The Philadelphia Flyers were on a pretty good run, collecting points in eight straight games. That streak dated all the way back to October 27 when they played the Winnipeg Jets in a wild game where 17 goals were scored and the Flyers ended up losing 9-8. As fate would have it, their most recent loss in regulation would also come at the hands of the Jets, by a score of 6-4 on Saturday. For some reason, Peter Laviolette cannot win games against either the Jets or the Atlanta Thrashers, doing so only once in his tenure as the head …
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 …
Atlantic Watch: 10/26-11/1
The week opened up roughly, but it ended smoothly as the Flyers seem to be moving towards playing better after a 5-1 win at home against the Carolina Hurricanes. Giving up 14 goals in back-to-back nights, the Flyers lost in inexplicable fashion to two currently horrendous teams, who are both experiencing difficulties in play and personnel. Rebounding back from those two horrific losses, the Flyers spanked Carolina with both Danny Briere and Chris Pronger out of the lineup. The Flyers began the real Halloween horror show by suffering a 5-1 defeat in Montreal last Wednesday, giving the lowly Habs their first road win …
Atlantic Watch: 10/6-10/11
Philly started off the season with a 2-1 win against the defending Stanley Cup Champions, the Boston Bruins in Beantown, then recorded a dominant 3-0 shutout in New Jersey to end a 101-game drought during the regular season and playoffs combined. After giving up the first goal of the NHL season to Brad Marchand, the Flyers scored two goals in the final minute of the first period. Claude Giroux dangled his way to a goal with 50 seconds left, while Jakub Voracek scored with only three seconds to go on a turn around shot in the slot. Fortunately for Philly, this would be all they needed as Ilya …
Atlantic Watch: 3/30-4/5
If panic hadn’t set in yet, it definitely has now. In a week they had four games to help better their chances of winning both the division and the conference, the Flyers lost every game managing to only gain one point all week long. Adding on to the recent worries about playing lazy and horrible lately, the talent of the teams who beat Philly this week should also cause the Flyers to panic. Playing three teams out of the playoff race, the Flyers dropped their games with Atlanta, New Jersey, and Ottawa in regulation. They were able to salvage a point …
Atlantic Watch: 3/9-3/16
It’s difficult to believe the Flyers had a rough week when they obtained five out of the possible six points this week, but an injury to Chris Pronger has caused some concern inside the Philly locker room. Tuesday Pronger had surgery to insert a small screw into his right hand to help repair a fracture. The surgery will sideline the big man for three to four weeks, which coincidentally will be around the beginning of the playoffs. Needing to find ways to win without the veteran blue liner, Philly went 2-0-1 in their first three games without Pronger. If it …
Callahan Scores Four, Losing Streak Reaches Four
In what was hands down their worst effort all year long, the Flyers were absolutely dominated by the New York Rangers in Madison Square Garden by a 7-0 count, to extend their losing streak to a season-high four games. A career-high four-goal game from Ryan Callahan, including the game-winning goal inside the first minute of play, helped in the embarrassment of the Eastern Conference leaders on a gloomy Sunday. Mats Zuccarello added on two while Artem Anisimov had a goal as well, while Henrik Lundqvist recorded a twenty-four save shutout. Unlike Saturday’s matinee setback, the Flyers got off to a …
Flight Plan 03.06.2011
Every team in the NHL will go through lulls in their season where they won’t win games. They can play their best hockey of the season and still not get the bounces. For the Philadelphia Flyers, that isn’t the case. They’re playing terrible hockey. They’re not working harder than the other team. They’re not shutting teams down when they need to. They’re not scoring key goals. They’re not clicking on the power play. They can’t break out of the zone. They don’t get better, but worse as the game progresses. They just can’t keep their focus and right now they …
Flight Plan 02.20.2011
The Philadelphia Flyers won two of the three games they had last week and in only one of the games was the score separated by more than a goal after the final buzzer. If you weren’t sure that it was almost that time of year, you are now. The games will get tighter, they will mean more, two point games can now be viewed as four point games, and some team may even get in to the playoffs on a shootout win in the last game of the season. The great thing about hockey, particularly the NHL, is that somehow …
Flight Plan week of 01.16.2011
The Philadelphia Flyers did pretty decently on last week’s road trip going 2-1-0. Their loss to the Boston Bruins was a bit hard to swallow but the team were absolutely able to wipe it from their memories by the time they arrived in Atlanta to face the Atlanta Thrashers the next day and won by a decisive 5-2 score. The Flyers have four games this week and have five games coming up in their next eight days. Normally this would be a good thing for a team that clearly plays better when they have a bunch of games together rather …