ORANGE C.R.USHER

Going home for the holiday, and will be home for more than a week. I won't be able to watch any Flyers games -- I MAY be able to listen, but that depends on my activities. I expect I'll just be blogging when I get back.

Happy holidays!!

Carolina Hurricanes player Craig Adams was suspended two games for chopping Leafs player Alex Steen over the head with his stick.

Check it. The second Hurricanes player to be suspended in a week (Scott Walker's head-butt got one game).

Where is the outpouring of rage about the goonery on the Hurricanes' team? All the calls for points to be docked? Draft picks to be taken away? I mean, two suspensions for one team in less than a week -- we all know what kind of response from The World that should get.

Oh right ... very little unless it's the Flyers.

I'm probably never going to give up on it. I'm still waiting for Sutton's punishment for trying to squash Kukkonen's head.

And -- two games? For swinging a stick to someone's head? I guess you have to be Chris Simon to actually get punished for that.

Cripes, NHL. You confuse me.

There are only two things I want to say about last night’s game.

1) There is no acceptable excuse for going up 2-0 and then chasing the rest of the game right out the window, losing 3-2. Not this year.

2) I never want to see Randy Jones on the power play again. I’d be happy if he sat for a few games and I didn’t have to be reminded of boneheaded misplay(s) last night. We would be frustrated with Alex Picard, as a Phantom, sometimes letting a puck slide past him at the blue line to go out of the zone and force the team to regroup rather than sustain pressure in the offensive zone, but last night it wasn’t Picard committing that sin. Picard was out with Jones on a power play late in the second period, but it was Jones who let the puck slide past him out of the zone. On a power play. It was as egregious a display of laziness and lackadaisical play as can be submitted. Shane Doan chased the puck down into the Flyers’ zone, and Picard came in from the other side of the ice to cover him. Doan slammed on the brakes and Picard went past him. Meanwhile, Jones was entering the zone with no apparent purpose in mind, as Sjostrom came on down to position himself near the goal, unmanned, unnoticed? Doan, with a fancy spin-around, slid the puck past Picard, who had unfortunately overplayed him (this is a mistake, but at least he tried to get between the man and the net, and when held up against Jones’s multiple mistakes, it pales), across to Sjostrom, who scored. It was quite pretty; it just happened to the wrong team as far as my perspective of the game is concerned. What the hell was in Randy Jones’s head? COME ON.

Randy Jones, Jones, calling Randy Jones
Randy Jones, Randy Jones, wake up now
WAKE UP NOW

If he stopped that puck at the blue line, or at least interrupted its descent into the Flyers’ zone a little bit, that shorthanded goal would not have happened and the game would not have been tied in the closing minutes of the second period. That goal was the last straw, and the Flyers never, ever recovered, giving up another goal in the third and failing to come back. I knew after that third goal the Flyers were not going to win the game. I don’t know why I stayed on the couch watching and fuming. I was stunned when on a later Flyers power play, Jones was out again. Stevens, what the [bleep!!!] kind of decision was that?

After pleasantly surprising me early in the season with a quality of play that I never expected out of him, Jones has been slipping back to brutal the last month or so. He has been playing not-that-great to badly more often than playing well.

Last night, after the game, it was announced that Ben Eager had been traded to Chicago for defenseman Jim Vandermeer. Vandermeer played for the Flyers before I was a fan, so I have no personal knowledge of how he plays. I can’t come up with any judgment of this trade. Ben Eager did not seem to be playing as well as I think he could have this season. Lately he has taken stupid penalties and made borderline stupid plays and does not fight very well. However, he has the potential to be a decent player, if only he would make smarter decisions. Something must have been going on behind the scenes, since he kept getting scratched in favor of Cote, who loses fights just as well as Eager yet does not have the skill upside that Eager has. I don’t know where Vandermeer fits in to the defense corps scheme. Is Hatcher on his way out (his knees have been a problem again even after the surgery)? Is Fitzpatrick soon to be shown the door (I’m perfectly OK with that)? While I’m asking questions about the defense, I’ll add this one: Why is Lasse Kukkonen being scratched? When he was first scratched there were mixed explanations; he was being benched to send a message about not playing up to snuff (?! It seemed to me that if Stevens wanted to send that message, there were others he might have scratched instead), he was being scratched because he was banged up and they wanted to let him recover a bit. From what I could see, he was doing his job well enough. He’s not a flashy player, but for the most part he does what he’s supposed to do, so I can’t wrap my brain around scratching him, unless there is some lingering banged-upness that they are trying to ease out without having to come right out and say “Kukkonen’s hurt.” You know how teams can be funny about admitting injury.

So anyway, I’m sure Vandermeer has his pluses, but since I don’t know him, I can’t really comment. From what I’ve read, he’s a physical d-man who will do what he has to do. Sounds a bit like Smith. I’ve read mixed reviews of the trade, by people who know what they are talking about (that is, people I assume know what they are talking about!) so I’ll just sit back and see what happens.

It’s also possible that the dealing isn’t done. There are some head-scratchers in terms of decisions lately that make me wonder if there is more going down than meets the eye. We may be surprised come the end of the roster freeze next week.

Anyway, I hope Ben Eager can go on to play well in Chicago and be more than a penalty machine. Patrick Sharp went there and has managed to carve out a good spot for himself (I miss Sharpie), so perhaps Eager will find a good place, too.

Oh, one other thing. Why is Scottie Upshall seeing so very little playing time, and why is he stuck playing 4th line with the likes of Dowd and Cote?! Help me to understand that demotion.

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Chris Simon has gotten a 30-game suspension for his skate-boot stomp. Given his history (his last suspension was a 25-gamer, which carried over into this season!) I was thinking he might be out for the rest of the season, and after considering it I felt that would be the right decision. Depending on how much time he’s “away” from the Islanders, it might just end up being a season ban, anyway. Obviously long suspensions mean nothing to him, seeing as he can stomp someone with his skate not long after he was just out for 25 games; maybe he should never play again, given his lack of self-control on the ice. The article says he might appeal the decision. On what grounds? I think the stomp + his history speaks for itself.

There is a part of me that is simply relieved that it was not a Flyer that got this one.

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Tonight the Iowa Stars play the Flaming Q’s. The Stars have dropped to last place in the West Division, but there are three teams at the bottom with 29 points, and the fifth-place team (the Flames) have 30, so it’s not as dramatic as it might at first seem. Still, pretty ugly, though their record is still better than five teams in the North Division, so don’t lie at the bottom of the Conference barrel, at least.

There is finally a mention in the Des Moines Register of the weekend’s catastrophe at Wells Fargo arena – the Iowa Stars have called up Steve Silverthorn from Idaho. Hey, if I were Phillipe Sauve or Tobias Stephan, I’d want to hide my face from public view for a while and would be relieved to have someone else take over the net for a few games. There is also a link to Lisa Collono’s Iowa hockey blog, and she picks apart the ugliness by doing the math of a game where more goals were scored than saves were made: Chicago’s shooting percent (58.8), whether it’s a record, or even one of the best, in the AHL is unknown (apparently the AHL does not keep records of shooting percentage). It’s easy math, but not math I stooped to doing when I saw the raw numbers. She also makes it known that Chicago has three of the most recent five 10+ goal games:

Dec. 15, 2007: Chicago 10, Iowa 2
March 24, 2007: Omaha 10, Houston 2
Dec. 16, 2006: Rochester 10, Binghamton 4
Nov. 4, 2006: Chicago 10, Peoria 5
Dec. 30, 2005: Chicago 11, Peoria 5

Either the Chicago Wolves are simply a goal-scoring powerhouse, or the West Division is crap (with the exceptions of Chicago and perhaps Omaha/Quad City).

I do not hold much hope that Steve Silverthorn will himself be a savior for this team, though he did pretty well when he was called up for the first time last season, to stopper the goal in an emergency. One can only hope that the total embarrassment of the 10-2 loss will kick the Stars into gear.

