Two minutes for cross-checking

The consensus among lunch-time hockey-discussing pals at work is that the Flyers played down to the Kings’ level too much during the game on Tuesday. A team such as the Flyers should not have been taken to overtime by a team such as the Kings, even with Anze Kopitar on their squad. In the middle of the game there just seemed to be too many little mistakes that allowed too much pressure by the Kings and not enough cohesive action on the part of the Flyers. To be honest I was a little bored during the game; I was tired and the game was not doing a good job of spurring my weary brain. The overtime session was what I thought the whole game should have been like; the Flyers controlling and forcing the Kings to make the little mistakes, but for most of the 5 minutes the Flyers weren’t able to capitalize. It took a soccer-style slide-tackle (unintentional) to win the game for Philadelphia. Richards passed the puck to Hartnell, who was bearing down the middle toward the goalie, and he couldn’t get his stick on the puck, couldn’t control it at all, really. And he realized he was going to kill the goalie if he didn’t stop. So he slammed on the brakes, sideways, and went down. The puck went off his skates and into the goal.

It was reviewed, of course, but it only took a minute. There absolutely was no kicking motion on that play, intentional or not. Hartnell was sliding, throwing up all kinds of snow, and the puck was redirected as he slid. They had the camera on Hartnell when he realized his goal was going to stand, and he said “BOO-YEAH!” Yeah, they gave the Kings a point, but no matter – they are way out west and way at the bottom and so not on the Flyers’ radar. All that matters is that the Flyers got two points.

And the Devils lost to Pittsburgh that night, so the Devils didn’t gain on them; the Pens moved in but the Flyers took sole possession of the division lead with the win over the Kings.

Nice.

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I didn’t watch the AHL All-Star game with much attention devoted to it; I had it on the TV, muted, while I chatted with my dad (about other hockey stuffs), so watched the score move around a bit. I saw Toby Petersen score a goal, but didn’t realize until I was reading about it later that it was an historic penalty shot (first-ever in the AHL ASG). What? They called a penalty in an All-Star Game?? Way to go, you Iowa Star. I saw Picard play a bit too, but the whole game wasn’t anything special to me, as I realized that I dislike more than half the players that were out on the ice. Munroe should have been out there. Might have paid more attention had Jared Ross been able to play. Plus, the guys didn’t play together all that spectacularly and the game went to a shootout – do I remember correctly and it bypassed an OT session entirely? – which, of course … yeah.

Say the ASG were to be played in Philadelphia again (an unlikely scenario, given the feeling that the Spectrum, thus perhaps also the Phantoms, are not going to be sticking around after a year or two, thanks to this despicable Philly Live! project); I would go to the game. If it’s broadcast on TV next year, and I’m around, I will probably look at it again. But I was just as happy to watch the Ducks/Wild last night as I was to watch the AHL ASG.

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So, I watched the Ducks/Wild last night. I kind of like the Wild’s jersey, and I kind of dislike the Ducks (Pronger) a lot. So I was hoping for a Wild win. (Good reasons?) I was also glad to watch the game so that I could see some players play that I pretty much never otherwise get to see – and to see the team that the Flyers will play on Saturday. The first period was kind of boring, but the second period opened up really quickly, when Minnesota’s Rolston fired a shot that went over J.-S. Giguere’s head and into the net. I think Rolston was as surprised as anyone that he scored on that shot. But when the goalie actually ducks* to avoid getting hit by the puck (yeah, that slapshot would have hit him in the mask, I’m sure he didn’t even think about it, instinct overrides sometimes), chances are good it might go in. Yeah, that’s right. Giguere DUCKED. ACCCK!



The game recap on NHL describes the incident this way: “Giguere was going down on a slap shot by Rolston, but the puck was deflected by Francois Beauchemin and went into the top corner of the net 82 seconds into the period.” Yeah, I am thinking about it again, and I don’t think he was in the process of dropping to cover the bottom. He ducked. Come on.

Some 30-odd seconds later, the Wild scored again. And then again a couple minutes later, to take a 3-0 lead. I was pretty sure I would start seeing a snoozer of a hockey game, with Minnesota “clogging the neutral zone”, but Anaheim scored. I watched the rest of the second period, and then I began to lose interest, as I was by then having a conversation on the telephone and getting tired. I see this morning that Minnesota kept up the action and won 5-1. Between now and Saturday, when the Ducks come to Philly, Anaheim will be in St. Louis playing the Blues. They will probably be a little tired by the time they get to us.

Nice.

In other NHL action last night, the Penguins lost big-time to the Thrashers. Feels odd to desire a Thrashers win, but as K. described it (more accurately than I did, initially), I despise the Thrashers less than I despise the Pens. Atlanta went up 2 goals (Holik – gag – and Kovalchuk) and then Kovalchuk was knocked out of the game, literally, by a knee-on-knee hit by Jaarko Ruutu.

I despise Jaarko Ruutu (as a player, I know nothing about him personally). I watched the hit a few times, and I suppose he may not have been trying to blow out Kovalchuk’s knee, as Kovalchuk tried to avoid the hit and I think the knee-on-knee contact was all that happened of what was going to be just a huge whole-body check. It is possible that Ruutu was going to do the knee thing anyway, and he’s got sort of a bad reputation for dirty play, so his getting tossed wasn’t really a surprise. The Thrashers scored 4 goals and Pittsburgh only one. That keeps the stupid Penguins back from the Flyers in the standings.

Nice.

The Devils and the Penguins play on Vs. on Monday. The Flyers have that night off, so I think I will sit and watch this game. It’s another one of those Good God Why Can’t They Both LOOOOSE games, but I’m really going to have to give the Devils the edge on this one. To use K.’s description again: I despise the Devils far less than I despise the Penguins. And I despise the Devils a lot, so you draw your own conclusions about how much I despise the Penguins.

I wanted to watch the Chicago/Colorado game, but it was on quite late, and I was asleep almost before it even started. Yeah, that’s right. I went to sleep at 9:30. I am lazy. I recorded it, maybe I will watch it tomorrow or Saturday.

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Tonight we’ve got the Flyers/Rangers on TV. It’s another home game for the Flyguys, and I’m going to be out somewhere watching it with coworkers. Niittymaki is slated to be in net. I hear rumors that Valiquette will be starting to NYR, rather than Lundqvist, so I hope Niitty still brings his A game even though he won’t be facing his Swedish Olympic nemesis. The Flyers will have to play a tighter game against the Rags than they did against the Kings, and two more divisional points here will be massive. GO FLYERS.

Speaking of Niittymaki, there is a very good article about him at NHL.com. It’s great to hear that the two goalies in Philly have a good relationship, as things seem to be settling out that they will be a “tandem” goaltending team rather than a strict starter-backup; we don’t need a situation such as we had a couple years ago when Robert Esche was all pouty and “I know who they’re going to play in the playoffs, and it’s not going to be me.” And for the good of the team, we’ve got two very solid and capable goalies, whoever plays on a given night the team is going to play well in front of them and they are going to give the Flyers a real chance each game. It’s a good scene. (I love Niittymaki. I hope they hold on to him. The day he signs a long-term contract is the day I buy a Niitty jersey. I might anyway, but right now, I’m going to hold off. Speaking of jerseys, I’d like my Mike Richards one to show up, please. Any day now.)

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And the Forsberg update: this morning Bill Meltzer (my favorite Flyers hockey writer) reports that Foppa's given his agent the green-light to discuss terms with NHL teams. There are still some questions up in the air about his intentions, but I like my strong feeling that he'll be back in North America. And when he signs with the Flyers, I will savor the day. I recall all too well arriving at my hotel, the night before my interview here in Wilmington, starving and in a poor mood from a long day of poor traveling, turning on the TV intending to watch the Flyers play the Leafs and seeing Forsberg discussing having been traded.

NOOOOOOOOOOOO!! (I understood why it happened, but that didn't mean I had to like it, even as I now appreciate and enjoy the fruits of that trade.)

I hope all those feelings are undone, soon, and Forbserg comes home to Philadelphia. Apparently a Swedish paper speculates that he will be. (I can barely read Swedish, but that is what it seems to say?)

Yeah, I get all soppy. He's my favorite player and I want to see him play here again. I don't believe for even half a second -- no, not even a quarter second -- Eklund's rumor that he may be going to the Rangers. THE RANGERS? Please.

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Speaking of Bill Meltzer, he summed up the status of a few AHLers for us in this blog. Naturally he is quite a lot better at the analysis than I ever will be, so read what he has to say. I pretty much agree with it all.



*Ducks, ducks. Ha ha.

According to the Penguins, Georges Laraque will not be suspended.

This is unbelievable.

The rampant double-standardism in this league makes me ill.

Friday night’s Phantoms/Bears game was, for the most part, excellent. The first period was riveting, with no whistle until almost ten minutes had gone by. The action went from end to end, good passing, good saves, just a great hockey game. Unfortunately, the Bears scored first, with about 5 minutes left to play in the first period. We were all pretty disappointed, because it was Teddy Bear Toss night (and I had stopped to buy a few teddy bears after work); bears meant to be tossed when the Phantoms scored their first goal. It seemed it would have been more satisfying for that to have been the game’s first goal, and there were some mumblings as to whether the Phantoms would even score (last year’s Teddy Bear Toss game had the Phantoms not scoring, and so the bears being tossed out close to the end of the game). At the end of the first period, the Phantoms were losing 1-0.

The second period was certainly not as enjoyable as the first. In the first, there were three penalties called – but because two of them (concurrent roughing minors) came at 19:18, with the period just about concluded, it really seemed like there was only one called. In the second, the referee startling whistling stupid stuff and missing obvious stuff, and the mood was getting pretty ugly. I kept hoping the chicken dance song would come on so we could all, as one, chant “HEY REF YOU SUCK” … but they did not play it, and so we had to content ourselves with a heterogeneous smattering of insults from all angles. Denis Tolpeko scored the first goal for the Phantoms, in the second period, and so we got to toss our teddy bears. Some got stuck in the nets at the ends of the ice. One fell into the hands of a young teenage girl in front of us. She screamed in triumph and refused to throw it onto the ice. I watched as her friends tried to tell her to throw it out onto the ice, but she simply would not. “No! It’s a souvenir!” she insisted. It was not that she did not understand what was going on; she knew what she was doing. I was getting pretty mad about the situation and was probably 30 seconds away from leaning over and telling her that she was basically stealing by not throwing the bear onto the ice, but before I had quite worked up enough annoyance at her shrill selfishness, the dad in charge of the group told her to throw the bear, and one of the other girls grabbed it out of her hands and threw it.

It hit one of the Hershey Bears, standing at his bench, in the head. He just kind of blinked. We roared with laughter.

The second period ended with the score 1-1. In addition to a goal and some teddy bears, we got to see Nate Guenin fight Scott Barney (and somehow Beaulieu ended up in the box with a roughing minor, putting the Phantoms down a man). The third period opened with a good even-strength goal by Kyle Greentree (around 2 minutes in). We celebrated that for only a minute before Hershey tied it again! Theirs was a power play goal; Ryan Potulny (playing against his brother that night) was in the box for hooking, and I’m pretty sure we did not agree with the initial call. But three minutes later, Tolpeko scored again and the Phantoms were up 3-2. I did feel nervous about that because there was lots of time left in the game, and the hateful Bears were playing strong. Sure enough, three minutes later, they scored again and it was tied.

The game remained a tie through the OT session. Even with a lucky power play given to them with a minute left in the OT period, the Phantoms did not score and the game went to a shootout.

You know how I feel about those.

Tolpeko, he of two goals on the night: score
Potulny, he of occasional hot game-winners: miss (I don’t know what he was trying to do).
Greentree, he of timely goals: score!
Picard, I'm uncertain how he got into the lineup: miss
Matsumoto, 1 assist that evening: miss

Luckily, the Bears scoring went No, Yes, No, No, and No, so Greentree ended up winning the game for the Phantoms two home games in a row. Nice!

Two points for the Phantoms Friday, and only one point for them Saturday as they went again to a shootout against Bridgeport; another loss to this team that I just don’t feel they should be losing to. So the Phantoms collected three points going into the All-Star break. They remain ahead in their division by seven points.

Stefan Ruzicka didn’t play Friday; he was announced as a scratch, and we all wondered what was up with that. I knew about his altercation earlier in the week, but did not realize his missing the game was anything more than a coach’s decision (or injury, but that seemed unlikely) – turns out he was suspended by the AHL for five games. About Ruzicka: I was thinking that I don’t see him staying very long in the Flyers organization if he doesn’t manage to make the big team outright this fall. He’s too good for the AHL but the way he plays now I just don’t see a place for him to fit in. He’s too inconsistent and from the stands it looks like an attitude issue – you’ve read me complain about apparent laziness several times, right? But he’s not a terrible player by any means and some other team, one without the depth that the Flyers have got right now, may be willing to take him on in some kind of nice trade. Otherwise, I can see him going back to Europe. He is a very frustrating player because sometimes he can just be effective, and wow; then he will turn around and make you want to smack him upside the head for being blatantly ineffective with no reason for it.

There were an announced 11,000+ fans at the game Friday night, and most were Phantoms fans; there were some Bears fans who had the nerve to stand up and rattle cowbells when their fools scored, but it was enjoyable to have a lot of the house full.

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At the game on Friday, they were displaying the out-of-town AHL scores, and Peoria was beating Iowa 1-0. I was not very surprised, but still got all bristly when K. suggested it didn’t matter if Iowa won or lost (they suck anyway, was his argument, as I recall). I tried arguing that points between Iowa and its division rivals do matter, because those last four teams are within spitting distance of each other. My impression is that he doesn’t care what’s going on out West very much at this time. Well, I care. Iowa played Rockford on Saturday, their first trip to that team’s arena (I won’t type their name). They won 2-1. It may be a blip on the radar screen, but it’s a pretty significant win as far as Iowa is concerned. Second only to Providence in the league, that team of players that used to be in Norfolk has got 66 points. If Iowa can beat Rockford, can’t they beat just about anyone? I wish it were that simple.

