Fourth Time's the Charm

Whether or not they win the series, the Flyers have had phenomenal success in Game 4s over the past five seasons. The Flyers have won eight of their past nine Game 4s, including their past five in a row. That's crazy good.

Some highlights (the ones I could find):

2004 Eastern Conference Quarterfinals Game 4 vs. New Jersey



2004 Eastern Conference Finals Game 4 vs. Tampa Bay



2006 Eastern Conference Quarterfinals Game 4 vs. Buffalo



2008 Eastern Conference Quarterfinals Game 4 vs. Washington



2008 Eastern Conference Semifinals Game 4 vs. Montreal



2008 Eastern Conference Finals Game 4 vs. Pittsburgh



Pittsburgh, on the other hand, has lost their last three Game 4s. Unimpressive.

Recap: Flyers are good, Penguins are bad.

Do it to it, boys.

Atlantic Cruise Control

For the third consecutive season, the Atlantic Division will send four teams to the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The Flyers, Penguins, Devils, and Rangers are the same foursome as last year, with the Islanders making it over the Flyers in 2007. The Atlantic Division made history in 2008 by being the first Eastern Conference division to send four teams in back to back years, and makes even more history this season by being the first team in either conference to do it three seasons in a row.

The Atlantic Division also is the only division never to have sent fewer than three teams to the playoffs in any season. This compares pretty favorably to the Southeast, who has never sent more than two teams to the playoffs in any season.

The Atlantic Division carried their tradition of regular season domination into the playoffs last season, with none of the four Atlantic Division squads losing a series to a non-Atlantic team in the Eastern Conference playoffs. In the playoffs, the Atlantic teams went a combined 12-4, with Pittsburgh sweeping Ottawa and the Flyers ousting the champions of both the Northeast and Southeast in five and seven games, respectively.

Congratulations, Atlantic Division. You're pretty damn good at this sport. And to the Islanders, well...at least you'll get a decent draft pick?

Game #72 Review: Devils 2 @ Flyers 4 3/23/09

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Beating Pittsburgh and New Jersey back to back? Doesn't get much better than that.

• That was about as good a night on the power play as you'll ever see. Flyers were perfect at 3-for-3 with the man-advantage, scoring three goals in only 3:15 of power play time. The penalty kill was pretty solid as well, holding the Devils to only one power play goal in eight chances, in 14:23 of 5-on-4.
• Remember when Daniel Briere was really terrible? Ever since he got his first goal in this comeback vs. Buffalo on Thursday, he has been phenomenal. His goal on the great feed from Kimmo Timonen was a beauty, and his feed on Mike Knuble's was just as nice. He's got his poaching feel back, and it's really a great thing to behold.
• Daniel Carcillo and Arron Asham can't trade lines soon enough. Carcillo has the penalty taking skills of Steve Downie with the grooming habits of Adam Morrison. It's a really horrible thing to watch.
• I accidentally initially put just "Martin Brodeur" as a reason why the Flyers would win this game. But was it wrong? He was not great at all, especially on Gagne's goal. Flyers are now 3-1 against Brodeur this season. Not bad.

For getting his fortieth goal of the season, The Hat goes to Jeff Carter.

Flyers are off until Thursday, with a couple of potential trap games coming up, vs. Florida on Thursday and at Nassau on Saturday.

Game #72 Preview: Devils @ Flyers 3/23/09

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Back to back games against the two biggest divisional rivals on national television? What's not to love?

Why the Flyers Will Win:

• Momentum. The Flyers and Devils both played good teams whose colors are black-and-gold yesterday afternoon. The Flyers won, largely because their black-and-gold team showed up in blue. The Devils, on the other hand, looked pretty bad against Boston, Brodeur especially.
• The Devils have pretty little to play for these days. They'll finish in second. The Flyers are also locked into fourth, but since the Flyboys have something to prove against the Devils and the Devils don't have much to prove against the Flyers,
• Daniel Briere is playing real well right now. Hell, everybody except Daniel Carcillo is playing real well right now.
• Martin Brodeur will probably still be blinded by tears from the alimony beating he took recently.

Why the Devils Will Win:

• The Devils haven't back to back games since Obama has been president. Yeesh.
• Back in December, the Flyers played the Penguins and Devils back to back. They had a big win over Pittsburgh, then seemed absurdly content to get an OT loss vs. the Devils. If they're that complacent again, there could be issues.

Prediction: Flyers 3-1. Do it to it.

Puck drops at 7 on Versus.

Fat Marty

Mockery is the sincerest form of mockery.

Even on his special day, some brilliant headline writer at NHL.com thought it would be funny to mock Marty for being fat. They were right, it was funny. It's always funny. And thusly we are happy to celebrate Marty Gras.

(In case you're completely lost, gras = fat in French.).

Three Reactions to Brodeur's 100th Shutout

Lupul, Briere, Richards,



John Stevens...

And lastly, Brodeur himself...

"Are you fucking joking? I'm Martehhnnn Fucking Brodurrr! Goddamnit, I need a bigger fucking cake!"

The Road To February is Paved With Crap

Crappy teams, that is. The Flyers have seven games remaining in January, against Pittsburgh, Tampa Bay, Florida, Atlanta, Florida, Tampa, and St. Louis. For those of you keeping track at home, zero of those teams would make the playoffs if they started today (though I realize Florida has been pretty good of late).

Some day-off interviews from Kimmo Timonen, Mike Richards, and Marty Biron, in preparation for the tenth-in-the-east(!) Pittsburgh Penguins. Watch them blow sunshine up the press's collective ass as they are forced to say nice things about Sidney Crosby.



In other news, the Devils lost last night, which is always good for the Flyers. They are getting Brendan Shanahan, though, which would be bad news if he wasn't turning FORTY this month.

A Little Room to Breathe

Not a ton of breathing room, but some. This Flyers win last night was enhanced by losses from New Jersey and Pittsburgh (both to crappy teams in Atlanta and Nashville, respectively), as well as a Rangers loss last night. The New Jersey loss was especially key, as it takes away the ability they'd had for a long time to catch up based solely on games in hand.

In the conference, the Flyers are still in third, behind second place Washington by four points, and first place Boston by an obscene eleven points.

If the playoffs started today, it would be #3 Flyers vs #6 Devils. And you should remember what happened the last time we saw that scenario...



Raise your hand if you'd like to see that again come April.

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.