The Philadelphia Flyers haven’t looked all that good recently, but they haven’t looked all that bad either. In their last five games, they’ve been able to muster up just enough effort and offense to get points in six of their last seven games and have even squeezed five out of a possible six in their last three contests. The big shootout win in Dallas was a little bit overshadowed by their inability to cap a comeback against the Atlanta Thrashers with a win in OT which saw Danny Briere score two goals including one with just 1:28 left in the …
Cooke suspended for rest of regular season, first round of playoffs
The National Hockey League on Monday afternoon issued its sternest warning yet to players who seek to make contact with an opponent’s head. It has suspended Pittsburgh Penguins forward Matt Cooke for the final 10 games of the regular season plus the entire first round of the playoffs. Cooke delivered an elbow to the side of the face of New York Rangers defenseman Ryan McDonagh at the 4:36 mark of the third period of Sunday’s 5-2 Penguins loss. He was given a major for elbowing and a game misconduct. The total length of the penalty will end up lasting between …
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 …
Flight Plan Week of 03.13.2011
Ever hear that saying, “take one step forward and two steps back”? How about “two steps forward and one step back… off a cliff”? That’s what the Philadelphia Flyers did as you would think that last Sunday was rock bottom for the guys in Orange and Black when they took a 7-0 beating at the hands of the New York Rangers, but no. The Flyers were able to take any and all progress they had made in their previous two games against the Edmonton Oilers and the Toronto Maple Leafs and not only squander it, but revert back to a …
Atlantic Watch: 3/2-3/8
Every team in every sport goes through a rough patch. This week, the Flyers endured their first rough stretch of the season. Having only had a three game losing streak back in October, the Flyers had yet to really endure a losing streak similar to their recent four game slide. Prior to their win against Edmonton last night, the Flyers had lost in Ottawa before losing back-to-back home games against the Maple Leafs and Sabres capping off the whole thing by being blown out by the Rangers in New York on Sunday. In the past week, the Flyers lost three of the four games in …
RICE & MICE: Is it really the Flu?
“A team without energy, if the physical part is there, the mental part goes, and there was just nothing yesterday. I think we were drained. To get a day off, even though it’s under the toughest of circumstances and a tough loss like that, I really feel that the benefits will be seen on Tuesday by not having to mentally and physically come in to the rink.” The comments above are those of Peter Laviolette when asked about his decision to give his team the day off following their 7-0 defeat at the hands of the New York Rangers. He …
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 …
Atlantic Watch: 2/23-3/1
Despite playing two pathetic games, the Flyers still found a way to come out with a win at the end of the week. After blowing a two-goal lead in the third period, Andrej Meszaros was able to save the Flyers from embarrassment by scoring in overtime on Thursday finalizing the score at 4-3. Thanks to several hectic events on Saturday (Chris Pronger and Oskars Bartulis injured, Erik Gustafsson making his NHL debut, and James van Riemsdyk briefly being sent down to the Phantoms), the Flyers were beat by a team that shouldn’t even be in the same league as them. The Ottawa Senators capitalized on only …
Quo Vadis?
Now that Nikolay Zherdev has cleared waivers with zero interest from the other 29 clubs in the NHL, it’s basically up to him what happens next. He has several options to keep playing: take a demotion to the minors, flee back to the country formerly known as the U.S.S.R., and (even though it might be dog dumb), sit out risking a suspension and await a deal out of Philly. Adding to the drama was the fact that multiple outlets reported this morning that Zherdev participated in an optional team skate in Voorhees. This, after he fled the same practice facility not 24 …