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I didn’t see much of the All-Star game last night, but I read that Mike Richards had an assist. I liked to see him out playing on the few shifts I did get to see. On one hand, I like the All-Star game because there are some pretty goals and some dazzling passes, but don’t kid yourself, it’s not a real game by any stretch. No hitting. Not struggling. Could the defense be any more porous as a result? I was surprised that the score ended up being only 7-6 (in favor of the East, yay!). They were talking to Rick Nash at the end of the game (he scored three goals) and he said something about “shinny hockey” – at least, that’s what I think he said. Initially I heard a different word entirely, but couldn’t believe he would say that in an interview for Vs., and so for a few seconds struggled to translate what I assumed was a misheard word.

Gotta say, though I watched only one period and can’t say what it was like for the rest of the game, it was wonderful not having to hear you-know-who’s name much. I’m sure it was said, but it certainly wasn’t over and over and over and over in no connection whatsoever to what was on the TV at any given moment. What a refreshing turn of events.

Though it has only been since Thursday, I’ve felt kind of adrift from the Flyers, since they don’t play until Tuesday. No Flyers game this weekend? What the heck did they expect me to do?


Skiing for the All-Star Break.

Flyers vs. Kings tomorrow. That reminds me, I got an issue of The Hockey News in the mail on Saturday and figured the cover was pretty much insulting to everyone mentioned on it. It features John Tavares and Steve Stamkos, clad in their Canada jerseys from the World Juniors, holding gold medals. “HEY L.A.,” it says, “STAY BAD!” with a byline of something like, “This could be your future.” If I were L.A., I’d be pretty annoyed by it, to say the least. I mean, sure, if you suck you get some kind of compensation with good picks [but let’s face it, you can be the worst team in the league (and in a franchise’s history) and still get the shaft – I mean, it happened to the Flyers. Pat Kane now tears it up for the Blackhawks, who stole Pick #1 thanks to the draft lottery. (Would the Flyers have taken him at #1 anyway, had they had that pick? I don’t know.)] But are they really suggesting that a team should just tank – deliberately? – in order to get a shot at Tavares and/or Stamkos? That is irresponsible. A poor joke, if that’s what it is… At the top of the cover, there were a couple other headlines; one was something about “Columbus Blue Jackets for real: FINALLY!” I love the suggestion that they have just been a joke for the rest of their existence (maybe they have, but is it really nice to come right out and imply it on a magazine cover?). There was something about teams’ “Glue Guys” too. Oh, hey, you’re not really all that good, and no one knows your names, but you’re important – really! You hold the team together! (Colby Armstrong being one of those guys, for the Penguins. Ugh, I hate that dude.) I enjoy reading what’s in the magazine, but sometimes I roll my eyes.

P.S. Waiting to hear anything about BGL's punishment for what happened the other night. Anything? Anything?

I hate the media. The Flyers won last night, 4-3 over the Penguins in a pretty tight game. The Flyers led, then the game was tied, then they led, then the game was tied, then they led again, then the tying goal was allowed after review (when it should not have been, but not for the reason it was being reviewed); but then they took the lead and held on for the win. There were two fights, there was pretty great hockey played. The Flyers controlled the situation for the most part, limiting the Penguins to 24 shots (8 in the first, 5 in the second, 11 in the third, with some very long stretches where the Penguins couldn’t have made a shot on goal had someone offered them $10 million for it). It was the opposite of what happened on Tuesday.

But in the game report today on TSN.ca, titled “Laraque levels Downie in Flyers’ win”, the first thing anyone wants anyone to remember is that Steve Downie got in trouble in the preseason, and that four other Flyers got in suspension trouble too. “Wow, how the season's changed for Philadelphia. Now the first-place Flyers are the ones labelling a hit dangerous and deliberate - this one against Downie - and calling for a suspension.” Only after laying all this on do they get to talking about what actually happened in the game. And then they make the game misconducts Laraque and Downie each earned sound similar. Laraque’s was for throwing Downie into the boards (at least they didn’t mince too many words while describing it as Laraque “drilling” him headfirst), and, according to this article, Downie was “tossed in the third for fighting.” Way to skip the pertinent part; his shirt wasn’t tied down. Sounds much less sensational that way, though, doesn’t it? Oh, Canada. I know you hate the Flyers. But do you have to make it so freaking obvious? Some responsible journalism, please.

Here’s the YouTube.



Some people say that Downie embellished the effects of being shoved headfirst into the boards last night by a Penguin piece of trash (a.k.a. Georges Laraque), that he was doing his Oscar-worthy best to draw a stiffer penalty than Laraque otherwise deserved, that because he did get up and even rejoined the game and fought in the third period he can’t possibly have been hurt enough to warrant lying on the ice and having to be assisted off (he was on his feet, he didn’t need a stretcher). To those people I have this story to tell:

Last summer, I went mountain biking a lot. One time, I was going down a hill, pretty fast, and thought I would slow down a little bit. I squeezed my front brake at a second that turned out to be a completely wrong second, as I went over a shallow step in the path, and I went flying over the handlebars. I don’t know exactly how fast I was going, but it was fast; and I landed face-first on the path with my bike on my back. Then, my companion crashed into me, so I had an additional 170 pounds of humanity and another bike on my back. When the clutter was cleared, I laid on the ground for a couple minutes, afraid to move, rattled, shaken, scared to death at what had just happened. But eventually I got up. I was OK – for the most part, never mind the cuts on my chin and my shoulder, my contused arm and hand, and having eaten half the state of Delaware when I met the dirt path with my face. But for a little bit there, I wasn’t sure, and I sure was hell wasn’t springing to my feet seconds after having hit the ground with my head. Even though I feared my arm had been broken (it wasn’t), I would even have gotten back on my bike and finished the ride (we were several miles away from the car), but the trigger shifter had busted.

The point being: I don’t see how you can blame Downie for not jumping up to his skates right after being shoved into the boards (intentionally, I don’t care what Laraque says – Downie had his back to him for ages and the monstrous dude had all the time in the world to decide not to put his equipment across Downie’s back and shove him toward the boards) so that his head crashed into them. I can’t say for sure he wasn’t embellishing, but personally I doubt it, and I don’t know why he’s suddenly being crucified for not getting up right away when obviously he was fine since he came back to play and fight in the third period.* When you are involved in something that is scary and dangerous and can have resulted in serious physical harm, sometimes you just take a few minutes to catch your breath. He hit his head, fools. Even if his neck wasn’t broken, and if he wasn’t concussed, it doesn’t mean he didn’t see stars for a little while there.

I don’t want to hear any crap about how Downie deserved what he got. Or anything about how Laraque’s shove was the same as Jones hitting Bergeron. Many long seconds, Laraque had, to assess the situation and not to push Downie across the numbers. Jones had a flash of a second. And it’s not the same as Downie hitting McAmmond, either. Downie made a big hit on someone who was watching his own pass and not paying attention, whereas Georges Laraque lined Downie up, watched his back as he approached him, and drilled him into the wall.

Laraque: "If I want to hit somebody from behind, he's not going to get up. It wasn't intended to hurt. I couldn't believe I got 5 minutes for that."

Give me a break, Laraque! You are lucky he didn’t get hurt, whether or not you intended it. Regardless, you shoved him, from behind, several feet into the wall, you ass. That’s why you got five minutes for that. I can’t believe you need some chick like me to explain it to you. And if you don’t get suspended, I will be slack-jawed with outrage. Do I have to even type If it were Downie that had done that to some Penguin….?? Yet I’m not going to bet any money – not even a fricking penny – that the NHL is going to get this even partially right.

It is maddening that this reverse Downie incident is all anyone is going to talk about. Never mind that the Flyers beat the Penguins for the fourth time this season. Never mind that they did so in spite of the league’s best efforts to keep the Flyers from getting away with it. Who cares that while Malkin did get a goal, they kept him from even having his name mentioned for much of the rest of the game. Except for a few lapses, the Flyers looked nothing -- nothing -- like the team that played on Tuesday.

Umberger scored the first goal after Briere won a face-off in the Penguins’ zone. The puck went to Jason Smith, who slapped it toward the net. I don’t know if he was trying to score, or pass, but R. J. was there to help it on its way past Conklin. It was the first of three points last night for Umberger.

Malkin tied the game at one apiece when he got the puck in down low against Biron and fancy-pantsed it in. I was pretty annoyed. I’m not a big fan of Malkin’s, but that’s probably just a function of the team he plays for. He’s a pretty damn good player to say the least. But he was held off the scoresheet for the rest of the game, which means the Flyers did a good job of taking care of one big threat. They didn’t do too badly overall, keeping Sergei Gonchar down to only one assist as well. Three goals for the Penguins, that’s more than I’d like to see out of that trash, but at least it wasn’t all Malkin walking all over the place.

About midway through the second period, Randy Freaking Jones scored the go-ahead (at least, what was the go-ahead at that moment). Oh I tell you it was one of the most awesome set-ups I’ve ever seen. Scott Hartnell corralled the puck low, off to the side of the net, and he held onto it. Conklin went down at the net’s corner, waiting for it. Hartnell held onto the puck. No one seemed to move. Conklin wavered a bit, positioning himself, waiting for the shot that never came. Hartnell held onto the puck. Suddenly, Randy Jones was in the high slot, and Hartnell moved. Conklin was down as Hartnell passed the puck to Jones, and even with Orpik behind Conklin in the crease, Jones fired the shot and scored. I loved how patient Hartnell was. Conklin had that angle covered, and it was amazing how Hartnell didn’t waste the opportunity. I like to think he knew exactly what he was doing, that it wasn’t just that he was waiting and considering taking a shot, somehow finagling a goal past the ready Conklin; I like to think he was dallying and waiting for a Flyer to get in position with all the Penguins fooled. It was great. I still don’t like Randy Jones, but I will take his third goal of the season and cheer. (It is true he played 1000x better last night than he did Tuesday and indeed has done for a while. As far as I can remember, I had nothing to complain about with respect to his play. In fact I recall a particularly magnificent and crucially-timed poke-check that probably saved a goal. A good way to make up for the horrendous non-play of Tuesday that led to a goal.)

Sykora for the Pens tied it again when Briere was in the box for a borderline goalie interference call. I love how in the last two games, Briere’s been sent to box for iffy calls and goals have been scored on the resultant PP. Thanks, referees. (I know the Pens got only two PPs last night and the Flyers got seven. It just annoys me that they scored on one that maybe shouldn’t have been.)

Then the Laraque / Downie situation occurred with barely three seconds left in the period. The whole thing was stupid on Laraque’s part, but the fact that the period was about to end anyway makes it seem even stupider. That five-minute major gave the Flyers ample opportunity to score on the “never-ending” power-play in the third period, and you’d have thought with the #1 ranked PP in the league, they could have done more than score once, on toward the end, when Jim Vandermeer scored from nearly the blue line, through a bunch of traffic. It was a lot like Sykora’s goal, but this one was for the good guys. I still don’t like Vandermeer that much, but I will take his goal and cheer.

The Flyers were still on the power play at that point, but blew it by allowing a short-handed goal right at the end of it. It was the goal that was reviewed, because the net was bumped as the puck went in and was tipping backwards. Was it all the way off the moorings? In the end the league ruled that it was not and the goal stood, but the fact is that Biron was interfered with before the goal and that should have been called. Had it been appropriately called, play would have stopped and the goal would not have happened at all. So I was pretty mad at the situation, fuming that they called the goal and missed the penalty (I was siding heavily with the announcer, who was saying that Ok, so the net wasn’t off, but the goalie was interfered with, and since they can’t go back and review and change a non-call, they should just waive off the goal to be fair. What’s fair about this league? Nothing.). Imagine my fierce glee and the “[BLEEP] YOU NHL” text messages that went back and forth between J. and me when half a minute later Knuble stuffed the game-winner into the net and eventually handed the Penguins and Conklin a nice big divisional loss.

Take that, NHL. I know you can’t stand it when the Flyers win, and really can’t stand it when the Penguins lose, so I am so very proud of the O&B for stuffing it in your face. I am proud of them for bouncing back after the disgusting game against the Devils and reminding everyone that they mean business.

With the win the Flyers are tied for points with the Devils, who (ha ha!) lost last night to the Canadiens, in regulation, 4-3, and hold tenuously the lead in the Atlantic.

It’s a good way to go into the All-Star break. Since I am going skiing this weekend, it seems unlikely that I will get to watch the All-Star game live, but I’m going to DVR it so that I can watch Mike Richards play in his first All-Star game. (I like how we all say “first”, somehow seeing into the future and knowing he’s going to be there again.) In the Daily News today, there is a great article about Mike Richards. I recommend taking the time to read it.

I can’t wait to get my Richards jersey.

*No, wait, I do know. He’s Steve Downie, the anti-Christ of the hockey world, and a Flyer to boot. He’s going to be crucified no matter what he does. I wouldn’t be shocked if he somehow ended up with the suspension that Laraque richly deserves.

So, Ilya Kovalchuk leaves his feet a bit and slams into Rozsival and boards him pretty dangerously. He got a couple penalties and was out the rest of the game.

Early in the season, after the Steve Downie Tried to Kill Dean McAmmond business, the league explained its “new” criteria for punishing particular hits:

1) Targeting or stalking a player

2) Launching himself

3) Unsuspecting victim

4) Late hit

5) Causing injury and/or intent to injure

This hit meets at minimum three (numbers 2, 3, and 4) and possibly four or five (I can’t tell from the YouTube clip if he stalked Rozsival, and I did not see the game, but it did seem that he may have targeted him; Rozsival looked shaken, but apparently played again in the game, so was not severely injured, and only Kovalchuk can know for sure if he intended to hurt him). For his hit (remember, according to the league, Downie’s met 4 or 5 of these, and garnered 20 games), Kovalchuk was suspended one (1) game.

Wha…? That’s a joke, right? I mean, I know Rozsival didn’t end up on the ice, unconscious, being stomped on by his own players as they rampaged to kill Kovalchuk, but really, you’ve got to be kidding me. One (1) game for meeting three to five of these so-called criteria for punishment?

