Hey! Another Flyers Post!

Welcome to the second installment of Flyers coverage from the ever-articulate guest writer Rich.

The Fly Guys are good, right? They score a lot and don’t allow a lot of goals, with 59 goals for and 41 goals against in 16 games. They are winning games this month, 6 of last 8 with a home record of 8-3-1.

Q: So why are they only in the middle of the division?



A: Because the New Jersey Devils are assholes and win games because they have the All-time best dude to ever stand in front of a net, PLUS dudes who hunt catfish.

And Pittsburgh being good sucks too. Am I worried? Kinda. The Rangers don’t really suck this year either, and getting a playoff birth might be a rad-tad more difficult in 2010. I can’t see this Flyers team staying healthy for some reason… too many French Canadians possibly. But I’m optimistic, and, as the great Razor Ramon once said, “The greater the adversary the… Hey Yo! [tooth pick flick, stomp stomp stomp, razor arms]”

They lost to a real good Buffalo team that was seeking revenge earlier this week, but beating the assholes (see above) two days ago easily makes up for it.

Buffalo’s Miller is the best goalie in the NHL but Emery isn’t too far behind. Miller might be #1 but Emery is also in the top 10 in all meaningful goalie stats this year. He rarely allows the doodoo goals, and he consistently knocks rebounds out of harms way. He’s got a sweet helmet and he doesn’t seem at all the head-case he was made out to be in the off season.  If there is a worry for the Flyers it’s usually the guy between the pipes, but I don’t see Emery being a cause for concern this season. Finally, the Flyers have a solid net-minder that Philly can have confidence in.

The Guys had won 5 straight going that Buffalo game. Scoring the first goal of the game has been huge for the Flyers. In 14 of the last 16 games they’ve scored first and have been awesome playing with the lead. But they didn’t score first against the Sabres. Buffalo capitalized on an early cross checking penalty by Carcillo by scoring on the ensuing powerplay. The Flyers had to play catch up all night. Carcillo is a marked man. Dude leads the league in penalties for a couple years and gets reputation penalties. I must say, he has been playing controlled hockey and is a big part of the energy line, but he has a goofy mustache and gets penalties for it.

But, who really cares?  We beat the Devils.

A downside is that the Flyers often get frustrated and take penalties. It’s hard to generate chemistry and roll all four lines when dudes are in the box. A lot of these calls are extremely weak, too. Refs are calling slashing penalties when sticks get knocked out of player’s hands which is producing bullshit hockey. Players are just dropping their sticks on contact and raising their hands looking for a call. Refs need to wise up. A game determined by special teams is bullshit. “They (Refs) need to be gauging severity and size of the impact before they call it (penalty).” – Bill Clement.

Plus/Minus:

+Hartnell leads the league in power play goals, which is cool.
+ Timmonen has improved his plus/minus over the last 7 games.
- JVR was out with the flu and his presence was missed.
- Riley Cote shouldn’t play.
- Briere… I don’t know.  He has 7 goals in last his last 12 games. He had an assist against Buffalo, but his high sticking penalty made it a 3-1 game. He’s extremely McNabbish as a hockey player.
- Giroux, although extremely skillful with the puck, is snake-bitten at the moment.
+ Finally, to end on a good note, I’ll praise the former blue note: Pronger is a beast. Six game point scoring streak. I love when he fires slapshots from the red line and they hit the net, I love how he just mean mugs errbody, there’s no one in the league who can intimidate him, no one he’ll back down too, and I love that he’s 1 of 9 remaining ex-Whalers still in the game.

LET’S GO FLYERS!