Swimming with the Sharks

On their current road trip, the Flyers played what amounted to a statement game against the San Jose Sharks, who hold one of the best records in the league. An entertaining game saw the Flyers hang with the Sharks into the third period before San Jose pulled away, scoring a 6-3 victory. Somewhat discouraging, because the Sharks are a potential Stanley Cup finalist and the Flyers have lost both games to them this season (and haven’t beaten them in nine years!). Overall, however, the Flyers have looked good lately with offensive and defensive numbers near the top of the league and the top-rated power play. The forwards and goaltending look good but they may need to tweak the defense some as the season progresses. The fifth and sixth defensemen (some combination of Ryan Parent, Danny Syvret, Ole-Kristian Tollefson, and Oskars Bartulis) haven’t been overly impressive. I’d love to see a solid fifth defenseman either emerge from that group or be acquired in a trade. Fortunately, there’s much of the season left for things to develop.

Streak? Here’s Your Streak.

On Monday, the Devils and an annoying number of their fans came down the Jersey Turnpike with an eight game winning streak and an opportunity to set an NHL record for the most consecutive road victories from the start of a season. Playing a strong game, the Flyers ended the Devils’ streak with a 3-2 victory, despite the refs’ best efforts to hand them the game in the third period with some highly questionable calls. After the Flyers took a 3-1 lead, several calls went against them. With the game being televised on Versus, you have to wonder if the calls were designed to keep the game close at the direction of the league. It was nice to see the Flyers defeat a top team, which they must demonstrate they can do regularly to have a shot at the Cup this season. It was nicer to send the Devils and their contingent of supporters home empty-handed. Two of the unfortunate fans were seated next to us during the game, at the end of which we happily told them: “Turnpike’s that way.”

Five-Game Win Streak: Looking Better

After a mediocre start, the Flyers are currently riding a five game winning streak in which they have outscored their opponents 23-7. They appear to be hitting their stride now, as they are playing good defensive hockey and revving up the offense. The power play is tops in the league and the penalty killing is near the top. This is all good, especially since other teams in the division had strong starts, with the Penguins, Rangers and Devils putting together similar winning streaks. The Flyers needed to get out of the win one-lose one pattern. Not to be pessimistic, but let’s not get too excited just yet. The Flyers still need to demonstrate that they can beat the good teams of the league on a regular basis. A test in that area comes Monday night against the Devils. This streak is good, but I won’t be really excited until they score some wins against the Pittsburghs and New Jerseys of the league.

Ten-Game Mark: Thoroughly Mediocre

After the first ten games of the season, the Flyers are a thoroughly mediocre 5-4-1. The same familiar issues that have plagued the team have surfaced again this year: failure to maintain intensity for entire games, difficulty clearing the puck out of their own zone, failure to score on opportunities, poor coverage in front of their net at times, poor face-off percentage, and a lackadaisical attitude at times. How can these same problems continue without correction? It looks as though we’re in for more of the same up and down inconsistency that we’ve seen from this team over the last several years. The only difference is that now we’re paying more for tickets and parking for the privilege of watching it.

Flyers Score a Shootout Victory Over Boston

Claude Giroux scores the winning shootout goal against Boston.

After a ridiculously long layoff, the Flyers returned to the ice against Boston at the Wachovia Center on Thursday. They didn’t play great, but battled the Bruins to a 3-3 tie through regulation and overtime. The prospect of a shootout was not particularly exciting given the Flyers’ 13-26 record in shootouts to date. Sitting behind the Bruins net, my buddy Chick and I braced for another shootout loss and when Danny Briere shot wide on the first shot we figured our skepticism was justified. With no one having scored through the first four shots, Claude Giroux beared down on goalie Tukka Rask and with four or five lightning-quick dekes left him sprawled in front of the net before backhanding the puck into the cage. Giroux is sick. He has moves with the puck that are ridiculous. The Bruins hit the post on their last shot and the Flyers came away with the win. OK, they didn’t play great after a long layoff but we’ll take the victory. Don’t get too excited, however, until this team can put together a good winning streak and avoid losing two or three games in a row.

