Philadelphia Flyers vs. The NHL

Riley Cote, come on down! Your our next contestant on the NHL's hit new game show, Suspendee of the week!

It's pretty evident that the League seems to have an out for the Flyers. The latest victim to suspension, enforcer Riley Cote. Late in the 3rd of Philly's 4-1 loss to Dallas Saturday night, Cote punished a member of the Stars with a check/elbow to the head.

Ok. The hit was unnecessary. The elbow, questionable. But a three game suspension for a frustration hit? Clearly, and I say this in the most unbiased way possible, the league is making an example out of the Flyers.

With the suspension to Cote, the 5th Flyer to be suspended this year, the league also issued a formal warning that if another incident occurred, further disciplinary action will be taken.

Fast forward to tonight's game In Minnesota. Before the first two minutes ticked off the game clock, the Fly guys found themselves two men down on the penalty kill.
When the league said further disciplinary action would be taken, I think they failed to mention that they were going to literally hand out power plays to future opposing teams.

While on that 5-on-3 power play, the Wild "scored" a goal.
Niittymaki went down to the butterfly to make a save, but the shooter threw his hands up in celebration as the goal light went on, than off, than the referee signaled goal after thinking about it for a few seconds. So the tally goes in the books and its 1-0 Minnesota.
...Upon further review...
The goal was looked at upstairs in the center before Toronto's war room took the call and reviewed further. Once they showed the play for the fans at home, I was astonished. You could clearly see the back of the net.. puckless. Niitty had the puck underneath him, at least a foot from the goal crease. How could you possible make that mistake?!

There is no one on this earth that can tell me that huge mistake of a goal call was not made on purpose.

The Flyers managed to kill off that 5-on-3 as well as the other 2 man advantage that the Wild had in the game. In total, there were 9 Philly minors, 18 minutes of penalty kill total. I am willing to bet that 3 of them were legitimate. The other 6? Well, they may have been foul shots for the Sixers opponent, also in action tonight. I'll leave it at that.

The Wild on the other hand, took a nearly immaculate 3 penalties. One of those penalties was awarded to former Flyer Todd Fedoruk, who warned Philly that "they better have eyes in the back of their heads, because he was coming." His penalty, for the hit on Lupul, was worthy of league review, in my opinion (which, doesn't mean much I guess). Fedoruk boarded Lupul in a way that had it been reverse roles.. Let me just say that Lupul would have been the next game show contestant.

At the end of regulation, the Flyers prevailed, 3-1, killing off 8 of 9 penalties and holding the lead for the entire game. With the win, Philly moves to a three way tie for the Atlantic Division, along with NY Rangers and NJ Devils.

So in the ongoing battle of Philly versus the National Hockey League, score a win for Philly tonight. But the road ahead seems steep. And rocky. And heavily guarded by men in zebra outfits.

The view from the top

With Wednesday's win against Carolina, the Flyers stand alone atop the Atlantic division, two points in front of the Rangers. The five game in eight night run proved successful for Philly, who went 3-1-1, knocking off the East Conference leader Ottawa, as well as Carolina, twice in the same week.

The win in Carolina was their 14th of the season.
Last season, it took the Flyers until February 10th to score 14 wins.. snapping a 13 game losing streak. That was 55 games into the season!

I for one, am very happy to see that successful hockey is back in Philly.

I attribute this success so far, to several things.

1.) Amazing goaltending. Martin Biron made 40 saves last night, facing 41 shots on a very mediocre-at-best ice surface.

2.) Patience on the power play. Intelligence and patience are two huge keys to scoring goals on the powerplay. You pass around enough and good things WILL happen. This is something that has been lacking for years. Finally the Flyers have a top 10 power play.

3.) Daniel Briere and Mike Richards. Both players have a stunning 30 points in 24 games. Danny has been so valuable to the team so far. He leads in assists and does so many little things right on the ice. Richards seems to have really stepped up his game between last season and the current one, leading the team in scoring with 14 goals.

