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.

Brian Startare, the guy that does pre and post-game on 610 WIP, has written a new book about the Flyers.

On the pages of Flyer’d Up, there will be extensive trivia along with stories and quotes from the Broad Street Bullies, along with players from the 80’s, 90’s and today. There will also be contributions from such noted hockey writers and broadcasters as Al Morganti, Anthony SanFilippo, Bill Meltzer and Glen Macnow, along with touching dedications to Flyers great Pelle Lindbergh and legendary broadcaster Gene Hart, right from the pen of his daughter Lauren, who is currently the teams’ anthem singer. You will also enjoy great photos and hand drawn illustrations, along with some fun tidbits of information along the way.

There can never be enough Flyers books out there, and I like the way this one sounds with so many different contributors and perspectives. It can be pre-ordered now and it’s supposed to in print in time for the Carnival.

Check the website here. I’ll probably give a review sometime in the summer months, so you know you’re gonna mark that on you’re calendar… right… now.

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.

The Panthers returned the favor and beat the Flyers by the same score as the first meeting between these clubs, 3-2. With the loss, the Flyers drop four points behind the Atlantic-leading Devils.

B&P’s Take: The story tonight was penalties, specifically how badly the Flyers were hurt by them.

Simon Gagne high sticked to the face of Jay Bouwmeester. He was slightly cut in the cheek and blood was drawn, giving Florida a four-minute-long man-advantage. David Booth scored on the ensuing power play, which came at a critical time of the game midway through the second period — a period the Flyers were stagnant in — and it put the Flyers in a 3-1 hole.

That infraction came during a stretch where four straight penalties were called against the Flyers, and when you’re spending that much time on the kill, it’s hard to get anything going offensively.

John Stevens had this to say following the game.

“We’ve gotta play the game to the letter of the law. We’ve gotta move our feet, we’ve gotta not put our sticks in a position where the referee is in the position to call a penalty. But we’ve got to stay aggressive. I think if we manage the puck a little better and play in the offensive zone, that’s not really a place where you take penalties.”

The Flyers entered the third period at that same 3-1 score, but they came out firing. Darroll Powe sprung Claude Giroux with a beautiful 90-foot long pass, and the rookie put a shot over the glove hand side of Tomas Vokoun to bring the game within a goal. It was Giroux’s first NHL goal, and I’m sure the first of many we’ll be celebrating over the next few years. Five minutes later, Vokoun was caught out of his net and Mike Richards threw it into the empty cage to tie the score….. or did he?

Arm up. Penalty. Kimmo Timonen, interference on the play for bumping into Keith Ballard in front of the net. It seemed innocent enough, and the players certainly weren’t happy with it.

“I was big time surprised. I saw it on the big screen up top. It’s a little suspect when — and no offense to Kimmo, but when he’s pushing guys around in front and they’re falling like that, well maybe the guy should hit the gym a little bit more. A little bit disappointed, obviously, we could’ve tied the game, it was a big goal. But you’ve gotta understand we’re the Flyers and we’re gonna get those calls called against us sometimes.” – Mike Richards

“Too many penalties, you know. And we’re the Flyers, we’re gonna get penalties, that’s for sure, and sometimes they’re not good ones, sometimes they’re bad ones, and we gotta live with that. I didn’t hit him that hard, he was already in a bad position, he fell down.” — Kimmo Timonen

The players clearly feel like they are being cheated in some regard. John Stevens didn’t comment on that aspect of it, instead deciding to focus on what the team needs to do to help themselves.

“You don’t want you’re team being tentative, but we’ve got the worst plus/minus differential in the league in terms of power plays and it’s taxing on your key people. We’ve had several [road] games where we’ve had one or two power plays the entire game, and you can’t expect to tax your key people the entire game and have that much energy and the end of the game. We’re going to have to look at what’s being called and do our part from having that many penalties called. You can’t continue to take them at that rate.”

Certainly, there is something to what the coach is saying. The PK unit guys get tired when they are constantly fighting off these kills, and it hurts the team in the long run. Whether or not the Flyers are getting an unfair shake, they need to do the little things to help put them out of harms way. Like Stevens said, moving your feet and being careful with your stick and playing in the offensive end. Obviously, the Timonen call was made in the offensive end, but as I said, the Flyers played stagnant and on their heels in the second period, and playing that way is a good way for the opposition to draw penalties.