Oh, right. [forehead slap]

Kovalchuk:


Downie:
[crickets]

That is, Secret Criterion #6: Starhood came into play in Downie’s case, i.e. he was not one and so got the slammer, whereas Kovalchuk – well, Mr. All-Star from Atlanta sure isn’t going to get a real punishment. Cf. Dr. Chris Pronger and his laws-of-physics-abiding elbow from last year’s playoffs (twice).

Thanks for yet another shining example of your ineptitude re: consistency and fairness across the board, Mr. Campbell of the NHL. I [heart] you.

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Phantoms lost 4-1 to Bridgeport last night. I checked the score when it was 3-0 BRI and was disheartened. I was scanning the scorecard and saw the following penalties were assessed in the second period:

2nd V S. Ruzicka 2.00 Interference 18:03
2nd V S. Ruzicka 2.00 Cross-checking 18:03
2nd V S. Ruzicka 10.00 Misconduct 18:03
2nd H M. Spiller 10.00 Misconduct 18:03

So, in a 3-0 game, Stefan Ruzicka took a double minor and then compounded it by … what? This morning I looked at a Flyers message board and read the story from someone who was at the game (I cleaned up some typos and punctuation):

… late in the 2nd something caused Stefan to snap like a crazed mad man. I didn’t catch what happened behind the play, but … Rosie put his man into the boards and follows up with a couple of nasty cross checks while the guy was down on the ice. So while in the penalty box, he was jawing back and forth with the BPT player in the box on the other side of the officials’ table, that’s when he lost it, first he fires his water bottle over the glass trying to hit the guy, then he takes his stick and stands on the bench and starts swinging his stick over the glass, knocking everything off the officials’ table and hitting someone in the back of the head. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. The official seemed ok, but they were looking at the back of his head for cuts and bruises. Anyway, they announced the penalties shortly after, and Rosie only got a double minor and a 10 min misconduct, but he didn’t return to the game in the third.

Interesting that Ruzicka should dirty his hands that way. It’s kind of like when Joni Pitkanen would suddenly cross-check someone after spending many games avoiding contact. Just as timely and useful, too. Just as Joni would put himself in the box and allow opponents power play goals, the Phantoms were down three goals and now someone that they often count on to produce removed himself from the game for losing it in the penalty box. Something was going on between the guys last night in that second period, though, for Freddy Cabana got a 5-minute fighting major too. How often does he fight?

The Phantoms have now dropped the last two against Bridgeport and the way other games fell out last night they now lead the division by only six points. Saturday they have another opportunity to put Bridgeport in their place. There is no real reason they should be losing to this team (Dubielewicz wasn’t even in goal last night).

Other AHL action: Junior Lessard and Paul Szczechura both had goals for Norfolk last night against Hershey. The game went to a shootout and in the shootout both players failed to convert, but Norfolk still won. I'm looking forward to the Phantoms playing Hershey on Friday and giving them another loss. (Fingers crossed!)

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Tonight’s entertainment on TV: Penguins at Flyers, 7 p.m. It is the fourth game between the two teams this season, and so far Philly’s got the advantage (up 3-0). As Flyers fans we can only hope that Tuesday night was simply a function of me having been at the game, and that with my absence from the Wachovia Center the Flyers will return to their winning ways. I hate to jinx my team, as you know (though I will still show up to games now and then), but there is no real reason they should lose to the Penguins tonight (of course that does not mean unreal reasons won’t raise their ugly heads and show me up). The Pens are minus you-know-who, which can’t hurt their chances (though you-know-who has been nowhere near as effective in this season’s games as he was in last year’s games) but dudes like Malkin cannot be overlooked. Winning in regulation tonight will put the Flyers ahead in points, since they are 57 to Pittsburgh’s 58. So far the Flyers have outscored the Pens 16-5, and if Tuesday night truly was just a jinxy bump in the road, then tonight should be OK. Biron’s in net and in his last 11 starts against Pittsburgh, his stats are pretty: 8-0-1 with two ties and a 1.87 GAA (3 wins this season). LET’S GO fly-ERS!

I hardly want to talk about it.

But I can’t not say anything.

The night started out right. The Flyers scored first and it was a bad goal for Marty Brodeur to let in. (Also let in a not-great second goal, which led to the entire place chanting “Maaaarty…..” in the first period. I loved that on one level, but my other levels questioned the wisdom of that. It was only the first period and two goals, people! And see what happened? Prematurely catcalling the goalie = a bad idea.)


(Oh look, it’s Randy [BLEEP]ing Jones on the jumbotron.)

Then the game went to hell. What the hell is wrong with the Flyers’ defense? I don’t think it is hyperbole to say that I have not seen such appallingly poor play since I watched a couple free Iowa Hawkeyes hockey games at the mall rink back in Coralville. Why weren’t the d-men doing anything* besides leaving Niittymaki (and, subsequently, Biron) out to dry? I’d put the blame for maaaaaaybe one goal on Niittymaki. None of the rest of it was his fault. The blame lies squarely on the heads of the idiots on the ice in front of him. This night was a goaltender’s nightmare (unless that goaltender is Martin Brodeur). If I were Niitty or Biron, I’d be cuffing dudes in the locker room.

On the ice for Devils goals –

PP #1: Gagne, Kapanen, Vandermeer, Timonen
PP #2: Carter, Kapanen, Vandermeer, Timonen
PP #3: Hatcher, Coburn, Gagne, Richards
PP #4: Hatcher, Jones, Gagne, Carter
PP #5: Hatcher, Coburn, Richards, Hartnell
EV #6: Richards, Hartnell, Vandermeer, Downie, Timonen
EV #7: Jones, Gagne, Umberger, Smith, Briere

The disgustingness of the night is rampant. Goal #4 would never have happened had Jones and Hatcher played their positions and not backed off and allowed – literally, allowed Elias to skate the length of the ice, pass them, go to the net, and score. I swear I saw red and my head hurt from screaming at the abject failure of the penalty kill. The god damned Devils had not scored a PP goal in 15 god damned PPs, and last night they got 5 in a row. Some of those calls against the Flyers were borderline (AT BEST) and it is maddening that they led to goals. Hey, referees! If you’re going to call a game “tightly”, as it was described in one article I read, call it “tightly” for BOTH SIDES. I mean, what the hell is up with calling a holding on Scottie Upshall (ok, he held) and then nothing on the two guys who mugged him afterward? What the HELL was up with the so-called “interference” on Briere, which led to a goal? Unbelievable. And what, may I ask, was Gagne roughing? And how about Dowd’s poke-check “slash”? What was truly ridiculous was the way the referees had to keep laying it on real thick – look, stripes, the Devils were running away with the game, you didn’t need to make it any easier for them by throwing Flyers into the box as fast as they could come out of it. The Devils did get a few penalties against them, but it seemed very heavily tilted against the Flyers. I am too angry to do the math to see just how much of the game was spent on special teams.

Parent. Picard. Kukkonen. PLAY THEM AND BENCH HATCHER, VANDERMEER, AND OH GOD JONES I NEVER WANT TO SEE HIM PLAY ANOTHER GAME. You know it’s a disaster when you’re sitting up there in the rafters and thinking Rory Fitzpatrick might be better in the game than who is on the ice.

There were a couple bright moments on the night:

1) Steve Downie laughing his butt off at Clarkson in a fight. Clarkson was swinging, Downie was dodging, goading him and laughing as Clarkson missed, missed, missed. Clarkson got hurt. (NOT from an eye-gouge, whatever Devils fans will have you believe.) Downie won. Carter was sitting on the bench laughing his butt off too. Oh, if only we could have heard what Downie was saying. (P.S. It was Downie’s hearing aid that was picked up off the ice, not a tooth.)

2) I ate ice cream.

This morning, I walked into work to receive a barrage of “Stay away from Flyers games!!” and threats to lock me in my office if I think I’m going to go to another game. Well, they’d best get their padlocks ready – I have tickets to ruin three more games this season.

Folks, my Flyers game win-loss record now stands at 1-10. Feel free to make bets on when I will finally decide the disappointment isn’t worth the money spent to go to these games. If they lose the next game I go to 3-2 in a tight and awesome contest, I’d still be disappointed, but for god’s sake it would be better than wanting to take a cyanide capsule during the third period to put me out of my own misery.

And that is all I want to say about that right now. I’m feeling a little emotional about the game at this moment, and I apologize for anything I may have written in these irrationally charged times.

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Crosby’s ankle’s going to keep him out for an estimated 6-8 weeks. Awww. There are lots of places you can look to see how he hit the wall. He had a hundred years to not slide into the wall skate-first. I wouldn’t have felt much sympathy (ok, none at all) had it happened in such a way that he could not have avoided it, but the way he sat on his seat and slid into the wall makes it look like he was trying to draw a penalty on a play that didn’t deserve one. Huh, that doesn’t sound like Sidney, does it? Bit you in the ass this time, didn’t it, Golden Boy?

I hope the Flyers absolutely crush the Penguins tomorrow. Another 8-2 drubbing will be just fine. There was no good excuse for last night’s play, not after going 10-1-1 since Christmas.

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Phantoms vs. Sound Tigers tonight.

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Sitting so far up in the arena made me a little nervous, until people started filling in the rows in front of us. If I looked straight down at the ice, the sensation of being in a dangerous place wasn’t as strong as if I looked across and around; doing that made my brain realize just how much open space was out there in front and below, and just how small I am. Eye level was above the jumbotron!! I hated having to stand when people wanted past us into the row, and when the Flyers scored the first goal, I started to jump out of my seat, immediately got the willies, and sat back down! While you can see the entire ice at a glance from that high up, the guys also seem about half as fast as when you sit in the lower level. (And it’s not just because the Flyers sucked and barely skated last night!) It might have been nice if the Flyers had actually played well so that watching how plays develop could be interesting; I am not happy watching Devils plays come together (but the poor play of the Flyers sure made those developments stand out and easy to follow). I have tickets to sit up in the rafters again for the Leafs/Flyers game in March, but behind the net rather than at center ice. I wonder how that will be different, but I am glad to be returning to the lower level for the game in February and the game in March against Tampa Bay.


*This may be the only game where I feel it would have been appropriate – nay, our duty as fans – to scream “DO SOMETHING!!” I’d even consider it appropriate to have screamed “HIT SOMEONE” because I saw precious little of that going on after the first period.

In three NHL games last night, the winners scored 6 goals:

Phoenix embarrassed Buffalo 6-2.

Nashville doubled up the Blues, 6-3.

And, oh the best, the Capitals beat the Penguins 6-5. I watched most of that game, seeing goals go back and forth, getting mad when all I asked of Olie the Goalie was not to let the Penguins win yet he kept allowing goals upon goals. They went all the way to the shootout and the last shooter, but the Caps finally did it. It’s not at all that I care about the Crapitals. (See? Ooh, clever.) I was cheering against the Penguins. I had the TV muted during the second period while I chatted with my parents, but I know that I didn’t miss anything that wasn’t “OMG we will update you in a few minutes about Sidney Crosby’s injury” (because of course it is changing somehow at 9 p.m.) and “Crosby is going to have an MRI tomorrow” (of course, we need to keep hearing it over and over at 9 p.m.) and “Crosby” and “Crosby” and “Evgeni Malkin is outstanding, I can’t believe how in love with him I am, just watch him move the puck, his shot is deadly, please let him look at me, please Evgeni marry me!” (You know, the stuff that is usually reserved for Crosby when he plays, but they just swapped names because their sweetheart has a sore ankle and wasn’t on the ice. He was in the press box though, with his wet hair.) I chortled when Conklin (replacing Sabourin) was exposed. I cackled when Kolzig made saves. I have a lot of schadenfreude and I wasn’t afraid to let it out last night. You want some more? Crosby’s not going to be in the All-Star Game this weekend. I’m shocked they are still planning on holding this event without him. The way they talk about him, I was beginning to believe that the world may simply cease to function without him. (I enjoy envisioning Gary Bettman’s reaction when he heard that his dearest treasure would not be playing next weekend. Face blanching; stammering; all the “Oh god no”s. Cripes. I hate the people in charge of the NHL.) The Penguins. I was high-fiving K. when the Capitals beat them, in their own home. I hate them. More than any other team, even the Devils.

Ah, the Devils. I will be out of my gourd happy if the Flyers beat the Devils tonight. I will dance in the stands. I will gloat until my voice is hoarse. Only one game, you say? Yes, but it will be one that I got to see in person.

On the flipside, I am prepared to drive home with teeth clenched, dealing with the onslaught of K.’s gloating. (Why, oh why, do I associate so closely with such rabble as a Devils fan??)

So, according to today’s Daily News, this afternoon Peter Luukko is going to unveil plans that are in the works for developing the sports complex area. Everyone assumes this will mean the Spectrum will be ripped down, but the article says that’s only “one possible plan.” The article also reports Luukko as saying the plans are in “very early stages and may never take shape.” I don’t even like to sit here and speculate any more on what might happen. So I won’t.

The Iowa Stars had a good night last night, beating the Rochester Americans 4-2. Of course, everyone beats Rochester these days (they are the second-worst team in the league with 29 points, only one ahead of Norfolk), so it’s not the same as if Iowa had beaten Rockford or something. But it’s 2 points. Petersen, Clune, Holtet, and Lampman scored for the Stars, with Vas, Lampman, and Petersen having a multi-point night. That’s good news, even if the Stars are still 4 points out of playoff contention in the West. They play Peoria on Friday.

The Phantoms are up against Bridgeport again tomorrow night (in Bridgeport). The Sound Tigers beat the Portland Pirates last night. They must have some confidence building up, having recently been beating some of the top teams in the AHL. But the Phantoms should have regained some of their confidence after winning the battle against Lowell on Sunday. They can beat Bridgeport. Easily. They’ve just got to go out there and do it. They’re back in Philly on Friday against Hershey. I’m looking forward to that. Two hockey games this week, and one of them the Flyers. Not too bad for the last full week of January.

Not 100% good for Philadelphia hockey this weekend, but the points came where they counted and things are shaping up quite nicely for this second half of the season.

