ORANGE C.R.USHER

According to the roster at oilers.nhl.com, Joni's taken number 25.

I think he thinks he's Chris Pronger.

We all saw what happened when, last year, big plans for a Great East Coast Hockey Adventure were put together and portions implemented far in advance of the time frame for which they were being compiled (i.e. they get sliced down to a single game in January and two ice-row tickets to a Phantoms game have to be eaten). That is not stopping planning for such adventure this season, because things are different! 50% of the planning committee now lives on the East Coast!

Flyers' home opener is October 13; no tickets purchases yet toward this date (though some are available, for no less than $172 in center ice sections! Yow!) but there is no question about where we will be that Saturday. On February 17th, the Flyers are vs. the Canadiens, all for J. on her birthday -- it also happens to be Fan Appreciation night. Of course, if they do Shirts off Our Backs, is there anyone that I care about left? At least I won't have a chance to have to win Mike York's shirt. The Flyers will play the Rangers at MSG at some point; we have not narrowed down which date we will try to attend with C. Jr. (drools over Henrik), but it won't be long until that's decided too. There will be some Phantoms games included, I am sure, but AHL schedules are basically still secret at this time.

Outside of speculating on whether Gagne's inclusion in an otherwise all-Swedish team for a charity game means anything as to whether Forsberg will return to the Flyers this year (fingerscrossedprettypleeeeeeeeeease) ... there isn't much else to do right now but plan happy upcoming games. And think about how much Phantoms hockey I will see this year. At lunch today, I got asked if I had gotten season tickets to the Flyers after all; I replied that I had not, because my favorite player has gone. I did not explain to them why #44's departure was so awful on a non-objective level. I haven't worked here very long yet, and I don't think they need yet to know the story about how I made Joni Pitkanen blush by asking, with a sign, "Voinko soitaa joskus sinulle?"

Take that, Rags.

Desecrating the memory of the 1994 Stanley Cup Champions, while in New York City.

Brian Boucher signed with the Phantoms, "add[ing] depth to the organization and solidify[ing] our goaltending situation" (according to Holmgren). How many goalies do the Phantoms need? Munroe, Houle, Beauchemin (? is he still attached to the Phantoms?), and now Boucher? Boucher played for the Flyers once upon a time and is a pretty solid NHL vet and this does, in fact (if not only in my opinion), solidify the remaining question mark on the Phantoms team. I'm looking very much forward to my 40 games this season.

Update 11:25 a.m. I was reading a little bit more about this Boucher/Phantoms goalie stuff and the Phantoms have, in addition to those listed above, Duchesne. Five goalies, and the assertion (in the Courier Post) that the Phantoms will not carry three goalies. I wish one of them were obviously outstanding, but we'll see.

Joni Pitkanen signed a contract for 1-year worth $2.4 million with the Oilers.

I expect he would have gotten something like $3 mill in arbitration, so it's clear that everything wasn't really about money. (I didn't think it was, anyway.) And the 1-year deal makes sense, though I would imagine (and reading the Oilers message boards suggests) that a long-term contract was desired. This makes sense because no doubt Joni (and his agent) assume he will play up to his potential this year, while the Oilers have him relatively cheaply, and then the big contract happens.

Or, next year, the Sabres tender an enormous offer sheet as thanks for the Vanek affair.

If Joni is awesome this year, he should command a contract in the multiple-year, $5-6 million range.

For the Oilers, a happy look into a possible future.

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Article about Junior Lessard in a Dallas paper. Apparently signed a 2-way contract which means he'll probably see more of Des Moines than he will Dallas, unless "proves himself." It would be satisfying to see Junior (real first name: Lucien) play in the NHL because he is good and seems to work pretty hard. It's a shame it hasn't translated yet. He is UFA next year and if he can't crack the lineup in Dallas, he may find a fit somewhere else.

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J. and I were in Rangers land on Friday. I have a funny picture I will post later.

