr maneuvering between the two and making an 80 foot pass. Just play hard for ten more seconds! It's no joke - you let your guard down in the NHL for one shift and the other team is going to score unless you're goalie can save you. Dupuis' shot was a laser. Nitty had done enough already - that's not his fault.

I'm going to reserve any judgement on Andrew Alberts and Steve Eminger until I can further observe them. I'll leave my preliminary findings at this - they scare the shit out of me when they're out there together.

Flyers Gameday: The Flightless

Those looking for a "gimmie" game won't find one tonight. The Flyers are taking I-76 all the way past the Amish and into the sparkling dump of a city known as Pittsburgh. Be prepared to see people actually cheering for Miro Satan and Ruslan Fedotenko tonight. I know that sounds impossible, but it's true. If anyone from Philadelphia is going to the game, please remember that these people still think its the 1920s and Steel is the way of the future. Please do not make eye contact, keep your children close and don't let them eat after midnight, or get them wet. Please don't ever get them wet....
Check out The Pens Blog for the other side.

We all know what happens when these two teams play each other. One team wins, one team loses, and both teams leave banged up and bloody. I'm beginning to think that this rivaly is going to one day rival that of the Yankees - Red Sox, Cowboys-Redskins and Burke-Lowe.

These two teams have it all. High-profile stars, tough guys, chippy guys, scorers, snipers, and French-Canadian goalies. I expect a good game, and if the Flyers actually put together the first two periods from the Montreal game with the third period of the Rangers game, who knows, we might actually get a victory. Cote and Godard will go. Richards will make Sydney agitated, and Malkin will somehow score a goal. Frankly, I can't wait for this game. I think the Flyers show up big time tonight and get a much needed win: Flyers 4 - Penguins 2. Go Flyers.

Not Great, Not Terrible

Four points can often mean the difference between finishing the regular season with a playoff spot or hitting the links in April. For a marginal team. The Flyers are not marginal - they're one of the best teams in the Conference. There's no reason to panic about the Flyers not getting any points in their first two games. They've played two decent teams to one goal games and frankly, as long as Matt Stairs is hitting home runs in the seventh inning like he has been lately, no one's really going to notice. Among the negatives there have been a significant amount of positives that can be taken from both of the 2/3 efforts so far:

- Simon Gagne has a goal in each game. This isn't so much important for the numbers game but for his confidence. Yes there's only 38 more until he hits 40, but a good, confident start could have him flirting with 50, and in my dreams 60.

- Ossi Vaananen and Luca Sbisa have been pleasant surprises. Both are confident with the puck and use their bodies effectively.

- Nitty played great against the Rangers. Tonight we'll get to see how he fairs against a powerful offense in a full frame.

- Jeff Carter is hopefully getting more comfortable out there. He was infinitely more noticeable against the Canadiens then he was the Rangers.

- Glen Metro looks shifty out there. I like it. He could provide some fun goals during the year.

Last year the Flyers started off the season 1-1 and then came out and blew Vancouver away in the third game of the season. If we get the power play working and make sure to stay out of the box against these guys a win tonight could give us a bit of momentum before we head out west.

New Flyer Alert: Tonight could mark the appearance of our first new Flyer of the year, Andrew Alberts. No one could have predicted it would happen this soon, but we have a new big man on the blueline. Another Flyers defenseman who wore #41? John Stevens.

Flyers Gameday: Les Habitants

Tonight the Flyers play host to the Montreal Wine-snifters. Remember last year, we basically made all of Canada cry as their last team was eliminated from Cup contention by the hands of RJ Umberger, Jim Dowd and Marty Biron. This year already, Cheeseburger is in Columbus, Jim Dowd is pumping gas on the Boulevard and Marty Biron looks flakier than my scalp. Timmy P. asks the important question: "Is this a must win game already?" I'm asking another question: "Can we make the Kostitsyn's open-mouth kiss each other?"

The Flyers can win this game. If they get some timely saves by Biron, capitalize on an aggressive forecheck and have Riley Cote find BGL in the stands and fight him on the streets of Philly like in Rocky 5. It'll also be interesting to see if the first line can keep up the production from the first game against a defense with more experience and who are a bit faster than the Rangers. Montreal is a dangerous team, and no one in the Flyers' locker room wants to start the season off 0-2.

Check out the Four Habs Fans for the Canadiens point of view. They're Canadian, so please only use small words if you write any comments. Do you think Alberts plays tonight? What about Downie? Do you think I'll get on the kiss cam? Go Flyers.

I Don't Know About This One, Homer

Paul Holmgren's made some smart moves over the past couple years. And there's no denying that a bonafide NHL player in exchange for an ECHL player and a lower round pick is a significant win for the team getting the NHLer. But another spare part defenseman? Is that what we wanted? Why not just trade a random Phantom for some draft picks to get under the 50 contract limit and bring Berard in? At least there's some offensive upside to his defensive downside. Alberts has one goal and eighteen assists in almost 200 NHL games. Bruins coach Claude Julien was willing to get rid of him because of the number of mistakes he made. This does not sound like the kind of guy we want between the opposition's snipers and our empty net, er Marty Biron. Is this all an attempt to get Kukky in the press box? Is Kukky that bad? Maybe the Flyers just needed a new punching bag. If we accumulate enough defenseman one of them has to have a break out year. Or so we hope.

At least he has good taste in movies, as can be seen by his myspace page. His not done by his NHL club, but personal, myspace page.