Now that we’re close to February and the playoff chase is heating up, this is going to be a daily feature around here. The Flyers are in a bit of a weird position right now. See, there are pretty much three groups of teams in the Eastern Conference. One, there are the team’s that have no shot — Tampa Bay, NY Islanders, Ottawa, Toronto, and Atlanta. Two, there are the teams that are right on the cusp of the playoff picture — Carolina, Pittsburgh, Florida, and Buffalo. And then there are the teams that have distanced themselves from that pack behind them — Boston, Washington, New Jersey, Montreal, and the Flyers.

But the Flyers are toward the back end of that pack. They are only four points behind New Jersey for third in the conference and first in the Atlantic. But, they sit just four points ahead of Buffalo and just eight points ahead of the eighth-place Panthers. Yes, Tuesday night’s game may have been a lot more important than we could’ve thought.

Last night, there were only two games in the Eastern Conference, but both affected the look at the playoffs. It’s rare that a Penguin win is a good thing for the Flyers, but that was the case last night as Pittsburgh rolled over the Rangers 6-2. With the win, Pitt moved one point ahead of Carolina and one position up in the standings. They now sit with 52 points, tied with Florida, but they have played two more games then the Panthers.

But it also meant a loss for the Rangers. That adds another game to their conference-leading total of 50, and another loss, giving the Flyers an extra game to pick up those three points they trail the Rangers by.

The other game that mattered saw Buffalo, the team directly behind the Flyers, fall in Calgary by a score of 5-2. A Sabres win in that game would’ve made things a lot more interesting and would have brought them closer to that next echelon of teams. They would’ve been just two points behind the Flyers and just three behind divisional rival Montreal. Instead, they’re just three points into the playoffs as we currently stand.

The next couple games are very important for the Flyers, as they will set the tone for the month of February. They need a win against Tampa Bay on Friday night. It is absolutely imperative, not only because of the playoff situation, but because they need to prove to themselves that they can beat the lesser teams they are supposed to beat. Also, this game and Saturday’s game against St. Louis come right before a home-and-home stretch with Boston. Losses against Tampa and the Blues could quickly turn into four straight, and then we’ve got to worry.

Programming Note: If you missed the AHL All-Star Game and Phantom Jared Ross’ all-star performance and you’re in the Philly area, you can catch a replay at 7 PM on Comcast SportsNet.

Of course, I got some valuable experience because it was my first season in the NHL, my first playoffs. We started the playoffs very well, but it didn’t happen for us against Philadelphia. We just didn’t score enough. Last season during the regular season, we were the best team on power play, and I think we won a lot of games because of that. But in the playoffs we couldn’t score as often as we did in the regular season. Maybe that’s why we lost to Philadelphia, because we certainly weren’t weaker than them. Quite the opposite.
– Sergei Kostitsyn, via Puck Daddy

Didn’t score enough, Sergei? 19 goals in 7 games against Boston. 13 goals in five games against the Flyers. Sixth out of 16 playoff teams in goals per game. 33 total goals in the playoffs, which ranks fifth… that’s tops out of all the teams that exited in the second round. But nevermind that fact that you’re flat out wrong, if you’re saying is that you lost because you didn’t score enough, well that means you’re the weaker team.

You’re an idiot. Go back to getting dropped by Tim Thomas.

As I put off posting about the all-star game some more (seriously, as I type this there’s a woman hanging from the rafters playing a violin, you kiddin’ me?), I found this article from boston.com.

Using computer skills he learned in a graphic design class at the private school in South Hamilton, Leahy sketched out new leg pads that blend into the goal netting behind him. He wanted pads, a trapper, and a blocker that are white with a raised double-stitched design, just like the goal. He applied for a design patent and had them custom-made by a Canada-based pad maker.

“When the shooter comes down and only has a split second to shoot the puck, they’re looking for net,” said Leahy, a senior from Hampton, N.H., who grew up in Byfield. “If you put the net on the pad, they’ll shoot at the pad instead of the goal.”