Friday night I watched the Phantoms lose a game to Bridgeport. It was frustrating and I can’t say that I enjoyed it very much because of the frustration factor. I got home and sent this email to J., which quite tidily summed up my feelings on the night:

I hate the freaking shootout. And I hate Wade Dubielewicz. What's up with suddenly playing in the A again? I hate Rossco having his appendix out, I hate Picard being scratched, and I hate Ruzicka's fricking laziness.

The Phantoms’ first goal was a bomb from the blue line, a goal that I think 99.999% of the time most goalies would stop, not just goalies who are suddenly playing in the AHL when normally they back up in the NHL. Zingo just lobbed it. It arced up, la la la, came down, Dubielewicz had his arm up, and ping, it went lightly off his shoulder and into the goal. From the blue line! With clear sight of the puck the entire way in. Whiff! But after that I grumbled the whole night. It was a duel when Bridgeport should not have had a chance. The game would not have had to go to OT and the shootout if the Sound Tigers had not had Wade Dubielewicz in goal, I do believe that very firmly. But even with Dubielewicz hanging out in the AHL on a “conditioning assignment”, the game would not have had to go to OT if not for a totally unreal clearing attempt at the very last seconds of a penalty kill that went right to the Bridgeport dude coming out of the box. It could not have been better played on purpose as far as Bridgeport was concerned. That guy corralled the clearing attempt, skated in, and beat Boucher. If not for that cough-up on the clearing attempt, the Phantoms would have won in regulation, because that was the tying goal and nothing else was scored through regulation and overtime. But nooooo, Dubielewicz had to be too good and stop all but the one Phantoms shots on goal, and the shootout, which, might I add for the thousandth time, I hate so much went to the fifth round and Laliberte had to score and didn’t. I just cannot stand that the Phantoms lost that game. I was grumpy when I left the arena, which led to the hate-filled e-mail I sent, late in the evening, to J.

I think the Phantoms definitely missed Jared Ross. I don’t know why Picard was scratched Friday night; Downie’s been up with the Flyers playing at PPG pace and so I doubt the Phantoms will have him back at any time soon. I have no specific instance of Ruzicka’s laziness to point out (he did have an assist), but I know that I yelled at him at least once, and there was another time when I yelled at Jonsson that he could go to hell – the game-winning goal was in sight; a pass slid past the defense in front of the goal and Jonsson was half a step there, all he had to really do was lunge to get his stick out and he had the wide-open net because Dubie was committed to the other side – where the passer was – yet he did not, and the puck sailed past, a wasted pass, a wasted chance, and a wasted game and a missed point.

Also, I want to call out the guys who were sitting two rows behind us. I swear to all that is holy in hockey, you need to get a clue re: the following few issues:

1) Most of the time, when the players are not shooting the puck, it’s because there isn’t a fricking lane open and they know better than to just throw an opportunity away. True, there are guys who hold on too long and miss a window, but I have seen a lot of games, and in my experience, most of the time, they don’t shoot because there isn’t a good look and there isn’t anyone to scoop up a potential rebound. The players also don’t have the advantage of being able to see the situation from 11 rows up and it’s not as obvious to them that there is a foot of space for them to shoot through. And they aren’t going to hear you and think, “Oh god, the fans think I should shoot the puck, so here I go!!” So stop yelling “SHOOT IT!” because you just make yourself sound stupid. (Wish K. had been there to yell “SHOOT IT!” at ridiculous times.) Case in point: in the 4-on-4 overtime, a Phantom had the puck and was moving into the offensive zone on his own, with two Bridgeport defenders in front of him. He had no one with him yet as he skated in, handling the puck, messing with the d-men. He crossed the blue line, and the idiots behind us yelled “SHOOOOT!!! SHOOOOOOOT!” Think ahead a couple seconds, you fools! Let’s say:

a) He doesn’t wait and shoots the puck right away. From the position he was in, one or other of the following would have happened:

i) the puck hits the defender, ricochets away or

ii) if the puck makes it past the d-men, it hits the goalie, who either swallows it up or he knocks it away.

Regardless of whether i) or ii) occurred, the result would have been the same: the Phantoms lose possession of the puck and very possibly Bridgeport gains control and moves it back the other way. A scoring chance is gone because the forward wasn’t patient and took a low-percentage shot. And maybe Bridgeport capitalizes on that transition and the game is over. Very unlikely that an immediate shot makes it past two defenders and Dubie, from out by the blue line.

b) He waits until support arrives. The d-men can get into position, but now they’ve got to deal with two Phantoms instead of one and now the goalie has to deal with the possibility of two Phantoms instead of one. There are now options and if the initial puck carrier shoots, the supporting cast member has a chance to collect any rebound if the shot is blocked. Or, there can be a couple passes, ding ding, shot, rebound, shot, CHANCES. See? This is a much better situation for the Phantoms. Unfortunately, it’s true, waiting can lead to negative situations too. Here, the initial puck carrier waited and got stripped of the puck. But – sorry to ruin the story of Sunday’s game – a similar play developed in the 4-on-4 OT against Lowell, where Matsumoto took the puck in deep with two Devils d-men with him. He carried it and waited until Greentree was there on the other side. You could see him weighing options in the fractions of seconds. He could have shot right away, but he didn’t. He waited and then he passed it, because Greentree was there and open. Greentree shot. He scored.

In short, watch the game and think ahead a little bit. I want goals as much as anyone, but the gratification doesn’t have to be instantaneous. In fact, something like that set-up that won the game last night is something to be savored as it happens.

2) Yelling “HIT HIM!” is equally as moronic, because the point of the game is to play the game, move the puck, score goals, and, sure, sometimes they hit guys in the course of that action. But I have seen too many times incidences when guys go out of their way to make hits, and not only miss the hit, but end up putting themselves out of the play and the consequences end up badly. Go to the amusement park and do some bumper cars if you want to have non-stop, gratuitous, purposeless hitting. I want to see hits in hockey games as necessary parts of plays, not just because you’re wanting to see some bone-crunching along the boards when someone doesn’t have the puck or is trying instead to make a good play.

3) More idiotic than the previous two calls is screaming “DO SOMETHING!” I don’t see skaters just standing around idly out there. Maybe they aren’t doing what we’d all like them to be doing – scoring, deking opponents out of their skulls, etc., but I saw the Phantoms trying to win a hockey game last Friday night and they made mistakes but they weren’t doing nothing.

If you’re a fan who wants to yell these things, please stay at home and yell it at your TV, so that I don’t have to hear you.

Saturday night I camped out on the sofa and watched the Flyers/Islanders game. Having seen Philadelphia lose to one Islanders franchise the night before, I was in no mood to watch it happen again. Yet again I was ready to throw the Flyers under the bus after the first third-ish of the game, in which they looked awful, but I tried to be patient, remembering how I was ready to give up on them the other night against the Rangers (LOL). Though they opened the scoring (Hartnell’s first of the night), they got down 3-1 and it wasn’t very good, Biron was looking extremely rusty and the defense – apparently taking the night off. Richard Park tied it not even half a minute later when he got sprung and then only a few minutes later the Isles went up 3-1 and Stevens called a timeout where he was shown on television looking about as stirred up as I have ever seen him; choppy gestures, obvious hard words – a good tongue-licking? (That was so funny to me that I will say it for the rest of the season. It’s not going to get old to me.) But they still struggled afterward and then Scottie Upshall took a bad penalty. It’s not so much the original penalty that I thought was bad. I thought it was a bad call, myself. DiPietro was waaaay out of the crease playing the puck and Scottie ran into him, a little low because he slipped, and bowled him over. He got the goalie interference call. In my view, if the goalie is that far out of the crease, he’s nothing more than another player and can get hit when he plays the puck just like anyone else. Apparently that’s not the case. Then Upshall ran his motormouth and got an extra two, which is unacceptable, especially when your team is down. This 4-minute PK stretched over the intermission, but the Flyers killed it and turned it on. Downie scored again and brought the Flyers back into the game, and Hartnell scored two more to register his second hat trick in what, nine days? When he scored the Flyers’ 4th goal on the night, my exact words were, “You have got to be kidding me,” but this time they were said in admiration. His goals came on what can be called “lucky bounces” but the fact is he was right there where he needed to be and did what he had to do when the lucky bounce came to him. Too many times you see those chances get wasted because the player the puck bounces too gets panicky and scrambles and misses.

I don’t know what’s got into Hartnell after such a slow start to the season (scoresheet-wise) – maybe something’s in the water – but whatever, I wasn’t ready to give up on him and figured the points would start coming eventually. He’s rewarding us now.

Sunday I was at the Philly/Lowell game and K. was back after his long trip to Norfolk. I’m sure the Phantoms were happy to have his voice in the stands again; maybe it was the difference-maker, because the Phantoms finally won after backsliding the last few. They lost Saturday night to Binghamton 5-3 (giving up THREE shorthanded goals!?). J. was on the phone with me after the Hartnell hat trick and she told me that the game report claimed that the B-Sens had 82 shots on goal with 7 or so minutes left to go in the third. WHAT?! I didn’t believe her. I mean, I believed that is what she was reading on the website, but it made zero sense whatsoever. How could any team have that many shots on goal after 53 minutes of play (and have only gotten 5 goals)? She said they had 56 shots in the third alone. I was speechless. It couldn’t be true, yet that is what she was seeing. Then she refreshed the page, and the numbers were realistic. 32 shots on goal to that point. The game ended with Binghamton having 35 shots. What a weird screw-up, huh? Anyway it was the first time Binghamton had beat the Phantoms in a year and that is disappointing. It was the fourth game in a row they had lost. And the game on Sunday was a close thing, though. The two teams did some goal-trading and the game went into OT. It was a good game to watch, decent hockey with some penalties happening. Grant got into a fight that left blood on the ice. (I was watching the Lowell guy skate back toward his bench, and not looking at Grant, and was surprised when I saw the blood on the ice. Apparently his face was a mess, but he came back out and was stitched up and played the rest of the game.) It wasn’t as much as he left on the ice in a fight earlier in the season, and all the referee did was scrape up the area and sort of disperse the snow.

Ick.



Didn’t get it all.

Anyway the game went to overtime tied at 3 apiece and I already gave away the ending. Matsumoto skated into the Devils’ zone during the 4-on-4 OT session, gathering the attention of defenders, and Kyle Greentree followed him in. After some hesitation that faked out the d-men, Matsumoto passed to Greentree who put it in the net and set of some wild cheering by the 7,000+ in the audience.

The OT win ensured that everyone would be in a good mood for the photo sessions that took place after the game. D. left and when I saw the line for it, I considered going too, but it was still early and K. was game so we stood in line and were rewarded for it by getting down to the ice and getting our photos taken with most of the Phantoms that we wanted photos taken with. There wasn’t time, by the time we got to the ice, to get pictures with them all, so we selected a few that we really wanted. At the top of our list was Ross, Greentree, and Munroe. When we got to the ice we saw they had the players paired or tripled up and so we got other players in pictures that were not on our list (Boulerice, for example; Chad Anderson, for another). We had about 40-45 minutes by the time we got to the ice and into lines. (I thought it was great just to be down on the ice in the Spectrum. I’ve never been down there before and it was a cool experience to look up at the seats in which we sit every week; dang, we have great seats.)


2 valuable forwards, 1 Crusher, 1 K. Mr. Potulny, what’s with the mustache? Are you the current mustache boy? P.S. Matsumoto apparently decided to lose the bleached, long locks. I approve.


I was in line for Zingoni, Ross, and Boulerice and found myself right next to Alex Picard. I didn’t realize he turned and smirked for my camera until I looked at it later. Picard actually got a 5-minute fighting major during the game, a result of a reaction to one of the Devils (the lesser Gionta) roughing him. He merely threw the little guy around and into the boards, and let him have it. I am not sure I’ve ever seen Picard fight. I didn’t know he had it in him. We were proud.


Ice is slippery. (K. didn’t really fall. The pose was deliberate, and started a trend among the kids behind us in line. The ice actually wasn’t all that slick, after 20+ minutes of being skated on, then 30+ minutes of feet tramping it.)


Rossco! Zingoni! Zingoni! Zingoni!! (That’s to the tune of “Apache (Jump on it)” by the Sugar Hill Gang. That reminds me, Bead Guy, who always jumps up and dances in the stands when that song comes on, cut in line in front of us here.) I did not desire a photograph with Boulerice, but he was inescapable – what was I going to do, ask the face cross-checker to please get out of the picture?


Greentree, who is shockingly good-looking (I didn’t realize!!), our game winner for the night, and Chad Anderson, who I cursed a couple times during the night. K.: [emphatically greeting and shaking hands with Greentree] “Good to have you back!” Kyle: … “I’ve been back?”


Top 3 AHL goalie on the left; Phantoms hall-of-fame goalie on the right. I love the Phantoms goaltending situation right now and Neil Little is part of the reason it’s so good.


There you go, another good goalie. And Ruzicka in there for good measure. K. looks skeptical, though.


My turn with the d-men.


So, we left the arena at 9 or so, when they closed the photo sessions. At one point in the game, they updated us as to the action across the parking lot – the Flyers were playing the Senators and the score was 1-0 Flyers in the first. Many cheers. During the photo session, they updated us again – 4-1 Flyers. Nice. While the news was good, I wished they had not told us, because K. and I went right back to my house in Wilmington to watch the game, which I had been recording.

What an awesome match. Yeah, the Sens were without Heatly and Alfredsson, but it is my thought that the Flyers would have won the game anyway. Perhaps not by as large a margin as they did, but the Sens, from top to bottom, did not play up to par and the Flyers took full advantage. That first goal came before two minutes had gone by, when Scottie Upshall passed to Braydon Coburn, who hit the net without a problem. A nice way to set the tone, I think. The Flyers went on to score four goals before the Senators managed a single tally. Those four goals came from Coburn, Hartnell (his 16th goal, on a timely pass from Carter, who was behind the net), Upshall (vide infra), and Umberger. After the Senators scored one, the Flyers put away another two (Upshall for his second, and Sami Kapanen scored a shortie that I believe will go in the books as the first shorthanded goal the Senators have given up this season. It is Sami’s first goal since October 18. I like how finally the Flyers do that kind of crap to someone else. It would have been sweeter had it been the game-winner, but hey, I’ll take what I’m offered in this case.)

