ECQF Game 1: Flyers 1 @ Penguins 4 - Penguins Lead Series 1-0

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Can't get too much worse, right? Right...?

• The Flyers can't afford to think everything was okay in this game, and that they'll just bounce back. Because it wasn't, and they won't. The Flyers have to do exactly what they did after that horrible performance in Toronto not so long ago. Beat themselves up over it, change shit, and come out firing, and score five goals in the first period. That would be good.
• The Flyers just did not look good. Any of them. Braydon Coburn looked okay. Maybe Mike Richards wasn't bad. But nobody was great. Jared Ross may well have been the third best player on the ice. Not good.
• Just about every Flyer forward was totally invisible tonight, except for the two previously mentioned, Scott Hartnell, and Claude Giroux.
• Arron Asham's penalty was really weak. Led to the first goal, and the game seemed over from there on. That's the only whining I can muster out of this--the Flyers didn't deserve to win at all.
  
• Martin Biron was pretty mediocre. No terrible goals, but he could have had the first three. Especially the third, from Evgeni Malkin. Those are the kind of weird breakdown goals that the Penguins seem to get a lot vs. our boys. No reason for Biron not to start Game 2, it really isn't debatable. He hasn't been immaculate, sure, but Antero Niittymaki has been just bad lately, so putting him in really shouldn't be an option.
  
• That guy who predicted that the Penguins would win Game 1 by the score of 4-1? He must be a freakin' genius.

The split is what we needed, and the split is still in play. Game 2 becomes a must win now, no way around that.

ECQF Game 1 Preview: Flyers @ Penguins 4/15/09

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Holy crap, we're here. As of writing this, there's about nine hours until the Flyers begin their run in the playoffs. It's been three hundred and thirty-two days since the Flyers last played a playoff game. That's a long time. A LONG time.

(This is mostly general stuff for the whole series, but it's mostly for tonight).

Why the Flyers Will Win:

• Because they've got something to prove. About 97% of pundits are picking Pittsburgh to win this series, which is pretty ridiculous for a 4 vs 5 match-up. Plenty of bulletin board material.
• Because the Penguins' record against the Flyers this year is really deceptive. They won four of the six, sure, but one of those was in a shootout (in a game the Flyers were leading with three minutes left), and the other was because of this shit.
  
• Because the Penguins' record against the Flyers this year is really irrelevant. The Flyers had a winning record against the Penguins in the regular season last year, and we all know how much that meant. The Flyers also did not have winning records last regular season against either Washington or Montreal, and we all know how much that meant too.
  
• Braydon Coburn. Kimmo Timonen. Simon Gagne. Claude Giroux. None of them were around last year. Those additions plus the subtractions of Ryan Malone, Marian Hossa, and Derian Hatcher should mean good things.
• Last time the Flyers and Penguins played, Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin combined for zero points. And more importantly, zero shots. This is a team with it's current lineup that knows how to shut them down.

Why the Penguins Will Win:

• Goaltending. I definitely don't dump on Martin Biron as much as the rest of the world does, but I don't think he matches up well against Marc-Andre Fleury. Mostly because Fleury is the key to the Penguins success, and doesn't get anywhere near the credit he should for it. Ever since Fleury got rid of those yellow pads, he's been real good. The Flyers scored a combined eight goals on him in five games last year (plus an empty netter). That's a GAA of 1.60. Which is real good.
• The Penguins ended the season in the right way, winning their last few games pretty convincingly, finishing a run that saw them move up all the way from tenth to fourth. The Flyers, on the other hand, finished the season by blowing three different leads against the Rangers to squander home ice.
  

Prediction: Penguins take Game 1, by a score of 4-1. Shaky night for Biron. He'll have a big Game 2, though.

Dream Waivers

I slept in absurdly late, and woke up realizing that the Flyers had probably already gotten rid of people to get ready for Daniel Briere's return Friday. As I staggered toward my computer, I decided that the two players I could most do without were Glen Metropolit and Ossi Vaananen.

Well hot damn, I was sure excited to see my dreams come true. Metropolit is by far the least productive offensively of anyone on offense, and he's probably too classy to be a Flyer. Never seemed to fit in at all.

Vaananen I kinda liked, but he was clearly seventh on the Flyers depth chart of defensemen. He's a phenomenal guy to have in case of injury or this damned flu, but he's pricy for that role.

The thing that most worries me about Vaananen's exit is my Finnish readership here. My little tracker thing shows that I have loyal readers in southwestern Finland, and I'm hoping that they're not just Vaananen fans, but either Niittymaki or Timonen fans (or even Kapanen or Sinisalo relics).

The other buzz is around Jay Bouwmeester coming to the Flyers from Florida in exchange for Lupul and Coburn. Hell no is clearly the answer to that scenario. Lupul is kinda overpaid for his production, but he's a glue guy in the locker room, and Braydon Coburn is the result of the best deal the Flyers ever made, so it would be absurdly negligent for them to deal him away so soon. Plus he's pretty awesome.



Bouwmeester also has got to be the dullest player in the league. And "Bouwmeester" is a bitch to spell.

Game #40 Review: Flyers 1 @ Capitals 2 (SO) 1/6/09

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Fatty Backstrom struggles to keep up.

The game went exactly as I predicted. Shootout victory for the Capitals which left the Flyers satisfied and the Caps super happy.

What I didn't expect was the defensive effort from the Flyers, holding the Caps to only one goal. This was a really nice game for the Flyer D, who not coincidentally have avoided most of the injury wave. I'm not worried about the Flyers' ability to score goals come playoff time, it's the defense that gives me pause. And they played a real nice game tonight, from the goal line out.