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John Stevens had a cheesesteak with no cheese. What?!

Ty Conklin signed with the Penguins and I bet he sees Wilkes-Barre more than he sees Pittsburgh (which means I'll get to see him a lot vs. the Phantoms). This poor guy.

Rumor: Teemu Selanne's house is up for sale, in CA? It could just mean he's going to find some other house in CA, but maybe -- oh gosh -- maybe it means he's moving to another team for the upcoming season? Philadelphia? How could it happen? Dare we even breathe?

For. Crying. Out. Loud. Click on each for Youtube video of an eye-popping collection of Flyers/hockey stuff. I have a few things. Compared to some people, I am building what might be called a decent collection (I do have a game-worn jersey, after all!). Compared to this? I HAVE NOTHING. This is simply overwhelming. (And awesome, but that goes just about without saying, doesn't it?)

P.S. I was thinking about this Dallas/Philly game in December. Obviously I will not be brave enough (nor do I really want) to wear my Iowa Stars jersey, because I will be cheering for the Flyers. But I could try to get seats down behind the Stars' bench, and I could take the Iowa Stars jersey, and during warm-ups, if Joel happens to be there, I could hold it up, just for a minute, just for him. Maybe he would recognize me -- I sat right behind him enough times last season that it wouldn't be ridiculous to imagine. See, I am not going to have Joni to show Finnish signs to this year, so I have to find something else silly to do.

On the Edmonton Oilers message board, there is speculation as to which number Joni Pitkanen will take, since Sheldon Souray (recently signed by the Oilers) will take #44. There are lots of pictures of a personalized jersey (I assume from some place like NHL shop) with PITKANEN and some number beneath it. It's very discouraging to see that name with those colors. Yeah, there's orange in it; but paired with blue. I just can't imagine him wearing any other number, but I suppose I also couldn't imagine him wearing any other jersey, so.....

I warn you now: my complaining and whining about this trade is not likely to go away any time soon.

There isn't much else to say today ... things are slow ... UFA leavings still getting signed here and there, some arbitration business to wrap up, schedules are out -- [snooze]

Amazingly, I survived without major injury a spectacular endo last night on my mountainbike (and the subsequent hours-long imprisonment in the ER), and so, this morning, my unconcussed brain was able to read and understand that Joel Lundqvist signed a 2-year contract with Dallas that amounts to $1.45 million (not quite split in half over each year). Given his threat to head back to Sweden if he did not get a 1-way contract such that he might have to end up back in the motherland (Iowa), I assume it is a 1-way contract.

I'll wave at him when he's in Philly in December. If I were brave (and wealthy) I'd try to get ice-row tix and wear my Iowa Stars jersey, the one he signed. Not that he'd notice ... but everyone else might. And I'm not interested in being on the other side of Philly-fan heckling. Especially since I really would be there as a Flyers fan, ready to see Joel and the Stars lose. Hm.


Signin' the jersey ... not lookin' at you.

Do the Rags play the Stars in NYC this year?* Maybe, if I'm feeling like I have a couple hundred dollars just burning a hole in my bank account with no better outlet, I could take a trip up to MSG to see Lundqvist v. Lundqvist.

Dang, I love living out here in many-options-for-hockey land.

*Yes. Sunday, November 25.

Preseason schedule! WOOHOO!!

Monday, Sept. 17 -- at New Jersey Devils (Sovereign Bank Arena, Trenton), TBA

Tuesday, Sept. 18 -- at Ottawa Senators, 7 p.m.

Saturday, Sept. 22 -- at New York Rangers (Madison Square Garden), 7 p.m.

Monday, Sept. 24 -- vs. New Jersey Devils, at Wachovia Center, 7 p.m.

Tuesday, Sept. 25 -- at Ottawa Senators, 7 p.m.

Wednesday, Sept. 26 -- vs. Washington Capitals at Wachovia Center, 7 p.m.

