Counterpunches, Part II

The second — and regrettably, last – in what was planned to be an occasional series, in which Flyers Faithful scans the papers of the opposition to see how they’re portraying events. We make no assurance of journalistic integrity here. From the venerable Bob Ryan, columnist for the Boston Globe, Saturday morning: “Round 2 is over. With last night’s convincing 5-1 triumph before 17,565 enraptured followers at TD Garden, the Bruins swept the Philadelphia Flyers out of the NHL playoffs. Revenge is theirs. Retribution is theirs. Peace of mind is theirs.” Hold on a minute there, Buster…er…Bob. While no one can dispute …

Poll: Conference Semifinals Predictions

For the first time ever all six division winners advance past round one. The only ‘upset’ was fifth seed Nashville defeating 4th seed Anaheim. For once the Conference Finals is truly the battle of the best which could mean four more close and exciting series for hockey fans. Who do you think comes out on top in each match up?

RICE & MICE: Coming back from concussion

The playoffs are starting this week. It’s the most exciting time of the year, in my opinion. Coaches are tested and players are pushed to play their limits. I normally hate to write about something that has held so much of the spotlight this season, but the question on so many peoples’ minds (especially the Tampa Bay Lightning) is: will Sidney Crosby finally be cleared for contact and make it back for a postseason run? Truth is, nobody can predict what will happen if he returns to play. That’s perhaps one of the most frustrating aspects of concussions for players, …

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 …

Flight Plan 02.27.2011 (Delayed)

There are just 20, count ‘em, 20 games left in the regular season schedule for the Philadelphia Flyers. It looks like they’ve hit somewhat of a slump as they are just 6-3-1 in their last 10, including a Saturday night loss to the Eastern Conference worst Ottawa Senators by a score of 4-1, and struggling to beat the second-worst club, the New York Islanders. None of this spells success, but since the Flyers still hold a pretty good lead over the next best teams in the East (five points and one game in hand over both the Boston Bruins and …

Timonen Shootout Goal Gives Flyers Win

Usually called upon for solid defense, Kimmo Timonen won the game tonight for the Flyers netting the winning goal in the shootout against Tampa Bay making the final score 4-3. A two point night from James van Riemsdyk along with goals from Scott Hartnell and Darroll Powe allowed the Flyers to push tonight’s game to extra time. The win was the Flyers’ first of the season against the Lightning, making their record 1-3-0 against the Southeast division foe. The two points from the shootout gives the Flyers 79 points on the season — now just two back of Vancouver for …

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 …

Happy Valentine’s Day!

The Lulz feature was originally inspired by the lolcats site but features hockey pictures with funny, quirky, ironic or just plain mean captions. This feature should run weekly on Mondays, just to try to make your Monday a little brighter.

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 …

Lightning Trample Flyers

Thanks to a poor start and rust from the All-Star break, the Flyers experienced their 3rd loss on the season to Tampa Bay by a score of 4-0. Teddy Purcell tallied his first career two-goal game scoring Tampa’s first two goals on the night. Poor positional play from the defense and unfortunate bounces resulted in Philadelphia’s early deficit. Both Martin St.Louis and Simon Gagne had two assists on the night while Steve Downie netted a goal late in the first period. Dwayne Roloson recorded the shutout for Tampa tonight. It’s the fourth time all season the Flyers have been shutout. …