The Flyers have got to do a better job of not taking their feet off the gas pedal (even for five minutes), because doing that is lazy hockey, which leads to killing more penalties, which leads to a lack of energy when you need to come back late in the game, as happened tonight. Read the rest of this entry »

Philadelphia Flyers (25-12-9, 59 pts) at Florida Panthers (21-17-8, 50 pts)
BankAtlantic Center - 7:30 PM EST - Sunrise, FL
TV: CSN Philly HD, FS Florida
Radio: 610 WIP, XM 209
Check Here for Internet Streams
Behind Enemy Lines: Litter Box Cats

What to Watch For: The Flyers beat the Panthers just 11 days ago in South Florida by a score of 3-2 in a shootout. Simon Gagne was the hero for the Flyers in that one, scoring a power play goal and the only goal in the shootout. The Flyers start off the second half of the season tonight with exactly the same number of points as they had last year at this time.

As we all know, the team collapsed down the stretch, and lost 10 straight games in February. It was a struggle to regain playoff position, but they did make it and played a great stretch of hockey in the playoffs to get to the Conference Finals as the sixth seed. But they know a similar comeback isn’t likely this season, and they can’t afford to put themselves in the position. The Flyers need to continue their first half success into April and the playoffs. There cannot be any layoff this season.

But the last few games have perhaps shown an unsettling pattern. In the previous four games before the all-star break, the Flyers jumped out to an early lead before blowing it later in the game. They cannot afford to give up the lead in a game just as they cannot afford to give up an early lead in the standings. Let’s hope these recent games are not a microcosm of the overall season.

Philly is just two points behind the Devils heading into the night, and with a Devils loss the Flyers can take sole possession of first place. The Rangers also play tonight, and they would have one more point than the Flyers with a win tonight, but they also have two games in hand. New Jersey has also played one more game than the orange and black.

Quoted

“Everybody who was here last year remembers it and what a frustrating time [the losing streak] was. It’s something we can control and something that’s not going to happen again.” — Mike Knuble

Luca Sbisa: The Inquirer is reporting today (h/t to Bill Mason in the comments) that Sbisa made the trip with the club. Scratched in four games and from this Stevens quote it looks like he’s not in the lineup again, unless necessary. “He makes us better by being here,” Stevens said, adding that the defenseman could be used as a forward if the need arises. If the kid is just going to sit around, he should be in Lethbridge. He’s 18 — he needs to be in an everyday lineup… no matter where that is.

Scouting the Enemy: The Panthers are currently sitting in ninth place in the East, tied with 50 points with the Penguins, althoug Pittsburgh has played two extra games. They are just one point out of the playoff picture, and the once strong Jay Bouwmeester-trade talk has died down because of their newfound relavance. James Mirtle has a good post today on J-Bo and his introverted style. (His personality and Harry Potter-looks don’t seem very Flyers, but I think I could deal with his hockey.)

Between the Pipes: Martin Biron is going for the Flyers tonight, and given Antero Niittymaki’s numbers (4-2, GAA just barely a hair over two) against the Panthers, I feel like this move is a vote of confidence for Biron from John Stevens. It’s his message to Biron saying, “hey, it’s your job to lose.”

Tomas Vokoun is in net for Florida. He’s had a below-average season with a 12-13 record but he’s 4-1-2 in his last seven. He made 26 saves in the losing effort last time these teams met.

Playoff Chase: Looking around the rest of the Flyers competitors, the Devils are in Ottawa tonight to take on the Senators at 7:30. The Rangers host Carolina at 7, and Montreal joins the Flyers in Florida, cross-state against the Lightning at 7:30.

Questions To Answer

1. Third game in 11 days. How do the Flyers respond to so much time off?

2. Is Luca Sbisa a Philadelphia Flyer?

3. Marty hasn’t played since the Tampa Bay game back on the 15th. How sharp is he?

4. The Panthers are in a heated race for the playoffs. A win can potentially push them into that eighth seed. Do they come out blazing?

“His skills are something you’re born with,” said Flyers enforcer Riley Cote, who is in his second season as Carter’s road roommate. “It’s a blessing, a gift. I’ll never have what he has. He’s built to score.” –NHL.com

Would you have expected Cote and Carter to be roommates?

One final note from NHL All-Star Weekend, as James Mirtle reports what it was like for a blogger covering the all-star game. He may have had a bad seat, but the NHL allowing on press row at all is another great step in the right direction. [From the Rink]

Near darkness, no television monitor to watch the action, a scoreboard obstructed by lights and players the size of ants. Not to mention the fact a large portion of the ice surface wasn’t visible from my little black stool at the far end of the rink.