Friday, Sept. 28 -- at Washington Capitals, 7 p.m.

Saturday, Sept. 29 -- vs. New York Rangers at Wachovia Center, 7 p.m.

So I don't actually have to wait until October 13th to see the new Flyguys ... just to see them "officially".

The Flyers visit half the Canadian teams their first three games, beginning October 4: Flames, Oilers, Canucks.

So marks one of the only times I will get to see Joni play this year, second game of the new season. He will probably have the biggest game of his career; nothing necessarily indicative of what's to come, but enough to make all Flyers fans moan with disappointment at having let him get away.

The Flyers open the home season on Saturday, October 13, vs. the Islanders. Happily, it's a weekend day. Time to start planning.

Other games of note at first glance: Saturday, December 1, the Stars are in town. I'll have to think about going to that game, if Joel plays. February 17 -- J.'s birthday -- Flyers vs. Canadiens at home. Not too early to plan that far ahead, is it?

September: must get cable TV.

Lundqvist signs for $4.25 million, a 1-year contract with the New York Rangers.

Schedules to be released in about an hour. Word has it the Flyers open with a western adventure. Stay tuned!

Phantoms season tickets purchased today! D. got in on the action so it's three of us occupying seats to cheer the Phantoms in 2007/2008. Section 201, row 9. Center ice and very close but with good sight of the ice. I have to say I'm pretty excited about this. 40 games plus other perks all for the bargain price of $600! If I remember correctly, season tickets to the Iowa Stars were in the neighborhood of $800 ... though I was not close enough to Des Moines to consider them, this does still seem like a deal.

GO PHANTOMS WOOOOOOOO!

I suppose I could have commented on the various rumors and other situations that have occurred on the hockey front in the days since I last posted, but I was:

1) pretty busy this weekend


Hockey? Ice? Huh?

2) pretty busy at work


Magnification: things look cooler at 100x


and so while I did some reading, I didn't have a good chance to brings my thoughts into coherence (not that you will notice that they are now coherent, anyway) and post to here about them.

1) Over the weekend I read some rumors of the head-scratching sort that Teemu Selanne may be coming to Philadelphia. Not to see Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell, either. Nor to have a cheesesteak at Reading Terminal Market. These rumors had the rumor at "pretty serious" level, and not the usual out-of-thin-air junk that goes around. Nothing has materialized by today, but then, out-of-thin-air-type rumors swirled about Pitkanen and the Oilers for a long time before they actually came true. I'm not saying that I think the Selanne as a Flyer rumor will come true. I'm saying the obvious: it seems unlikely but who knows? Another thing I'm saying right now, right here, is "Whoa, wouldn't that be amazing? Who can they move to make that happen?"

Selanne has said himself that he would only play for Anaheim if he does not retire, but we all know how sports figures say one thing and then do another. Times change. People change. And Philadelphia can always use another Finnish player. Especially one whose name is Teemu Selanne.

This rumor may just fade into the sunset in the next weeks -- I haven't really read anything since this weekend -- but it will be on the back-burner of my brain.

2) Mike York managed to get a $1 million contract with Phoenix. Are they desperate, or what? I don't know, maybe he just needs to get out of the land of some of the worst-for-you(-but-oooh-so-tasty) food in the nation, get a change of scenery (I would say "and temperature" but it's been pretty dang hot here lately) and maybe the Mike Pork York of old will shine through. It's not like he was always the kind of guy that makes a TV announcer say things like, "The Flyers are on a 3-on-2, but Mike York has the puck." He just was like that for us. Good luck out west.

