The Sixers got back to their losing ways last night, getting the ever-loving crap kicked out of them by a score of 105 - 84 at Houston. The Sixers allowed Juwan Howard, who apparently, unbeknownst to me, is still in the league, to get 20 points and 10 rebounds (he averages 9 ppg). Defensively, Houston did a number on a Sixer team that shot only 38.6% from the floor. Andre Igoudala had 19 for Philly. And yes, I am close to openly rooting against the Sixers, if you haven't figured that out yet.
Flyers Notes:
As predicted, absolutely nothing came of the meeting between Peter Forsberg and GM Paul Holmgren yesterday. We'll be revisiting this issue at least once a week leading up to the February 27th trading deadline.
On a seperate note, Steve Simmons of the Toronto Sun doesn't think it's such a bad idea that the Flyers are as bad as they are. He compares them to the Maple Leafs, who aren't getting any better or worse. The Maple Leaf situation actually reminds me of the Sixers with Allen Iverson. Think about it: The Sixers had one good player (Iverson), who was expected to carry the load everynight, even though he was past the point of his career where he could live up to such a role. Same with Mats Sundin of the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
Monday, January 29, 2007
Weekend Post-Mortem
Flyers
The Flyers played an incredibly boring weekend of hockey, even by Ken Hitchcock standards. They dropped a 2 - 1 decision to the New York Rangers on Saturday afternoon. Robert Esche singlehandedly kept them in this one, making 33 saves. Joni Pitkanen scored the only goal and Peter Forsberg took two cheesy minor penalties. The Rangers outshot the Flyers 35 - 18, but that spoke more to the fact that the Flyers had 7 minors whistled against them (to the Rangers 3).
On Sunday, the Flyers took to the road and played the Atlanta Thrashers and beat them 2 - 1. Antero Niittymaki made 37 mostly brilliant saves playing against fellow countryman, goaltender Kari Lehtonen of the Atlanta Thrashers. The underacheiving Jeff Carter scored both goals for the Flyers, who were once again outshot by a wide margin (38 - 23) most likely attributable to another big discrepancy with respect to power plays (6 penalties against the Flyers, 2 against the Thrashers).
Monday will be a big day for the Flyers as Peter Forsberg will meet with Paul Holmgren, who will presumably tell Forsberg to make up his mind on what he wants to do, with respect to his future. My hunch is nothing will come of this. I suspect that they'll diddle with his foot and finding a skate for it for another couple of weeks. At that time, the trade rumors will come hot and heavy and I think Forsberg will get moved at the deadline.
Sixers
The Sixers dropped one to the Lebron James-less Cavaliers on Friday night by a score of 105 - 97. Andre Miller had a triple double in the loss (12pts, 12reb, 13asst) and Kyle Korver shot a dreadful 3 for 13 from the floor. The Cavs were also able to squeeze off 10 more shots than the Sixers in this game in which they absolutely should have won.
The Sixers made up for this one by beating the Atlanta Hawks 104 - 89 on the strength of 19 points from Samuel Dalembert (8 of 11 shooting) and 24 points from Andre Iguodala. This gave the Sixers wins in 3 or their last 4 games and is seriously screwing up their quest to draft either Greg Oden or Kevin Durant. Both Boston and Memphis have fewer wins than the Sixers, who can't even seem to tank the season correctly.
The Flyers played an incredibly boring weekend of hockey, even by Ken Hitchcock standards. They dropped a 2 - 1 decision to the New York Rangers on Saturday afternoon. Robert Esche singlehandedly kept them in this one, making 33 saves. Joni Pitkanen scored the only goal and Peter Forsberg took two cheesy minor penalties. The Rangers outshot the Flyers 35 - 18, but that spoke more to the fact that the Flyers had 7 minors whistled against them (to the Rangers 3).
On Sunday, the Flyers took to the road and played the Atlanta Thrashers and beat them 2 - 1. Antero Niittymaki made 37 mostly brilliant saves playing against fellow countryman, goaltender Kari Lehtonen of the Atlanta Thrashers. The underacheiving Jeff Carter scored both goals for the Flyers, who were once again outshot by a wide margin (38 - 23) most likely attributable to another big discrepancy with respect to power plays (6 penalties against the Flyers, 2 against the Thrashers).
