Flyers Drop 3rd Straight

The Flyers came out last night against their cross-state rivals and dropped a 3 - 2 decision in overtime. The Flyers have yet to get their first victory in three attempts so far on the young season.

The Flyers fell behind in the 2nd period 2 - 0 on a couple of goals where the Flyers play in their own zone was somewhat lacking. The Brook Orpik goal was screen shot and probably preventable had someone been pressuring Orpik on the shot. And on the goal where the Flyers fell behind 2 - 0, it was a case of an unchecked player being able to camp out near the faceoff circle and take a pass from behind the net.

The Flyers did bounce back before the end of the 2nd period, with a fluky goal by Jeff Carter that bounced off of Pens defenseman Hal Gill, and a Simon Gagne tip goal that was originally credited to Mike Richards.

Antero Niittymaki was in goal last night and looked good for the most part, but he did appear to go down a bit too early on the shot from Pascal Dupuis that ended the game in OT. Dupuis' goal may have been a perfect shot from where he took it (coming down the half boards at full speed), but still believe Niitty could have stopped it had he stayed up.

The Flyers will try to bounce back on Thursday, when they travel to Colorado to take on the Avs at 9pm.

Photo: yahoo.com (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

Flyers Drop Opener

The Flyers, playing in their first regular season game of the year, dropped a strange game to the New York Rangers by a score of 4 - 3.

The Rangers, already playing their 4th game of the season, came out and blitzed the Flyers to the tune of 4 goals in the first period. Two of them were absolutely stoppable by goaltender Martin Biron, who was ultimately pulled from the game in favor of Antero Niittymaki.

Ultimately, however, the Rangers dominance had more to do with the Flyers looking as if they were still playing in the preseason. A couple of Flyers attempted to wake up the team; specifically, Riley Cote, who took on Colton Orr, and Mike Richards, who traded fives with Brandon Dubinsky.

Ultimately, however, it took until the 2nd period for the Flyers to wake up and get on the board. Scott Hartnell converted a Glen Metropolit face off win for a shorthanded goal early in the 2nd period by shooting high over Stephen Valiquette's glove hand. The period also featured Mike Richards flying around the ice; he drew two penalties in the period and seemed determined to dig the Flyers out of the hole they dug for themselves.

The Flyers struck again towards the end of the 2nd period when Simon Gagne batted in a Danny Briere rebound to chalk up his first goal in forever. For the game, I thought Gagne looked like a guy who hadn't played in awhile, but more importantly, he didn't look timid, which was a good sign for a guy coming off of post-concussive syndrome.

The third period was all Flyers, but they could only dent the Ranger net once on a Mike Richards goal from a sweet cross-ice feed from Danny Briere. The Flyers certainly had their opportunities in the 3rd period; they had a 2 man advantage with a little under 10 minutes left in the game, but they were turned away.

Notes:

- It's hard to understate how poorly the Flyers looked in the 1st peroid; the only consolation you can take from this game is that when they got their skating legs, they dominated the Rangers.

- Danny Briere....2 assists.

- Lasse Kukkonen was a -2 in the game and was the guy that got beat wide when Sjostrom scored.

- Luca Sbisa wasn't bad in his debut. He was a -1, but the whole team was so bad early, it was difficult to tell. By the end of the game, Sbisa was carrying the puck up ice confidently and even pursued on the forecheck at one point.

- Nice work from Glen Metropolit last night. One of the few Flyers that showed energy early on in the game and he got some increased ice time during the game.

- Stephen Valiquette? Again? Really? You gotta be kidding me.

- In case you missed it, I wrote a preview of the 2008-2009 Flyers season for The700level.com.

- Sarah Palin dropping the puck got alot of press after the game. I don't care about the home crowd booing her; what angers me is that she was there to drop the puck in the first place. I'm not angry about her presence at the game because of her politics; I'm angry that Owner Ed Snider would use his hockey team as a bully pulpit for his political views.

Many of us go to the hockey games to forget about politics and the real world for awhile. While I have no problem with highlighting the contributions of the armed services during the game (as the Flyers are wont to do), I am appalled that Snider, a known McCain donor, would push his choice for President under the disingenuous guise of inviting a well-known "Hockey Mom" to drop the puck. I don't care for it when Rock Stars prosthelize their political beliefs during a concert I pay to attend and I don't like it when rich hockey owners do the same.

Photo: yahoo.com....(Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images)

Glad Hockey is Almost Back

After the bitter shot that was the Eagles game, this little video is the refreshing lime wedge to remind us that hockey is around the corner. The video is a great commercial for Versus featuring our own Braydon Coburn, reminding us of the abuse hockey players can take. Eat your heart out, Anquan Boldin....

Quick Weekend Review

If there has been a weekend where there was more to see than this past weekend, I can't think of when that weekend took place. For now, this is just a quick overview of the weekend's events, but I'll do a deeper dive on each of the biggies as it pertains to the Philly sports scene.

The Phillies. Wow. Don't make it easy on us or anything. When Lidge was on the mound over the weekend, doing his best Mitch Williams impersonation, I thought for sure I was witnessing a meltdown. Jimmy Rollins' sprawling effort to gain control of a grounder up the middle and his flip to Utley, who turned a game ending double play was as big of a defensive play as you'll see.

The Phils clinched their second consecutive NL East division championship and have earned themselves an NLDS series against the Milwaukee Brewers, who made the wildcard, after battling the choking Metropolitans of New York.