• The Devils' regulation loss tonight really helped make this loss not so bad. We're a game away from the half-way point, and though making the playoffs is looking pretty safe, a division title since 2004 would be much appreciated.
• Hats off to Marty Biron. The one goal against was by far his lowest in some time, and tonight certainly represented his best effort since that shutout of Buffalo. He was pretty decent in the shootout as well, though in a losing effort. He had some absolutely atrocious technique in the second period, and needed a two-pad stack from Ossi Vaananen at one point to stop a Nylander shot, but other than that he was real good. This will be a good time for him to get a lot of games in, with the injury to Niitty hopefully ending in time for Biron to recover from all the starts during the all-star break.
• Two goals in three games for Braydon Coburn. No reason he can't get up to ten goals by the end of the season.
• Next to Ovechkin, the easiest player to identify out there on the ice tonight was Luca Sbisa. He's like a mini-Briere (yes, I realize normal-size Briere is like 5'7'') out there, minus the goal scoring ability. If he works on his finishing ability, he could be a real scoring threat. Until then, he's something of a liability because of the penalty taking. You think as a defenseman he'd be more of a backchecker.
• Thank god there's no shootout in the playoffs, or this would be a real issue. Three in a row makes me hate them even more. The Flyers just stink at these things. All three players tried the exact same move tonight, and all three almost scored on it. Almost doesn't cut it, though. There should be more going for broke in the OT to avoid them at all costs.
• Dontcha wish we got to play the Penguins sooner than a week from now? Let's pray they haven't recovered by then.

I really don't like sugarcoating all these losses like I've been doing. It's just that these losses really haven't been that sour. All the same, it's time for a new, more Philly outlook on things. So I say that from here on out, anything less than two points is unacceptable. Road trip is over, and 2-2-2 is about as mediocre as it could've been.

So wins only, from here on. Especially against Minnesota on Thursday. Git 'er done, boys, or I'll be one pissed-off fish.

Nine Best of 2008 -- #8

The eighth-best game of 2008 in the countdown is kind of an odd pick. It didn't lead to anything, it wasn't even that close a game for the most part.

But it was super important all the same. The Flyers went into Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Finals down 3-0. The Flyers hadn't played too badly in Game 1, but really stunk up the joint in Game 3, easily their worst game of the year. Facing a sweep at the hands of Sidney Crosby and the rest of the Pittsburgh Penguins, and without two of their top defensemen in Kimmo Timonen and Braydon Coburn, the Flyers needed to salvage something, if for no other reason than to avoid the embarrassment of a sweep and to make the last game of the season at the Wachovia Center a win.



And win they did. Three garbagey first period goals from Joffrey Lupul, Daniel Briere and Jeff Carter put the Flyers comfortably up, and gave fans something to cheer about for the first time in weeks. Jordan Staal knocked a couple past Martin Biron in the third, but the Flyers hung on, and Lupul added an empty netter to lock in the win with the score of 4-2.

But the fun didn't stop after the second Lupul goal. Derian Hatcher (remember him?) beat the living crap out of Ryan Malone, and then Mike Richards treated Sidney Crosby with the respect he deserves.



Flyers lost Game 5 badly, but that shouldn't detract from how awesome Game 4 was. For that one night (and the two days between Games 4 and 5), the Flyers gave their fans reason to be happy, reason to be hopeful, reason to believe. And that's what being a fan is all about.

Well, not really. But it's a nice idea.

Game #38 Review: Flyers 5 @ Ducks 4 (SO) 1/2/09

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This was a really fun game. Not a lot of defense, a lot of hitting, two fights in the first period, a six-goal second period, a shootout. What more could you ask for? And a shootout win is just as good as a regulation win when facing an out-of-conference foe.

• I know New Jersey and Washington to be often overrun by Flyers fans, but I totally didn't expect to hear "Let's Go Fly-ers" chants drowning out the crowd in Anaheim of all places. Anaheim is about as far from Philadelphia as you can get in the NHL. There've been big Flyers contingents in the stands all road trip long. Flyers fans who don't get to see the club in person much are turning out for these games, making the first four of the six on the road trip all sell outs. And setting all-time attendance records in Chicago and Anaheim. Pretty cool.
• Scottie Upshall doesn't seem to have missed a beat.
• That was not a great effort by Martin Biron for most of the game, but he played as well as he needed to, getting the two points and the win. It was a real good shootout effort from him, which has definitely been his Achilles' heel.
• The color issues CSN Philly were having were actually kinda fun. The orange on the Flyers jerseys was often hot pink, sometimes blue, sometimes purple. It added even more surreality to the second period.
• Claude Giroux is just up from the AHL and is getting to lead off shoot-outs? Like the confidence in him, but maybe lets key things down just a bit. Mike Richards played his shootout round perfectly, so it was all good.
• The Flyers two got goals from their defensemen tonight, with Ossi Vaananen and Braydon Coburn. Those two goals are two more goals than the Flyers got from their defensemen during the seventeen games of the 2008 Playoffs...
• Speaking of unlikely goal-getters, kudos to Josh Gratton on his first of the season.
• J-S Giguere's style of goaltending looks like a third grader thought of it. The old strategy of putting the fattest kid possible in net so he takes up as much space as possible. Who goes down on EVERY shot? As a disciple of the Parent-Hextall school of goaltending, I can't think of any worse strategy. God only knows how he got all those shutouts in those 2003 playoffs.

Onto Los Angeles for the Flyers, to play the struggling Kings. Will they get a sweep in California? Will it be another sell out? Will anyone have heard of the Kings' starting goalie? Only time will tell.