Monday will be a big day for the Flyers as Peter Forsberg will meet with Paul Holmgren, who will presumably tell Forsberg to make up his mind on what he wants to do, with respect to his future. My hunch is nothing will come of this. I suspect that they'll diddle with his foot and finding a skate for it for another couple of weeks. At that time, the trade rumors will come hot and heavy and I think Forsberg will get moved at the deadline.
Sixers
The Sixers dropped one to the Lebron James-less Cavaliers on Friday night by a score of 105 - 97. Andre Miller had a triple double in the loss (12pts, 12reb, 13asst) and Kyle Korver shot a dreadful 3 for 13 from the floor. The Cavs were also able to squeeze off 10 more shots than the Sixers in this game in which they absolutely should have won.
The Sixers made up for this one by beating the Atlanta Hawks 104 - 89 on the strength of 19 points from Samuel Dalembert (8 of 11 shooting) and 24 points from Andre Iguodala. This gave the Sixers wins in 3 or their last 4 games and is seriously screwing up their quest to draft either Greg Oden or Kevin Durant. Both Boston and Memphis have fewer wins than the Sixers, who can't even seem to tank the season correctly.
Friday, January 26, 2007
Gotta Start Somewhere....
Daily Dose:
The Sixers play Cleveland tonite in the second of a back-to-back set of games at the Wachovia Center at 7pm. Let's hope they don't do too much to screw up their rightful place at the top of the NBA lottery heap.
The Flyers don't play until tomorrow at 1pm at the Wachovia Center vs. the hated NY Rangers. Today, the news was dominated by stories of Peter Forsberg contacting the Avalanche on his own in order to force some sort of trade. I seriously doubt Forsberg's sincerity, at this point, that he really wants to be here. In my opinion, Forsberg, at his age, wants no part of a rebuilding effort. He has been dithering about trying to find solutions for his skate problem and I find it hard to believe that with the amount of time and money that the Flyers have thrown at this problem that it hasn't been fixed to Forsberg's satisfaction to this point. I harbor no ill will towards Forsberg at this point; afterall, it just hasn't worked out that the team was in a position to utilize his unique talents. But add up the constant yo-yo-ing in and out of the lineup, his initial reticence to be the captain of the team to begin with, along with the diva-esque issues with his skates, and I believe that it's time to see what we can get for Forsberg.
On another Flyers note, check out this footage of Todd Fedoruk throwing a punch at Joni Pitkanen. It's good to see someone trying to motivate the apparently brain dead Pitkanen, who is a dreadful minus-23 on the year so far.
The Sixers play Cleveland tonite in the second of a back-to-back set of games at the Wachovia Center at 7pm. Let's hope they don't do too much to screw up their rightful place at the top of the NBA lottery heap.
The Flyers don't play until tomorrow at 1pm at the Wachovia Center vs. the hated NY Rangers. Today, the news was dominated by stories of Peter Forsberg contacting the Avalanche on his own in order to force some sort of trade. I seriously doubt Forsberg's sincerity, at this point, that he really wants to be here. In my opinion, Forsberg, at his age, wants no part of a rebuilding effort. He has been dithering about trying to find solutions for his skate problem and I find it hard to believe that with the amount of time and money that the Flyers have thrown at this problem that it hasn't been fixed to Forsberg's satisfaction to this point. I harbor no ill will towards Forsberg at this point; afterall, it just hasn't worked out that the team was in a position to utilize his unique talents. But add up the constant yo-yo-ing in and out of the lineup, his initial reticence to be the captain of the team to begin with, along with the diva-esque issues with his skates, and I believe that it's time to see what we can get for Forsberg.
On another Flyers note, check out this footage of Todd Fedoruk throwing a punch at Joni Pitkanen. It's good to see someone trying to motivate the apparently brain dead Pitkanen, who is a dreadful minus-23 on the year so far.
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