Upshall’s first goal requires a little bit of a closer look. Richards took the puck from Downie and carried it up the right side of the ice, heading toward the Senators’ zone. He undressed one defender, and proceeded to make a complete fool out of the second defender in line. He did this by poking the puck through the skates of D-man #1 and literally shrugging him off and pushing him behind, and then spinning a little – completely nonchalantly, as though the simplest move in the world, an exhibition of skating, a dazzling display – to avoid the next, and then passed the puck across the ice to a full-speed Upshall, who had just hopped on in replacement of Scott Hartnell. There was no stopping that. My god it was beautiful. I could watch the replay of Richards’ conquering the Senators’ defense a hundred times and still giggle with glee each and every time. (What an amazing turn of events. Upshall gets playing time – nearly 15 minutes – with linemates that are not always Dowd and Cote, and he produces. A concept Stevens should consider more closely.)

I am brought to another gleeful point. Downie got an assist in a game certain Senators and Senators fans assured us he would not survive (so to speak). I’m sure you need not be reminded that it was in a preseason game against the Senators in which the Sens’ Dean McAmmond was on the receiving end of a bad Downie hit (the one that gave him a 20-game suspension), but just for the record, I’ll mention it. Specifically, Brian McGrattan made comments to the effect that Downie would get his. I’m sure McGrattan was dressed for this game for the sole purpose of giving Downie his, but he never got a chance. The fool was dropped by Riley Cote – ha ha ha ha ha!!! Cote has nothing on McGrattan in terms of size, yet took a couple punches to the face and came back harder, hammering McGrattan and then dragging him to the ice. There is no question that Cote was the victor in that skirmish, and McGrattan left the ice and never returned to the game, citing some shoulder injury (possibly an aggravation of an earlier shoulder injury). It probably is true, he left the ice favoring a shoulder, but I wouldn’t be surprised if that was just a cover. The dude had to be completely embarrassed. He was there for one reason and he failed. Miserably. Against Riley Cote. If the Senators were hoping to make a firm statement with McGrattan in the game, I think it backfired. One hundred percent. Downie kept his cool, got an assist, and the Senators had to leave the arena knowing that their night of revenge was thrown back in their teeth.

It was great. Plus, Niittymaki was extremely solid in goal and I have no qualms whatsoever about seeing him in net. Let me see Biron play a whole game the way he did the latter stages of the Islanders game and I will feel very confident about the Flyers’ chances with either goalie. Times are good in Flyerland. The Flyguys are 10-1-1 in their last twelve games. I almost feel guilty that I am going to ruin the hot times tomorrow by being at the game against the Devils. They have a rough time against that foul team anyway, and now my jinx power is going to be making it even tougher. I guess this is the perfect test of their mettle, strength, dedication, and ability. GO FLYERS GO!

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More Foppa speculation, which I enjoy, and a few other rumors and notes. But who is this Jeff Hartnell of whom Moran writes? P.S. Glad to hear nothing has yet been decided about the Spectrum. Of course that’s not as nice as hearing that it had been decided that it will stay, but at least it’s not a death sentence yet. At the Phantoms game on Friday, there were numerous signs held up against the glass during warm-ups that were very anti-Philly Live! and begged for the retention of the Phantoms in Philadelphia. It would be a big mistake to move the team, in my opinion. At the end of an article on www.theahl.com (about the Phantoms welcoming their 4 millionth regular season fan), it is noted that “Over the years, Philadelphia has consistently been one of the American Hockey League’s most well-attended franchises” with “an all-time average of 8,658 fans per game.” We had over 7,000 last night (though there have been some games this season far more sparsely attended). I doubt the franchise would have such success anywhere else.

Well, did the Flyers do their best to throw away the game on Wednesday or what? A three-goal lead dissolving to a one-goal lead that they had to work really hard to hold onto through the third period…I guess the Panthers got a good tongue-licking during the intermission and they came out much stronger than they were in the first period.

It is an amazing reversal of events that at this point of this season, I expect the Flyers to win. Remember last year? If you’re like me, you’d prefer not to, yet are occasionally floored by a random flash of memory from some horrific disaster of a game from last season. Remember how you just expected the Flyers to lose? I can’t decide if it’s better to expect them to win, because when they lose, I’m then annoyed, ticked, etc. Last year, when they went against expectation, it was a nice thing.

No, I can decide. It’s better that they are in a position where I expect them to win. I’d rather steam, fume, stomp, curse, etc. when they lose now and then rather than feel sick to my stomach and angry every freaking game and then only be lifted a foot or two in spirits when they manage to eke out a win.

This season is rocking. Right now the Flyers have the best PP in the league. That says a lot. 2 points behind the Debbies and [bleeping] Penguins for the division lead. 6th in the conference. Excellent.

It’s Friday, which means that I am going to a Phantoms game tonight. They’re facing Bridgeport again. The Phantoms have only won one of their last four (losing on Wednesday night to Syracuse 5-3 – the first time in the AHL that Alexandre Picard played Alexandre Picard), which was that shootout win against Wilkes-Barre/Scranton last weekend. I don’t know what’s up with this brief slump, but I’d like it to end – tonight. It’s another three-in-three weekend, with an away game tomorrow in Binghamton and then back home on Sunday against Lowell. The Phantoms are still in a great position so they can afford to drop a game here and there, though it had best not become habitual. They are still top in their division and unless they tank 100% from here on out they will certainly be making the playoffs. It doesn’t work in the AHL the way it does in the NHL; they just have to finish in the top 4 of their division. [Unless you’re in the West and North Divisions; there, if you’re 5th in the West, you just have to finish better than the 4th team in the North Division, so if you’re 4th in the North, you just might get screwed. Were the playoffs to start today, 4th place in the North (Grand Rapids) would be eight points screwed by the Houston Aeros.] I can see the Phantoms as they are right now as Division champs, and the Conference Finals would be an awesome replay of what they were in 2005 – Phantoms vs. Baby Bs.

I have high hopes but I don’t think they are unreasonable. Do you? Unreasonable high hopes would be hoping for the Iowa Stars to make the playoffs and end up conference champions. I’m not saying it’s impossible but they are last in the West right now with 42 points; that is only 5 out of playoff position, so I’d say they still have a chance at the post-season, but to actually view them as making it in place of the 4th place North team and then going on to win the conference? Um. A nice dream, but sometimes you have to look at reality, right? Let’s be practical. The Marlies, the Wolves, the IceHogs … yeah. Not trying to tear down the Iowa Stars, but they’re last in the division and have struggled the last couple months to leave the basement; that’s in addition to their difficulties winning against Chicago. Recall last year when they upset Omaha in the first round (WOO!) only to lose badly to the Wolves in the next. Maybe the demons that plague them against Chicago games can be exorcised, but I won’t count on it.

We have an addition to the roll-call of games the Flyers should pay me not to attend: I bought tickets today to the Flyers/Lightning game on March 6th, to be attended with three coworkers. Section 124!

[Wow, March = 3 NHL games. 2 Flyers, 2 Leafs (1 Flyers/Leafs). Man, it’s great to live out here again.]

P.S. Patrick Sharp signed a 4-year contract extension with the Chicago Blackhawks. He was one of my favorite Phantoms and I wish there had been a spot for him in Philly; I was sorry when he was traded. He’s got 22 goals this season. Not too shabby, no?

UPDATE: I read that Jared Ross had his appendix removed on Wednesday. How long is the recovery from that surgery??

Please come back to the Orange and Black, Foppa.

Please.

Oh my! Junior Lessard was traded from the Stars to Tampa Bay for defenseman Dan Jancevski, a former Iowa Star himself. Paul Szczechura also goes to Norfolk from Iowa.

The question is: do I heckle Junior as he plays for Norfolk?

Answer: Nah. I like Junior. It's not his fault he's getting traded to the Admirals. I mean, I heckled Jancevski, but it was all in good fun. Maybe Junior will get a better shot at the NHL playing in the TB system than he got while kicking around the Stars. The Phantoms don't play Norfolk again until March, so it will be a while.

Upcoming Flyers games to be attended (as of today):

1-22-08: PHI vs. NJD. Get ready to lose, Flyers! Your jinx will be in the house, in the mezzanine at center ice! You'll still be the Devils' bitches, and I'll still be a fool for deliberately buying tickets to a Flyers/Devils game, fully aware of what the outcome will be.

2-17-08: PHI vs. MTL. Fan Appreciation Day ... I will be a lot closer to the ice, and certainly won't be appreciated for being the cause of a lopsided loss! I will be rewarded with a Mike York jersey from last year, complete with nacho sauce on the sleeve. "Thanks for nothing, Crusher!"

3-12-08: PHI vs. TOR. Even if Forsberg is back and playing for Philadelphia, the Flyers will still eff themselves over while I am there to see it in person, from the mezzanine behind the goal. This will be the only game the Flyers lose to the Maple Leafs this season, I guarantee it!

I've never sat in the upper level for a Flyers game before. I merely didn't feel like paying out the nose for the Devils game, and so scouted out something more reasonable. (The tix for the Flyers/Leafs game come from K.'s place of employment, and beggars can't be choosers.) I can see the Flyers lose from upstairs just as well as I could from second row at center ice, right?

Wanting the Rangers to win over the Penguins was like having to choose one horrible disease over another, and the Rags just can't do anything right, can they? Man, they sucked. 3-1 Penguins. Bah.

At least I got to see an exhibition of skating and passing, the likes of which has never before been witnessed in the history of the universe, by Sindey Crosby.

And it is Sindey Crosby. Men's Fitness magazine says so.



Either someone was lazy (see the "beong" typo), or isn't a Pens fan.

I hate the Penguins.

Friday night: a decent first period, with both the Phantoms and the Monsters scoring (the Monsters first). Afterward, the Monsters kept scoring while the Phantoms couldn’t buy a goal if they had offered the Monsters’ goalie ten million bucks. It’s not like they didn’t have chances, but where Munroe (and then Boucher) let in a few softies, the Monsters’ goalie simply swallowed everything the Phantoms threw at him.

It was disappointing, but at least I had a couple good laughs. The Monsters have a player on the team whose last name is Love. I told my companion (a co-worker seeing his first Phantoms game) that I could virtually guarantee Love would have his name made fun of at least once, at some point, somehow. Naturally, this happened. Love got called for a penalty and the music over the loudspeaker came out: “LOVE STINKS!” It got played at one other point later in the game, still funny but less so than the original time. I envisioned the person in charge of the music just dying for a reason to play it, and gleefully starting it when Love was on his way to the penalty box.

When the Phantoms were down 5-1 very late in the third, I gave up and went out to collect my season ticket holder gift. I was not in the mood to wait in line to receive it straight from Neil Little so I went before the end of the game. It is a ceramic tile with a picture of Little flying onto a pile of a fight (a rather famous incident in Phantoms history, 2003) and, ostensibly, autographed. I like this token quite a bit because it’s unlike any other item I have in my little hockey collection. Unfortunately, they gave me only one, seeing as I am technically the only holder of the season tickets – all three seats are in my name alone – the fact that D. and K. paid me for their seats doesn’t make them season ticket holders in the eyes of the Phantoms. I’m sure this will be remedied next year.

So something good came out of the night, anyway.

At some point during the evening, someone moved the Flyers logo magnet that is on my car from the back to the side, next to the gas cap. I accused my coworker, who went around the car that direction a couple times, but he claims not to have done it. The perpetrator will remain unknown, and I am mystified as to why it got moved – is it some kind of faux pas to have the logo magnet on the back of the car? Does it belong on the side? If so, I am certainly not the only one in the Delaware Valley that is making this mistake.

This game was the only hockey I saw all weekend. I was in Norfolk, but I didn’t go to a game (though the Admirals were at home losing to Hartford 3-2). The Phantoms were at Wilkes-Barre and won 3-2 in a shootout (thank you, Ruzicka). D. went to the Phantoms game on Sunday with her husband, who e-mailed me a photo of the score of the Phantoms/Monarchs game from Sunday (with the subject line “ugh”): yeah, 6-2 with nine minutes to go in the second period. Sounds like a wild time against the Phantoms until they solved the Monarchs’ scoring in the third, though they didn’t get anything more of their own, either. Not a great weekend overall for the Phantoms, huh. After the previous weekend’s 3-0 record, this was disappointing. There’s another 3-in-a-row weekend coming up, starting Friday against Binghamton, for them to right the ship. (Not that the ship in the Big Picture is in trouble.)

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There were two Flyers games over the weekend, which I have not yet watched. On Saturday, the Bruins were at the Wachovia Center, and the thing ended in OT in the Bruins’ favor (4-3) on what appears to be a miscue by Niittymaki [playing in his fourth game in a row – I must say that I was surprised by the decision to start him and did doubt the wisdom of that (though not from the standpoint that I figured he’d toss in a clunker Saturday)]:

“The goalie got into a race for the loose puck with Boston's Marco Sturm, who was breaking in alone. Niittymaki came out of the net and got to the puck first, clearing it to the side. But it went to Ward, whose shot got by Niittymaki before he could establish position. Ward broke his stick on the shot, which gave it a change-up effect. In the end, it was a good decision that was poorly executed.”

Heartbreaking, considering the Flyers came back in the third period from a two-goal deficit to force the overtime in which they lost.

Sunday, the outcome was better, 6-4 against the Capitals (Biron playing this time). Knuble scored two of the six goals with Dowd (shorthanded!), Umberger, Richards, and Timonen (EN) making up the balance.

