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?
Hockey Hilarity: Cechmanek-esque Salute
Friday funnies brought to you straight from hockey’s own players, media personnel, and broadcast botches. We’ll be mucking it up every week right here, examining puck ups, puns, tweets, and more! Pretty sure most people have seen this video by now, but I figured I’d do a post about it as well. Austin Krause, a goalie (well, probably former goalie now) for Farmington High School in Minnesota, purposely puts a puck into his own team’s net, and then proceeds to show the team his IQ in the form of a certain single-fingered-salute, before leaving the ice. Sure, the video is pretty …
Then and Now: Tony Amonte
The Philadelphia Flyers acquired Tony Amonte in March of 2003 from the Phoenix Coyotes, rescuing the Boston native from an underwhelming free agent situation. In exchange for the veteran forward, Philly gave the Coyotes Guillaume Lefebvre, a third-round pick in the 2003 NHL Draft (with which they chose Tyler Redenbach), and a second-round pick in the 2004 NHL Draft. The 60th overall pick eventually landed in the hands of the New York Rangers, who selected Brandon Dubinsky from the Portland Winterhawks. In 59 games with Phoenix during the 2002-2003 regular season, Amonte accrued 36 points. In just 13 regular season games with the …
Crashing the Crease: Unsung Heroes Part 1, Roman Cechmanek
Between 2000 and 2010, the Flyers have been notorious for losing control of the so-called “goaltending carousel” and sending it spinning out of control in an endless search for a sure hand between the pipes. However, during that period the Orange and Black have gotten admirable goaltending that, in retrospect, may have gone under-appreciated at the time. Over the next few weeks, Crashing the Crease will take a look at these unsung heroes. First up: Roman Cechmanek. Often lambasted for being a product of system or locker room cancer, the fact of the matter is that when he was the …
Dazzlers and Duds: Hartnell v. Timonen and Cechmanek v. Rathje
Several weeks back, we asked our beloved Twitter followers who were their most loved and hated Flyers of the past decade. It led to some great names and some great discussion. Well it got us thinking. In the doldrums that is August in the hockey world — not to mention the impending doom of a lockout — we decided to put together a tournament; poll style! We’ve compiled the responses for both the Loved and Hated categories, and seeded them according to our whims and wishes. What you see before you is the result of our efforts. While we may …