Why is it that when Chicago gets scoring on Iowa, they really score on Iowa?

Yesterday, I was wasting my time reading yet another Scott Burnside article (J. asked why I do that to myself, and I had no good answer). It was about Richards’ 12-year contract, and why it’s not actually “shocking.” I don’t have much of an issue with what he’s saying about the contract. In fact, he doesn’t say anything new that I had not already read about it. It’s a little farther down, in the “Our top story lines of the week” portion, where I got all worked up again. Give me a break.

3. Guess Philadelphia coach John Stevens forgot to take his irony pills this week. Even if it was true the Pittsburgh Penguins became unraveled and undisciplined at the end of their 8-2 beating at the hands of Stevens' Flyers, don't you think Stevens would have held his tongue? He is, after all, the coach of a team that's had five players suspended so far this season and has been put on double-secret probation by the NHL for its lack of self-control. But there was Stevens, acting all sanctimonious after the game, decrying the Pens' lack of self-control. That must have been about the same time one of his "in-control" Flyers, Ben Eager, managed to saunter by the Penguins' dressing room to suggest that Pens coach Michel Therrien is "a joke."

Stevens was certainly not “acting all sanctimonious.” Take off your Flyer-hating goggles, Mr. Burnside. He was just pointing out what we all know to be true – the ridiculousness of the league continually holding the Flyers to some higher standard of play while other teams are running rampant on the ice. Other teams behave badly too, you know. Someone should notice that and quit making it sound like it’s only the Flyers that goon it up (though they don’t, anyway).

While we’re on the subject of goons, Chris Simon and the Islanders agreed that it would be best if Simon spends a little time away from the game of hockey. Apparently, he will receive some kind of counseling. There is still no word on official discipline from the league for his stomp on Ruutu.

I watched two periods of the Wings/Caps game last night, and it was tied 2-2 when I left. Apparently the Wings went on to win in a shootout. The most amusing part was when one of the Wings players (Cleary?) was being interviewed by the rink-side analyst and was asked about the poor 1st period play and how the Wings seemed to have turned things around in the 2nd. He said that during the intermission they had gotten a good “tongue-licking” and they came out and played a lot better.

I snickered. I laughed more when the play-by-play guy had to point out that obviously “tongue-lashing” was what the Wings player meant. How does he know that’s what he meant? Maybe he did mean “tongue-licking” and we just learned something about what goes on in NHL locker rooms that we were not meant to know.

I also snickered when Donald Brashear went to the penalty box for roughing and the Red Wings scored on the ensuing power play. Seems like par for the course for Brashear: take a dumb penalty, put your team a man down, and they give up a goal.

The Flyers play Phoenix tonight. Lupul was one of the three NHL stars of the week; maybe he can continue this hot streak. As much as I hated the win-loss trading, I like this losing streak even less. Let’s go Flyers!

I was pretty sure, Friday afternoon, that time would never pass and I would never get to the Phantoms game at 7 p.m. It was the longest day ever, and when I finally was sprung from my office and out on the road up to Philly, I was pretty sure that I would never get there. It took me almost half an hour to get out of Stanton after filling my car with gas, because Route 4 was packed solid going east, both lanes crawling until the junction with Route 141. Fortunately I learned my lesson a few weeks ago, and left at 5, so this delay did not prevent me from getting to the game on time. Also fortunately, despite the “stop and go” traffic that is more stop than go, and despite the accident that happened just behind me (I saw it happen out of the corner of my eye when I glanced quickly backward upon hearing a terrible screech of tires and a crunch, a car coming to a heavy and bad stop in the median with its front end bashed up), I made it to South Philadelphia by 6:00 p.m. I hate that it takes me an hour to get to games on a Friday night, but at least I get there, right? And it puts me in a mood to see some hard hits and chippy play. I got some of this, and a right heavy dose of ref rage, as the Phantoms nearly lost to the Toronto Marlies.

We were prepared for a good matchup, given the records of these two teams, and we got it, but the pressure seemed to go against the Phantoms most of the time, and the Marlies’ goalie Pogge was pretty good. But Boucher was pretty good, too, and only allowed one goal in the first period. Shortly after this goal, Steve Downie got himself kicked out of the game after fighting with Toronto’s Kris Newbury, who pretty much started the fight after Downie checked him. The refs got involved pretty quickly and the fight should have been over quickly, too, but when Newbury was down and under the ref, Downie kept trying to get at him, getting his fingers on the edge of Newbury’s helmet and kept trying to pull his head up. I sat there shaking my head, and when they put him in the penalty box, he hit the glass. I wondered how the hell they were not kicking him out of the game, and there was some yapping going on, and then they kicked him out. People were booing, but let’s be real, folks. As he left the box, he hit the glass again, really hard. That was all we saw of Steve Downie that night. (Apparently, Downie got a dressing-down by Paul Holmgren, who was at the game.*) The Marlies’ one-goal lead lasted most of the game. It was frustrating, and the referees didn’t help, calling one roughing or slashing penalty after another during the second period (which was scoreless) as the Phantoms went around throwing hits. In the third, the Phantoms managed to tie the game, when “Triston Grant took the puck up the left wing and pulled a remarkable toe-drag around a Toronto player in the left circle” and tried a shot which was stopped and rebounded to Freddie Cabana, who potted the goal. A good way to return from injury, no? 1-1 through the remainder of the third, and the game went into a scoreless overtime.

I hate the shootout. I don’t care if my team ends up winning. A hockey game, a contest of teams, should not come down to one-on-ones between shooters and a goalie.

Jared Ross scored first for the Phantoms, but Jiri Tlusty (he of recent naked Internet photo infamy) scored in the second round to even things up, and the stupid exhibition went to seven rounds before Stefan Ruzicka – !!! – scored the game winner.

Ruzicka has been annoying me lately. It is not a new phenomenon. He can be a great player, but seems way too often to take shifts off, tending towards pointless on the ice, or moving the puck without finishing a developing play (around, around, behind the net, into traffic, only to be poke-checked or whatever), not passing, making low-percentage shots, etc. His laziness will be spiked with something awesome – a breakaway with a fancy deke or pass to himself, a goal from a perfectly-timed deflection after having gotten himself into position – and you scratch your head wondering why he can’t just bring out his skills all the time instead of just some of the time. There is a woman somewhere around us who sometimes shouts “That’s why you’re playing down here!” and while I laughed, it was a little painfully because it is true. He could be good enough for the NHL, but he just doesn’t seem to try very hard. He is talented, that is very true, but not so much that he can be awesome without trying. He was the first guy to sit down on the bench at one point, either right before the game started after the guys came out of the tunnel, or before a period started after the guys came out of the tunnel and skated around a bit. We thought this a fitting picture for Ruzicka. And when he scored the winning shootout goal (they went back through their initial shootout roster after the five rounds, so it was his second shot), K. mentioned that that was exactly how he plays the game anyway. Takes the puck up on his own, doesn’t use the support around him, and takes a shot. Sometimes, it’s a good shot, as it was in this case. He won the game for the Phantoms, so I let lazy bygones be bygones for the night.