The Eagles. Great game last night, but in losing to the Bears, they definitely left a win out on the field. David Akers can seemingly no longer be counted on over 40 yards out and the red zone woes of last season returned for another night.

The Flyers. Went to the last Spectrum game on Saturday and saw the ceremony. I have some pictures to post when I get around to writing about it. The Flyers did a tremendous job and it was nice to see Bobby Clarke get a nice standing ovation after the way his tenure as GM ended. It would have been nice to see Eric Lindros make it to the ceremony (he was invited), but he had another engagement to attend to, but he did apparently record a video that I'm trying to get a hold of to post.

Penn State. Ranked No. 6 in the country and are especially being viewed differently after USC lost to Oregon State. The Big 10 is theirs to lose right now, if they can survive road trips to Columbus and Madison.

Flyers Enter 2008 Exhibition Schedule

The Flyers started training camp last weekend and even had their 1st preseason game last night. I didn't watch it, because it wasn't on TV, but the Flyers did attempt to webcast it.

For whatever reason, I couldn't get it to work, but I applaud the idea and hope they can get the kinks worked out of televising NHL games over the internet.

Just off of the top of my head, here are 10 storylines to monitor as the Flyers progress through their camp and preseason schedule:

1.) How will Simon Gagne play as he gets back into the grind of the NHL schedule? Will he play tentatively, or will he come back as the 40+ goal scorer we've seen in the past?

2.) How will Mike Richards adjust to the burden of the captaincy?

3.) Will Jeff Carter earn his new contract? You can argue he is slightly overpaid right now, but might be a bargain by year 3 of his deal if his upside is what everyone believes it to be.

4.) Which young Flyer prospect will make the team out of camp? Steve Downie or Claude Giroux?

5.) Can Scott Upshall stay out of John Stevens' doghouse?

6.) Of the gaggle of defensemen that GM Paul Holmgren acquired during the off-season, which ones will make the team?

7.) Can Braydon Coburn build off of his success from last year?

8.) Which goaltender is Martin Biron? The one benched in favor of Antero Niittymaki during stretches of the regular season or the one that practically stole a playoff series from Montreal all by himself?

9.) How much will the Flyers miss assistant coach Terry Murray, who did a great job with the defensemen last year? Murray has moved on to become head coach of the LA Kings.

10.) This team could very easily have missed the playoffs last year and it would have probably resulted in John Stevens' firing. If the Flyers struggle in the first half of the year, will the Flyers fire Stevens?

One more important item: Tim Panaccio, formerly the Flyers beat writer for the Inquirer, is now blogging over at HockeyBuzz.com. According to what I read over there, Panaccio took a buyout from the Inky. Panaccio was always one of my favorite writers (even when he covered the Eagles beat for the Inky), so I'll look forward to checking out his work over at HockeyBuzz.

Flyers Sign Backup Goalie

Hockey posts two days in a row, sportsfans. Must mean training camp is around the corner.

The Flyers signed a backup goaltender to Martin Biron today, when they inked Jean-Sebastian Aubin to a one-year deal.

Why do they need a backup you ask?

Because Antero Niittymaki will be out of commission for up to 6 weeks to have some more work done on his hip. Heard this one before with Nitty? Don't forget in 2006-2007, he had torn his left hip labrum and was so bad as he tried to play through it, the organization (but NOT John Stevens) lost confidence in the goaltender and brought in Marty Biron.

Hopefully, fixing this injury now will allow Niittymaki to somehow regain the early momentum he had in his career when he led Finland to a Silver medal in the 2006 Olympics.

Flyers Name Richards Captain

In the most anti-climactic news of the Flyers offseason, Ed Moran of the Daily News is reporting that Mike Richards will be named the next captain of the Flyers.

Richards was the obvious choice for the role, given his unselfish game and team-first attitude. Not that there weren't other alternatives, such as Kimmo Timonen or even Simon Gagne, but given the Flyers' history of employing a captain with sandpaper to their game and the sheer magnitude of his contract (12 years, $69 million), Richards seemed to be a natural to follow into the role.

Thoughts from the Weekend

Phils

Can anyone remember the last series the Phils took from a team? Me neither. Only the Mets have a .500 record in their last 10 games in the NL East, so the Phils have been very fortunate that no other team has been able to take the bull by the horns in their division. The Phils now must stop screwing around, as they enter a portion of their schedule heavy with divisional opponents, starting tomorrow in Atlanta for 3 games and back home against the Mets for 4 games.

If the Phils continue to flounder through this next week, I would be shocked if a trade, even a minor one involving lesser known players, weren't made if for no other reason than to shake things up a bit.

Flyers

The Flyers signed Steve Eminger, obtained in a trade on draft day, to a 1 year deal. The leash for Eminger appears to be a short one. At least we won't have to wait long to see if Holmgren pissed away a first round pick or not.

Other

Spent the weekend with friends in Washington DC; had fun, but it gets oppressively hot there. I have no idea how people can stand going outside there at times, let along decide to take a jog around the mall.

Tried to go to the O's-Nats game on Saturday night, but it was inexplicably sold out.

Also - apparently - despite careers, age, marriage, children, and mortgages, beer pong was still alot of fun.

Carter Gets Paid

Flyers center Jeff Carter has been signed to a contract that the Flyers website is unwilling to discuss. Matt from the 700Level, quoting TSN, says he's getting 3 years at $5 Million per, which seems OK for a guy who has been, frankly, a bit inconsistent, but when he's on, he's an elite player.