4.) The penalty kill. At one point, the Flyers had killed 14 straight power players on home ice. They have registered three short handed goals, all of which Richards has scored. 2 of them were actually down 5-on-3 short handeds.

5.) The second period. The Flyers lead the league in second period goals, 36 to be exact. Opponents have only scored 25 against them in the second so far.



One thing I wouldn't mind seeing the Flyers improve upon is how they approach their game. More importantly, how they approach the first period. The flyers have been outscored by opponents 17-22 in the first period. It seems like if they can manage to get by the first with little damage, than they will win the game. 2 goals or more against in the first is almost the kiss of death for the team.

If they can come out on the ice with the same intensity they did against the Senators game in and game out, I could see a great playoff run in the future.

Hartnell didn't mean it!

Just what the Flyers organization needed. Another questionable hit. Another suspension. Another media frenzy. The mullet wearing hockey heads of Hockey Night in Toronto are going to have a field day with this one.

With the fourth Flyer suspended for an "intention to injure" during a game, Philly is reliving the days of their infamous predecessors, the Broad Street Bullies, according to several sports writers.

In what seemed like a replay of the last Boston Bruins game, a Bruin player put themselves into a vulnerable position along the sideboards, tried to make a play and got just what he deserved, a bone crushing hit.

The hit will go on record as follows:
Scott Hartnell of the Flyers hit Bruins defenseman Andrew Alberts while in a vulnerable position. Hartnell's blow to the head was good for a two game suspension.

Hartnell did just what he was supposed to, forecheck and create turnovers . It just so happened that Andrew Alberts went for a bouncing puck by dropping to his knees, right along the boards..
What did you think was going to happen, Alberts?
Hartnell even tried to pull away, turning his skates and leaning away from the hit. But lets be rational here, it is a law of gravity! An object in motion will remain in motion, yadda yadda yadda. Hartnell is in mid hit, he does not have air breaks equipped in hit skates.

If "intent to injure" is the call, I could pick out a particular hit that I think could easily be worthy of a suspension. While Dennis Tolpecko pursued the puck through the neutral zone.. someone.. realizing they were beat on the play, threw out a hip, colliding with Tolpecko's knee and purposely knocking him off track. That particular kind of hit is a season or even career ending one, as a player cannot skate with a torn knee.

If your going to call it, protect the Flyers as well, please.

In the teams last meeting with the Bruins, defenseman Randy Jones put a hit on Patrice Bergeron that sent him out of the game with a concussion and a broken nose.

It is taught in the Minors and even the pee wee hockey leagues: Protect yourself with the puck. Quite simply, do not put yourself in a position where this type of injury can occur. Both Bruin players put themselves in harms way, Bergeron by facing the boards at such an angle behind the net and Alberts by going down to his knees along the boards to make a play. Come on, I don't care who you are.. that is asking to be crushed.

The Philadelphia Flyers of 2007-2008 are a far cry from what th e Broad Street Bullies were in the 70's. I have yet to see a bench clearing brawl or a a 2-on-1 fight. As a matter of fact, we don't really have any league renowned fighters on the team anymore. Just a bunch of guys that love to hit hard and do not know the meaning of giving up.

By the way, head coach John Stevens fully defends Hartnell's hit as nothing more than hard fought hockey and wants to see his team continue their hard hitting style of hockey.


I know as I am writing this, NHL analysts are talking about how bad of an image the Flyers give the rest of the league with their wreckless style of play and their lack of appreciation for human life. I say, if you want to keep playing in this league, be smart about how you play the puck. Oh, and don't enter the Wachovia Center expecting the Flyers to stop playing aggressively. That is about the equivalent of traveling back in time to ask Dave "The Hammer" Shultz to keep his gloves on.


I Leave you all, with a Don Cherry/Derian Hatcher quote.

“I think Don Cherry said it best a couple weeks ago, in that the player with the puck has just as much responsibility as the player coming to hit him. If you put yourself in situations where you can get hurt, you’re going to get hurt.”

No such thing as perfect

One thing I very much enjoy doing is educating myself on things that I cannot stand. In this case, I have watched several of the last New England Patriot’s games, with total disgust as they have steamrolled some of the better teams in the NFL.