While I am calling out Phantoms for less-than-stellar play, I would like to mention at this point defenseman Chad Anderson. I am not familiar with this guy outside of the few games he has played this season for the Phantoms. He is often scratched, but recently the Flyers dealt Jussi Timonen and Alex Picard was called up to the Flyers to replace an injured Kimmo Timonen. Anderson was brutal at times, missing passes and allowing the puck to go over the blue line during power plays. This happened numerous times Friday night and I threw up my hands at his boneheaded mistakes so many times I started to wonder if it might just be easier to leave my hands up. Anderson is a big kid and he isn’t especially fast, so when he makes a mistake like that, there is potential for ugliness if a faster opponents can get a jump on him into the other zone. I really figured his play was unacceptable, and hoped not to see him for a while, but he played again Sunday night (and was somewhat better). I also want to take a moment to mention the poor play of Lars Jonsson, who has finally recovered from injury and was playing this weekend too. I was grudgingly willing to give him a pass on Friday night, because he hasn’t played this season, but he was making brutal mistakes too. Glaringly obvious. He kept making them on Sunday night too, and I was growing less and less patient with him. I hope he gets his game together, because the Phantoms cannot afford that kind of play on the blue line. We made jokes before the game about Picard being gone – he is generally quite solid, but has a tendency to turn over the puck at crucially bad times, or to fail to put forth that extra zip of effort to knock down a puck, to keep it in the zone on a PP, and instead just let it slide out and then have to glide back to get it – about how would the Phantoms possibly survive without his turnovers at the blue line, but we changed our tune when we realized that the Phantoms had replaced his turnover/lazy action with Anderson and Jonsson.

Anyway, hats off to Boucher for a great night, equally off to Pogge. I don’t normally applaud opposing team’s stars of the game, but sometimes, an enemy goalie deserves it.

Saturday night, the Phantoms were away and beat Norfolk 1-0, a low-scoring revenge for last week’s unpalatable and unpredictable loss to the Admirals. Munroe posted the shutout. At least one Philadelphia team managed a win Saturday night. The Flyers hosted Carolina, and I was set for a good game, given how the prior three had gone. Recap? Ok:

1) Flyers win 3-2 in OT when Gagne scored. I was in my car returning from a Phantoms game, that loss to Providence that I still grumble about. I miss Gagne. Sometimes I forget he even played this season.

2) Flyers win, 6-3, in an awesome stomper of a game

3) Flyers win, 3-1.

Saturday’s game was out of control. Ten goals were scored between the two teams. Unfortunately the Flyers played catch up the entire night, getting behind 3-1 after a couple power play goals for the Hurricanes that made me roll my eyes. Then they were down 4-3 at the end of the second period. Plenty of time, I told myself. And Danny Briere scored deliciously at the corner of the goal to tie it 4-4, 30 seconds into the third period. The Flyers got down again 5-4, and I chewed the inside of my lip, nervous and irritated, but somehow the Flyers got a 5-on-3 and Joffrey Lupul scored to tie the game. Not only did he tie the game and become my hero for the night, but it was his third goal of the game, and his second hat trick in under a week. Happy dance! There was still a lot of hockey left to play, with almost 8 left to go, but no one scored again and the game went into an OT that went scoreless too. I was thinking about last weekend and how both the Phantoms and the Flyers lost by similar scores, and wondered if the hockey gods were just lazy and had no imagination these days, having both Philly teams follow essentially the same plot. I would have been OK with that, though, since it was Philly that won the shootout on Friday night.

I hate the shootout.

I really hate it, when it comes down to the last shot, and your goalie makes the save.

Or appears to make the save, only to have the puck fly up into the air over him and then somehow still manage to go in behind him, while you are standing and celebrating because it appears that your team has won.

But your team doesn’t win. The puck is in the net behind your goalie and all you can do is howl in disbelief at the unfairness of it all and stomp around your house at 10 p.m. like a crazy person, waving hands in the air and frothing obscenities because the whole night has been one unfairness and digging-out after another, only to end the wrong way on a fluke.

I am still mad about the no-goal off a high-stick that was turned into a goal in the second period. If not for that, the Flyers should have won outright. (You can make the argument that if that goal had not counted, the effect of it not counting would have changed the outcome of the game. Whatever. The score should not have been what it was, that’s all that matters.) I am mad about the blatant knee-on-knee check that Dennis Seidenberg gave Scott Hartnell that went uncalled. I am very mad about the lack of call on a drag-down of Briere, only to have a tap Lupul gave an opponent a hook in OT that gave the ‘Canes a PP that could have led to a game-winning goal. I laugh that Dennis Seidenberg complained that he was called for closing the hand on the puck when what he did was close his hand on the puck, turn and throw it away from him out of danger. You just don’t get more obvious than that, Seids. At least one call went the Flyers’ way. (And that call led to the PP for Lupul’s third, game-tying goal.) I am still mad about the shootout.

I will interrupt the Philadelphia hockey story here and note that I just looked at the score of the Iowa Stars/Chicago Wolves game from Saturday night. I think I may be sick. 10-2 Wolves? TEN TO TWO?? Doell a natural hat trick (only his third, fourth, and fifth of the season)? Brian Little scoring his first and second of the year? Stuart scoring his third, and Pilar his first? Come on, guys. I can understand Sterling and Krog scoring on you, but they only potted one apiece. Who are these other guys? Good grief. Sauve: 4 goals against. Replaced by Tobias “Swiss cheese” Stephan, 6 goals against – on 8 shots. Three PP goals, one shortie, and a penalty shot. CHICAGO HAD ONLY 17 SHOTS THE WHOLE GAME. Ten goals on seventeen shots. I repeat: ten goals. On seventeen shots. This is a nadir if there ever was one. I cannot recall a more terrible outing by this team (please don’t find one and point it out to me). Please, let there never be something worse. There isn’t even a story about it in the Des Moines Register, not that I can find. Oh … the humanity.

Sunday: I forgot to set the DVR to record the Flyers/Devils game, and so what. The Flyers lost. After going up to Philly and seeing the Phantoms lose, too, I wasn’t in the mood to have to watch why the Flyers lost. The Phantoms lost 3-2 to Wilkes-Barre, which was hard to take. The Phantoms got down 2-0 and didn’t score a goal until rather late in the third period, when Ryan Parent scored. Two minutes later, Steve Downie scored, too (a much calmer player last night than he was Friday). It was tied and we were all up and screaming and dancing and having a great time. We all love a Phantoms comeback, right?

Yeah, well, Kurtis McLean decided that was enough of that and scored with 1:09 left in the game to win it. The Phantoms sustained some pressure in that last minute of play, but they didn’t manage the tie. McLean’s shot came off a breakaway that should never have been allowed to happen, and all I can really remember is Ruzicka skating into the zone way behind the play. And Ruzicka in a position to at least shoot the puck for a last-gasp attempt with 3 or 4 seconds left, the puck coming to him, but his half-hearted reach for it did not stop it and the game ended. I do not generally yell abuse at my team’s players, but I was so frustrated with him for his slacker playing that I shouted that I hated him. I apologize for that. I don’t hate him. But I hate his hot-and-cold play and his giving up.

I did not listen to the end of the Flyers game. When we left the Spectrum the last I knew it was 3-2 Flyers. I was stopped at a red light getting close to my house and K. pulled up next to me, making “roll down your window” gestures. So I did. He held up his Devils scarf and shouted “4-2, baby!” I made a gesture of my own and rolled my window back up.

Gloat away. The Debbies lost to PHOENIX 4-1. Suck on that a while!!** (Last night’s hockey has put me in a bad mood again. Sorry.)

I have only read a little bit about the game, but the truth is I just don't have the energy to read excuses. The Flyers have broken their win-loss-win-loss roller coaster by losing three in a row. Not the kind of pattern-breaking I’d hoped for, boys. Get it together this week. Your slide is not helping your standings and it’s not helping my disposition. The sun is out today. I’d like to be able to enjoy it without the cloud of bad hockey hovering over me!! Two games against Buffalo this coming weekend! I really want to see a decisive win over that hateful club. (Though, I will be in Iowa and will not get to see the games until I get back, already knowing what happened.)

P.S. How many games to you think Chris Simon will get for stomping on Jarkko Ruutu’s foot after slew-footing him right in front of the refs last weekend? Simon’s got a pretty long history of suspensions, and he is only a couple months away from that 25-gamer he served for baseball-batting Ryan Hollweg last season. If the NHL is consistent [snork! snorrrrk!] and takes into account his track record, Simon should be looking at a lengthy rest from the game of hockey. Lengthy.