Fact is, I'm not really sure what kind of player Carter will turn into. Usually, a center is a player who sets up other players and is typically the strongest defensive player on a particular line. Can you say these things about Jeff Carter? He's certainly a different type of center, with a transcedent shot when he uses it and improved puck skills. But you couldn't call him an elite passer. Remember: the Flyer got Kyle Calder because they thought he'd blend in well with Carter. How'd that work out? I'm glad they signed him, especially after watching the absolute tear he went on after Richards got hurt last year, but you wonder what type of player he'll become.

Still and all, the right thing to do by Paul Holmgren. If Carter doesn't pan out as a consistent top 6 forward, it's only a 3-year deal. If he does, well, then hopefully the cap is high enough to deal with it.

Lost Phils Weekend; Flyers Draft Redux

The Phils

Wow, that didn't go well. Six games against the elite in the AL on your home field and you could only manage 1 lousy win. I hope Pat Gillick was watching closely. It was a good wakeup call for this team.

The Phils' lead in NL East is down to 1 game. Now, they go on the road against Oakland and Texas, and if they don't win 4 of 6 games on this trip, I think some personnel will need shaking up.

Look for JRoll to have a good trip in his hometown of Oakland.

The Flyers

The NHL draft was held last Friday and the Flyers were busy with shifting their roster around. They traded RJ Umberger to Columbus for two draft picks; one of which was the 19th pick overall. What they were trying to do, according to the Courier-Posts Chuck Gormley, was to trade up to get a goaltender. When the goaltender was taken, Holmgren took 18 year old defenseman Luca Sbisa. I had no problem with the selection of a defenseman....that is definitely an area of need for the Flyers in their system right now.

There was definitely a logjam at forward and someone was going to have to go. I've never been a huge RJ Umberger fan. Because of how he did in the playoffs against Montreal, Umberger's value was never going to be higher. Umberger has the air of a guy who considers his skills to be vastly more superior than they really are. I would have much rather seen Umberger go than a guy like Scottie Upshall or Joffrey Lupul, both of whom are younger than Umberger and much more skilled.

Where I thought Holmgren went a little off of the reservation was when he traded the Flyers' own 1st round pick (27th overall) to the Caps for D Steve Eminger and another draft pick. Isn't that a little bit of a high price to pay for a guy who has never finished an entire season in the NHL? This past year, he was little more than a spare part for Washington going into the playoffs, but with all of the injuries to the Caps blueline, the Caps were forced to play Eminger, who looked pretty good. It'll be interesting to see if a fresh start can help Eminger, who was the 12th overall pick in the 2002 draft. For Holmgren's sake, I hope it does, because the price was very high. If Eminger tanks, it could be Homer's first real mistake as GM.

Culture

- Saw Pearl Jam Friday night at the Susquehanna Bank Centre. Great show and a great time in the parking lot beforehand. Highlight of the night was either "Better Man" or "Alive", but I also enjoyed the "Baba O'Reilly" cover that Pearl Jam does.

- Saw an interesting documentary on HBO about Roman Polanski, but I'm not sure of the point of the documentary. Was it to maintain Polanski's "innocence"? Or to point out judicial misconduct? Because, while judicial misconduct almost definitely occurred, let's not obscure the undisputed fact that this guy drugged and raped a 13 year old girl. And the documentarians do imply that not only should the 13-year old girl have known better (???) but that we shouldn't have expected better of a known poon hound like Roman Polanski. While I believe the documentary was wrongly sympathetic towards a convicted rapist, I still found the documentary interesting......

Gratuitous Flyers Post; Phils Weekend

I doubt you thought you'd see a hockey post, but tonite is the NHL Entry Draft. In the spirit of all of the major sports leagues trying to make money off of their amateur draft and televise it, the NHL will televise the happenings on Versus at 7pm. I also believe this is the first year the event has been held on a Friday night. I seem to recall this as an event you'd roll over one random hungover Saturday morning and find this event on ESPN2 and wondering if I had drank myself back to December or something.

As for the Flyers, I have no idea what fresh faced 18 year old kid still battling pimples they will happen to draft. If I had a request, I would like them to find a good young goaltender, as if you look in their minor league system, the Flyers seem bereft of any big time goaltender talent.

Another request would probably be for puck moving defensemen, but a puck moving defenseman in the NHL is the rough equivalent of starting pitching in baseball. Everyone needs and wants the defenseman that can not only take care of business in his own zone, but kickstart the offense on the breakout. With the Flyers having a plethora of forwards at the NHL level and with two blue chip prospects (Claude Giroux and James Van Riemsdyk) on the way, I don't think they need to go out and draft a big time sniper.

Other than who the Flyers pick in this draft, the NHL draft is notorious for fostering an atmosphere of an stock exchange trade floor. Remember, it was on draft day 2002, where the Flyers made a big move to trade Ruslan Fedotenko (who went on to win a Cup with Tampa) and a couple of draft picks for the right to draft Joni Pitkanen. This year, there are various rumors around the league not only with respect to the Flyers (who were rumored a couple of weeks ago to be interested in signing D Andrej Meszaros from Ottawa), but also with respect to one of the Flyers' rivals.

Rumors are starting to surface that the Penguins are interested in trading Evgeni Malkin. If they do trade Malkin, it could be a sign that they keep Marian Hossa. Regardless, if you're a Flyers fan, it's a development worth following.

