Per TSN of Canada’s Bob McKenzie, and the great echo chamber that is Twitter, the Philadelphia Flyers will request unconditional waivers on goaltending prospect Niko Hovinen for the princely sum of $125 dollars. The 24-year-old Finn never lived up to expectations and mystified many within the organization for his perceived lack of adjustment to the North American game and a lack of work ethic. Hovinen was a bust at Phantoms training camp in September and was shuttled down one level. He went 4-6-3 with a 3.14 goals-against average and .889 save percentage in 16 appearances for Trenton of the ECHL …
Crashing the Crease: Bryzgalov Solid, Despite Record
With the NHL’s 2013 Season finally underway, Crashing the Crease will evaluate the Flyers’ goaltending performances every Thursday in order to answer the inevitable dilemma in Flyerdom: what is going on in net? Week one has seen Ilya Bryzgalov play all three games of the Flyers’ 0-3 start, and the questions are already flying about just what is wrong with this team. For many, as is so often the story in Philadelphia, the finger pointing begins and ends with the goaltender. But is that fair? The easy answer would be to look at Bryzgalov’s stat line from the 3-1, 5-2, …
Hartnell out indefinitely
Remember when Scott Hartnell took the full brunt of that Kimmo Timonen slapshot in his leg while trying to screen Martin Brodeur last night? Well, there’s a price to be paid for such sacrifice. From Flyers GM Paul Holmgren: “Scott will be out indefinitely with a left foot injury. We will know more on this within a day or two as we await results of tests.” With Hartnell and Danny Briere out of the lineup for Thursday’s game at home against the New York Rangers, that’s a whopping 53 goals from two key top-six forwards removed from the lineup in …
Schenn given one-game ban for Volchenkov hit
NHL discipline czar Brendan Shanahan laid down the law for the first time in the 2013 season, suspending Flyers forward Brayden Schenn for his hit in last night’s game against Devils defenseman Anton Volchenkov.
When should we be concerned about Brayden Schenn?
<press panic button> I’m already preparing myself for the barrage of comments along the lines of “it’s way too early to come to that conclusion about a not even 22 year old, three games into his second season”. There is plenty of validity in that statement. I think a doubter might combat that with the idea that that is what a homer would say. It’s easy to dismiss mediocre or even poor play by playing the “young” card. During the Devils game, Ryan Bright tweeted the following, which sparked the question in my own head: At what point do the …