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 …
Flight Plan Week of 11.13.2011
The Philadelphia Flyers lost their only game of last week by a score of 2-1 in overtime against the Tampa Bay Lightning. Never mind that the bizarre tactics employed by Peter Laviolette’s team to try to break the Bolts out of their 1-3-1 neutral zone trap ended up making the game look like a Mexican standoff. Instead, think about how the Flyers are now in third place in the Atlantic Division, below both the Pittsburgh Penguins and the New York Rangers, all because they stopped pressing in a game where they clung to a 1-0 lead through a good portion of the game and …
Atlantic Watch: 10/19-10/25
To say this was a rough week for the Flyers would be an understatement. They managed to pull out one victory this week, but it came at the cost of losing Chris Pronger to a nasty eye injury. Embarrassing losses to the Washington Capitals and St. Louis Blues provided a rough taste of reality for the Flyers, a team that had yet to experience much adversity since their hectic roster shuffle in the offseason. Despite all the negative aspects of this week for Philly, the Flyers are still second in the Atlantic Division and fourth in the Eastern Conference with 11 …
Flight Plan Week of 10.23.2011
The Philadelphia Flyers started out of the gate as one of the hottest teams in the National Hockey League, winning four of their first five games and getting points in all five of them. Since then, they have suffered two embarrassing (though in different ways) back-to-back losses on home ice at the hands of the Washington Capitals and the St. Louis Blues. To lose to the Capitals by a score of 5-2 when they’re one of the hotter teams in the NHL at the beginning of the season, and just about every bounce goes the way of the opposition, well …
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 …
Flight Plan week of 02.13.2011 One Day Removed
The Philadelphia Flyers finally get a win after a long layoff, beating the Carolina Hurricanes after four days off and how do they follow it up after another little layoff? A second shutout loss in just 12 days at the hands of the Los Angeles Kings. Granted, this team has shown it plays better when they have a bunch of games packed into the schedule, but they should probably realize that teams looking up at the standings, and there are a lot of them, are going to be coming every game from about two weeks ago on out. The Flyers …
Flight Plan week of 02.06.2011
Consistent. If you’re a Philadelphia Flyers fan, over the past four years, you have never seen that word associated with the team you love. “Up and down” or “streaky” or “just plain bad” at times “unbelievably good” at times, but never were any of the teams over the past four years “consistent”. This team is the definition of consistent. They don’t win too many games in a row, they don’t lose too many games in a row, but they consistently show up and consistently get their points and that’s why they have the most wins of any team in the …
Flight Plan week of 01.23.2011
The Philadelphia Flyers went 3-1-0 this past week, losing to the lowly New Jersey Devils as they did not get up for the game from the get go because the Devils are statistically the worst team in hockey right now, but have been playing better under Jacques Lemaire. The Flyers should have picked up a point at least in every game, but it looks like they were probably looking ahead to today’s matchup against the Chicago Blackhawks in what will be the only meeting between the two 2010 Stanley Cup Finalists. The Flyers will then play the Montreal Canadiens on …
Flight Plan week of 11.07.2010
Flight Plan is a new column that will take a more in depth look at the Flyers’ upcoming opponents every week here at Flyers Faithful. Two weeks ago, the Philadelphia Flyers had not won two games in a row and had been playing sound in maybe one or two areas of their game. Other than the Danny Briere, Scott Hartnell, and Ville Leino line, nothing seemed to click on a nightly basis for this team and something just seemed off. Now the Flyers have not only won two straight, but are in the midst of a six-game winning streak. The …