Matt Read provided an excellent game-winning goal for the Flyers on Thursday, but that was the only good news Philly received all week as they are currently enduring a two-game losing streak with several key players missing the lineup in the process. Chris Pronger, Braydon Coburn, and Jaromir Jagr are important players on the Flyers’ roster. Jagr plays an important role in Philly’s most productive offensive trio, while the defense must rely on AHL call-ups when both Pronger and Coburn are absent from the lineup. Negative results were witnessed when all these players were not available at the same time …
Atlantic Watch: 11/9-11/15
Who would have thought a week that featured three games against mediocre Southeast Division opponents could provide such entertaining hockey (no sarcasm) and debate? An unusual scene in Tampa Bay, resulting in the equivalent of a puck-possession staring contest, has caused such a stir that the general managers needed to talk about it at their meetings, multiple short-handed penalty-shot goals were awarded AND converted, Braydon Coburn fought a former Philly scrapper in addition to scoring a goal, and the Flyers almost (I know I’m stretching it here) blew a two-goal lead in the final ten seconds of a game. Let’s start with …
Atlantic Watch: 11/2-11/8
The Flyers may have absolutely clobbered the Columbus Blue Jackets on Saturday night, and the Flyers may have only been a shootout goal or two away from going 3-0-0 this week, but these three games weren’t the best Flyers team we’ve seen all season. Before their Saturday night massacre against the worst team in the league, the Flyers may have played 125 minutes as well as participate in a shootout in their first two games, but they really only showed up for a total of about 20 minutes. Inability to play a full 60 minutes was a problem last year’s Flyers …
Atlantic Watch: 10/26-11/1
The week opened up roughly, but it ended smoothly as the Flyers seem to be moving towards playing better after a 5-1 win at home against the Carolina Hurricanes. Giving up 14 goals in back-to-back nights, the Flyers lost in inexplicable fashion to two currently horrendous teams, who are both experiencing difficulties in play and personnel. Rebounding back from those two horrific losses, the Flyers spanked Carolina with both Danny Briere and Chris Pronger out of the lineup. The Flyers began the real Halloween horror show by suffering a 5-1 defeat in Montreal last Wednesday, giving the lowly Habs their first road win …
3 on 3 for the week of 10.23.2011
The Flyers started off the week well, with a win in Ottawa 7-2, but followed it up with two straight losses, a 5-2 setback to the Caps and a 4-2 decision to the Blues — both at home. The Flyers need to play better if they want to turn around this current losing streak. That being said, it is time for this week’s three stars: Matt Read — Read had a career-best goal and three assists in the thrashing of the Sens and has continued his solid all around play at both ends of the ice. He was held scoreless …
Flight Plan Week of 10.23.2011
The Philadelphia Flyers started out of the gate as one of the hottest teams in the National Hockey League, winning four of their first five games and getting points in all five of them. Since then, they have suffered two embarrassing (though in different ways) back-to-back losses on home ice at the hands of the Washington Capitals and the St. Louis Blues. To lose to the Capitals by a score of 5-2 when they’re one of the hotter teams in the NHL at the beginning of the season, and just about every bounce goes the way of the opposition, well …
Flyers Fall Apart, Lose To Caps 5-2
Failing to tie the game at two after dominating the second period, the Flyers allowed three goals in a 2:30 minute span to start the third giving the Washington Capitals a 5-2 road win on Thursday night. Alex Ovechkin was the first star of the game as he scored two goals on three shots. Roman Hamrlik and Joel Ward recorded their first goals as members of the Caps, while Tomas Vokoun stopped 40 saves as Washington increased their franchise-best start to 6-0-0. Claude Giroux and Sean Couturier scored the goals for Philly, which got just 23 saves from Ilya Bryzgalov. …
Flight Plan for the week of 10.16.2011
I will be filling in for Nick this week, who usually files the weekly Flight Plan. The Flyers played two games this past week, going 1-0-1. They beat the Vancouver Canucks on Wednesday, by a 5-4 count in the home opener then lost in overtime to the Kings 3-2 on Saturday night. Peter Laviolette’s young club continues to take a lot of untimely penalties and even though they were able weather the storm against Vancouver, a costly tripping call against James van Riemsdyk lead to the Kings’ deciding OT goal. Mike Richards came back to haunt his old mates, recording …
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?
Leighton clears re-entry waivers
Flyers general manager Paul Holmgren confirmed on Wednesday afternoon that goaltender Michael Leighton cleared re-entry waivers and will report to the club later today. Leighton has made just one NHL appearance this season, allowing all four goals in a 7-4 victory at Los Angeles on December 30. He went 14-12-3 with a 2.22 goals-against average, five shutouts and a .923 save percentage for an awful Adirondack Phantoms club. Multiple sources in the region have reported via Twitter and other means that Leighton will accompany the Flyers to Buffalo for their game on Friday night. Several sources suggest the 29-year-old may start that …