Not that I’m complaining — far from it. Given I was there for (a) the access to players and (b) the experience, this spot suited me just fine. It is worth noting, however, that the experience of “blogging” from the press box is quite a bit different than covering an event as a reporter from The Globe and Mail.

All sections of the press box are not created equal, and at the all-star game, it was the 100 to 175 spots that seemed to be the worst. Prior to that, there were padded chairs, televisions for almost every writer and, most notably, a much better view.

The AHL All-Star Game was held last night in Worcester, Mass. and one of our guys was the main attraction. Jared Ross picked up MVP honors by notching an all-star record six assists and seven points total to lead the PlanetUSA team past Team Canada, 14-11. [phantomshockey.com]

Puck Daddy runs down the NHL’s worst contracts, and Danny Briere makes his cut. I can’t say I disagree with him right now. Healthy Danny needs to prove his worth. [Puck Daddy]

Too soon? Probably. What makes this contract sting is the redundancy, as the Philadelphia Flyers have seen Mike Richards and Jeff Carter cement themselves at center while Briere battled inconsistency and injuries. That said, he had nine points in nine games this season, and can no doubt be an offensive producer on the wing for this team. You just wonder whether the Flyers would have reallocated the $6.5 million for a sniper and a solid defenseman rather than a free-agent Briere.

Comcast is offering NHL Network video on demand, like highlights, condensed games, and programs like NHL On The Fly for free to NHL Network subscribers. Cool. [Kukla's Korner]

And last but certainly not least, the Spectrum could meet its final demise on New Years Eve. [philly.com]

Almost exactly a year after announcing the project, Ed Snider still doesn’t know exactly when construction will begin on the new hotel, retail and entertainment complex that will fill the space after the Spectrum is knocked down. And he doesn’t know exactly when the demolition of the old place will begin.

But they are considering a pretty interesting idea.

“Tentatively, New Year’s Eve,” said Lou Scheinfeld, the original Spectrum executive who came back to shepherd the yearlong closing of the building. “At least that’s my idea right now.”

The Luca Sbisa situation right now is a little odd. No announcement has been made by the Flyers or Sbisa’s junior club, the WHL’s Lethbridge Hurricanes. But, there is certainly evidence that Sbisa has been in fact sent down.

For starters, we have the report from a French-language website based in Switerland, Planete Hockey. As reported here on B&P yesterday morning, the site said that Sbisa had been sent back to Lethbridge, but that the news was not yet official.

Then, we got a report from an English site, forecaster.ca, which despite its 1997 design, is usually a pretty reputable source for  information. They also reported that “the Flyers have assigned rookie defenseman Luca Sbisa back to the WHL’s Lethbridge Hurricanes.”

He was not placed on the Hurricanes gameday roster on Friday night against Prince George as I initially reported yesterday. In my defense, he was on the official game report at first, but they must have realized their mistake and fixed it because he no longer is there.

And that makes it all the weirder that Saturday nights game report from Lethbridge’s game against Red Deer has Sbisa listed on the roster, yet a number of people who attended or listened to the game last night (via the WHLFans.ca message board) contend that Sbisa did not lace up the skates for the ‘Canes. The Flyers have still not announced anything, and neither have the Hurricanes or the WHL.

One final twist to the story: Kevin Kurz, the Flyers manager of communications and new media, or someone posing as him, wrote on the flyersphans.com message board that “This is a BS rumor.” Nobody is questioning the integrity of the post over on that site, leading me to believe it’s true, but as it is with any message board post… it could be anybody.

All the other evidence, besides this message board post by “KKurz”, points to Sbisa heading back to Canada.

I guess we’ll only know for sure, though, when he next takes the ice.

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)

Sam Carchidi of the Inquirer has the scoop.

Earl Greene was charged with causing and risking a catastrophe, possession of an instrument of crime, recklessly endangering another person, disrupting a public event, and disorderly conduct by throwing a smoke bomb onto the ice, according to Philadelphia Police Detective Eric Johnson.

Greene, 25, was awaiting arraignment last night and could not be reached for comment.

Another man was being questioned yesterday, Johnson said.

If Greene is found guilty, a judge will determine the fine and possible jail time, Johnson said.

At the time of the incident, several witnesses said they saw two males wearing Flyers jerseys running toward the concourse of Sections 111/112.

Johnson said “quite a few” Flyers fans spoke to Wachovia Center security personnel and identified the seats in which the suspects had been sitting.

“They put us in the right direction,” Johnson said.

And let’s hope this guys never sets foot in our building again.