Other Observations
The Flyers’ new line of Ian Laperriere (#14), James van Riemsdyk (#21), and Claude Giroux (#28) played really well, creating alot of opportunities and moving the puck around really quickly. Chick, a math teacher, observed that they all wear numbers that are divisible by seven. (He notices things like that). So I challenged him to come up with a name for the line, since the Flyers haven’t had a named line since the Legion of Doom in the mid-90s. He thought briefly and then said “Powers of Seven”. Now, this name may need explaining to the typical, mathmatically unaware fan, but I think it’s a great name that would be cool if it caught on.

The Wachovia Center scoreboard showed a Phillies video during a stoppage in play, celebrating the Phils’ victory over the Dodgers in the NLCS. As the fans cheered, just for fun we began a “Yankees Suck” chant, much to the consternation of a patron seated somewhere behind us, who yelled “It’s a hockey game!”. I’m not sure if he was from New York (or maybe northern Bucks County) but he is no Philadelphian. Anytime we have the public opportunity to demean New York (and celebrate our city’s own success), we’re going to take it. A few minutes later, the scoreboard showed a commercial for the upcoming NHL Winter Classic outdoor game between the Flyers and Bruins to be held at Fenway Park and showed Flyers and Bruins players “facing-off” at home plate. Not passing up the opportunity to demonstrate to our misguided commentator behind us his utter misunderstanding regarding the mixing of different sports, I yelled “It’s a hockey game!”.

Parking at the Wachovia Center was suddenly raised from an outrageous $12 to an even more outrageous $15. Too bad Flyers’ management can’t squeeze the amount of effort from their players that they squeeze in money out of their customers.

This Season’s Flyers Looking Very Familiar

It’s still early in the season, but this year’s Flyers team is starting to look like the squad we saw last season – win a few, lose a few, and fail to play up to capabilities. After winning their first three games, the Flyers have lost their next three including a completely dull effort against the Most Boring Team in the League, the Florida (Yawn) Panthers. Playing their first game in nearly a week thanks to some brilliant schedule-making by the NHL, the Flyers squandered a 2-1 lead, then allowed the Panthers to score the winning goal shorthanded in the third period. Evidently feeling sorry for the Panthers’ lowest-rated offense in the league that was averaging 1.6 goals per game, the Flyers’ defense repeatedly allowed Panthers forwards to stand around alone in front of goalie Ray Emery.

This is a Flyers team whose opinion of itself is at a much higher level than its night-in night-out level of play. That’s a shame, because this team should win 50 games and attain 110-115 points this season. Instead, it looks as though they’re going to be up and down – not terrible, but not moving up a step either – and finish with the same 90 points that they usually finish with. They get too easily satisfied with a good game or two and don’t have the drive, passion, and determination to do what it takes to break into the upper echelon of the league in terms of performance. There are too many laid-back characters and so far no leadership (player leaders or coaching) pushing them to put out the consistent effort that is needed. Management decides to have the players spend a week in Florida boating and fishing after the season starts so they can “bond”. Are you kidding?! They don’t need fun, chummy times together; they need to get in each other’s faces and push each other to produce because right now they’re much better on paper than on the ice where it counts.

Hurricanes, Devils, and Other Scary Things

The Flyers looked great at the start of the season, shutting out Carolina in the opener, 2-0 and then defeating the Devils in New Jersey, 5-2. They beat a very good Capitals team in overtime but surrendered five goals and then faced the hated Penguins in a rematch of last spring’s playoff series.

Realizing that they will have to beat the Penguins if they’re going to seek to take the division, conference, or Cup, the Flyers came out flat at the Wachovia Center. Their passing was not sharp, they had no speed coming out of their own zone, and had defensive lapses that resulted in several goals. A poor line change resulted in a breakaway goal by Bill Guerin.

