Bitter Harvest

By Bob H
Posted on 10/08/2012 at 5:00 pm

Yes, in addition to Columbus Day — a.k.a the time of the year we Americans celebrate some old, white disease-ridden Europeans who crossed the seas and invaded a land already populated by native peoples and gave them gifts of assimilation and annihilation — today is also Canadian Thanksgiving (Jour l’Action de grace). Fun fact: while the U.S. day of tryptophan worship and football viewing was brought into being by George Washington in 1789 and celebrated annually since 1863, the Canadian version was not solidifed until an act of Parliament in January of 1957. It is also three days until what …

Gary Bettman: The Lightning Rod

By Bob H
Posted on 10/06/2012 at 4:00 pm

As a public service to those fans simply not interested in hunting down stories about the lockout across the continent on the weekend, Flyers Faithful is pleased to reprint portions of a Friday piece from the Globe and Mail, profiling NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman. This week in New York, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman sat down for a Q and A with Globe and Mail columnist Roy MacGregor to answer questions on the league’s lockout of players. Q: Does the court of public opinion matter? A: Ultimately it does. What our fans want, what our fans believe, what our fans are …

Donald Fehr: The players’ defender

By Bob H
Posted on 10/06/2012 at 1:00 pm

As a public service to those fans simply not interested in hunting down stories about the lockout across the continent on the weekend, Flyers Faithful is pleased to reprint portions of a Friday piece from the Globe and Mail, profiling NHLPA Executive Director Donald Fehr. The NHL had just announced that it was cancelling 82 regular-season games due to the owners’ lockout of players when NHLPA chief Donald Fehr sat down for a Q and A with columnist Jeff Blair. Among his thoughts? There is some merit to the concept of a soft salary cap and luxury tax — and …

Crashing the Crease: Window of Opportunity

By Justin Brennan
Posted on 10/04/2012 at 9:00 am

Pardon my cliché-ness, but I’m going to start with a quote this week. When a door closes, a window opens. In my mind, this statement embodies the goaltending position. The entire point of the game culminates in beating the goalie, yet 90-plus percent of the time, the goalie prevails at the NHL level. As the art of goaltending has progressed into a science, we’ve seen goalies get better, average save percentages rise and strategies and rules put in place to effectively limit the goalie’s impact. I’d say that a majority of the new rules put in place for this purpose …

Point/Counterpoint: Shut up and do something!

By Bob H
Posted on 10/02/2012 at 1:00 pm

Welcome to another edition of Point/Counterpoint, where a pair of Flyers Faithful scribes square off, debating an issue with their own unique style and flair. This week, Bob H and Nick D find some common ground, though with different voices, over how we should feel now that the NHL is in the throes of another lockout. Point, Nick: I grew up watching hockey. This city became enamored with the way the Broad Street Bullies played the game: grind it out, blue-collar, arrive in ill-humor type stuff. They won by outworking other teams. It is an incredible spectacle. Even now, with much of …

Poll: How long do you think the lockout will last?

By Kevin Christmann
Posted on 10/01/2012 at 8:00 am

Hockey Hilarity: Banned Beards

By Nick D
Posted on 09/28/2012 at 9:00 am

Friday funnies brought to you straight from hockey’s own players and media personnel. We’ll be mucking it up every week right here, examining puck ups, puns, tweets, and more! A little over a week ago, Claude Giroux sent out a tweet that he and Scott Hartnell would be growing beards during the lockout, presumably until the ban on National Hockey League hockey is lifted. This just further reaffirms the notion that hockey players will grow beards at any given point in time for any reason at all, and it’s awesome. Here’s what usually, but currently not, professional NHL players Claude Giroux, Scott Hartnell, Mike Richards, …

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Spawn of Lockout

By Jim Hasson
Posted on 09/27/2012 at 10:00 am

As the story goes, last time there was a lockout in 2004-05, ESPN, the primary carrier of NHL games at the time, panicked. The Bristol behemoth and “Worldwide Leader” suddenly had a ton of airspace to fill, and all other ” legitimate” sports were spoken for. One can only imagine the tense, sweat-soaked and empty Chinese food box laden meetings, that went on among network brass since their 12-year run of success with the sport had come to an unexpected end. I’m not sure who exactly it was, but I can imagine one underling meekly raising his hand to suggest …

It’s Fargin War!

By Bob H
Posted on 09/16/2012 at 12:30 am

Neither the NHL’s Board of Governors, its Commissioner, nor the Players’ Association were able to come to an agreement on a new Collective Bargaining Agreement by the midnight deadline. And so, the third lockout in the last 18 years has commenced, all under Gary Bettman’s watch. The following is a message, in the emotion of the moment. Directed to Bettman, the 30 owners for whom he has been a perfect tool, the Fehr brothers and all the players, stolen from Roman Troy Moronie: “You lousy cork-soakers. You have violated our farging rights. Dis somanumbatching sport was founded so that the …

The one where I get angry, irrational, and devious

By Marcello De Feo
Posted on 09/15/2012 at 10:40 am

This time tomorrow, the NHL lockout will be underway and there’s nothing we can do about it as fans. We can swear up and down that we’ll turn away and protest games but it does not matter what we say. Most of us will keep coming back and, now that the NHL has a longterm deal with NBC, the sport will reach a larger audience once it does return. Just think about all that pent up anxiousness and desire all coming to a head with the tease of two of the NHL’s most storied franchises, the Detroit Red Wings …

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