Although Steve Mason struggled in Columbus — who didn’t? — he is not far removed from his Calder-winning rookies season. At the young age of 24, Mason posted a .944 SV% and .190 GAA in seven games as a Flyer. One could argue that he has had the best numbers of any Philly netminder since Roman Cechmanek, everyone’s favorite unibrowed Czech. Can he keep up the pace?
2013 Year in Review: Scott Hartnell
When someone leads the team in scoring and pushes the 40-goal plateau, expectations will be high on that player to maintain such a pace. It becomes an even bigger focal point when that player signs a massive contract extension that could potentially make him the highest paid forward on the team. Unfortunately for Scott Hartnell, the showman failed to deliver in a year where all eyes were on him. It all started last season, when the winger enjoyed his best year in the National Hockey League to date. Playing alongside Claude Giroux and Jaromir Jagr, he placed career bests in …
Podcast Episode 64: Broseph Stalin
On this edition of the Flyers Faithful podcast, Steve and Hal discuss Ilya Bryzgalov’s dream of an excellent adventure with Genghis Khan, Einstein, and Joseph Stalin as well as his latest ducking act and the Highway Robbers. The guys also encourage you to check out our upcoming roller hockey and ice hockey tournaments, and talk about the second round of the 2013 NHL playoffs. Flyers Faithful Podcast Episode 64 You can listen to the episode by following the link above, or by right clicking on it and saving it to your computer as an mp3. You can also download the Flyers Faithful Podcast from iTunes …
Flyers Year In Review: The Ugly
Ah yes, we get to the fun part of my three-part year in review: The Ugly. I’ve discussed the Good and the Bad, but now it’s time to look at everything that was just so horrendous and led to the Flyers missing the playoffs. Without further ado… Ilya Bryzgalov: I told you that there would be more on Bryz later. This ugly version of Bryzgalov has nothing to do with his performance on the ice, but rather what happened to and with Bryzgalov off the ice. Since Bryz stepped foot in Philadelphia, he has been a lightning rod of criticism. …
2013 IIHF World Championship – Quarterfinals – USA manhandles Russia, Canada is heading home
5/16/2013 Finland-Slovakia 4-3 Vaananen 1+0, 14:40 TOI Kukkonen 0+0, 9:06 TOI Radivojevic 0+1, 15:59 TOI Slovakia’s struggles against Finland continue. Despite being down by three, the Slovaks found a way to tie the game. Juhamatti Aaltonen had the go-ahead goal, which ultimately was the game-winning one. Team Slovakia had some chances throughout the game but were unable to capitalize on any of them. Finland survived the final power play and they will face Sweden on Saturday. Russia-USA 3-8 Bryzgalov 20 SA, 16 SV, 38:12 Carle 0+0, 19:19 TOI, +2 The most entertaining game of the day took place in Helsinki …
2013 IIHF World Championship – Group battle ends
5/12/2013 USA-Germany 3-0 Carle 0+0, 18:33 TOI Noebels 0+0, 13:18 TOI The Americans won easily against Germany. They got off to an early lead with two goals scored by Butler and Stastny. Gionta added the last one in the third stanza. Gibson made 30 saves and earned his first shutout after letting only one goal against Finland. Canada-Czech Republic 2-1 Giroux 0+0, 17:46 TOI, 72.73% FO Read 0+0, 13:33 TOI, -1 Schenn 0+0, 7:55 TOI, 25 PIM Simmonds 1+0, 14:08 TOI, -1 Voracek 0+0, 17:25 TOI, 2 PIM, -1 The Czech team lost the last game before playing the crucial …
2013 IIHF World Championships: Giroux excels, Gustafsson logging near 30 minutes
5/10/2013 Slovakia-Austra 1-2 SO Radivojevic 0+1, 16:54 TOI, +1 Austria beat Slovakia after 17 years and made another big surprise at the World Championships. Slovenia-Czech Republic 2-4 Voracek 0+2, 17:29 TOI Slovenia played more than an equal role for the first 40 minutes of the game. The struggling Czechs couldn’t find a way to score against team Slovenia. Luckily team Czech Republic scored two quick power play goals in the third which helped them to gain another important three points in the standings. Russia-Finland 2-3 Vaananen 0+0, 15:43 TOI, 2 PIM Kukkonen 0+0, 11:36 TOI Bryzgalov – backup This was …
2013 IIHF World Championship: Read with two assists, Schenn with a goal, Gus remains strong
5/7/2013 Austria-Germany 0-2 Slovenia-Switzerland 1-7 A red hot Swiss team won another game against Slovenia. That was the fourth straight win for them after beating Sweden, Canada, and struggling Czech Republic. Swiss forward Hollenstein was the best player of the game recording four points (two goals and two assists). USA-Finland 4-1 Carle 0+0, 17:48 TOI Vaananen 0+0, 12:52 TOI, -1 Kukkonen 0+0, 8:43 TOI Team USA strengthened their hopes for the quarterfinals after a victory over Finland. The US team is now in second place in Group B. Finland is third. 19-year-old rookie John Gibson showed strong performance allowing only …
Flyers Year In Review: The Bad
The Flyers season may have been a downer, but there were still positives to take out of it. Such positives were the strong play of Jakub Voracek, Luke Schenn, and the young kids on defense. Now, we take a look at the Bad. Braydon Coburn: Mistakenly, I chose Coburn as my dark-horse for the Norris trophy this year. Coburn has all the tools to be a top-tier defenseman. He has size, speed, offensive skills and awareness, as well as strong defensive prowess. Coburn plays all three phases of the game. Yet, this was not a good year for him. In …
It pains me to say it…but Ilya Bryzgalov’s comments are hypocritical
Yesterday, Dmitry Chesnokov of Puck Daddy published the transcript of a video interview done by SovSport’s Pavel Lysenkov and KHL.RU‘s Alexander Shevchenko with Philadelphia Flyers goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov. It pains me a little bit to be writing this because I really like Bryzgalov. All hockey related items aside, I think he is a very intelligent, likable guy, and I genuinely feel bad for the hoopla that has gone on around him in the past two years. In fact, I tweeted this yesterday and truly mean it. I kind of want to just hang out with @bryzgoalie30 really badly. He’s a cool dude. …