Cool idea. It would never be allowed in the NHL I’m sure, and I’d be curious if it even works as intended, to confuse the shooter. But it’s a sick design either way.

Oh, here come Andrei Markov, Mike Komisarek, and Alex Kovalev announced as starters…. what a joke.

Teen goalie designs pads to trick shooters (The Boston Globe)

Via Puck Daddy, JR talks football at his blog, roenicklife.com:

Have to love my Eagles beating the Super Bowl champs, and I love how Donovan is playing.

How great would it be if the  Phillies and Eagles win championships in the same year. WOW, Philly fans deserve it big time! Although, my buddy Big Ben in Pitt played great and has the Steelers poised for a Super Bowl run. Eagles vs Steelers super bowl…now that would be sick!!

The man still loves Philly, we all know that. How awesome would it be if he came back and worked at Comcast SportsNet after retiring?

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 »

I’ve said numerous times (here and here) that I don’t think the Capitals and Flyers are rivals. Washington might consider us one of their rivals, but that’s only because we beat them in the playoffs and they want payback, and because the Southeast Division doesn’t give the Caps anybody to hate.

So it’s a pretty one sided thing between these two fanbases right now, but just because we don’t really hate the Capitals right now, doesn’t mean we can’t hate them later. I would enjoy a rivalry with Washington, but the only way I can see it happening — and I’m talking a legitimate rivalry like Flyers vs Rangers/Pens/Devils — is if they were in our division.

Prior to the 1979/80 season, the Capitals moved from the Norris to the Patrick Division, and with that, a natural hatred developed. Fighting for position with a divisional opponent just two and a half hours south breeds a lot of contempt, it seems.

In 1981/82, the NHL aligned the divisions according to geography for the first time, which meant that Calgary, who had been in the Patrick Division since its days in Atlanta, would move to the Smythe Division, and Pittsburgh would join the Flyers, the Islanders, the Rangers, and the Capitals in the Patrick. A year later, in 1982/83, when the Colorado Rockies moved to New Jersey, the Devils joined, and the dream division was formed.

For eleven seasons, these six teams battled it out for Patrick Division glory, and for many of those seasons the Flyers and Capitals were neck-and-neck in the race. But then in 1991, the NHL welcomed a new team from San Jose, and the following year Tampa Bay and Ottawa joined the ranks.

Gary Bettman became Commissioner before the 1993 season, and with his NBA roots he felt that, to help make the game easier to market with non-traditional fans, the divisions and conferences should be renamed. So, in 1993/94, the Campbell Conference became the Western Conference and the Wales Conference became the Eastern Conference. The Norris Division became the Central, Smythe became the Pacific, while Adams became the Northeast and Patrick became the Atlantic.

The honeymoon for the perfect division was over. Pittsburgh was moved to the Northeast, to compete with Boston, Montreal, Buffalo, etc., while the Lightning and the first year Florida Panthers were thrown in the Atlantic.

The Flyers and Capitals still had their rivalry, but Pittsburgh was gone, and how can we care about Florida and Tampa Bay when they’re A) so far away and B) terrible?

Things in the Atlantic Division would stay the same for the next four years, but Hartford’s move to Carolina in 1997/98 and Nashville’s expansion the following year allowed the league to go to a new three division system. It would be the third major re-alignment in league history, and it mixed up everything.

The Northwest Division was created, and it included Colorado, Edmonton, Calgary, and Vancouver, all former Pacific Division members. Dallas and Phoenix moved from the Central to the Pacific, while the new Predators joined Detroit, St. Louis, and Chicago in the Central.

Toronto moved from the Western Conference’s Central Division to the East’s Northeast. Carolina, Florida, Tampa, and Washington left the Atlantic to form the  new Southeast Division.  And a mistake was corrected by moving Pittsburgh back to the Atlantic.