Other Flyers news you may have missed while partying at CBP and going downashore:

- Sami Kapanen retired. The guy was an absolute buzz saw when he was on his game. He'll always be fondly remembered in Philly.

- The Flyers acquired D Danny Syvret from Edmonton for Ryan Potulny. Meh. He'll probably play on the Phantoms.

- The Flyers gave the rights to Vinny Prospal back to Tampa for a late round pick. We weren't using those rights, anyway.

- If you're as old as me, you fondly remember Czech defender Miroslav Dvorak, who passed away at age 56.

- James Van Riemsdyk......going back to school this fall. Sorry Phantoms season ticket holders.

Phillies this Weekend

Probable pitching matchups this weekend for their series against the Angels

Tonite: Adam Eaton vs. Ervin Santana; 7pm on csn-tv

Tomorrow: Brett Myers vs. Joe Saunders; 7pm on csn-tv

Sunday: In my favorite matchup of the weekend.....Colbert Michael Hamels vs. Jared Weaver....a must see matchup....1:35pm

The Flyers 2008 Post-Mortem

If you have told me that the Flyers would be in the Eastern Conference Finals just one year removed from being the worst team in the NHL, I would probably have tried to buy a quantity of whatever it was you were smoking or taking. To go from a team that couldn't get out of it's own way to advance in the playoffs to the final 4 in the NHL was beyond the expectations of the most stepford of Flyers fans.

But as great as the turnaround was, if you look at the big picture, it still appears as if there is a talent gap between what the Flyers have now and what the two teams going to the Finals have on their rosters.

First and foremost, they need to find a way to build some depth along the blue line. When Timonen and Coburn went down, the Flyers' defense was woefully inadequate for a run at the Cup. Now, not a lot of teams would be well equipped to lose their top two defensemen, but the mobility and talent gap between their top two defensemen and their bottom 4 defensmen was exposed for all to see. Not every player has to be Kimmo Timonen (although that would be great), but you'd like your defensemen to be mobile and good passers such that they can move the puck to the forward moving with speed, rather than the forward standing around and waiting to receive a puck bounced off of the boards with no real purpose.

Secondly, the Flyers need to find out who can play with Danny Briere. Early in the year, Briere and Simon Gagne developed some good chemistry. When Gagne became enmeshed with his concussion issues, Briere struggled with various linemates until the Flyers acquired Vinny Prospal the day before the deadline. The Flyers cannot afford to have a guy like Briere, in whom a ton of money is invested, struggling to find linemates for long stretches of 5-on-5 play. The assumption is that Gagne will come back and be the same player, but after what we've seen after Eric Lindros and Keith Primeau got laid up with concussions, that is not a great assumption.

Finally, I would be more comfortable going forward with this team if they developed a more systemic identity with respect to how they play. Think about it....what is the identity of the Flyers? If you believe the National media and uninformed trolls on message boards, the Flyers are a bunch of untalented goons. While Flyer observers know that is incorrect, what is apparent is that the Flyers don't have an identity they can look to when things aren't going so well in order to baseline their play. Are the Flyers a forechecking attacking team? Are they a trapping team? Are they a counterpunching team? They've been all of those things at certain points of last season and I'm not certain they are good at any one of them such that they could lean on that particular style to get them over in difficult situations.

Breaking down the roster observations by position.....

Forwards:

- Mike Richards is going to be the captain of this team next year whether Jason Smith is here or not (which he probably won't be). Richards made a huge leap as a player and his work in the playoffs only served to further raise his profile. He is to this team what Chase Utley is to the Phillies.

- Jeff Carter will get a big raise as a restricted free agent and probably cemented it with a stretch of dominant games that he had when Mike Richards was out just before the playoff run.

- If Simon Gagne can come back, that would be great, but it would behoove Paul Holmgren to have a plan B in case Gagne gets scatterbrained. Before the playoffs, I was very much in favor of resigning Prospal as that Plan B. Unless the words "surgery" and "Vinny Prospal" appear in the same sentence this week, he will not be getting any faster this offseason, and his lack of speed is probably why he disappeared for long stretches in the playoffs.

- A lot of people believe that RJ Umberger is going to be a big time player, especially after the Montreal series. While I appreciate what Umberger did, I'd be VERY careful if I were Paul Holmgren to not break the bank for this guy. For one thing, he just turned 26; he's not some young kid just out of junior hockey. He doesn't really have a line to call home and I don't see him getting much better than he is right now. He scored 12 goals during the regular season last year; 6 against the Pens alone. If they can keep Umberger for a year or two for a reasonable number that won't kill their cap, I'd be happy with that. But if Umberger holds out for money befitting a top 6 forward, that will be a problem. If that is the case, maybe you think about shopping Umberger, whose value may never be higher.

- Another player who could be moved is Mike Knuble. He is going to be another year older and another year slower. They would be wise to make sure they can replace Knuble's power play prowess, however, before they consider moving him. Sami Kapanen, while slowing down some, can still be a valuable 4th liner and solid soldier in the lockerroom. I suspect the Flyers will leave it up to Kapanen to see if he has another year left. He may just retire and return to Finland as he has threatened to do in the past.

- Whatever problems John Stevens has with Scottie Upshall (healthy scratch at time during the season), hopefully Upshall's playoff performance has swung the coach. More Upshall in the lineup, please.

- Steve Downie needs to work on his skating as well as his self-discipline. He will also need the benefit of the doubt from Stevens to some extent; Downie will not improve by sitting in the press box.

