There was a post on Puck Daddy this morning about a pigeon that landed on the ice at United Center during Sunday night’s Nashville/Chicago game. PD quoted another blogger, who had this to say about the incident.

I saw something tonight that I have never seen in my 20 plus years of shooting sports- a pigeon standing at center ice during the middle of a Chicago Blackhawks’ game. I was hoping that the bird would get caught up in a play but no such luck. The pigeon was eventually chased off by a referee and never returned to the field of play. However, I assume at this point my flying friend is feasting on spilled popcorn.

PD also picked up this quote from Yahoo!’s baseball blogger, Kevin Kaduk, who was at the game.

A bird flew down to the ice a few times before the game and during the first period James Wisniewski tried to hit it with his stick. You might want to keep an eye out for any good pics or video of it.  It was pretty funny.

Immediately, the first thing I thought of was the 1975 Cup Finals in Buffalo between the Flyers and Sabres. It was the game after the infamous fog game at the old Buffalo Auditorium. Let’s go to Gene Hart in his book SCORE! (which I just completed, go buy it and read it and love it like your child) for the story.

There was no fog this time, but it looked like Halloween anyhow, as a live bat swooped and darted about the old Aud. Since it was May 27 and not October 31, the beat was permitted to swoop and dart only until the ever-accurate stick of Rick MacLeish picked it off in mid-air. Buffalo’s Jim Lorentz gloved the poor creature and carried it from the arena, much to the relief of many in the audience.

Oh, yeah, the Flyers won their last Stanley Cup that night too.

Pittsburgh hates us. We hate them. But this is just ridiculous.

I read at least one blog from every team in our division on a daily basis, just to keep myself up on what’s going on with the competition. My Pens blog of choice is PensBurgh, because they seem to be pretty fair and they also provide decent insight.

But when I browsed my way over there yesterday, I found something that was a bit disturbing: this article about the Flyers TV announcers and their discussion during Saturday’s game about the Penguins. Read that, and then watch this YouTube of the portion of the telecast in question:

You’ve watched the video; let’s break down the PensBurgh article. Read the rest of this entry »

Gloves on. Third man in. Blindside. From behind. Kidney shot. Nut shot. Etc.

Way to fight like a man, Sid.

If this were any other player, especially a Flyer, he’d be suspended. The hypocrites running the NHL continue their reign.

Jeremy Roenick has a relatively new website, roenicklife.com, and I’m listening to NHL Live on XM Radio right now and JR just called in to discuss, among other things, his shoulder injury. He mentioned the hit from behind he took from an Anaheim player that caused the injury, and then went on a rant about the officiating in the game and that it has to be better.

JR is one of those guys in the league that when he talks, you have to listen. And not just because he’s a giant clown on the ice, but because behind all of his antics, there’s a real message. He’s the anti-Avery. Here are his comments in print, from his website.

Is it just me or are the Ref’s against San Jose this year?  It seems they are trying to bring us down so that the standings will be more competitive.  I know they have a hard job, and they do the best they can, but I am just amazed at the calls and lack of calls that have happened in some of the recent shark games. For example, Kings six power plays, Sharks one! Give me a break!  When it comes to Joe Thornton, he is mugged constantly game in and game out, with no penalties being called.  There could be ten penalties per game on infractions against Joe Thornton, but he never complains so I am doing it for him!  Players have to be better also, and show a little bit more respect for each other out there.

It’s nice to hear a more public voice, especially one that plays the game today, speak out about the officiating. Check out the website. It’s typical JR… always good for a laugh.

I read a story yesterday at SPORTSbyBROOKS, the sporting answer to TMZ.com, about a few of the Flyers crashing a frat party. I scanned over the article, linked here, and became a little wary of its journalistic intergrity. It seemed very National Inquirer to me, and I had suspucions that some of the pictures posted could’ve been taken from anywhere, such as Mike Richards’ Facebook page.

So I did some sluthing on the internets and found out that it was allegedly a frat party hosted by Temple’s chapter of Alpha Epsilon Pi. I went to their website and contacted their Master (I’m not too familiar with fraternities and the way they rank their brothers, but “Master” seems very 15th century to me) with a few questions. The response I got, directly from the man himself, Mr. Jon DeSantis:

I can confirm that there were Flyers present at the event. Apparently some people who posted pictures believed that non-Flyers at the event were actually Flyers. I am not familiar enough with the team to know specifics.

Essentially, we were having a private function upstairs and the manager of the establishment asked if we would mind if some Flyers came upstairs with their friends. Of course, we said no, and the Flyers were extremely courteous and kind in taking dozens of pictures.

So there you have it. From the pictures we have, it looks as if Jeff Carter, Mike Richards, and perhaps Matt Carle are the only three guys who got in on the fun. Some people might be surprised that these guys, being public figures and all, would go out and do this so… openly.

Well think about it. These guys never got to experience college life. They were in juniors, drafted when they were 18, and playing hockey professionally soon there after. If you were a 20-something millionaire, how would you spend your evenings? No problems, here.

As long as nobody shoots themselves in the leg.

Check that SPORTSbyBROOKS link for all the pictures.

This site has moved. Check out http://www.broadstreethockey.com.

We all know about the Shawn Hill, the dancing guy who stands up in the top row of section 219. When it came time for him to do his routine during the third period on Saturday, a Penguins fan decided to get himself some face time.

Trying to get in front of the camera focused on Dancin’ Shawn, the guy wound pushing and shoving the cameraman. The camera shook and people at the Wachovia Center who couldn’t see what was happening wondered exactly what was going down, and they didn’t have any answers when the camera went black and the control room faded to a graphic.

Thankfully, Dancin’ Shawn himself comes up with the explanation on the Flyers official message boards. BTW, those message boards are a joke and I do not endorse them.

Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve seen some really funny commercials from around the league lately, and I decided to put them all in one place. I’m not doing this to share them with you, but basically so I have a place to easily watch them all when I want a good laugh or a nice chill up the spine. But I guess you all can enjoy them too.

The first is a Winter Classic commercial, first seen 9 days ago during NBC’s Sunday Night Football. As a baseball fan, I think it’s an absolutely brilliant commercial that brings together the nostalgia of Wrigley Field and the awesomeness of the fact that a hockey game will be played there January 1.

Beats the hell out of last year’s ad spot.

Staying in Chicago, the Blackhawks have done some really funny things for their ads, using a bit of propaganda and the All-Star voting process to get the word out that they’re a pretty good hockey team this year.

They’re both funny but if I were voting based on the commercials, Patrick Kane would be on the all-star team. There’s one more about Brian Campbell, but I’m not embedding that one because of his hit on R.J. Umberger in the playoffs a few years back. Clean hit, sure, but R.J.’s my boy. A Philly fan never forgets. Here’s the link, though. P.S. “Soupy” is a terrible nickname.

Now this one’s hilarious, but it knocks the Flyers a little bit. We all know who the star of the commercial is. though…

But the best of the recent commercials has got to go to this one. It’s so good I’m not even going to comment. Just enjoy.

If only Jeff were that accurate with his slap shot during games…