Speaking of Timonen and Richards, they were both named to the Eastern Conference reserves. There were rumors that Richards made it, before the official announcement (mentions of it in the press, which I am too lazy to scrape up for you, seemed to indicate it as fact and not as speculation), and so it was not too much of a surprise that he officially has been named, merely a nice confirmation. There is debate as to whether Kimmo Timonen deserves the nomination – not in the sense that he is not worthy of the moniker, simply that there might have been another d-man in the East more deserving at this time (perhaps Roszival) and there was general wondering why Briere didn’t get selected. Truth be told, while Briere has been good, he hasn’t been AWESOME, and there you have it.

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This weekend the Penguins lost a game – but not in regulation, going to a shootout. Thus, Ty Conklin remains unbeaten in regulation since being called up. Tonight the Rags have to play the Pens, and it is a very disgusting situation to be in – do I want the Rangers to win just so that Ty Conklin can finally lose a game, or do I want the Penguins to win just so that the Rangers can feel worse about themselves, losing again (though they did beat the Canadiens this weekend)? It’s a classic “Can’t they both lose?” game, but if you could put how much I hate the Penguins onto a scale with how much I hate the Rangers, the Penguins’ side would be lower … so I say GO RAGS. Besides, rooting for the Rags only makes sense, based on divisional standings. Two points for the Rangers? Still below the Flyers. Two more points for the Penguins? Pulls them four points away from the Flyers, in the wrong direction.

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I got an email from the Iowa Stars weekly today. In it is an announcement for the next game –

“The Iowa Stars take on the Toronto Marlies tonight at Wells Fargo Arena for the first time in franchise history.”

Uh, who writes this thing? The Marlies were at the Wells Fargo Arena for the first time in franchise history (either team, both of them being new that season) on November 12, 2005. It was the first Iowa Stars game that I went to.



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Lastly, rumor and buzzes:

1) The Flyers have a plan in place if Forsberg feels ready to return to the NHL. If that happens is still up in the air, but it was “confirmed … that [his agent] has spoken to the Flyers about a possible NHL return for the Swedish star.” Forsberg’s continually said that he will only come back to play if he feels 100%, and there was no report about that except that here it says he is expected to test his poor foot out again this week. The best part of it: “The Flyers are believed to have already worked out contract numbers that would allow Forsberg to fit under their salary cap without removing significant players.”

2) There is buzz that the Spectrum might have to go, if plans for a complex called “Philly Live!” end up having merit and going through (I am not encouraged by these plans being qualified as “very preliminary” when apparently the parties involved have been talking for two years). I very much dislike the idea of the Spectrum going bye-bye. I have a soft spot for the arena, sure, no matter what a dark and old place it is, but that’s not the basis for my unease. I know arenas get old and are replaced. It is the uncertainty about what would happen to the teams who play in the Spectrum almost exclusively – the Phantoms and the Kixx (an indoor soccer team). If the Spectrum goes, they say they will “look for alternatives” for these clubs. I am uneasy about what those alternatives might be. (Trenton? Atlantic City? Reading??) Be tough to fit all those Phantoms games in with the Flyers and 76ers already there, plus the Wings (lacrosse team), and then try to get the Kixx in there too? Some(one) would have to move. And it ain’t gonna be the Sixers (alas).

Flyers: WHY?

2 goals by Hollweg, who hadn't scored since FEBRUARY 9, 2007. Almost an ENTIRE YEAR and now TWO GOALS against the Flyers.

It is not even so much that the Rangers have two goals on the Flyers. It is who has scored those two goals on the Flyers. I absolutely despise Ryan Hollweg. I don't care if the second goal was actually scored by Jason Smith's nose off of Niittymaki's helmet; it was credited to that [BLEEP] [BLEEP]ing [BLEEP] son of a [BLEEEP] Hollweg.

Niittymaki: calm down and stay in the net. You're falling all over the place out there. I know people are out there questioning your starting this game and stirring up controversy where there shouldn't be any; don't give them ammunition by throwing this game out the window.

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The above was written game-time, and I was just about ready to throw the Flyers under the bus and go to bed. Toward the end of the first period they started to tighten things up a little more and ended it on a power play that had three Rangers in the box. This put them up two men at the start of the second, and they rather promptly capitalized to put themselves back in the game. It was Mike Knuble tipping in a shot from Mike Richards. Cynical me, while I celebrated the goal I also thought that if they had not collapsed in such a fashion as to allow Ryan [BLEEP]ing Hollweg to score not once but twice, they would be winning the game instead of having yet a gap of a goal to overcome. Five career goals in 173 games. Hollweg. LOL. Grrrrr!!!

Cynical me, too, I was pissed at Stefan Ruzicka in the first period for taking a lazy and useless hooking penalty, but he redeemed himself by exhibiting excellent goal-scorer's patience when he received a pass from Dowd (from behind the goal line, where Dowd had busted his butt to negate an icing) and walked in on goal. Wait for it. ... wait for it ... ducked his head, faked Lundqvist and the defender in front of the net and got it past him to tie the game. Nice! The slate was even again, and I took a deep breath. That deep breath I took in was courtesy of the wind going out of the Rangers' sails. They slid, and slid fast. The backbreaking goal came courtesy of Scott Hartnell. #19 was near the corner, behind the Rangers' goal line, and whacked it in the direction of the goal. There is no honest way that should have gone in, but it banked off Lundqvist in the wrong direction (if you're a Rangers fan) and into the net.

Awesome.

Can't rest easy with a one-goal lead, though. I was actually gnawing on my lip and I had to keep telling myself to relax. Any time that the puck was in the Flyers' zone I would tense up. But the Rangers were playing poor hockey. They made passes to nowhere, passes when they should have shot instead, other mistakes that lose a team a hockey game. And then Hartnell was in the right place at the right time later in the second period, when he chipped in a rebound up and over Lundqvist to let the Flyers go up 4-2. As the Flyers announcers said, it looked like a golf shot. There were these four unanswered goals in the second period, and in the third, the Rangers couldn't make a good play or score a goal to save their lives. Hartnell scored a third goal for a natural hat trick when he took a long and sweet pass from Steve Downie, skated in and bided his time until Lundqvist committed; too bad, puck up and over and in. For this achievement, Hartnell is the NHL's first star of the night. The Flyers capped off a goal-scoring extravaganza with Simon Gagne scoring late in the third. He had been playing rather tentatively, looking sluggish, but as the game progressed he became visibly better, more like himself. He avoided a potentially devastating hit by that [BLEEEEP]ing Hollweg; Briere took exception to the attempt and the referees had to come in and break things up before they really got out of hand. It was good for Gagne to score, even though the game was well put away by that point. Now he won't be playing and worrying about when that goal is going to come.

ZOMG it was so great to see Gagne playing again. That 12 on the ice was sweet to see.

All told, I am a little ashamed at myself for getting so down on the Flyers after those two goals, but let's face it -- I hate so much when the Flyers let someone score who hasn't scored all year or ever in their career or whatever. And I hate so much when they can play the way they have the last few games and then come out and do ... what they were about to do. I can't really blame myself for expecting the opposite of what ended up happening. I hope they can look back on this game and realize that no matter who they are playing (coughBrodeurcough), when they get down a couple goals, they are always in it and always have the option of winning. Even with key players out of the lineup. (And thank the hockey gods that Hollweg didn't get a third goal. I think I might have had an aneurysm had he gotten a hat trick.)

I do have a couple serious wonderings, though. Why in the hell doesn't Stevens play Lasse Kukkonen? That first POS Hollweg goal was all on Jones, who hasn't really shown me much lately. Why sit Kukkonen (healthy scratch!!) in favor of Dr. Jones?! ARGH! And I hope Upshall sitting out the game was a coach's decision simply to allow his ankle sprain another couple days to recover, even if he could have played last night.

In the meantime, Alex Ovechkin signed a 13-year contract for $124 million. That's pretty staggering. Apparently, the Capitals don't want to be able to pay for anyone else for the next 13 years. But, you know, their prerogative and all. And it's not like Ovechkin's not really worth locking in and paying a lot for. I think Ovechkin should be the kid the league showcases, not Crosby, for a hundred reasons. Among those are: he's a phenomenal player; he doesn't excessively whine when he gets a call against him (or doesn't get what he wants called against him); he's got a more engaging personality. I don't really want any one player shoved down my throat at every turn, but I'd like the league to acknowledge what it's got in Ovechkin a little more, and dial down the Crosby a lot.

Also in the meantime, Ty Conklin has somehow gone 9-0 since being called up from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton and was the NHL's second star last night.

[crickets]

Excuse me, the Ty Conklin? The one who's bounced from AHL team to AHL team in the last two seasons? The goalie laughingstock? Did he not get the memo that he's not supposed to play like that? Was he bonked on the head recently, causing him to forget that he's barely a mediocre AHL goalie, certainly not the kind of guy who gets NHL stars and goes undefeated in a stint with the Big Ps? What kind of apocalypse is about to descend upon us?

I hate the Penguins. Just when they should be sucking up the suckage and deserve to scrape the bottom of the divisional barrel (that's right, I said deserve), someone like Ty Conklin comes in, plays out of his bracket (that's right, I've seen him play several times since the incident in Game 1 of the 2006 Stanley Cup finals, going 9-0 in the NHL is out of his bracket), and they win and win and hold second place in the division, 4 points above the Flyers and only one behind the loathsome Devils at the top. I suppose a good person would be glad for Conklin for having re-found his game since going into the toilet after that SCF Game 1 disaster, but he plays for a team I despise and I'm not actually all that nice, so I'm just going to have to hope his AHL mediocrity catches back up with him and starts losing games for the Pens.

That's all for now. They're supposed to release the rest of the Eastern Conference All-star roster today, so when I get a peek at that I might have a comment. Otherwise, I have a Phantoms game to go to tonight that I am very much looking forward to, and so I am just whiling away the hours until I can go. I'm going to wear my Pitkanen game-worn tonight. If you're at the game and see me, then wave. I'll keep an eye on the out-of-town scoreboard tonight, Milwaukee @ Iowa tonight.

Preview for tonight's game at nhl.com. I had almost forgotten how bad the Flyers were last year, but this preview wasn't going to let me forget entirely, finding it necessary to remind me that the Flyguys were 22-48-12 in 06-07. Lately, I wasn't seeing much reference to it; at least, not quite so blatantly. "...but they've made that look like an aberration of late" the preview says.

HELLO. It was an aberration, plain and simple.

Let's go, Flyers. Make the Blueskirts' winning the two games you've met this season an aberration.

Also, the PlanetUSA roster was released. Toby Petersen is Iowa's representative, while Jared Ross was named from Philadelphia. The goalies? Jimmy Howard, Tukka Rask, and Pekka Rinne.

Hmph.

I'd look to see where they lie with respect to Brian Boucher, but the AHL website isn't letting me see the goalie list right now.

Ooh, in other All-Star news, they released the NHL roster for the Western Conference. Earlier in the voting stage, K. was frothing at Hasek being a choice for the game, given his subpar performance, while Chris Osgood, who has been consistent this season as one of the top goalies in the NHL, was sure to get the shaft. I am happy to report that on this roster, the name Dominik Hasek is not to be found, yet Chris Osgood was selected. I'm looking forward to seeing the Eastern Conference selections (the non-starters; we already learned who they would be, and no Flyers are on that list).

Tuesday night I was out having a burger with some folks from work, and the Flyers game was on in the background. My attention was divided, overall, perhaps 75-25 in favor of the game, but I missed crucial moments – the 2 goals in 13 seconds that Jeff Carter scored. I saw Downie’s second NHL goal, which tied the game, and I saw the aftermath of Hartnell’s goal (I didn’t see the goal happen itself). I saw a save Niitty made that was on a point-blank shot from only a few feet in front of him. My mouth popped open and everyone at the table was looking at me at that moment and spun around to look at TVs. “What happened?” they asked, puzzled, because what they saw was only the puck moving back up toward the Thrasher’s zone. I don’t know how Niitty made that save, I said, but hot damn!

It was a good win, 4-1. It seems odd that the Flyers can face Atlanta and know they are going to win that game, and get the job done, while they come up against the Devils and panic. It seems that they’ve got it in their heads that they just aren’t going to beat them, and the prophecy fulfills itself. They should watch video of their first meeting with NJ this year, where they did win, 4-0! It is possible, boys. Perhaps Atlanta has that same snakebite when it comes to the Flyers; they have won only once since the start of the 2005-2006 season (my fault) and that must burden them, along with the knowledge that they were the only team that could not win against the despicably bad Flyers last year. There are two more meetings between these teams this season. Niittymaki is now 7 wins and nothing else against the Thrashers in his career.

By the way, Niittymaki has been Teh Aw3som3n3ss lately, and Stevens has taken note and will start him tonight against the Rangers. This three-starts-in-a-row is unprecedented (this season) and has got people all worked up about a goalie controversy again. I don’t think there is a problem. Niittymaki has simply been amazing in the last games he has played (Florida, 1-0; Toronto, 3-2 with the 54 saves; Atlanta, 4-1) and Biron’s not the kind of goalie who’s going to flip out if he has to sit on the bench three games in a row. For my part, I’m so happy that the Flyers appear to have a solid goaltending situation (like the Phantoms) and as much as I like Biron, it pleases me greatly that Niittymaki is starting to play like the Niittymaki I fondly remember from the seasons before last.

Other good news: Gagne’s set to return tonight. Also probable is Sami Kapanen, and possibly Jason Smith and Scottie Upshall as well. Won’t it be nice to nearly have the full lineup again? I can’t wait until Briere and Gagne start lighting up the lamp together, and when Lupul gets back too the Atlantic Division will get even more interesting.

I want to see at least 4 Flyers’ goals tonight, two from Richie. The Rangers are hurting after getting the smackdown from Tampa Bay the other night and might come out, you know, with a fire under them. But the Flyers have got to be feeling great about the way they’ve played lately having had some of the wind knocked out of them through injuries; they’ll have a fire under them too, especially with getting Gagne back. Plus, Niittymaki’s got a grudge match going every time he faces Lundqvist, after losing to him in the Olympic final in 2006, so while many may think he’s due for a clunker after standing tall in the last few, I think he’ll be particularly “up” for this game. I’m really looking forward to it.