3) Todd Fedoruk has signed with the Dallas Stars, which surprises me somewhat. He has been generally loved in Philly, but I think he had his face mashed in one too many times last year and became a bit too tentative out there. It wasn't that he was afraid to get into a fight, it was just that once he was in the fight, his face became a liability and he tried too hard to protect it. I don't blame him; I mean, his face has to be nearly entirely man-made materials now and it sure can't feel good to have it cracked like an eggshell, but the point of his roster spot was to enforce, and when the enforcer starts stuff up and then gets crumpled for the indeterminate future, you have to start thinking maybe he should be replaced with an enforcer who won't be. I liked Fedoruk, and one of my favorite, most enduring images of him is the night the Phantoms won the Calder Cup (in 2005) and he is holding the trophy over his head, his bearded face split by an enormous wide-open mouth displaying the enormous, wide-open gap in the upper row of teeth. But it's true the Flyers will need someone less fragile for his role. I don't know who they will get, or if they have someone already in mind (Eager? Cote?), and I don't know exactly how Fedoruk will fit on the Stars' roster. Barch and Ott already play his kind of game; Barch just signed in May, was it? And was it a 1-way? Perhaps Ott's going to be moved. I don't know. It's Dallas. Why do I care? Oh, right; Iowa. But I doubt Fedoruk will play in Des Moines. Wouldn't it be funny if he did? I leave and come out here; he leaves and goes out there.

4) On the enforcer train of thought, apparently the Flyers were entertaining the notion of giving up an offer sheet for Derek Boogaard of the Minnesota Wild. Boogaard leveled Fedoruk this season and is ginormous. He doesn't do much but punch people. Or so I am led to believe. Guys rarely mess with him and escape. Or so I am led to believe. Discussion has him welcome in the orange and black (or, black and white, given what the new jerseys' colors are supposed to be), but it doesn't seem like it's going to happen now that the Wild have taken Boogaard to arbitration (ostensibly to stop the offer sheets).

5) Sidney Crosby signs a 5-year extension with the Pens for $9 million a year. $9 million at 19? When I was 19, I was an undergraduate and I worked fewer than 10 hours a week in the chemical stockroom at the University of Northern Iowa and I think I might have made $5.50 an hour. Heck, I'm 30 now and while I have come a long way from the chemical stockroom at UNI and $5.50 an hour, I'm still a looong way from $9 million (dammit). I suppose he's worth it to the Pens. I still don't like him, and I will laugh when Hatcher (or whoever) ooops gets a stick into his face this year. While pummeling the Penguins. No more of this getting swept by Pittsburgh stuff. No more of this outrageous point-scoring by Crosby against the Flyers. NO MORE.

6) I mentioned the new jerseys in 4). Of course most everything about the new jerseys has been stifled and no one really knows what they're going to look like, but the Flyers sent out info about pre-ordering new sweaters with Briere on them, and the color selections were BLACK (home) or WHITE (away), which means that everyone's hopes that the Flyers might oh please please please go back to an ORANGE home kit have been dashed. No third jerseys this year either -- not to be introduced for another year or two or three? -- so there just will be no orange jersey for the near future, and this is sad and stupid. I don't really like the black home jersey much, certainly not when an orange option theoretically exists. If the new black home jerseys have more orange in them than the previous home black jersey, it might be OK -- but as I said, no one's really seen them. Whatever the colors, I certainly hope they do not mess with the logo; and please, try to manage to keep the horizontal striping. It's what makes hockey jerseys look like hockey jerseys and not football shirts.

NHL schedule is released tomorrow, I think. We'll know when the home opener is, and can start planning a wild home-opener trip to Philly for J. (I will already be here.) Seeing the Flyers' home opener will be a tradition that was started last season and will happily continue this year. Who do you think they'll play?

Despite the obvious and not-very-difficult number crunching (plus all the "why would they need to, now?") that discounted the idea of the Flyers extending an offer sheet to Thomas Vanek (of the Buffalo Sabres), rumors persisted that they would do so, thanks to unreliable sources and the tendency of hockey board readers to have nothing better to do in the summer than to speculate on and spread even the most spurious of notions.

