The fun and absurdity continues on the local sports front. And this doesn't include the Phillies' participation in the baseball winter meetings, because there isn't really much going on there...
Having returned from his exile, Allen Iverson finally hit the court for the 76ers on Monday night. He was in the starting lineup, where he'll presumably be for at least a while. He got a huge ovation when introduced, and kissed the Sixers logo painted on center court. He scored 11 points in 37 minutes. It was a huge success, as they sold out the building and the crowd got to adore their hero. Not that the people cared, apparently, and not that management cares, because they finally sold some tickets, but the Sixers lost -- for the 10th game in a row.
Speaking of returning from exile, Michael Vick returned to Atlanta on Sunday, and the Eagles' afternoon was interesting. I expected it to be pretty close, since both teams were missing key players due to injury, but the Falcons were just awful. For a while it was close (13-0 at the half) because of some lingering Eagles ineptitude, but the game turned on the Eagles' goal-line stand at the end of the first half. The Falcons had 2nd-and-goal from the 1, tried to run it in on 2nd, 3rd and 4th down and were stopped each time. The second half the Eagles became more efficient, and they went on to a 34-7 win, with Atlanta not scoring until the final play of the game with the Eagles' defensive starters out.
Two of the second-half scores came from Vick -- a 5-yard run that made it 20-0 in the 3rd quarter, and then a TD pass that made it 34-0 in the 4th quarter. They were his first scores since getting out of jail. As for his reception from the fans, on both TV and radio (I was monitoring both) it sounded like a lot more boos than cheers the first time he entered the game. But when he ran for his score, and especially when he threw for the touchdown, it was mostly cheers. I don't know how much of that was Atlanta fans. The camera shots of the stands seemed to show quite a lot of Eagles fans in attendance from the start. I'd say that when it got to 27-0 the Falcons fans either started cheering for Vick or just left.
The win puts the Eagles (8-4) back into a first-place tie with Dallas, thanks to the Cowboys' loss to the Giants (7-5). The Eagles visit the Giants next week, and if they win I'd say the playoffs are pretty much a guarantee.
No such guarantee exists for the Flyers. Their first two games since firing head coach John Stevens ended in defeat, making it 9 losses in the last 10. Saturday night against Washington, new coach Peter Laviolette had to be wondering what he got himself into. With the score 1-1 in the latter part of the first period, Flyer Dan Carcillo (I'd call him a goon but really he's more of an idiot than the typical NHL fighter) managed to get 29 minutes in penalties and give Washington a 9-minute power play. The Capitals scored 3 times in that span and rolled to an easy 8-2 win.
Last night, in Montreal, the Flyers managed to hold the Canadiens to just 13 shots on goal in the entire game -- only one in the first 25:51. But Montreal managed to score 3 times on their 13 shots, and held the Flyers to just 15 shots of their own, gaining a 3-1 win.
Tonight, however, the Flyers actually managed to win! The 6-2 victory came over the New York Islanders -- the only team the Flyers beat in the previous 10 games. Unfortunately, there are two problems. One, with so many games on the schedule right now (4 games a week for a couple of weeks) there is little practice time available for the new coach to put his systems into effect. Two, the next nine games are against teams other than the Islanders.
Oh, make that three problems: goalie Ray Emery is having surgery to repair a torn abdominal muscle and will likely be out for 6 weeks. Oh, make it four problems: he's had the problem since November and has been playing with it, with the Flyers' knowledge. They've been trying to treat it without surgery until now. Considering how this team has had a number of players with similar abdominal and groin problems in recent years, I'm amazed Emery wasn't shut down sooner. I think it was irresponsible of the Flyers to let him keep playing.
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