Looks like a repeat of last year is materializing. The team gets satisfied with a couple good games and then fails to do the things that must be done in order to win. We’ll see now if their off-season acquisitions – Chris Pronger, Ray Emery, and Ian Laperriere – will be able to do what they’re supposed to be good at: lighting a fire under laid-back players who don’t produce the effort necessary to win. We’ll see if coach John Stevens, whose quiet and laid-back approach has been blamed for the team’s laid-back efforts, will be able to get the most out of a talented roster. If he doesn’t, I will guarantee this will be his last season in Philly.

Cote or Pyorala?

As the Flyers think about finalizing their roster as the end of the pre-season draws near, it looks like a final roster spot at the forward position may come down to a choice between enforcer Riley Cote and newly-signed Finnish prospect Mika Pyorala. The Flyers’ decision here could say alot about their direction as a team. Pyorala has looked good in camp, scoring some goals, showing some speed, and showing a knack for getting to the holes. He is a little older than most prospects at age 28 and has experience playing in Europe. I think he should have a roster spot. Typical Flyers’ mentality would give the spot to Cote, as they have always liked tough grinder/mucker/fighter types. That’s why they have three such players on the roster: Cote, Aaron Asham, and Dan Carcillo. They don’t need three fighters. Cote scored three points last season and lost half his fights. Asham and Carcillo provide enough toughness and have more offensive skill. They Flyers need scoring after losing Mike Knuble and Joffrey Lupul and it looks as though Pyorala can provide some. Now is the time for Cote to go. The team needs to change its thinking and choose skill over toughness in this case. It’s not the 70s anymore.

Flyers to Unveil Winter Classic Jersey this Friday

The Flyers have announced that they will unveil the jersey that they will wear during the Winter Classic game this Friday at 2:00 PM, prior to a rookies game against the Capitals. The unveiling will take place in an unusual way: Three Flyers will shoot pucks at a block of ice which contains the jersey. Supposedly the Flyers are considering several designs and the one that they will probably go with is a white version of the retro orange third jersey they introduced last season:

Another option being considered is an orange version of the jersey worn by the Philadelphia Quakers during their only season, 1930-31:

The Flyers are pretty conservative as an organization so I doubt it will be the Quakers jersey. We’ll find out on Friday.

Penguins Fans Highly Irritated

I received a comment to one of the posts that evidently was from a Penguins fan. I must surmise that it was from a Penguins fan because (a) it took exception to other comments on the blog which called Sidney Crosby’s gender and toughness into question and then defended him as the youngest captain ever to win the Stanley Cup and (b) it was filled with a great deal of profanity, thereby demonstrating the general lack of verbal ability that typically identifies Pittsburgh hockey aficionados. As I happily deleted the comment I wondered if the evident anger with which it was written, along with the diminished eloquence, was representative of the current emotional state of the majority of Penguins’ athletic supporters. If it is, I would expect them to be in a better mood since, as the inarticulate author of the comment pointed out, the Penguins did win the Stanley Cup last season.

Now Crosby was indeed the youngest captain to win the Cup and is a good hockey player, but remember that he was surrounded by other good hockey players who benefitted from a timely coaching change and shrewd dealings by general manager Ray Shero, the son of the Flyers’ coach when they won their Stanley Cups. How’s that for irony? (I’ll define irony later for the benefit of any Penguins fans who may have difficulty with that word). I don’t believe that Crosby is particularly tough, however, and he certainly plays the game with less passion and apparent enjoyment than Alexander Ovechkin, for example. The author of the comment was quite certain that Crosby was indeed tough and that the Flyers would continue to have difficulty handling him. He must have forgotten that the Flyers acquired defenseman Chris Pronger over the summer. I will be anxiously waiting to see Crosby’s supposed toughness on display in that match-up.