Well, today, the Oilers mixed it up a bit by offering Vanek a monstrous contract: seven years, $50 million. It's broken down as follows:

Year 1: $5 million + $5 million signing bonus
Year 2: $5 million + $3 million signing bonus
Years 3-7: $6.4 million per

So, basically, $7 million and some change a year.

What's the expression some people use when utterly flabbergasted? Something like "GREAT GOOGLY MOOGLY!"?

And Edmonton would be giving up 4 first rounders if Vanek took this offer.

Color me boggled. Yeah, Vanek had a pret-ty nice year last year (43 goals, 84 total points), but the Oilers' front end doesn't look as good as Buffalo's did when Vanek put up those points ... so the Oilers must have either 1) decided to take a huge leap of faith that his production would continue in spite of a different ... uh ... set of line mates feeding him the puck or 2) wanted to be jerks, in order to force (cheap) Buffalo to match what really is an outrageous offer.

And ... Buffalo matched. How could they not? They let Briere and Drury go for what appear to be money reasons, and Dainus Zubrus left for more devilish pastures as well. Yet now, after penny-pinching lost their best forwards, they now must pay a third-year RFA $7-some million a year. After one good year.

Sheesh.

I'm really not sure how Pitkanen's arbitration/contract situation works out now that he has gone to Edmonton -- do they start over from scratch? or is everything still under arbitration? If it's not, I'd suggest Edmonton get him signed immediately, or some feisty GM out there, irritated by this move, might just feel like being a punk and tender an outrageous offer sheet of his own.

Gee, I'm starting to think I might just be the only person skulking around the analytical division today. Consequently, I don't feel too guilty about hockey-browsing this morning.

Jeremy Roenick set to retire. His time in the orange and black was before I became a proper Flyers fan, but the summer after the lockout, I did enjoy his mouthing off about fans and the NHL and so on. He was moved before the 2005/2006 season in order to make room for Peter the Great, and so I never really got to experience Jeremy Roenick except through a Youtube of him disco dancing on ice while playing for the Kings, and the occasional article (he did not have such great last two years).

Some rumors about Forsberg being in Montreal for a golf tournament, and having said he would like to play for Philadelphia again. I guess it was in some Canadian paper, in French, so all I have is rudimentary translation. But his foot's still bothering him, so maybe not until December. Well, last year he wasn't supposed to start until way late in the season, too. Ooh I'd love Forsberg back in Philadelphia -- with the tiny details of, well, don't overpay, and don't rely on him so heavily as he was relied upon the last season(s) and when he couldn't play, that was it. If that kind of situation can be avoided (and with the moves made in this offseason, it certainly should be able to be avoided), bring him in on some deeper line, work some magic, turn it up, and the Flyers ... well. It's exciting to dream about.

This blip in French really doesn't mean too much, though. He has said before he would like to play for Philly ... or Nashville.. or Colorado ... or Modo, and only if he feels fit to do so. So basically, he's just saying again what he's said before, only he left out Nashville and Colorado and Modo, but who knows if they aren't still in the background.

I love Forsberg. Wait, you know that.

P.S. What do you think the Rangers will be paying H. Lundqvist this year? $5 mill? $6 mill? More?? He's apparently said he won't sign any offer sheets (so no giving in to attempts by other teams to poach him), and his agent has said that he won't file for "player-elected" arbitration, so I wonder how this contract's going to plaky out. I only care because I like Henrik personally -- he's a fantastic goalie (plus, let's face it, I'm a girl, I like how he looks) -- certainly I can otherwise only hope the Rangers crash and burn. (Too bad but I think that they will not.) I wonder if the Rags can afford him at, say, $6 million. Well, I anticipate they will do what they have to do to keep him regardless of his price but it will be about as interesting as paying attention to the Rangers can get. Having signed both Drury and Gomez, they've got to play some pretty sharp cap games (with King Henrik, Shanahan, Avery, et al. left to sign).

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I'm still bummed about Pitkanen.