- Will Claude Giroux (QMJHL MVP) make the team out of camp next year? Alot of folks are assuming this without figuring out where, exactly, he would play. You can't put this guy on the 4th line. A little time on the Phantoms wouldn't hurt.

Defensemen

- It was amazing to watch the development of Braydon Coburn over the course of the year. He has truly developed into a top notch NHL defenseman.

- I've written this before, but Kimmo Timonen is an absolute beast. He is better than was advertised when the Flyers signed him.

- Randy Jones probably made himself some money with a really solid playoff. He is a restricted free agent and I have no problem with the Flyers bringing him back in a role no better than the 4 or 5 defenseman.

- Don't be surprised to see Lasse Kukkonen traded. I just don't think Stevens likes him.

- Youngster Ryan Parent, obtained in the Peter Forsberg deal, probably earned himself a spot on the team starting out of camp with a stellar effort under fire in the playoffs. I still don't understand, though, how a guy that skates as well as Parent has absolutely no discernible offensive skills.

- Now this is where things get a little tougher. Jason Smith was the perfect captain for this team, but his injuries (from what I read today, BOTH shoulders were seperated) and lack of foot speed kept him from performing optimally. Derian Hatcher practically had his knee drained every day and is fighting age (he's 35) and lack of foot speed. I think the Flyers can afford to have one of these slower, more physical defensemen back, but NOT both.

The thing to be aware of is that you can't simply jettison both of these guys without replacing their physicality. Both can fight and both are a bitch to go up against in the corners and along the boards. There were rumors about Smith wanting to go back to New Jersey (where he originally was drafted) for reasons I cannot possibly fathom (who would want to live in North Jersey?). Hatcher? He may retire or get bought out (he makes about $3.5 million). Regardless of the outcome of the situation with these two similar defensemen, the Flyers will need to replace those skills that they did bring to the table.

- Young Flyers defensemen to look for next year? "Nasty" Nate Guenin could supply toughness from the blueline next year (146 PIMs for the Phantoms last year). Guenin is probably the first call-up in case of injury. Oskars Bartulis is a rangy, smooth skating defensemen with offensive skills. Michael Ratchuk is an offensive minded defenseman that played with the Phantoms in the Calder Cup playoffs for 5 games and should be a big time player on the Phantoms next year.

Goaltending

- Martin Biron is the undisputed starting goaltending on this team right now. Whether it was the right thing to do or not to shuffle him in and out of the lineup during the regular season, this is Biron's team now.

- Antero Niittymaki will probably be back. He will be under contract in the coming year, but at what point do you actually start grooming a young(er) successor to Marty Biron? Biron is 30 and is not the biggest guy in the world. Biron cannot play as many games as say, Martin Brodeur. Niitty will suffice next year as a safety net, but I wouldn't give Niitty another contract, unless it is understood that he is the backup.

- Dovetailing off of the previous point, the Flyers definitely need to identify a young, up and coming goaltender to foster in their system in the next year or two. Phantoms goalies Scott Munroe, Martin Houle, and Michael Teslak are middling prospects at best.

Coaching

- There is a big movement to give John Stevens a long term extension. Not so fast, in my opinion. Stevens is a good, young coach, but I worry about his ability to shape the identity of this team. He was almost fired back in March and was publicly called out by Paul Holmgren to step up. I would wait until December, to see how the team comes out of the gate before I start awarding Stevens with a long term deal. Stevens might be the right guy now, in that he is a young, player-empathetic coach, but this team may need more of a task master to get to the next level.

Available Free Agents Who Could Help

- The cap will go up a bit, and barring some huge move to free up a ton of cap space, I'm not sure the Flyers will be huge players in the free agent, unlike last year where they scored Briere, Timonen, and Hartnell.

The obvious free agent who would help immediately is Brian Campbell, former Sabre defenseman. There are other, cheaper options for a puck rushing/moving defenseman. Namely, Colorado's John Michael-Liles, Ottawa's Wade Redden, and Montreal's Mark Streit.

Pens Eliminate Flyers

This could be an article that contains perspective on how the Flyers went from a last place team to the Eastern Conference Finals. This could be an article with analysis on what the team needs in the future in order to compete for the Stanley Cup. It could be an article that ends on an optimistic note.

Not today. Not this post.

The Flyers lost an embarassing 6 - 0 game against a Penguin team that simply willed itself to the Stanley Cup finals. The win gave the Penguins the series and the opportunity to meet the winner of the Western Conference (which might be decided this evening if Detroit can finish the job).

The game started off well enough, until the Penguins went up on the power play. The Pens immediately capitalized when they scored on (wait for it.....), a deflection goal off of the skate of Ryan Malone.

Malone had a part in the second goal as well, when he interfered with Martin Biron, when Biron came out of crease behind the net to play the puck. Malone held up Biron briefly to the point where Biron lost his stick, but the move was subtle enough to go uncalled. As a result, Biron went back into the net, and was out of sorts when Evegeni Malkin (who became the invisible man as this series went along) stuffed home the Pens' second goal.

Even after being down 2 - 0, the Flyers could have climbed back into the game, as they were awarded a power play as the 1st period wound down. The were even given a power play to start the second period. The Flyers could not capitalize on any of these Penguin mistakes. They simply could not match the Penguins' intensity.