One thing I have not enjoyed as of late, is watching the Eagles limp through their modest season, standing currently at 5-5.

With those things said, I thought I would have a very hard time watching, or at least enjoying, what I thought was going to be a true slaughtering of astronomical like numbers.

I tried to avoid the television at first, leaving my parents house to head back to school sometime after dinner and before kickoff, hoping I would hit traffic or get lost between the Commodore Barry Bridge and the Blue Route that I know so well and miss a good portion of the game.

I managed to make it, right on time for kickoff. Like a true Philly fan, I watched, in horror at first as Feeley threw an interception in the first set of downs that was run back for a touchdown. A minute in and the Birds found a way to dig a hole early.

“Oh, Feeley’s just shaking out the cobwebs,” I told myself, rather insecurely.

Turns out, I wasn’t so wrong after all. AJ than led the troops down the field and tied the game up on a very nice drive.

To the shock of the football world, the Eagles were on top from the second half, till the middle of the fourth quarter, when Brady finally put together a drive worthy of a game winning touchdown. They may have finally bowed down to the mighty Patriots, losing 31-28, but they stayed with them the entire game, stopping the otherwise stellar NE offense on more drives than anyone else so far and forcing Brady to make a season high 20 incomplete passes.

Though they may have lost the game, when all is said and done every other team in the NFL will be studying the game tapes for hours on end. Andy and company have just written the rough draft of a documentary entitled, The Patriots Ultimate Defeat.

The first thing Philly did right was exploit Randy Moss. The man is an obvious head case and if I’m not mistaken, we have seen the demise of one of those already in this city (ahem, TO?). Lito Sheppard, with a little help from J.R. Reed, handled Moss brilliantly, roughing him up as much as possible and allowing only 5 receptions, none of which came after the 2^nd quarter. Reed also played a safety position, ensuring no long passes would be attempted by Brady.

Also defensively, the Eagles blitzed, often. Defensive Coordinator Jim Johnson was at his best last night, doing a great job of bringing the total blitz package, something sorely missed by the Eagles defense so far this year. Brady was sacked a total of three times and was paranoid in the pocket all night, for good reason.

On the opposite end of the ball, Feeley played with great rhythm, something not seen by McNabb as of late. He felt pressure and yet welcomed it, waiting for the final seconds before threading needles with his passes. Andy Reed also did two things very right. For one, he noticed that the Patriots are weak in the middle of the field. Throwing simple slants and using routes that start outside and work their way in proved very successful. One more thing truly lacking in games this season that was finally corrected, was the return of the aggressive play calling. Reed really put it to the Pats, calling for several trick plays including one brilliantly executed onsides kick.

The Eagles really looked like the birds of old on both sides of the ball.

So as Philly marched off the field, maybe a little bitter about their loss and the 5-6 hole they fell back into, I turned the television off, proud of what I had seen.

But I’m still very unsettled about several things. Leave it to the Eagles to lose under their own steam. It was not an excellent Brady to Moss play that beat us. It was not an outstanding defensive stand by the Patriots that cut us short of driving to a game winning touchdown. For once, it wasn’t even the poor play calling by the men in green with headphones on the sidelines. It was two measly misplaced passes, good for two New England interceptions. Had Feeley thrown that first pass over the head of Asante Samuel and out of bounds, maybe the eagles would have won by 4, instead of losing by 3. And what about that final drive? What if instead of a 20 or so yard pass, they let Buckhalter pound a few yards here and there, taking precious time off of the game clock, before finally looking for the end zone, instead of looking for that big play and well, failing.

More importantly, if they can play that well against a “flawless” team, why are they not 11-0 themselves?!

When it comes down to it, the Eagles played well on the national stage. They humiliated Moss, stunned Brady and had Bellichick sweating on the sidelines. They gave the Patriots their best competition so far and the remaining 5 a glimmer of hope.

With that said, I can settle with the fact that, Bellichick, maybe your Patriots aren’t so perfect, afterall.