*I saw Holmgren a couple weeks ago, while I was waiting in line to exchange a ticket. He went into the press box, which is behind my section, and then he came out and got some hot dogs at the concession stand next to the line I was in. I was watching him, and he looked right at me. I didn’t know what to do, but I kind of smiled. And he picked up his tray of hot dogs and walked back to the press box.

**When the Flyers lose to Phoenix on Tuesday, I will feel foolish for this trash talk.

Last night’s game was mostly forgettable. I didn’t think the Flyers played terribly, though certainly not that well. It seemed like every time they were about to get something started, they allowed their pockets to be picked and they were forechecked out of the game. Bounces didn’t go their way and there were several breakdowns, especially on defense, that led to their 4-1 loss to the Habs. I was sorry that Niittymaki had to absorb a loss like that, but for the most part, I don’t know what he could have done differently. A couple of those goals were tricksters, where Niitty was mostly doing the right thing, only to have a sneaky pass go in front of him to someone wide open (a part which was not his fault). And the rest of the Flyers were not the same gunning guys from Tuesday, but were not quite the flat flops that I have seen them be following strong games (e.g. that horrible 4-1 loss to the Stars). Too many penalties tonight (whistle-happy referee) and perhaps some distraction, I don’t know. They didn’t quite get into it enough, and fought the game the whole way.

It was frustrating. The Habs just have the Flyers’ number. Remember a couple years ago when Jan freaking Bulis scored four against the Flyers? I was in the SEM room back in my lab at Iowa, listening to the game while taking images and steaming a little bit more with every goal this guy scored. Last night, they let some scrubber, Mark Streit, score two, and nearly let him have a hat trick. The graphic on the TV said it was his first two-goal game in, what, 155 NHL games. They were his third and fourth goals of the season. Of course. The Flyers love to be generous like that to people who haven’t done much, ever.

Incidentally, how many times this season am I going to read an article in the freaking PHILADELPHIA papers that refer to Scott Hartnell as “Jeff”? I know it has happened several times this season, and it did again today in an article about Riley Cote. “I wish I could have been out there; it's too bad. But the boys handled themselves real well in areas where they don't normally go. [Jeff] Carter did a great job, [Jeff] Hartnell did a great job.’” HELLO, WRITERS/WHOEVER IS RESPONSIBLE.

We do not have two JEFFS. There is a Jeff and a Joffrey, but that’s not the same at all.

More importantly, the Flyers signed Mike Richards to a 12-year contract worth 69 million dollars. I think this is a little bit gutsy, given that in three years with the Flyers he has had one decent season, one abysmal season, and two and a half awesome months. Sure, the abysmal season came along with everyone else’s; I’m happy to erase last year from everyone’s records. But I remember how he joined the Phantoms during the Calder Cup playoffs along with Jeff Carter and helped burn up the place with his awesomeness. Without those two, the Calder Cup would not likely have come to Philadelphia. Richards scored 15 points in 14 games. So I have no doubts about Mike Richards. None at all. Someone would have been sending out an alluring offer sheet next summer, no question whatsoever. The Flyers cannot afford to lose him, and so they have worked it out so that they will not. “The deal does not include a no-trade clause until Richards turns 27, the first year he would have been able to become an unrestricted free agent.” And if things go the way we all envision and hope that they will with Mike Richards, a trade or no-trade isn’t even going to be an issue.

I love the future of the Flyers. I love them now, even when they lose uselessly to the Habs, but the future … awww yeah. And thinking about the future Flyers is a nice segue. I am very much looking forward to the Phantoms/Marlies game this evening. Phantoms are 17-7-1-0; Marlies are 16-5-0-3. Two high-point teams facing off at the Spectrum – what more do you want out of a Friday evening? Huh? HUH!? Iowa Stars vs. Milwaukee Admirals in the West. It’s a night for some good AHL hockey.

Ok, so you remember how the Flyers traded Joni Pitkanen to the Oilers over the summer. (I cried.) I hated the trade, but have come to terms with it because Lupul and Smith have been doing well for the Flyers, and information gradually came out that Joni was pretty much not going to be happy here, and that's a bad scene. Since coming back from knee surgery, he's been doing well for the Oilers. Last night he scored a goal on Hasek in a close game against the Wings, and it was pretty. Pretty, pretty, pretty. He bumped and shoved a bit, too. He looked so much more like the Pitkanen I loved in Philadelphia. I am glad to see that he's returning to form, but it does make me feel a little queasy, because it's happening somewhere else. It annoys me to read comments by Oilers fans that he's going to make Paul Holmgren look like an idiot for having traded him, but the fact is that Holmgren didn't have much choice. You don't keep around someone who hates where he is, no matter how much franchise defenseman potential he's got. (As I said, it took me a while to come to grips with this.) I'm sure Holmgren knew what he was giving up. He made a lot of moves that seemed calculated in part to give Joni someone to look up to, to mold him, make him more comfortable here. But Joni asked to leave. Holmgren's made so many amazing moves, some of which did not seem obvious at the time yet turned out so freaking brilliantly that you can only shake your head in admiration, that there is no way he can be considered an idiot. Moving Pitkanen wasn't idiocy, either. You do what you gotta do.

I still wish Pitkanen were here, though. I wanted to see him scoring goals like that for the Flyers until he retires. Sigh.

Want to read something funny? 1000-lb goalie? It's an experiment!

Power rankings from this week:

Tsn.ca: 6. “The resurgence of Joffrey Lupul seems to have hit a wall, as he's put up no goals and two assists in the last 11 games.” This was noted on December 10. Perhaps Loops didn’t like reading this about himself, kicked it up several levels. Maybe there will be a retraction next week.

SI.com: 7. “I may have them a bit high, considering they haven't won consecutive games since Nov. 10 and 12. Another troubling sign is that they have scored more than three goals just once since Nov. 21. It gets tough this week with games against Pittsburgh, Montreal, Carolina and New Jersey. No cupcakes in that group.” This was from Tuesday, before the Pittsburgh game. Penguin cupcake … mmmm.

Yahoo sports: 7. “Modern-day Broad Street Bullies are going at it in practice, too. Forwards Daniel Briere and Sami Kapanen – 5-foot-10, 179 and 185, respectively – threw a flurry of punches at one another with their gloves on last week. Flyers figure if it worked for Anaheim last year it can work for them.” Given that the Flyers hadn’t had anyone suspended for a few days, the media obviously had to take the practice scuffle out of proportion. The Flyers hit everyone, even each other!! There is no respect for anyone!! ZZOMG THE FLERS R GOONZ!!1!1!!

ESPN.com: 5. “Another pretty even week out of Philly (2-1-0), all running-up-the-score accusations aside.” While I disliked it when the Pens and Sabres scored mightily against the Flyers last year, I never disagreed with their right to score as much as they possible could. So I’m going to enjoy it when the Flyers do the same.

Flyers are 10th in the league from a points perspective. That’s a slide from 3rd a couple weeks ago, but what do you expect when you’re winning/losing/winning/losing/usw.? That pattern continued Tuesday, while breaking the win-on-the-road, lose-at-home pattern. The Flyers have an opportunity to get a home-win streak started again, along with a win streak, tonight when they play the Habs. J. and I are seeing a Flyers/Habs game in February. I’d like this to be a good preview of what I will see in person. Niittymaki is rumored to be starting, Cote is rumored to be joining the lineup again, and Hatcher will still be out because his knee is giving him trouble again. I want to see that Tuesday’s effort was not an anomaly. GO FLYERS!!