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I predicted a 7-3 Chicago win over Iowa in last night’s game. I wasn’t too far off; it ended 6-4. The scoresheet makes it look like a pretty tight game until the third period; 3-2 Chicago through two. Then, in the third, Chicago got another three goals before ten minutes had passed, and the Stars, though they picked up another two, couldn’t get it going until too late (18:11 and 19:20 when those two goals were scored). The Stars drop to seventh in the West again, since the Flaming Qs won (39 points for IOW vs. 40 for QCY). They’ll play eighth-place Milwaukee tomorrow night. The Admirals have 38 points, so this will be a battle to stay out of last place in the division.

The Phantoms won last night in Lowell, 4-2. Phantoms goals came from Cabana, Grant, Powe, and Ross (with Powe having a three-point night). Boucher had 31 stops on 33 shots. The league goalie standings have Munroe at second (2.03 GAA, 0.923 sv. %) behind Daren Machesney of Hershey (2.02 GAA, 0.933 sv. %). Boucher’s at seventh, 2.20 GAA and 0.923 sv. %. Two goalies in the top 10 in the AHL? Excellent.

I love this season. Friday night, the Phantoms face the Lake Erie Monsters in the Monsters’ first trip ever to the Spectrum. Lake Erie’s record is pretty sad, folks: 11-20-1-5, second-to-last in a terrible, terrible division (even the 7th-in-the-West Iowa Stars have more points than the third-place team in the North). About the only way the Phantoms could blow this game is to play drunk or not show up (i.e. Lake Erie would only win if the Phantoms give it to them). I hope I didn’t just jinx my team. I probably did. Uh oh.

Alexandre Picard was selected as a defenseman for the AHL All-Star game later this month, for the Canadian side. Unfortunately, if you click on the link for him on the announcement page, it takes you to the other Alex Picard, who plays for Syracuse, and is not the man in question. But you can read here at the Phantoms’ site about Picard’s awesomeness. I particularly like mention of his five-assist night against the Devils last year, a record he shares with Bobby Clarke and Eric Lindros (some company, huh!). (Incidentally, I was fuming during that game because the Flyers allowed a scoring roller-coaster and did what they did best and blew the lead in the last minute). I think Picard certainly deserves to play in the AHL All-Star game, as he can skate, pass, and shoot with the best of them in the league. If he can work on his sometimes poor positional play and make a few better decisions here and there, he’s going to be playing for the Flyers on a regular basis (and not just because they’ve got no one else, like last year).

I hope Scott Munroe missed being named to the team by a whisker, because Drew Macintyre and Nolan Shaefer, who were named, are only 0.001 and 0.002 sv.% points better, respectively, and have not got better GAA; however, each has played ~500 more minutes than Munroe. Leighton definitely deserves the nod.

No one from Iowa made the Canadian squad. The PlanetUSA side is announced today.

Tonight! Flyers v. Atlanta! 7 p.m.!

Niitty's expected to start tonight, giving him his first back-to-back games of the year. I like Niitty against for this game, not only because his last two starts have been great (against Toronto phenomenal):

Niittymaki is 6-0-0 with a 1.68 GAA in his career against the Thrashers.

Gagne is scheduled for a Thursday return...Upshall's still out, as is Smith, and Kapanen won't be playing. Lupul, obviously, is not on the roster. Things are thin in the forward cabin, no?

Happy beginning-of-5-day-work-week to you. It was a good weekend overall for hockey (if you’re a Philadelphia fan) – though it did have its low points.

The dual Devils games going on Friday night had one good result, one bad. I was at the good one, taking place at the Spectrum. The Phantoms got up on a 2-0 lead, which was a nice cushion, with goals from Zingoni and Powe. The Devils got in it in the second period with a sad goal, one that bounced around in the crease before sliding in, kind of looked like Boucher accidentally knocked it in (he was on the ice, in no position to control anything). Boucher was fairly awesome Friday night, this goal notwithstanding, and made exciting saves, including a leg save on a penalty shot that was awarded the Devils in the last minute of the second period. The Phantoms responded in the third period by scoring again, making it 3-1. It was Zingo again, and his second goal ended up being the game-winner, since the Devils “made it a hockey game” (as they say) with a second goal with just less than half the period left to go. It came on a two-minute 5-on-3 and was more or less inevitable. But for the rest of the period the Phantoms played pretty smart and the good guys came away with the win. It’s nice to walk out of the arena in good spirits, especially when you get home to find out that the Flyers lost in Newark 3-0. I half-watched the game Saturday morning and was pretty disappointed. The first Devils goal came when Zubrus was happily interfering with Biron, who therefore had no chance at making a save. The Devils’ second goal came when Coburn fell down at center ice, right next to a Devil who picked up the puck and skated in on Biron. It didn’t help that it was a 4-on-4 at the time, a bogus situation in my opinion, Lupul having been sent to the box for an “unsportsmanlike” play having shot the puck after the whistle (which, by the way, was waaay too quick); even if I accept that penalty (difficult), I cannot accept that the Devil (Elias?) who roughed him up against the boards for the action skated away penalty-free. Basically, Elias got nothing because he roughed up a Flyer, and the Flyers paid for it. Next thing you know, Coburn falls and the puck’s in the net. I hate it. Also something to hate (and consider): the same lineup was on the ice for all three Devils goals. That would be the following dudes:

Hatcher
Coburn
Carter
Knuble
Tolpeko

Obviously a combination that was not clicking Friday night.

Despite the refereeing and Coburn’s magical self-trip, I thought the Flyers played pretty well, in general they had their chances, and hit the Brodeur forcefield. I hate that they had no goals to show for the game. (But we do have a controversy – Travis Zajac claimed Derian Hatcher bit him on the hand, and he needed stitches to close the wound. Hatcher: “If he’s cut, good. But I didn’t bite him.” He says Zajac’s hand hurt his tooth. An unusual instance of He Says, He Says. Derian “the Cannibal” Hatcher on the loose!)


Saturday they were in Toronto. This was a game that they won in spite of the stripes. Toronto were not a very good team, and with the exception of Sundin and some good saves by Raycroft, he of the molestache, and the officials’ best efforts, it would not have been very close. Before anyone gets all up on me about complaining about the refereeing, I will say that I have seen some very bad blown calls and non-calls in other games no involving the Flyers too. But they scarcely get more ridiculous than the non-call that happened Saturday night:

Braydon Coburn was near the wall. Pavel Kubina boarded him. I mean, flat-out, textbook [BLEEP]ing boarded him. You want a picture-perfect example of what “boarding” is? Have a look at that particular instance. The referee was ten feet away. His head was turned in the direction of Kubina and Coburn. Kubina hit Flyers #5 from behind, threw Coburn several feet into the boards, Coburn’s face was slashed open by the impact, bled all over and required treatment and stitches –

No call. Nothing. Nada. NICHTS. WITH THE REFEREE (OSTENSIBLY) WATCHING THE ENTIRE THING. Textbook boarding, and not a single whisker of a whistle on the play.

I don’t get how you miss that call. The thing is, you don’t “miss” that call. You see it, you decide not to make it. That’s all. And you’re wrong, horribly wrong, and shouldn’t get your paycheck for the night. That is a blatantly dangerous hit – I thought the NHL suspended people for making hits like that (cf. Dr. Jones). Apparently, they don’t even penalize guys for that anymore. Blood everywhere!!

Chorus: You know that if it were Coburn hitting Kubina instead of the other way around, Coburn would have gotten a boarding major, a game misconduct, and today would be facing the NHL disciplinary committee.

Perhaps on Tuesday, the Flyers will get lucky and clowns won’t be officiating, rather actual referees with a clue. (HA!) I don’t want to hear people talk about how Coburn shouldn’t have had his back to the play while protecting the puck (i.e. “he put himself in position to be hurt”). Sure. No argument that Coburn shouldn’t have done that. But Kubina boarded him -- all he saw the whole way in was Coburn’s back, still made the hit, and that call has to be made. Yet Kubina was unpunished, both during the game and after. And the NHL instead directed its investigatory efforts toward Steve Downie’s sucker punch on Jason Blake. I feel Blake deserved the pop in the eye, after running Niittymaki several times and basically behaving like a dick (and let’s factor in as well the statement he made early on, when Downie was suspended for his hit on McAmmond, something to the effect that Downie shouldn’t ever be allowed to play in the NHL). Despite what you hear in the whining of Leafs fans, Blake was as interested in a fight as Downie was. Downie didn’t attack him unprovoked. The refs got in between them and perhaps the pop in the eye shouldn’t have come while the officials had them restrained, but Downie got the double minor he deserved for the cheap shot. What is not warranted is a review by the league and any talk of being suspended for it. How often are blows tossed after the refs break it up, and how often are those throwing the late blows suspended? Let me guess … your answer is “Just about never” or similar, right? Apparently a sucker-punch thrown by a Flyer (more specifically, Steve Downie) is now subject to harsher scrutiny by the league than a sucker-punch thrown by anyone else. I suppose it’s par for the season, no? Very expected, especially when it was a Toronto team member at the receiving end of Downie’s fist.

Downie served his double minor. The Leafs scored a tying goal while he was in the box. He paid the price and the Flyers paid the price. Let it go.

The Flyers got up 2-0. The goals were nice. Downie scored his first NHL goal when he picked up a rebound of a Vandermeer shot after Dowd won the faceoff. (Incidentally, I’m not sure I understand how Dowd can play when he was just waived … I will have to do some research) and roofed it. Raycroft was helpless to save it. Downie was interviewed by Coatsey in the intermission, and about the goal said, “It was very nice.” The second goal was courtesy of Jeff Carter, when he and Umberger got a nice shorthanded rush and Umberger’s rebounded shot came to Jeff, who also lifted it past Raycroft. Actually it was courtesy of the Leaf who couldn’t find the puck sitting right at his feet at the Flyers’ blue line. La la la, where is it?? He looked around, but Umberger saw it first and neatly swiped it. Down the ice with the amazing speed he seems to have developed this season, and the way he shot the puck it almost looked like he was deliberately trying to get a rebound to Carter. Great teamwork regardless, Carter being in the right place to pounce after Umberger took the shot.

In the first period, Richards fired the puck and it hit Sami Kapanen in the mouth. Kappy left the ice and never returned, requiring a reported 20-some stitches and while nothing was broken, his teeth were still kinda messed up. (According to newspaper reports today, he will probably play tomorrow night vs. Atlanta, but he might not look very nice). Also going out of the game was the much more seriously-injured Lupul, who was collateral damage when Hatcher attempted to lay a devastating hit on Alex Steen at mid-ice. Steen ducked and avoided the worst of Hatcher’s freight train, but they still collided. Hatcher went up off his feet and plowed directly into Lupul. Lupul went down, and his head hit the ice, his helmet flying off. Hatcher landed directly on his helmetless head, which was driven into the ice again. Lupul sat up with snow on his hair, rolled over, and appeared to be pret-ty dazed when he was assisted up. He was helped off the ice on noodle-legs. There was no way that was going to end up being nothing more than a little wooziness, and the reports come back that he was mildly concussed and also sustained a spinal cord contusion which will require complete inactivity for at least two weeks. He will be out a month, no doubt. For my part, I can’t believe that is all that happened. The accidental hit looked like it completely demolished him. It was horrifying. So the Flyers were without two forwards (one of them quite a critical forward these days) and all from friendly fire.

Then they let the Leafs catch up to them. Sundin scored each of the Leafs’ goals and very nearly collected a hat trick, but Niittymaki was absolutely outstanding Saturday night. He faced a franchise-high 56 shots. 56 shots. He allowed two goals. I blame the intermission analyst who was talking with Chris Therien on TV. The Flyers were up 2-0, and he said something along the lines of “If Niittymaki gets the shutout tonight, does Stevens start playing him more?” given that Niitty had a shutout last weekend in Florida. NO! I shouted at him. I CAN’T BELIEVE YOU JUST USED THE S-WORD! Sure enough, Sundin killed the shutout. Still, the Niittymaki in net Saturday night was the Niittymaki of blessed memory, and it was so good to see that Niittymaki again.

In the last minutes of the game, Richards scored an awesome (and extremely clutch) power play goal to win it. The call that gave the Flyers the PP was pretty iffy, but in the wake of the blown Coburn non-call, plus other iffy calls on the Flyers (the PPs lie in favor of Toronto), I figure the Leafs had it coming to them. I was jubilant at the goal.

Not too bad, all in all.

P.S. Gagne, please come back to play tomorrow.

Saturday night, the Phantoms beat Albany 4-2. Cabana scored twice, Boucher made 27 saves on 29 shots, and newly-demoted goalie John Grahame absorbed the loss with 25 saves on 29 shots. Boucher’s back-to-back meant Munroe was in net Sunday evening. I was telling D. that the Phantoms are so lucky to have awesome goaltending. There are many, many weekends where there are three games in a row, and if a team has only one good goalie, they basically have to risk giving away a game a weekend if the backup isn’t reliable. The Phantoms have not been in that situation. When Boucher was out, injured, Munroe held up better than admirably, and they have been an outstanding goaltending tandem all season long. Munroe was brilliant, stopping all but two shots last night (33 out of 35). The Sound Tigers just didn’t have a chance. I don’t know anything about their goalie situation, but the dude who was in net last night was a fricking sieve. The Phantoms got 6 goals before Bridgeport even got one. And they weren’t even scary goals. At least half of them, I am sure Morrison wishes he could do over, because they weren’t very difficult. It was a good game even though pretty lopsided, scoring-wise (on the right side, from my perspective!) and the officiating wasn’t horrendous (not great, but not horrendous). There were a couple bad calls, and at least one blatant make-up call that made me laugh. I love the commercial that has the football referee announcing that he totally blew the last call and will be fabricating a call later in the game to make up for it. You could have put the stripes from last night’s game in place of that guy and it would have fit nicely.

So the Phantoms did a 3-0 weekend and distanced themselves from the pack in the Atlantic division, now in possession of 51 points, (eight ahead of second-place Wilkes-Barre/Scranton), second only to Providence in the Eastern Conference (61 points!!). Wednesday they face Lowell again, and the next home game is Friday, against Lake Erie.