The Pens, meanwhile, capitalized on everything the Flyers did wrong, with the Pens' forwards practically willing them to victory. The rest of the game went predictably; the Flyers fumbled the puck around, with the Pens eventually putting the puck past Martin Biron repeatedly.

Did You Notice?

- Kimmo Timonen returned to action and was a -2 on the game. I didn't think Timonen was skating fluidly until the 3rd period, when things were far out of hand.

- Jeff Carter was a -3 and won only 35% of his faceoffs. Jeff Carter was not the reason they lost, but he's got to be a more consistent player if he's going to live up to the contract he will almost certainly get this summer.

- This will not be a game that Martin Biron will put in his career highlight reel. To pull off the win, they needed the Martin Biron from the Montreal series. He didn't show up yesterday.

- Despite being a -2, Ryan Parent acquitted himself well for the most part with the playing time he received. Expect Parent to start with the big club next year.

I'll do a Flyers 2007-2008 post-mortem on Wednesday.

Picture: (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic)

Flyers Beat Pens; Keep Season Alive!

The Flyers, apparently with no overwhelming desire to hit the golf course, enjoyed their best game of the series so far and beat the Pittsburgh Penguins in Game 4 of their best of 7 series by a score of 4 - 2. They now trail by a count of 3 games to 1 as the series now swings back to Pittsburgh for a Game 5.

I'm not suggesting that the Flyers can definitely pull off the impossible, historical feat of coming back from a 3 - 0 deficit. I am suggesting, though, that if the Pens thought they could take their foot off the gas pedal and just put it back down again in Pittsburgh in Game 5 that they are making a mistake.

The Flyers have been hitting these guys pretty good, even in the games they lost. Last night looked like the first time that maybe the Pens' composure is breaking down a bit. Now, the Flyers will probably have Braydon Coburn back by Sunday for Game 5. You wonder if the Flyers planted the seeds of doubt amongst the Pens and now, they may be getting back their biggest, fastest, and tallest defenseman and change the dynamic of things.

Flyer goals last night were scored by Joffrey Lupul (two, including the empty netter), Jeff Carter, and Danny Briere. It's important to note that both Carter and Briere's goals were scored right in front of the net, where it is believed that the Penguin defense is weakest.

Martin Biron also enjoyed a strong game last night en route to the victory. He did not let up a bunch of cheap rebounds, but the Pens did enjoy another of their famous lucky bounce goals on their first goal. They have scored a goal deflected off of a Flyer player in every game of this series to date.

Did You Notice?

- I'm glad to see that Ryan Malone knows what Derian Hatcher's fist sweat tastes like. Malone picked a fight with Hatcher and got his ass handed to him.




- Wow, why did Pittsburgh have Crosby on the ice with 10 seconds left and 2 goals down? Richards did the right thing and scrummed with Crosby, getting in his face a bit. Doubt Penguin coach Michel Therrien will make that mistake again.

- Another strong game by Scottie Hartnell, who hit everything that moved and had 3 assists.

- The line change that Stevens made before this game seemed to work out well, although, I wish he had come to that conclusion during the course of Game 3, where it could have made a difference. Briere and Richards, with their speed and skill on one line, seemed to free up room for each other.

- Oh, by the way: The Flyers web site is touting that Kimmo Timonen is going to skate today.

Photo: (AP Photo/Tom Mihalek)

Flyers Lose Again; In 0 - 3 Hole

The Flyers dropped a home playoff game last night to the Pens by a score of 4 - 1, going down 0 - 3 against the Atlantic Division champions.

The game resembled less a "new" NHL-style game and looked more like something ripped out of the playbook of the trapping 1995 New Jersey Devils. Once Pittsburgh got the lead, they clogged the neutral zone and the front of the net in such a way that the only threats the Flyers could make from that point, were occasional forays on the rush.

RJ Umberger scored the lone Flyer goal. It was assisted by Vinny Prospal and Danny Briere, who recorded their only points of the series so far.

The first period had the same look and feel of Game 2, where the play was sort of helter skelter and the Pens opened the scoring on the power play (on another questionable Hatcher call) on a lucky bounce off of a skate. The Pens subsequently scored again; this time off of a rush where Marian Hossa was given entirely too much room at the blue line (Lasse Kukkonen) and he whipped a shot past Martin Brion for the 2 - 0 lead.

The Flyers cut the lead in half on Umberger's goal and the game then settled into an "old" style NHL affair. While the Flyers didn't do much offensively in the 2nd period, they didn't give up anything either.

The matter wasn't really settled until midway through the 3rd period, when Steve Downie turned the puck over trying to make a difficult cross-ice pass in traffic. Evgeni Malkin intercepted the puck and drove down the ice. Eventually, the puck ended up on Petr Sykora's stick, who passed to Ryan Malone. Malone backhanded the puck past Biron to go up 2 goals and you could feel the air leave the Wachovia Center from your living room. Marian Hossa added an empty netter to close out the scoring.

Did You Notice?

- This was the second straight game where Downie had a high profile turnover. Why was the fourth line even on the ice at that point of the game? Down one goal midway through the 3rd period in a game where you haven't generated much offense doesn't seem the time to roll your lines.

- Speaking of the forward lines; if the Prospal-Briere-Hartnell line wasn't getting it done, why not switch out the lines at that point? Putting Richards with Briere wouldn't have helped? Really? Being down in the 3rd period of a playoff game sometimes requires some out-of-box thinking that was not evident coming from Coach Stevens last night. Despite his obvious passion as a coach, he seemed content to fall on the sword of his own game plan.