-------------

The Iowa Stars won against Milwaukee the other day. 4-1. Sertich, Holtet (2), and Lessard were responsible for the goals, with Jussi Timonen collecting his first point as a Star with a secondary assist on the fourth goal. There were only 5 penalties the whole game and no PP goals. I’m trying to imagine what a game is like with so few penalties. After Tuesday’s Flyers game, it’s difficult. The Stars are tied at 29 points with the Flaming Qs, but are in fourth place in the West. The Stars face the Admirals again on Friday, in Milwaukee.

I’m sure everyone knows that voting is open for the NHL All-Star game (I have voted a few times, making sure to “write in” Mike Richards), but you can also vote for the AHL All-Star game. My divided loyalties have me scratching my head. In the end, I voted for Junior Lessard for the Canadian forward, and Alex Picard for the Canadian d-man. There were no Iowa goalies for the Canadian side, so it was easy to choose Scott Munroe. The PlanetUSA side was the most difficult. Jared Ross or Joel Lundqvist?

I will keep my choice close to the vest. I will keep my goalie choice a secret too.

K. and I had considered going to the AHL All-Star game, but it’s on a Monday in January and I’m not interested in taking time off that early in the year. Binghamton is close, but not that close. (On the scoreboard the other night at a Phantoms game, while posting out-of-town AHL scores, they spelled it “BINHAMTON” and for some reason, this cracked us up. We are very easily amused.)

So much.

Is it possible that the hockey gods were so horrific to us last year in order to teach us exactly how enjoyable it is to thrash the Penguins?

8-2.

Bad blood boils over in display of dirty play. My favorite bits of this article are the following:

“Crosby was hailed as a hero during his team's recent games in Western Canada. Here, he is treated a bit differently. The crowd boos when he touches the puck, chants insults about him and, by the end of this game, had switched to taunting, ‘We want Crosby, we want Crosby.’”

I thought that was what they were chanting, but listening on TV you can’t always be sure. I chortled. It was another chortle in a long string of chortles last night. And I chortle again, right now, reading these articles and thinking about it.

I’m with Stevens when he says that he doesn’t want to hear about how it’s the Flyers who are all lacking in discipline and are the thugs of the league. It was, to quote Stevens, “ridiculous,” the way the Pens combusted. 156 penalty minutes in the game between both sides, but 98 for the Penguins, and the bulk of them in the third period. The Pens got 2 shots on goal that entire stanza and the Flyers spent almost all of it on the power play.

It all got its start when Malone and Smith had a fight. Smith didn’t really have the advantage but at least he was the one on top when the pair went down.

Then Lupul – Umberger – Richards was out, and Lupul scored two in a row. And then he very nearly had a third for a natural hat trick, but that kind of hat trick was not meant to be last night.

The Flyers were playing some of the best hockey I have ever seen out of them. Any time the Pens tried to score, the Flyers gathered that puck and took it back down the other end. It was like non-stop power play, or the Flyers pouncing on a mistimed pass, or just getting fricking lucky by being in the right place, somehow, at the right time (Lupul’s second goal), whatever. It was beautiful. There was a low moment when the Pens managed to score twice to even the game. I was so mad. I was steaming. But I need not have worried.

Another one of my favorite moments of the game was when Colby Armstrong ran hard at the boards, presumably attempting to hit a Flyer there, but missed the opponent 100% and hammered himself into the wall, such that he cut his face and was bleeding badly. The idiot hit the wall, fell to the ice on his behind, and was very slow to get up. There are some people for whom I’d feel a stab of sympathy, seeing them go down hurt. Colby Armstrong is the opposite of one of those people. I laughed out loud seeing him check his own face into the glass. That’s right. I LOL’d. I also LOL’d when Eager took a flying run at Laraque, with his elbow coming out and everything -- the announcers went on and on about what a selfish move that was, how it was going to hurt the Flyers, despite the Flyguys winning, me agreeing with them that it was boneheaded and stupid, because not only did Laraque go to the ice with Eager, but Timonen was crunched there too, collateral damage, and then Laraque started pummeling Eager while lying on the ice – and somehow Eager skated away from the whole situation and LARAQUE ended up in the box for a double minor. How the HELL did Eager get nothing on that? RIDICULOUS! And while I will sit here and admit that there is no way Eager should have skated away scot-free on that, guilty as hell for a bad play, I will savor the fact that it is about damn time that a stunningly bad non-call/mis-call went our way for once. Of course Eager had to fight five seconds later, but so what, and so what that he got his face handed to him during that fight. Roberts had to sit for five too, and the Flyers still had their 4-minute power play. I really have no idea how that all transpired, but whatever. LOL!

And then Lupul got the hat trick.

Earlier in the game, after Loops and RJ had their two goals apiece, K. and I chatted about what we would like to happen. Obviously we wanted Lupul and RJ to each get hat tricks. I said I would like Briere to get a goal, and maybe Richie too, so it would have to be at least 8-2. Ok, we agreed, giggling at the audacity of our greediness. 8-2.

Favorite moment #213: Crosby skating behind the net and tripping Biron. It’s possible Biron embellished it a bit, but I don’t know. It doesn’t change the fact that Crosby clipped him deliberately. That part alone is not a favorite, but it led to what is – Biron challenging Crosby and inviting him to come and get it. The Whining Idiot was restrained while Biron held out his glove hand and gestured. Oh my goodness. Apparently both Crosby and Biron were mic’d but we didn’t get to eavesdrop on a single thing. They never played any “sounds of the game” clips at all. I’m sure that it was not fit for broadcast, but that only means it would have been funnier. I would pay to hear what Biron was saying. Also to hear what came out of his mouth when Laraque intentionally slid into him and took him out, which, by the way, was complete trash and he should probably be suspended for the action, but won’t be. As HFboards user Dr. Love said: “I don't think that, short of just punching Biron in the nuts, Laraque could have made that more obvious.” If Biron were like Hextall, Laraque would be missing a head and a leg right now. Of course, if Biron were like Hextall, Biron would have been suspended a long time ago. Additionally, how the hell did Crosby get third star of the game? How could any Penguin crack the top ten stars of the game? Maybe it was for the sheer entertainment value he provided. I mean, Lupul was #1, Richards #2, and Umberger didn’t manage to make the top 3? Please. At least the NHL.com got it right (!): Lupul #1, Umberger #2. A Pittsburgh reporter suggests this as the reason for Crosby’s star: “Crosby recorded two points, assisting on goals by Whitney and left wing Petr Sykora. He was named the game's No. 3 star -- presumably so a rabid Philadelphia crowd could chant obscenities at him one last time. It certainly won’t be the last time, my friend. Just wait until the Pens come back again.

Moment of shock: Carter whipping Whitney. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Carter fight. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen him be even remotely physical except an occasional big hit. It was funny watching Whitney start it, and Carter’s face went from “Wait, I don’t fight” to “All right, you want it? You’ll get it” and he just pounded on Whitney, punch after punch, went to town. Right next door, Hartnell and Armstong were having some fun, too. Carter took Whitney down, but the hugging and wrestling was still going on, and we got to see Hartnell take down Armstrong, though it was not as one-sided a match as the Carter-Whitney business. Then Vs. cut away from the action. AWWW! I was so proud of Jeff Carter for standing up for himself, I wasn’t even grossed out when they showed him chatting with blood running down his nose such that it dripped off the tip.

At one point earlier in the game, Crosby had the puck and was forced to the outside so that he had to just skate around the back of the net, back out in front, around, around, could do nothing with it but skate. The announcers enthused that it was such a wonderful skating “exhibition”!! I wanted to ralf. Where was their enthusiasm for exhibitions of skating when RJ Umberger had the puck in the Pens’ zone, skated around, la la la, skated in a circle, with the Penguins backed off, letting him have all kinds of room, skated around, then decided, “Ok, if you’re just going to stand there” and moved toward the center and shot the puck for his third of the night and the Flyers’ second hat trick. WOOOOOT!!!! Along with goals by Knuble and Coburn, the score ended up 8-2, the greedy value that K. and I had hoped for.

