Flyers Geography / In Defense of Randy Jones

Back in November, the Flyers were named by the Finnish Embassador to the United States as "the most Finnish team in the National Hockey League", due to the league high presence of four Finnish Players (Antero Niittymaki, Kimmo Timonen, Lasse Kukkonen, and Ossi Vaananen), as well as Finnish-American team President Peter Luukko. Add some past Flyers like Illkka Sinisalo and Sami Kapanen, and you've got yourself quite the Little Helsinki on Broad Street.

The Finns knew the Flyers were especially deserving of this award, as they did not allow any player who is not Finnish, Canadian, or American player into their lineup. The Flyers expressed their gratitude for this honor by putting Vaananen and Kukkonen on waivers.

The Flyers currently only have players from three countries, sharing the title of least international team with the Calgary Flames, who incidentally also only have Canadians, Americans, and Finns. Not a Swede, Czech, Slovak, or Russian to be found for miles.

This isn't to say that the Flyers don't have some demographic uniqueness. Randy Jones is from Quispamsis, New Brunswick. And despite the fact that there are 736,000 Canadians from New Brunswick, Randy Jones is the only New Brunswicker to currently be in the NHL. Out of the 476 Canadians currently in the NHL, Randy is the only one from a population that, proportionally, should have ten. Even Prince Edward Island, with a population of only 140,000, has more NHLers than New Brunswick (2).

I'm definitely not a Randy Jones hater. He got the highest vote total in the dump the chump poll, sure, but he's a pretty solid, physical defenseman who led the team in +/- last year, and is fifth in the team this year at +12, behind only Richards, Gagne, Carter, and Timonen, even though Randy has played only 32 games this season. None too shabby.

He's clearly overcome some major obstacles making it out of the hockey black hole that is New Brunswick. Props, Mr. Jones, Props.

(I wrote all this not counting Andreas Nodl, because we all know he doesn't matter).

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 #58 Review: Flyers 4 @ Capitals 2 2/24/08

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My cell phone photography skills are unparalleled.

• Arron Asham's goal was real pretty, but what doesn't get talked about enough on that play was what a horrible effort it was by Jose Theodore. Theodore started solid, but once the goals came they came hard and fast. As much as they don't like to agree with the rest of the league telling them this, Caps need a goalie at the trade deadline.
• You know who doesn't need a goalie at the trade deadline? The Flyers. Antero Niittymaki has really locked up the starting job barring any huge collapse. The Flyers need to be ready to remove him from the role if necessary, but it's gotta be his for now.
• Huge night for Riley Cote, which I don't think anyone expected. Riley was a +1 for probably the first time in his life, getting an assist on Asham's goal AND avoiding getting his face broken in half again by Donny Brashear. NO idea why Stevens put him on the ice with under eight minutes left in a one goal game, but the demoralization his playmaking caused was probably the highlight of the night.
• The Flyers depth on defense is amazing. As good as Kimmo Timonen, the Flyers really didn't miss a beat with their #7 d-man, Ossi Vaananen, in his place.
• Jeff Carter was the #1 star, but really didn't deserve it after that horrible turnover that led to Ovechkin's goal. The #1 star should have been...
• ...Claude Giroux, who clearly has studied at the Daniel Briere school of standing next to the net behind the goalie. The Flyers don't need Briere with Giroux playing this well (though one of those angles he took a shot from was absurdly acute).
• Scott Hartnell (erroneously second star) still has one of the best shots on the Flyers (probably second behind Carter), but needs to start being fined for these penalties. He now leads the league in minor penalties (link I found all by myself, I'm awesome)

Flyers play the Kings tonight. Dangerous opponent, could very easily be a letdown game. Kings won in a shootout in Minnesota last night, so did way more traveling. Hopefully Flyers ride this wave well, and hopefully Martin Biron feels like he has something to prove, because he does.

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.

Game #37 Review: Flyers @ Canucks 12/30/08

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This was big. Getting off to a quick start in the first by getting two goals in the first period (double what the Flyers had scored in the first six periods of this road trip) was big. Martin Biron finally letting in fewer than three goals was big. Winning a game this isolated on the schedule was big.

But the biggest thing clearly is Simon Gagne getting knocked out of the game in the first minute. Obviously concussion worries are first and foremost any time Gagne goes down for the rest of his career, but this one didn't look too bad. He got up fairly quickly, and seemed to be clutching his shoulder more than he was dizzy or disoriented. I doubt he'll play in California, but I really don't think this wasn't the career ender it could have been.

Some thoughts:

• Don't care that he lost the fight badly--how sweet is it to have a captain stick up for his teammates like Mike Richards does.
• Been hearing his name forever as a prospect, and glad to see Claude Giroux getting out there and playing well. He is super quick and has incredible hustle on every play, and is just a little pinball type that is fun to watch.
• Biron played real well, especially in the third. And those goals weren't stoppable shots. Nice effort for him, easily his best game of December.
• Jeff Carter widens his lead for most goals in the NHL. Playing for the name on the back can be a good motivator even if playing for the crest on front is most important. Carter's clearly pretty excited to be leading the league, and it's the kind of quest that can really electrify a locker room.
• Ossi Vaananen as third string goalie? That was some pretty sweet post-to-post.
• If Carter has the best shot on the team, Scott Hartnell has the best slap shot. He beats goalies glove-side on shots better than anyone I can think of.
• Garbagey goal to be sure, but nice for Jonathon Kalinski to get his first career tally, and a game winner no less.
• Odd to see only one Flyer in minus territory in a one-goal game. That somewhat dubious distinction goes to Darroll Powe.
• The orange and black tie on John Stevens was pretty sweet. Not that it's gonna reach any Guy Carbonneau levels, but it's a good look.
• I don't think Bieksa's hit was that dirty, but it's total crap for Canucks TV to name him the #2 star of the game when all he did the whole game was knock out Gagne and then get in a retalliation fight with Richards. Give it to Kalinski for getting his first ever goal and the game winner, or give it to Ryan Kesler for that nice deflection on Vancouver's second.
• The hell is going on with Vancouver's goaltending? They're without their franchise player Roberto Luongo, so they trade for a not great backup in Jason La Barbera and pull Curtis Sanford after a not-that-bad two-goal first period? I don't get it. But I'm embarrassed if I'm La Barbera. He's practically the Kings' #1 guy these days, and he got traded for a seventh round draft pick. That's unimpressive.

On to California. Worse places to spend New Year's than Los Angeles. Maybe they can find Rose Bowl tickets and go see Penn State beat up on USC?