Since, teams have been added in Atlanta, Columbus and Minnesota to get the current look we have today. It has been 10 seasons and 11 years since this alignment first came about, and we can determine now that it has been a mistake. People in Toronto will tell you that they lost a historic Original Six rivalry with Detroit in the process.

But the biggest complaints will come out of Washington. They had the dream setup in the Patrick Division days, and now their chief competition comes from a team that was in Connecticut just twelve years ago. In fact, the switch to the Southeast almost killed hockey in DC. Hockey was stagnant there for years, in the late-90’s and until, really, last years playoffs. They played the Flyers in those playoffs, an old Patrick Division rival they could love to hate.

Read the rest of this entry »

So back on December 26th when they Flyers started their annual holiday road trip, we all would’ve hoped for a better record than 2-2-2. We thought, “well, Columbus and Los Angeles are two certain wins, and Vancouver, Anaheim and Chicago were certainly winnable. Washington? We beat them 7-1 less than a month ago, we could do it again. Well, it didn’t really go as planned. Columbus got their first ever win against the Flyers, and lowly Los Angeles picked up a shootout victory. But this isn’t bad.

Before the trip, the Flyers sat in second place in the Atlantic Division at 19-8-7, good for 45 points, just two behind the Rangers. If you remember, New York had like 18 games in hand over us (okay, it was three), and the six games in 12 days the Flyers played on this trip helped with in catching up to the Rangers. At the close of the trip, they still have one game in hand and are tied in points with 41, an improvement from the start of the trip.

The first-place Flyers also have taken a gigantic lead over fourth-place Pittsburgh, but that’s in thanks to the fact that they lost five straight (tee hee), with a 6-1 loss to Florida highlighting the bunch. The Pens have gone 2-5 since Christmas, picking up only four of 14 possible points, and their tail spin has dropped them out of the playoff picture, let alone the Atlantic race.

The biggest concern for the Flyers right now has to be the third place team, though, the Devils. They dropped a game tonight to the Hurricanes 3-2, but were the only team to gain ground on the Flyers in the division race since Christmas. They went 4-3-0, earning eight of 14 possible points, gaining two points on Philly. They now sit two points back with a game in hand, meaning that if they win that contest we could have a three way tie atop the Atlantic.

Now many would still say the Flyers 2-2-2 mark on the road was a disappointment, but given the amount of injuries the team suffered during their Western excursion, it’s more than an admirable feat.

• Ryan Whitney is getting ready for a return on the blueline. He’s in Wilkes-Barre right now on a conditioning stint and could return to the Penguins lineup Monday or Tuesday. Whitney has been out all season with a foot injury. Marc-Andre Fleury also returned in net the Pens on Thursday, leading them to a 6-3 victory [PensBurgh]. The Penguins were able to hang steady in the standings without some key players, and the returns of both Fleury and Whitney are going to really bolster their team. Sucks.
• The Pens also re-signed Max Talbot to a contract extension that expires in 2011. [penguins.nhl.com]
• They named their new arena CONSOL Energy Center. Capital letters necessary. Yuck.  [From The Rink]

• Isles defenseman Brendan Witt is a stand-up guy. He’s pissed off about the situation on the Island, and goes as far as criticiting coach Scott Gordon’s defensive system, but he doesn’t want out. “I don’t want to be traded. I want to fix the problem.” [NYI Point Blank with a sticktap to Lighthouse Hockey]

• The Rangers lost out on the Mats Sundin sweepstakes yesterday when he signed with the Canucks [Rangers Report]. It’s assumed that they simply couldn’t clear enough cap space to make room for Mats, and GM Glen Sather has been quoted as saying that he didn’t want to break up his team [XM 204].

• Coach Brent Sutter has given Scott Clemmensen a vote of confidence during Martin Brodeur’s absence, and the guy has deserved it. He’s start 10 of the last 11 games over Kevin Weekes and tonight against Ottawa he starts his third straight  [Fire & Ice].
• Devils fans have a Mike Richards-like crush on Zach Parise [In Lou We Trust].

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.