If Stevens breaks up the Lupul / Richie / Umberger line again, I will call for his head. Lupul: six points. Umberger: five points. Richards: three points (earning also his 100th career point last night).

Lupul and Umberger punish the Penguins. Therrien: “It's a lack of respect to do what [Stevens] did. You don't send your best power play on the ice at 7-2." Hey, Therrien: WAH WAH WAH. The Flyers are supposed to send their 4th line out all night just because you guys suck the suckage? Please. Maybe if your boys could keep their heads on straight and their tempers in check, not, you know, slewfoot goalies or whatever, the Flyers wouldn’t have to continue to send out their top PP unit against you.

Pens coach cries foul on Flyers. More Therrien: “Even Daniel Briere didn't want to go on the ice. It is a lack of respect.” I figure if it’s 7-2 and Laraque has been stalking the ice among the other unraveling Pens, and I’m Danny Briere, I am going to sit on the bench lest I lose a limb or find myself concussed into next season. Do you disagree with me? I wouldn’t take my chances with the severe lack of discipline going on out there on the part of the Penguins. And Ben Eager is not my favorite Flyer, but I have to love his big mouth: “Therrien stopped talking to reporters after that -- though he did fire an expletive at Philadelphia left wing Ben Eager, who stood outside the Penguins' dressing room and shouted ‘you're a joke’ in the direction of Therrien.”

The glad hatters: “Then a line reshuffle by Stevens paid huge dividends when Mike Richards, Umberger and Lupul lit up the building and shut down Crosby even strength. Crosby's line was a minus-5 even strength, while Richards' line was a plus-12 and made history. Umberger and Lupul were the first two Flyers to score hat tricks in the same game since Tim Kerr and Dave Poulin did it in December 1986 against the Islanders.” (Bold, my emphasis) Lupul was also the first Flyer to score 6 points in a game since Lindros did the feat waaaay back more than ten years ago. Waaaay back before I was a Flyers fan. Ancient history, as far as I am concerned. Which means that Kerr and Poulin’s dual hat-trick deal was prehistoric, right? Ed Moran wonders if the game is a pivotal one, if it will spark the Flyers to better play from here on out. Lupul said, “It’s only one game.” There are a lot of games left in a way-too-tight division and these were big points tonight, regardless of how they were acquired. I would love to see the Flyers take momentum from last night’s awesomeness and carry it into Thursday’s game, then Saturday’s game, and keep a hold on it when they go up to Newark on Sunday.

Flyers mightier than the Pens: a list of the Penguins who ended up on their backs last night. Perhaps you might admire their persistence. One after another got dumped, yet they kept on trying. Poor Crosby’s defenders were useless. The Flyers fed on it. “If they are going to send messages, they ought to write notes. At least until a few of them learn to fight better.”

I was bursting with Flyers love last night. I know they will disappoint me again, and badly, some more this season, but I will always have last night’s game to soothe me. I will walk through this day, and others, remembering Mike Richards’ cheeky and smug grins while Crosby stalked, pouting, having to resort to slew-footing and whining because his stupid team couldn’t pull it together and he was stuffed, stuffed, and stuffed again. Precious. All of it.

The game is on Vs. again this evening, from 5 to 7 p.m. I will record it so that I can have it for my viewing enjoyment at any time in the future.

P.S. Ty Conklin. LOL. Sorry, dude.

P.P.S. Ok, enough LOLing.

So, there has been some blogging silence around here lately, and this is due to the following:

1) I was busy.

Busy at work in the last week-ish (amazing!) and busy over the weekend, I could not devote the kind of time I prefer to devote to writing. I could have blogged quickie posts saying “YAY FLYERS!” and “BOO FLYERS!” and “BOO PHANTOMS!” but I like to do more than that, if I can. I figure you deserve the most out of me, or at least as much of the most out of me as I can manage to provide at any given time.

That said, I have only a few games that I want to chat briefly about, starting with the Flyers game last Wednesday that I failed to blog live. I had the computer out, but it was cold in my living room, I was tired, and instead watched the game in a generally supine position, trapped in a cocoon of blankets. For the most part, I enjoyed the scene, because the Flyers took Minnesota’s game and showed them how it was done. They won in spite of the parade to the penalty box on questionable and marginal calls. It seemed that the referees were extremely whistle-happy, but on replays I would grudgingly accept that an infraction had occurred. What got me upset about the constant man-down situation was that the Wild were getting away with the same crap the Flyers were being called on. The referees were doing everything they could to give the game to the Wild, including inventing a phantom goal. Niittymaki made a save and had the puck under his legs the whole time. It was nowhere near the goal line. It never even had a sniff of crossing it. Yet the referee’s arm went out, pointing, indicating a goal. The Wild celebrated, the Flyers protested vehemently (as did I), and naturally it was reviewed. I’m sure the NHL wanted badly to stiff the Flyers and call it a goal, but there was no way it could stand, even in the biased and unfair atmosphere under which the Flyers now play. It was underneath Niittymaki, at least a foot away from the goal line, he had it perfectly trapped, and there was no question whatsoever that it was not a goal. The referee who called it a goal is a moron and should be openly ridiculed.

I suppose all the crap was only to be expected during the first game after the Flyers had been put on “triple secret probation” (as Keith Jones referred to it) by the league. The Flyers even called up Steve Downie to take Riley Cote’s place, and this was viewed by and large as an enormous middle finger to the league. How could it not be? The Flyers have their fifth player suspended (four in the regular season, plus the one in the pre-season), are chastised publicly and put on notice, and the Flyers’ response is to call up the dude who started it all, NHL Enemy #1, Steve Downie, who had only recently finished his 20-game suspension and had only a few days before been dismissed as a possibility for call-up (something about how he hadn’t been playing as great for the Phantoms as he would need to be in order to be considered for call-up). All of a sudden, he’s playing great for the Phantoms and would fill in nicely. In my head, I was thinking about other Phantoms who have had more of an impact lately, but I liked the idea of thumbing a nose at the NHL, and had next to no qualms about Downie being lifted to the NHL for a couple games. Certainly would do no worse than Cote. He did not get much chance to play, since the Flyers played so much of the game short-handed, and when he was out there, he did not cause any trouble but did not do anything spectacular, either. He was a non-factor, but that is not necessarily bad. They did show a little bumping and jawing with him, but it never escalated (thankfully).

Not only was I ticked off about the refereeing (even the usually fair announcer made a comment about how the Flyers were the only ones going to the box), but there was an incident that still has me borderline enraged. Before the game, Todd Fedoruk was yapping about how the Flyers would need eyes in the backs of their heads, not the Wild – basically saying they’d better watch out, because he had their names in his little book. During the game, he put Lupul into the boards from behind, classic boarding, classic headhunting, and all he got was a 2-minute minor and nary a whisper of a review from the league. I don’t understand this at all – well, that’s not true, I totally understand it, Fridge wasn’t wearing his O&B anymore – but seriously, let’s line this up:

1) He as good as said he was going to hit someone from behind.
2) He hit someone from behind …
3) …fiercely into the boards from a few feet out.
4) Which led to Lupul bleeding.

Fortunately, Lupul was not seriously injured, and even went right back out to play despite it all. But that should not signal the end of it. Lupul should not have to lie unconscious on the ice in order for the league to choose to review the situation. There was clear intent in this case, and Fedoruk went right for the numbers as soon as the opportunity presented itself. Why has he received no punishment outside of a measly 2-minute minor?

[BLEEP]ing NHL discipline conductors.

