Picture it: Anaheim, December of 2011. The Philadelphia Flyers are in town, preparing to face the Ducks on Friday night. The talented Ducks team quickly sunk like a stone to the bottom of the NHL standings, managing only 7 wins in 24 games so far this season. The situation is dire. Head coach Randy Carlyle was let go and replaced by former Washington Capitals head coach, Bruce Boudreau, last night. Over a quarter of the way into the season, the prospects of making the playoffs already seem grim for Anaheim and more moves seem imminent. Atop the list of potential …
Atlantic Watch: 11/23-11/29
The Flyers won back-to-back games to start the week before dropping a Winter Classic preview on Saturday as they earned four out of a possible six points. Ilya Bryzgalov only saw 20 minutes of action this week stopping six out of a possible nine shots, while Sergei Bobrovsky provided a great relief appearance on Wednesday along with starting both of the weekend games. With several injuries and transactions adding the usual drama, the Flyers look to beat two Western Conference opponents in the upcoming week. To start the week off, the Flyers overcame a 3-1 deficit to hand the New …
Lundqvist Blanks Flyers In Rangers’ 2-0 Win
Henrik Lundqvist had 32 saves as he led the way for the New York Rangers’ 2-0 win over the visiting Philadelphia Flyers on Saturday afternoon. Brad Richards netted the game-winning goal in the first minute of the second period, while Carl Hagelin scored his first career NHL goal. Sergei Bobrovsky, after getting the win yesterday against the Montreal Canadiens, suffered the loss despite saving 30 of the Rangers’ 32 shots. The Flyers’ inability to score today extends their goal-less streak to 80:06 dating back to the Claude Giroux with less than 6 seconds in the second period yesterday. Tensions were high entering …
Giroux Nets Pair As Flyers Beat Price, Canadiens
Two goals from our star player, P.K. Subban being booed everytime he touched the puck, and the ole chant being echoed through the Wells Fargo Center as time expired in the third period, what more could one ask for out of a 3-1 victory over the visiting Montreal Canadiens on this Black Friday? Well, it could have been 7-1 if they had the services of Jaromir Jagr and Chris Pronger, but is anyone going to complain? Claude Giroux netted a pair of goals during the second period as Sergei Bobrovsky had 23 saves on 24 shots as the Flyers won on …
Briere Caps Flyers’ Comeback In Overtime Against Struggling Isles
It’s not how you start, but how you finish. The Flyers lived up to that motto on Thanksgiving Eve as they overcame an early 3-1 deficit in New York to beat the Islanders 4-3 in overtime. Danny Briere scored the Flyers’ final two goals, while Sergei Bobrovsky relieved Ilya Bryzgalov after the first period and didn’t allow a single goal on 23 shots. Both Scott Hartnell and Braydon Coburn had two points on the night while the Flyers extended their winning streak against the Islanders to seven games. At the end of the first minute, the game was tied. However, instead of the …
The ‘How’ of Homer
When Paul Holmgren took over as the general manager of the Philadelphia Flyers on October 22, 2006, I received numerous messages from my friends who grew up as fans of the Hartford Whalers. Those messages ranged from, “Good luck with that,” to “What a terrible choice” to the simple but poignant, “Bwahahahahaha.” These were people jaded by the abysmal record that the Whalers posted during his tenure as Hartford’s coach and his brief stint as GM in the years that eventually led up to Hartford’s relocation to Carolina. (His DUI and stint at Betty Ford likely did not help matters …
Atlantic Watch: 11/16-11/22
Matt Read provided an excellent game-winning goal for the Flyers on Thursday, but that was the only good news Philly received all week as they are currently enduring a two-game losing streak with several key players missing the lineup in the process. Chris Pronger, Braydon Coburn, and Jaromir Jagr are important players on the Flyers’ roster. Jagr plays an important role in Philly’s most productive offensive trio, while the defense must rely on AHL call-ups when both Pronger and Coburn are absent from the lineup. Negative results were witnessed when all these players were not available at the same time …
Read Scores In Last Minute To Give Flyers Win Over Phoenix
Matt Read scored with just 18.6 seconds left in regulation to help Ilya Bryzgalov beat his former team as the Flyers edged the Coyotes 2-1. Bryzgalov limited his former team to a single goal on 31 shots, while Read registered his second game-winning score within the last three games. Claude Giroux provided his 12th assist of the season with the primary helper on James van Riemsdyk’s tally which opened the scoring in the second period, which gives him the team lead in that category. Mikkel Boedker lit the lamp early in the third, and Mike Smith stopped 40 Flyers shots, but it was not enough …
Jágr’s TV spot for Sazka
Jaromír Jágr has been famous in North America. But you can’t imagine how big of a deal is he in the Czech Republic. When Jágr bought his first team in his hometown of Kladno, he wanted to secure them from bankruptcy. HC Kladno had financial issues and there was a chance that they would be forced to sell their Extraliga license to another team from the minor league. (Note: Czech Extraliga isn’t “closed”. Teams can go down and up after each season. It depends on the rank and there’s a best-of-seven series between the lowest team from Extraliga and the highest …
Atlantic Watch: 11/9-11/15
Who would have thought a week that featured three games against mediocre Southeast Division opponents could provide such entertaining hockey (no sarcasm) and debate? An unusual scene in Tampa Bay, resulting in the equivalent of a puck-possession staring contest, has caused such a stir that the general managers needed to talk about it at their meetings, multiple short-handed penalty-shot goals were awarded AND converted, Braydon Coburn fought a former Philly scrapper in addition to scoring a goal, and the Flyers almost (I know I’m stretching it here) blew a two-goal lead in the final ten seconds of a game. Let’s start with …