- Nice hit by Hartnell on Jarko Ruutu in the 2nd period. Hartnell has forechecked about as hard as I've seen him forecheck all year.

- The lack of puck moving, skating defensemen was real evident as the game marched along. When the Flyers did manage a cycle in the offensive zone, the Pens had almost no respect for whoever was at the point for the Flyers. The Timonen and Coburn injuries have definitely been telling.

- How was Marian Hossa not one of the game's three stars (Crosby-Fleury-Umberger)? If he had played like that back when Ottawa was making all of their playoff runs, they would have never traded him to Atlanta to begin with.

- It will be interesting on Thursday to see how the fans act at the Wachovia Center. I plan on looking at Thursday not so much as the potential end of the season, but another chance to watch the Flyers. Hopefully, the team AND the fans both show up on Thursday night.

- For someone that is supposed to skate so well, Ryan Parent seems to have little offense in his game. His development will be watched, because he will be in the defensive rotation next year.

(Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images)

Flyers Down 2 Games to Pens

The Game 1 loss almost seemed like a Kimmo Timonen hangover.

The Game 2 loss is a little more vexing, only because I feel like if the Flyers got as many breaks as the Pens got last night, the series could be even. And while they did lose 4 - 2 and are down 2 games to none in this best of 7 series, I certainly do not believe that the Flyers are out of this series by any stretch of the imagination.

Losing Braydon Coburn in the opening minutes of the game last night was just a crushing loss to a team already missing their best defenseman. It really impeded any sort of momentum the team had in terms of how they had planned to come at the Pens. I don't know what the hit totals were, but I did feel that the Flyers were doing a good job at taking a more physical approach to the game. If this were the regular season, I wouldn't bat an eye at how the team played last night, because I thought they played well. They just didn't play well enough and certainly did not get any bounces offensively. I think if they can keep up this level of play, they Pens can almost certainly be had.

As for the particulars of the games from the weekend, what more can be said of Mike Richards? He scored both goals on Friday night and scored on a beautiful shorthanded breakaway that tied the game for the Flyers near the end of the 2nd period and gave them momentum. He's been hitting, winning faceoffs (63% last night) and I wouldn't be surprised if it was Richards that actually sewed up Braydon Coburn in the dressing room after he got hit in the eye.

The one thing that has concerned me in the two playoff games so far is that Danny Briere and Vinny Prospal have almost been non-entities in this series. We cannot have Danny Briere get outplayed by Jordan Staal (the line Briere seems to be matched up against) and have any expectation of success

Did you notice?

- Happy that Steve Downie got in the game last night. Sad that he gave up the turnover on the game winner. This is not the last we'll hear of Steve Downie.

- Huge hit, by the way, from Downie on Kris Letang.

- For all of Tyler Kennedy's wild flailing, I'm not sure he made contact with Scottie Upshall's face once. While Kennedy was the busier fighter, Upshall landed a couple solid ones in their first period fight. What a bunch of fake tough guys on the Pens. The Pens are better off when they shy away from the rough stuff.

- The two penalties that were called on Derian Hatcher were two of the most bogus calls I had seen in all of the playoffs. The alleged hooking call, where Hatcher made was simply a real good defensive play on Malkin, was just the worst call of the playoffs. If they made that call both ways, the Flyers would have had far more power play time than they had.

(Picture: (AFP/Getty Images/Jim Mcisaac))

Guess Flyers-Pens Was Nasty This Year

Funny thing is, many of the combatants in this video are no longer with their teams (Ben Eager, Colby Armstrong) or have greatly reduced roles (Gary Roberts has been fourth line player for Pittsburgh in the playoffs).

Odds and Ends

For a variety of reasons, I haven't been able to write as I've alternately been sick or have been watching my son as my wife has been travelling. So, needless to say, I'm exhausted even today, but at least I'm feeling much better and am almost done being the sole care giver of my son.

Needless to say, I've gained a new appreciation of the parent who stays home with the kids; that's a lot of work and don't believe anyone who tells you otherwise. Take care of your mom this Mother's day and your Dad next month for Father's Day. Sure, they're Hallmark holidays, but the fact is, taking care of kids (especially, young ones) is hard damn work.

Now, back to the local teams making me nuts:

- I've done almost no baseball, but I have been following the Phils, albeit a bit more passively than normal. I'm working on a "by the numbers" article for the Phils in the month of April. Also: When will Uncle Cholly move Ryan Howard around in the batting order? We're six weeks into the season; I think RyHo has been given plenty of leeway here.

- Sure, I'm proud of what the Sixers did this year as getting to the playoffs was most unexpected. But did anyone feel a teensy bit pissed about the way the Sixers seemed to sort of rollover for the Pistons in Game 6? Just a little?

- Lito Sheppard: Still an Eagle. Don't think this will end well.

- Finally, onto to the Flyers, who have advanced to the finals of the Eastern Conference to face the Pittsburgh Penguins. A couple of things immediately come to mind. One is that you will get Crosby and Malkin force fed down your throat for the next two to three weeks; especially on national telecasts. This is going to be annoying on several levels, but mostly because we already played this team 8 times and will play them a minimum of 4 more times. We've heard all of the stories, so it's going to make us hate them even more as fans.