I was deeply satisfied with the way the Flyers played, killing 7 of 8 penalties which included two very extended 5-on-3s. (Ridiculous!!!) Antero Niittymaki was awesome, looking a great deal more like the goalie I remember him to be than the goalie he was last year – he was strong in the net, he challenged shooters, he trapped pucks rather than giving up ugly rebounds, his glove hand did not whiff. He only allowed one goal, and I can’t blame him for it. It was a devious play. The Wild shooter was out front of the goal, maybe mid-way to the blue line, and instead of firing on net, he fired it slightly wide, where another Wild player stalked and redirected it in. The Flyers were busy handling the dude they thought was going to shoot, not the guy waiting for what ended up being a pass, not a shot, and Niitty was pretty much just out of position and couldn’t snag the goal. I was impressed, while also disappointed. But it was the only goal the Wild managed. The Flyers scored three. The first was a toss-up, being awarded to Scottie Upshall, but all three forwards on that line contributed. Tolpeko, Carter, Upshall – they all took a shot and jammed at it, and it was Upshall that had last touched it but it looked before close examination like Tolpeko had gotten it in. While I’m sure the guys like to know who it was, for their personal records, it was mostly all the same to me – what mattered was that it slid in after bouncing gently off the sliding goalie. The same line was responsible for the Flyers’ second goal, too, but less of a garbage situation. Carter was in front of the net and got the puck with Backstrom down at one side. Showing a great deal of patience, Carter hooked it around Backstrom until he had a much clearer shot, and put it in. Had he just blindly shot as soon as the puck came to his stick, it is likely it would have been blocked. I was impressed at the patience Carter showed in moving the puck to a position of higher probability. I was also impressed that he managed to be all alone in a place to score a goal – what in the heck were the Wild doing?

The Flyers’ third goal was a laugher. I actually sat up and giggled. Braydon Coburn was at the blue line – I think he was in the neutral side of the blue line, even? And fired the puck on net. It was not even that much of a rocket, but it sailed on past the Wild defense and right up over Backstrom’s shoulder. Backstrom had his glove hand up, but he just ended up looking foolish, standing there frozen with his arm in the air and the puck in the net behind him. That is never a shot that should have made it into the goal. It did, in fact, take everyone half a second to realize that it had made it into the goal. And, as I said, I sat up in amazement and giggled.

Flyers won, 3-1. Two big middle fingers up to the NHL. Suspend our players. Put us under watch. Throw your worst refereeing at us. We will still find a way to win.

At least, they did on Wednesday. I did not watch all of Friday’s game. I was out at a Phantoms game, the first home game in two weeks, watching the kids outplay Norfolk in just about every way possible yet still lose 2-1. Admirals goalie Karri Ramo just played outstandingly. Way too many times I was scratching my head wondering how in the world the puck didn’t get into the net. The Phantoms had in the neighborhood of 40 shots on goal, but only got one in (Potulny!). The Admirals had a much lower number – in the 20s, I think – and got two. One of them was a bit of a softie and I don’t give Boucher a pass on it, but the other I don’t think he had a chance on. The closing minutes were a flurry of action, but Ramo just didn’t collapse, and it ended with disappointment. It was not as bad as when they lost to Hershey the day after Thanksgiving. At least the Phantoms played good hockey. The Admirals are not that good. They capitalized on small mistakes and their goalie kept them alive. Then I was in the car and listened to the Flyers/Avalanche game. It was tied at 1 until the last seconds of the second period, when the Avs scored to make it 2-1. I cursed at the Flyers. I got home to watch the last part of the third period, where the game started to look almost exactly like the one I had left. And it ended exactly the same, too. A 2-1 loss. However, it sounded like the Flyers played much better than they had been in the losses that followed a strong win. Too bad the cycle of win-lose-win-lose wasn’t broken.

I hope it doesn’t break tonight, either. The Flyers will play the Penguins, at home, and I really, really, really do not want the Pens to win. The only cycle that I hope is broken is the one of poor at-home play. The Flyers need to come out ferociously, slice through the Pens and score, harangue Crosby and keep his pucks out of the net. The usual story. The Flyers must get every point possible, especially against division foes. Only five points separate the top from the bottom in the Atlantic! Unfortunately, the game is on Vs. which means I will have to choke on the constant Sidney adulation, which is beyond tolerable.

Other scores: after losing at home to the Admirals, the Phantoms went to Hershey on Saturday and won 3-2. (Taking a page out of the Flyers’ book, apparently. Lose at home, win away!) On Saturday, in overtime, Iowa beat San Antonio 3-2, only to undo the goodness by losing to San Antonio Sunday night 1-2. The Iowa Stars play tonight in Milwaukee, who are coming off a 2-1 win over Toronto. The Milwaukee Admirals are one point ahead of the Stars in the standings. I had looked at the standings Sunday morning, and saw that the Stars were fourth in the West, but now are fifth again, with those stupid Admirals just ahead. Standings-wise, this game tonight is BIG. Go Stars!

Yesterday, the Flyers organization traded Jussi Timonen to Dallas for a conditional draft pick in 2009. I was looking at the Dallas message board and saw the thread about it, and so was not thrown into a tizzy when I later saw headlines that read:

FLYERS TRADE TIMONEN TO DALLAS

Flyers fans the world over had a collective heart attack, thinking it meant Kimmo.

With Bartulis and Jonsson coming back from injury, the Phantoms defense is once again fully stacked, and Timonen was hovering around the lower pairings. There just isn’t much room for him. He’s not a terrible defenseman. The fact is that the Flyers organization at this time has so much depth at that position that he’s just not going to get to play much. Perhaps with the Stars, he will get better ice-time. I don’t know too much about the Stars’ defense corps, but I have a feeling that Jussi Timonen will be playing for Iowa. I hope he likes Des Moines.

Now the Stars have two Jussis.

My next hockey, outside of watching the Flyers on TV tonight, Thursday night (Canadiens), and Saturday night (Carolina), will be the Phantoms on Friday (vs. Marlies) and Sunday (vs. Wilkes-Barre). After having had to go two weeks with no Phantoms games, I’m really looking forward to these two games this weekend. I will be missing the Phantoms/Bears game on the 21st, as I will be going home to Iowa on that day, and will be in Iowa when the Phantoms play the baby Sens on the 28th. In fact, I will be in Des Moines watching the Stars play the Rivermen. I am glad that I will only be missing one hockey game, in effect, but it will make it another two weeks until I see a game. I will (presumably) be back in Delaware long before the Phantoms next home game, the 4th of January, vs. Lowell.

P.S. Downie down, Potulny up. I think this is a great move. Potulny has been playing outstandingly for the Phantoms, time to give him a shot in the NHL.

P.P.S. I watched the Bruins/Sabres game last night as I did some sewing, and was pleased when Buffalo lost 4-1. I enjoyed looking at Lindy Ruff's pouting, displeased mug. However, I was displeased that the Bruins won. I don't like them at all this year. I didn't much like them ever, but this year? They've taken the place of the Sabres as a team I despise in large part because of their fan base. I still despise the Sabres because of their fans, but since the Sabres are sucking this year (ha ha!), their fans are not nearly so obnoxious. But Lindy Ruff still irritates me. I think one of the most amusing moments of the game was near the end, when the referee was throwing out a penalty and you could hear f-bombs going between him and the player he was penalizing. Nice broadcast! Hahaha.

Overreaction.

Iowa Stars lost last night 4-3 in close one. Lessard scored the game-tying goal and was called up today to Dallas. Hope he's back by December 28th. I have plans to be at the Wells-Fargo Arena and I'd like to see some of my old chums, so while Junior's probably chuffed to be back in Dallas, I have my fingers crossed he won't be after Christmas (at least for that Friday). I also have my fingers crossed that Joel will be sent down for that day, too. Sorry, Joel. It's just coz I want to see you play again. Just one night.

Tonight the Flyers are in the Twin Cities. Steve Downie's been called up, and no one will officially announce that he will be playing, but chances are good. Bring on the microscope. Supposedly Niittymaki gets the nod in net. Since I now have my home network all set up and there is wireless goodness in the House of Crusher (wireless goodness that I am paying for, that is), I may just blog real-time tonight, like the old days when I listened online. I want to see some good hockey tonight. Go Flyers!