Ok, having made my decision against Flyers season tickets and for Phantoms season tickets, I roped Hockey Pal K. into agreeing to get a seat with me. This morning, I called back the Phantoms ticket representative who has called me several times this summer (since I did, a couple months ago, email asking for information).

This is what I learned:

$600 for 40 games in lower level seats includes VIP entrance, invitation to team parties/skate with the team/etc., option for VIP parking, plus unlimited exchange (i.e. if we don't use tickets we get vouchers for future games, where we could take friends). And the best part was the options for lower level seats that I was given: center ice sections, good rows.

I'm pretty excited about this.

The ticket representative calls me back on Monday, and I will have discussed with Hockey Pal K. his preference for location, and then it should be a done deal.

40 games!!! WOOOO!!!

Back to beating a dead horse, I'm still saddened by the departure of Joni Pitkanen, a sense worsened by having read this in the newspaper (Inky) this morning:

"Pitkanen, perhaps realizing he would be traded this summer, had given away most of his belongings after last season and moved out of his house."

As I mentioned to J., when a person starts giving away his stuff, it might mean he has ideas about leaving this earth; fortunately, he was only leaving Philadelphia. Poor Joni. It's not like Edmonton is any less of a pressure cooker than Philly as far as how deep the fans' involvement with the team runs; if he was run down by the fans here is it going to be any better there, if god forbid he doesn't live up to expectations? As much as I want to see Joni succeed in the NHL, even if it has to be on some other team, I wouldn't be surprised if he goes back to Finland after this season.

Don't they usually have the pre-season schedule announced by now? I know that they are still more than two months away, but come on. It makes me feel like it's not as far away as the calendar suggests. (Not saying I want to rush the summer, but, you know.)

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOOOOOO

So the Flyers trade a potential franchise defenseman, and possible Norris candidate, for an aging defenseman who becomes UFA next year and can bolt Philly faster than they threw Pitkanen out, and a superfluous winger who is little more than a spare part?

The only way I forgive this trade is if Joni forced it -- and even then, this is all they could get for him? With the exception of Timonen, the Flyers' blueline is now stacked with defensive defenseman, and where obviously you need defensive d-men, offensive d-men are equally crucial, and the Flyers just unloaded one, in my opinion leaving a hole that should not have been left empty with Joni's departure. The trade was a puck-moving defenseman who scored 40+ points by doing practically nothing more than showing up (since he wasn't doing anything else, if you listen to the run-him-out-of-towners) for two guys that don't take care of any particular need on the roster. (Sanderson was going to be moved, I barely even consider him part of this deal.)

Part of me is waiting for the other half of this trade, but I fear this will be the entire business.

Joni is my favorite player, whatever the "he just doesn't get it"s and the "he's a loner"s and whether or not he actually reaches his "potential"s and "possible"s does not matter to me. I love watching him skate as though it takes him no effort whatsoever. When he takes a booming shot, it's awesome. He's a big, puck-moving d-man. When he plays with the edge he does have, he's a force at the back. Yes. He had a bad year. He's only going to go up from there, and now I won't get to see it. I'm not sure they could have sent him any farther away. The Flyers will almost never play the Oilers, and they won't be on TV. I will just about never get to see Joni play again.

I was still on the fence about trying to get season tickets to the Flyers this year. I'm off that fence. It's going to take me a while to get used to Pitkanen playing out west. I'll still go to Flyers games, but hello, Phantoms.

Daniel Briere signed with the Flyers today, an eight-year contract (!!) worth a cap-hit of about 6.5 mil per year, though the contract -- with a no-trade clause -- seems heavily front-loaded, 10 million in the first year (cripes!!).

tsn.ca's report

Hmm, Briere. Certainly not my favorite player out there, not helped by having played for one of my least favorite teams ever; but there is no denying that he is good and can help the Flyers. I hope, with that kind of contract, he turns out to be the good fit that the orange and black need, and I will be content with it.