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After I trashed the Iowa Stars a week or so ago, they went on to win 3 in a row (Peoria 3-2, Houston 5-4, Houston 3-1). They lost the last two, 3-2 OT in San Antonio Saturday and a 5-0 thumping in Houston last night. Chris Connor was returned to the lineup from Dallas on Friday. An inauspicious re-start to his Iowa tenure. Wednesday, the Stars are in Chicago. Predictions, anyone? 7-3 Chicago, I say. Sigh.

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P.S. Pet peeve alert! I know that I am not going to see the highest quality of grammar and/or spelling on hockey message boards on Teh Intarnets, but I want to point out to people that RIDICULOUS is spelled…well, like that. Not REDICULOUS. So when you abbreviate it out of laziness, you should spell it “RIDIC” not “REDIC” (either way, it looks stupid … so maybe you should just spell it all the way out. How hard is it?).

Carry on.

A good article about Mike Richards, in the Inquirer today.

The Flyers put Jim Dowd and Rory Fitzpatrick on waivers yesterday. I am not surprised at all about Fitzpatrick -- once Vandermeer got here, he became pretty expendable. I kind of felt Dowd had outlived his usefulness. At first, he seemed to fill a decent role but lately I was not sure what the role was supposed to be anymore. Both these guys won their spots out of camp, but they've just slipped out of those places by now. I've heard some speculation that these moves might be in anticipation of some kind of acquisition or bringing someone up from the Phantoms on a more permanent basis ... but that all remains to be seen. I wouldn't be surprised.

Double Devils tonight -- Flyers face the big Ds in Newark and the Phantoms the little Ds of Lowell at the Spectrum. It has been three weeks since I've seen the Phantoms, so I'm pretty excited about the game. The Flyers face 11 games against Eastern Conference teams and given the logjam in the middle (where they are) points will be all-important. The Phantoms still lead their division and are in a good spot, but the trailers are gaining on them (Wilkes-Barre/Scranton two points behind, Albany three). Two points tonight will help them hold the top position. Since K. will not be there, I have been charged with screaming "SHOOOOOOT IT!!" at some ridiculous point, e.g. at a face off before the puck has even been dropped, in his honor.

I will open the year’s blogging with wishes of good 2008 to everyone, and here’s hoping for some playoff success this year.

I had my DVR take care of saving the five Flyers games that were on TV while I was away: December 21 and 22 vs. the Sabres, December 27 vs. Toronto, December 29 vs. Tampa Bay, and December 30 vs. Florida. On New Year’s Eve, back in my house in warm Delaware, I watched some of that hockey. It’s all so old by now that I’m not going to spend a lot of time going over it, but I’ll say a few things.

I thought that Flyers did well against the Sabres, for the most part, but am disappointed they let both games slip away from them. I feel that way mainly about the Friday night game, since they did not have the benefit of a ridiculous referee decision to absolve them of some of the blame. Biron was solid Friday night and the Flyers came up from being down 0-1 to lead going into the third, 2-1. I think they could have had the game, but apparently the hockey gods had something else in mind and let the Sabres score twice in the last period, winning with just under three minutes to go. Scottie Upshall apparently had some kind of target on his back as he was in the middle of some big hits, including a late cheapie (clean) against the boards by Spacek. And I hope you all saw Maxim Afinigenov slew-foot him. If you didn’t, here: have a look. The game isn’t even in progress; Upshall is standing at the top of the knot of guys near the goal. If you were ever wondering exactly what it means to slew-foot someone, here’s a nice, textbook example (though not done while skating), including grabbing him near the face and shoving backwards and down. Luckily Scottie didn’t hit the back of his head on the ice when he inevitably fell. Apparently this was an allowable action, given that the referee was five feet away and even came over to get in between Afinogenov and Upshall (once Scottie got back up) yet did not penalize Afinogenov. (Obligatory whine: “Imagine it had been Upshall doing the slew-footing. How many games would he have gotten?”) I wonder what perpetrated all this animosity toward Upshall. Wonder if he was running his mouth – he seems to be a bit of a pest. Hey, as long as he can actually play (and only runs his mouth on the ice), and he does play hard (almost 17 minutes of ice time Friday), he can be as pestilent as he wants and I will applaud him, but it might just start catching up with him.

The Saturday game annoyed the hell out of me, and though I had known for a week that the Flyers lost it 6-5 in a shootout (did they not just a week before lose a game 6-5 in a shootout? Why yes, yes they did), I still got up and stomped around the house when I saw exactly how that happened. The Flyers had that game, battling and even scoring two short-handed goals about a minute apart in the second. 4-4 to start the third, with some beeeeee-yoooo-tiful goals having been scored to that point. Because I knew the final score, I watched the third period with interest. The Flyers scored early to make it 5-4, and held on, and on, and on. As the time wound down, I began to wonder if I was going to have to see yet another maddening last-minute goal scored against them. Well, yes. But the way it unfolded had me sit up on the couch and fume uselessly, with no one to vent to. With less than a minute to go, the Buffalo net was empty and the puck came down out of the Flyers’ zone and crossed the line at the back of the Buffalo zone. The referee had his arms out as if to waive off icing, only to change his mind on a dime and call it icing. “What?!” I screamed. Yeah, I did. My favorite part of it was that John Stevens actually appeared to be mad (generally he does not seem to get very ruffled, which annoys a lot of Flyer fans who would prefer him to show emotion) and it was an easy thing to read his lips, more or less the whole string of thoughts he had concerning this icing call, and many of those thoughts involved choice four-letter words that I agreed with entirely. Worst icing call ever? If you have a better example of a bad icing call, I’m up for hearing the story. So the face-off went back down to the Flyers’ zone and with seven seconds left, well, that was how it got tied and ultimately led to the shootout. I hate when the Flyers have to go to a shootout because they just can’t get out of one alive. I feel good with Biron in net for a game, Niitty too these days, but I get that sinking, icky feeling when it goes to the shootout (which, as you know, I would still hate even if the Flyers were winning them).

The carpet in my living room is going to get a track worn around it from my stomping.

I watched the Flyers/Leafs game at J.’s in Iowa, and that was a solid game with the Flyers finishing on the good end (4-1). A Flyers win, breaking a bad losing streak – a late Christmas present?

Saturday night, I was flipping channels while sitting in my parents’ dining room, and watched the crawler on ESPN tell me that the Flyers won the Tampa Bay game, 4-2. Earlier in the day I’d been thinking that the win over the Leafs was going to be the shining moment of December, a bump on Loss Road, since the Flyers seem to struggle against the Lightning. An early new year’s present, or, perhaps in my case, a consolation prize after the hockey I had endured the night before in Des Moines (vide infra)?

And when I turned my phone back on after landing at PHL Sunday evening, I had a message from J. reporting that the Florida game was a win, too – 1-0 with a goal from Hatcher (!), with assists from Ruzicka (while scanning the hockey transactions in the newspaper that morning, I had seen that he had been called up) and Kapanen. Random scoring, no? When I mentioned to K. that Rosie had had an assist, he was mockingly shocked at the implication that he had passed the puck. Then he corrected himself: “Ruzicka probably took a shot instead of passing, and the rebound went to Hatcher.” We agreed that sounds more like what must have happened. The Florida game is one I have not yet started watching, so I don’t know if that’s what transpired. I will laugh if it is.

The Flyers now have a brief break until Friday, when they will play the Devils in New Jersey. They take with them an amazing three-game winning streak (unfortunately, I have written that with a touch of sarcasm. Ok, more like a slap of sarcasm.) no doubt ripe to be broken. You know what the Devils fans chant about the Flyers. I can’t even get my hackles up about it, because all too often it’s true. And it eats away at me every time I have to look at K.’s Devils scarf.

Note to Simon Gagne: please come back soon.

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Well, the Flyers stuff is all old news and so is the Phantoms stuff – I missed two games, and I’m glad that it was only two games. The night I was flying with intentions of getting to Iowa (haaaahahaha!!!!) they played Hershey at the Spectrum. While the Flyers were losing to the Sabres, the Phantoms took a 5-2 win. Oh, how much more glorious it would have been to see that game than it was to sit in the airport at Detroit trying to finagle a way home around my cancelled flight to CID. I love to see the Bears lose. The Thursday I was watching the Flyers win 4-1 over Toronto, the Phantoms were in Norfolk (so was K., but not at the game) winning 6-3. Yay for the good guys! Those six goals came from a spread of sources: Downie had two (and no penalty minutes!), Triston Grant had one; Powe, too, and Zingoni. Jesse Boulerice was playing in his first game since his AHL suspension ended (something like two weeks before?), and he scored as well. I’m not thrilled at the idea of this dude playing for my teams. I am uneasy pondering what the Flyers organization has in mind for him. Obviously they have plans for him in their future, which I dislike. But in the meantime, I guess I will accept his goal. The following night, they were at home playing Binghamton, while I was in Des Moines suffering through a western conference AHL game, and won 3-2 in a shootout. As much as I dread the Flyers going to a shootout, I have none of that dread when it comes to the Phantoms. Boucher and Munroe don’t give me a queasy feeling when they face a shooter one-on-one. Reid and Picard (!?) scored for the Phantoms, while only former Phantom Niko Dimitrakos scored for the lil Sens. They followed those three wins this past Sunday and Monday with two losses (to Albany and Hershey). Next up: Friday, vs. Lowell, at home. It’s a double Philly/Devils night!

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So, this Iowa Stars game I went to last Friday, the 28th. There was snow all morning and early afternoon and though we feared it might disrupt our plans, the roads stayed clear and we headed west. Felt like old times, though I did not have my Stars jersey. It hangs on my wall in the living room, with my other hockey stuffs, signed by Joel Lundqvist and prized and all. Several times in the week before vacation, I’d be sitting on the couch, see the jersey, and think, “I better not forget that.” What I should have done is take it down at one of those moments and just put it by the suitcase. Since I did not, it naturally stayed on the wall, and I went back to Iowa without it. I wore my dad’s Forsberg jersey instead. We had our “usual” seats, directly behind the Stars’ bench.



The game was epically sucky. The Rivermen – who are not that good – scored eight goals on the Stars. It honestly didn’t even look like they had to try very hard. It started early in the first. I really don’t understand Tobias Stephan. I have seen him play lights-out only to let in a weak goal. Hey, it happens. But he does not recover from it, and then allows further weak goals. If the Stars have managed to build up some insurance before that happens, they can still eke out a win. If Stephan’s killer goal happens at 1:54 of the first period and is the first goal of the game, you know it’s going to be a long, long night. In that sense, you could say I was not disappointed, but the overall experience was trash. Peoria ran up the score without breaking a sweat, and the Stars had a brief moment of goodness when they scored two in a row in the middle of the third (around 30 seconds apart). Unfortunately, by that point, it was already 5-1, so those two goals brought only the most fleeting hope. They had two more to go to even tie the game … and given the way the Stars were “playing” it seemed highly unlikely. To top it off, I didn’t even come close to winning the chuck-a-puck, which might have salvaged things. And I didn’t win the Patrick Traverse game-worn jersey raffle either. Bah!

After being privileged enough to see a very good Phantoms team all season, it was shocking to have to look at the Iowa Stars. They were not very good. That night they were not even mediocre. That night, I was thinking that they do not play consistently and they lose way too often by a huge margin. If I were the Dallas Stars brass, I would be having nightmares about the future of my big club. There is some offense on the AHL squad, but the defense is sooooorely lacking. And I’d be frantically scouting goaltenders. As I said, Stephan can be quite good, but is awfully fragile and therefore seems unreliable. And Sauve, from what I have read – and seen! – is no savior. If I were Dallas, I’d be hoping Turco and Smith never get hurt and can play forever, or at least until the system can produce something better than Stephan and Sauve, or, ideally, Stephan and Sauve develop into better netminders. Maybe Stephan can get his head together and stay firm after a weak goal. He made three saves in a row in that game I saw – bam bam bam – and it was absolutely mind-blowing. Why couldn’t he take confidence from that?). I wonder if they are sorry that they let Dan Ellis find employment somewhere else. Also, defense has got to some from somewhere. Maybe it will develop from what they have now, but double dang...what I saw on Friday was beastly.

So much for what will probably be the only Iowa Stars game I see this season. My dreams of a Phantoms/Stars Calder Cup final dwindle. The Stars are last in the West division with 36 points, 17-17-1-1. It is heartening to see that there are far worse teams in the league (coughRochestercoughLakeEriecoughNorfolk) but eighth in the division is not going to get them into the playoffs. A bright point: there are only two points between last and fourth place. Winning two more divisional games over the weekend helped close this gap for them. There are 40 games in the season, but when there is that narrow a margin, every single game matters. They can’t be dropping 8-3 decisions to Peoria if they want to climb out of the bottom. And they can’t be dropping 10-2 games to Chicago, either.

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I got two hockey-related presents for Christmas:

1) from my parents, a black last-year’s jersey with RICHARDS 18 on it. Unfortunately, my folks did not have this in time to actually give it to me, since I had to get home and tell them what I really wanted, and it will reach my house in maybe 3-4 weeks.

2) from K., a trip to Toronto in March to see a Leafs/Sabres game at the Air Canada Arena. Actually, the announcement reads “You and a companion will spend two/three fabulous days (your choice of March 14-16 or March 15-16) in glorious Toronto, Canada. While in Toronto, you and a friend will marvel during countless hours (probably less than 50) wandering through the greatest city (named Toronto) on earth.” While I obviously understood that it was implicit that he would be the companion, I cheekily announced something in the vein of “Me and a companion?? Awesome! I think I will take J.! She’s going to be so stoked!”

J. and I do have plans to go to a Flyers game in Canada, next season. This is not a Flyers game, so I don’t feel too traitorous. Besides, it would be pretty appallingly heartless of me to not take K. along on as the companion a trip he devised, no?

Two extremely excellent hockey gifts from separate incarnations of Santa. Guess I was a good girl this year.

So, in 2008, let’s resolve to see some good hockey, eh?