So, Riley Cote was suspended three games yesterday for the Niskanen hit. We’ve already established that I have no idea what the hell the league thinks when it doles out its suspensions. I doubt the league even has concrete criteria. It must not. Hartnell’s hit, while in my mind not dirty or done with intent to injure, was worse than Cote’s, yet Hartnell got one fewer game. Scott Nichol laid a cross-check to the face of Brisebois the other night that was, by all accounts, almost as identical to Boulerice’s stick-to-Kesler’s-face as a replay. Boulerice’s hit was worth twenty-five (25) games, remember. TWENTY-FIVE. Nichol, not wearing orange and black with a flying P on the chest, was given five.

Five games.

There are people saying to Flyers fans, “Look! Someone else got suspended! Stop your ‘conspiracy’ whining!”

If Nichol had gotten 25 games, I’d stop whining. Nichol is a repeat offender, hit someone as unnecessarily as Boulerice, and did not get the same treatment. The league had a golden chance to exhibit some rationality and consistency in punishment and failed. Again. AGAIN AGAIN AGAIN. I’m still waiting for Sutton’s punishment(s). He’s got at minimum two dirty hits this year and nary a suspension (despite one of them being “suspendable”). Gaborik’s elbow to Kesler’s face was worse than Cote’s hit on Niskanen, and he skates away suspension-free, and only got two minutes in the box. I’m still amazed that Ohlund only got 4 games for breaking a dude’s leg bone with a deliberate two-handed slash. After all the big talk about trying to make a point to crack down on the illegal and/or dangerous hits, the league has failed, failed, FAILED to hold itself up to its own standards (set while punishing the Flyers), dishing out suspensions with little apparent logic. I hate the suspensions being laid down on the Flyers, not because I feel that they were all innocent (though it is true I do not feel all the suspensions were right), but because similar incidents are ignored all around the league. I do think 25 games for a cross-check to the face not resulting in injury is too harsh. But if that’s going to be the standard, then fine. Just give the same punishment to another cross-check to the face not resulting, not 20 games lighter. I’ve said it before. I will no doubt have cause to say it again after this. Consistency, NHL, that’s all I ask at this point. If we can’t have rationality in the levying of suspensions, at least be consistent with it. Across the NHL, not just within the Flyers organization. Please. Even Flyers beat-writer Tim Panaccio has decided enough’s enough. In today’s Inquirer, the following paragraph was printed:

“Was Scott Hartnell's hit on Andrew Alberts worse than Scott Parker's hit on Dion Phaneuf? Was Phaneuf's blind-side hit on Jiri Hudler worse than either of them? The two other hits were far worse than Hartnell's. Look around the NHL on any given night and there are dangerous hits. Yet the last we checked, only the Flyers have had players suspended. This is not to defend the Flyers. They have earned their suspensions. The point is, NHL disciplinarian Colin Campbell promised justice across the board, and so far it has been justice only in Philadelphia. The NHL has to get tougher on head shots everywhere - not just here.”

Too bad that he missed the fact that a few other players have been suspended. Just not for the same things, at the same rate, that the Flyers have been. But we see eye to eye as far as the business about “justice across the board.”

And now, the Flyers have been put “on watch” by the league. What, that’s new? Every last hit by a Flyer has been scrutinized to the death ever since Downie hit McAmmond. Now it’s official, and what’s to stop opponents from playing dead just to screw the Flyers? Can’t wait.

To date, the Flyers have 5 suspensions, including Downie’s in the preseason. The rest of the NHL apparently now has 5, catching up. User known as Steve L on HF Boards gave me what will probably be the biggest laugh of my day (until I go out with K. tonight): “The Flyers can never hold a lead.”

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Iowa plays Manitoba tonight. Go Stars!

Flyers: why do you go on the road and beat teams like Ottawa and Carolina without appearing to bat an eye, then come home and ruin your fans’ nights? I want it to be known that I was not at the game on Saturday, so that 1) you all know that it was not the jinx of my presence at the game that led to the 4-1 loss to Dallas and 2) I can tell you all how glad I am that I did not pay to see it. In addition to the terrible play by the Flyers, the only other reason I considered going to the game, Joel Lundqvist, was a scratch. I wouldn’t have even been mollified by getting to see him. Even though I did not spend $100 to see the game on Saturday, I cannot say as it was much comfort. We left the place after the second period. Much later, I was back home and watched the third period, hoping that the Flyers may have at least scored another goal to make it a close one, but all the Stars did was keep them out of the offensive zone. Horrible game, guys. And Riley Cote? Look to see him suspended for plastering Matt Niskanen to the boards. Niskanen wasn’t hurt, though his helmet flew off. Cote’s elbow came up a bit, and I think his feet came up too – but I can’t remember that detail specifically. He was tossed with a match penalty, which led me to rage rage rage, knowing that it meant automatic review and almost certainly will lead to a suspension, regardless of Niskanen’s condition after the hit.

Stupid hit, yeah. Give him the penalties. Not worth a suspension.

Worth an endless thread on HF Boards, though. Naturally – another Flyer out of control, right? Get this. According to tsn.ca, there was a deliberate cross-check to the face in another game – other accounts I have read tell it to be strikingly similar to Boulerice’s stick-to-the-face of Kesler in Vancouver that led to a 25-gamer. Want to make bets about how many games Nichol gets, if any? I doubt it will be anywhere near 25. And is there a ten-page thread about it? Nah. Who cares, if it’s not the Flyers?

I just ate lunch, and I’m having cynicism for dessert.

The Phantoms come home from a weekend away with a 1-2 record. Friday, they posted another big, booming 6-0 shutout in Hamilton. Nice! Boucher had himself a nice shutout streak going on, but blew it Saturday night by losing to Lake Erie 2-1. Remember early in the season when the Monsters were the league’s punching bag? Guess those days are long gone. Sunday, the Phantoms tried to erase a 3-0 deficit against the Marlies, but still lost, 4-2. Not a great weekend for Philadelphia hockey, but it at least sounds like the Phantoms tried, which is more than I can say for the Flyers.

After last Monday’s terrible loss, I turned the Flyers logo magnet on my car upside down, in disgust. After they won on Wednesday, I turned it back ‘round. I meant to turn it upside down again this morning, when I left for work, in order to proclaim my displeasure with my favorite team in the NHL, but I forgot. Don’t worry – when I go out into the parking lot after work, I’ll see it, and FLIP! When you deserve praise again, boys, I will turn it back to normal. I am passive-aggressive. I can’t actually slap the players, and my blog’s readership is light, so I will announce my disappointment this way. It will reach the largest audience out on the roads of DE and PA.

The Iowa Stars had a better weekend. 3-2 win over Chicago on Saturday (Lessard, Petersen, Vas), 4-0 win over Manitoba on Friday [Vas, Lee (2), Petersen]. Apparently, while it was not Philly’s weekend for hockey, the Stars organization was eating it up [well, except for Dallas losing to Pittsburgh 4-1 Friday night. Which makes me even angrier at the Flyers. Can’t score more than one goal (that in the first minute of the game) against a team that just played the night before?? COME ON, GUYS! Throw me a bone, here.]

Lastly, why is this funny? Maxime Talbot dressed in Crosby’s jersey and took his stick and skated around and fooled the crowd at an optional practice into thinking he was Sidney. Oh, Maxie, you’re such a neat, stand-up guy, tricking those poor schoolkids who idolize Crosby. Ha ha ha! Such good fun. No, wait. You’re not a neat, stand-up guy. You’re a tool. (At least it appears in the photograph that he’s gotten rid of that ridiculous facial hair.) Maybe he was feeling a little attention-starved and thought he might sneak a little of Crosby’s limelight and pretend it was for him. My favorite comment was the one that started out “Maxime who?”

I hate the Penguins.