The second thing that we're going to have to get used to as fans is the complete lack of respect for this Flyers team. The fact that they are the Eastern Conference finalists after almost missing the playoffs (remember, it wasn't a lock going into the final two games of the year) has been a fantastic ride. But, if you've read the stories after the Flyers snuffed Montreal in 5 games, you'd think the Flyers cheated or did something unseemly to keep the stately and graceful Montreal Canadiens away from the playoffs. Want proof? Check out this Scott Burnside article, where he analyzes (correctly) where Montreal went wrong in this series, but one thing he fails to do is to point out the things the Flyers did right. Remember; this series was over in 5 games. Has a team, like the Flyers, ever disposed of the regular season conference champion in 5 games and been given so little respect? Fact is, this is just a preview of what you, as a fan, can expect from the media in the coming weeks.

Biron Denies Habs Again! Flyers Win!

Martin Biron stopped 36 of 38 shots and RJ Umberger contributed 2 more goals as the Flyers downed the Habs by a score of 4 - 2 in Game 4 of their best-of-seven series. The Flyers now lead the series 3 games to 1 and can end the series on Saturday in La Belle Provence.

There was a huge surprise revealed before the game as the Canadiens chose to start rookie Jaroslav Halak in goal over rookie franchise goalie Carey Price. I have to think Price is hurt, because the Habs put all of their eggs in Price's basket when they traded away Cristobal Huet.

This game closely resembled the last couple of games, with Montreal maintaining territorial control of the ice, only to have Biron turn them aside time and time again. The first period was completely dominated by Martin Biron, who stopped 14 shots in the period. Halak was tested early, on a Jeff Carter breakaway, which he turned aside rather confidently.

The second period began much the same way as the first, but after Umberger scored on the power play for the 1 - 0 lead, the Canadiens seemed to sag and you could make a credible argument that the Flyers established themselves much better in the Montreal zone.

The third period was played fairly evenly and the Flyers increased their lead to 2 - 0, when Scott Hartnell rammed home a rebound off of a Vinny Prospal shot that hit the intersection of the post and the crossbar. It was Hartnell's first goal in what seemed like forever.

With about 7 minutes left to play, Marty Biron's luck changed for the worse. A shot from the point was deflected past Biron by Derian Hatcher to cut the Flyer lead to 1 and just 37 seconds later, Saku Koivu potted the tying goal. Instead of playing tentatively, the Flyers picked up the pace and eventually, earned a power play in the form of a stupid interference penalty taken by Steve Begin.

Danny Briere made Montreal pay by scoring on the power play on one of those goals from the side of the net, where he elevates the puck in a tight space past the goalie. You know the type of goal....the type he scored against the Flyers like a billion times over the course of the past couple years when he was with Buffalo. The Flyers made that goal standup and eventually, RJ Umberger added an empty netter to put the icing on the cake.

You have to hope that the Flyers learned from the Washington series and will put all of their effort into finishing this series in Game 5 in Montreal this Saturday.

Did you notice?

- Mike Knuble returned and looked like he didn't miss a beat. So much for catching up to the pace of the game.

- Good to see Vinny Prospal show up tonite....2 assists for Prospal and that line had a little more energy tonite than earlier in the series.

- Mike Richards pasted one of the Kostitsyn brothers behind their own net in the 3rd period?

- Derian Hatcher looks pig-dog slow out on the ice and it especially showed in the 37 second stretch where Montreal scored their two goals. Like Jason Smith in the last series, Derian Hatcher is not helping this team right now.

- Anyone catch that cool picture of Jim Dowd that was shown during the Flyer broadcast that showed a team picture where every player picture was Dowd in one of the 10 or so uniforms he's worn in his NHL career? Dug around on the net for the picture, but couldn't find it. If I can post it, I'll will.....just like if I can find the Dave Mustaine vid.

- Alexei Kovalev stick his leg out and cause a knee-on-knee collision on RJ Umberger that went uncalled in the 3rd?

Big Flyers Game Tonite (and other hockey stuff)

- Habs coach Guy Carbonneau hasn't announced a starter, but I'd be stunned if it weren't Carey Price. The Habs made their bed with Carey Price when they traded Cristobal Huet for a virtual bag of peanuts.

- "Obi-wan" Knuble should be back in the lineup for the Fly-boys tonite. I wouldn't put him back on Carter's line right away, but I think he's definitely been missed on the power play.

- We haven't seen the best game from either of these two teams yet. Need the Flyers to assert themselves offensively and stay out of the penalty box. Saw on Bill Meltzer's pre-game report on Hockeybuzz.com that respected veteran official Bill McCreary will be on hand tonite officiating the game. I wonder if that assignment has anything to do with the Flyers carping in the press about the officiating. From Mike Richards on anti-Flyer bias from officials:

“We know the circumstances we're in,” he said. “We know if we go into a scrum, the odds are we're not going to come out on top of it. We just have to know that and get out of there. That's the mindset we have; we can't take that extra jab ... we'll get called for it.”

- File this under "I totally saw this coming".....Former Flyer Joni Pitkanen, pending restricted free agent, is apparently looking for WAAAY more money than he's currently worth. Sorry, Flyer-bashers.....Paul Holmgren will be vindicated for this deal (if the play of Joffrey Lupul hasn't done so already). I wonder if the light will ever go on for Joni. For a stark comparison on Joni's play, one only needs to look at the way fellow countrymen Kimmo Timonen and Lasse Kukkonen play....both play with passion and grit....two things sorely lacking in Pitkanen's game when he was in Philly. The sad thing is that Pitkanen has more raw talent than both of them.