Flyers: Back To The Drawing Board?

So last week I was talking to my friend Kurt on the phone as I had just begun checking out my usual online haunts. My browser's home page is Yahoo.com, and it was there I saw a headline. "The Flyers traded Jeff Carter," I said to Kurt rather nonchalantly. I was sort of expecting it. Carter has scored a lot of goals but isn't quite as strong defensively as he could or should be, and seems to disappear at times, particularly in the playoffs. With the Flyers needing to clear salary in order to sign goalie Ilya Bryzgalov, having acquired his rights in a trade in order to have exclusive negotiating rights before free agency (which begins at noon today), Carter was the most obvious candidate. His salary is high but he's got enough talent that teams would want him, and Columbus was the team that ended up getting him.

Kurt and I kept talking, and I moved on from the Yahoo article, and clicked on Philly.com. There, I saw something that made me yell into the phone.

"OH MY GOD!"
"What is it?"
"THEY TRADED MIKE RICHARDS TOO!!!"

MixBlog 5-13-11: Flyers, Phillies, Pier, Bunny!

Wow...Blogger seems to be back in business! As I write this, Twitter is out of commission, though. So let's get to some stuff. First, a couple of videos.

This one was taken a few doors from my house. I spotted Mr. Bunny as I was walking home. This is a residential area in a city, although I suppose there's enough wooded areas around to allow for visits from the occasional wild rabbit.



Yesterday my friend Kurt and I went to the opening of the new Race Street Pier (just next to the Ben Franklin Bridge). Mayor Nutter and others made speeches and then cut the ribbon. I'd have enjoyed it more if only the mayor spoke. Everyone else could have been given credit in a pamphlet or something. Anyway, here's a video tour. Note: it takes a few minutes for us to actually get on to the pier.



The pier is very nice. It'll be a nice meeting place by the river, but there's nothing to do there. I hope that the mayor's efforts to truly revitalize the waterfront -- which would mean more than things like giant Best Buy and Wal-Mart stores or the SugarHouse casino -- come to fruition.

Something else that clearly needs a little revitalization: the Flyers.

2011 Stanley Cup Playoffs - Conference Semifinals

I didn't do too badly with my first-round predictions. Canucks in 7, Bruins in 7, Sharks in 6, Capitals in 5 -- perfect. Red Wings won in 4 instead of 5. Close enough. And although the Lightning did win in 7 over Pittsburgh, I did say that I was concerned about the Penguins if Sidney Crosby didn't play. He didn't. Pittsburgh had a 3-1 series lead, though, and then fell apart. I had Anaheim over Nashville in 6, but the Predators won. (I still don't think they're going to the finals, though.) And then there was the Flyers-Sabres series, in which Ryan Miller stole one game from the Flyers and Brian Boucher basically gave away another one. Of the other five games, the Flyers won four of them even with some of the weirdest goaltending twists and turns I've ever seen.

So, 5-3 in the first round. As for the next round (which begins tonight for one series and Saturday for the Flyers)...

WESTERN CONFERENCE

(1) Vancouver Canucks vs. (5) Nashville Predators - The top regular-season team nearly had a meltdown for the ages in the first round before finally finishing off the defending Stanley Cup champion Blackhawks in the 7th game. They should be able to handle Nashville with a little less difficulty. Canucks in 6.

(2) San Jose Sharks vs. (3) Detroit Red Wings - Does it seem these teams meet every year in the playoffs? They were matched up in this round last year and the Sharks won in 5. But last year the Wings' first round was a tough 7-game series over Detroit. This year they mopped the floor with the former (and future?) Winnipeg Jets, so they'll put up a better fight against San Jose, but... Sharks in 7.

EASTERN CONFERENCE

(1) Washington Capitals vs. (5) Tampa Bay Lightning - I think the Capitals may finally be ready to make a serious Cup run. There were moments in the first round where it seemed that they would fall apart and make an early exit again, but here they are. Capitals in 6.

(2) Philadelphia Flyers vs. (3) Boston Bruins - Another series that's a rematch from last year, and we all remember how that turned out... I underestimated the Flyers after their lazy finish to the regular season. They were solid against Buffalo throughout that series, and were an absolute machine in the clinching Game 7. And Chris Pronger's presence gave a jump to their power play. Despite the goalie issues (again)... Flyers in 6.

2011 Stanley Cup Playoffs - Conference Quarterfinals

Once again, I'll offer predictions for the Stanley Cup playoffs, the finest professional sports postseason there is. The usual caveat -- other than the Flyers, my fountain of knowledge of teams is limited at best, so if you're looking for "expert" analysis you won't find much here. And as I'm writing this two or three of the series-opening games have already started, but I only know one partial score and it's not affecting my pick for that series. I've been watching the Phillies anyway, since the Flyers don't begin until tomorrow night.

By the way, did you know that there are three teams based in California in the playoffs, but only two from our hockey-crazed neighbors to the north? Woe, Canada...

EASTERN CONFERENCE

(1) Washington Capitals vs. (8) New York Rangers - The Rangers made a late run, then kind of backed into the playoffs at the end. Capitals in 5.
(2) Philadelphia Flyers vs. (7) Buffalo Sabres - see below. Yes, I'm being a tease again.
(3) Boston Bruins vs. (6) Montreal Canadiens - This should be a war. Bruins in 7.
(4) Pittsburgh Penguins vs. (5) Tampa Bay Lightning - Penguins in 6, although it worries me that they're still playing without Sidney Crosby.

WESTERN CONFERENCE

(1) Vancouver Canucks vs. (8) Chicago Blackhawks - This should be great even though the defending Cup champs backed in (even moreso than did the Rangers) on the last day of the season. Canucks in 7.
(2) San Jose Sharks vs. (7) Los Angeles Kings - Thanks to some of their employees (on- and off-ice) who used to work here, the Kings are kind of like Flyers West, so I wouldn't be sad to see them make a run, but they have some injury issues (just like Flyers East often has!) and the Sharks are better anyway. Sharks in 6.
(3) Detroit Red Wings vs. (6) Phoenix Coyotes - Please, dear (insert your preferred deity/deities here), get that team out of Phoenix once and for all, please? Red Wings in 5.
(4) Anaheim Ducks vs. (5) Nashville Predators - I can honestly say I know very little about either of these teams. However, I read that Flyers color analyst/Versus studio cohost Keith Jones says the Predators are going to be in the Stanley Cup finals, and that just seems ludicrous, so...Ducks in 6.

And now, the moment you've been waiting for...my Flyers-Sabres pick!

Flyers: Impending Disaster?

I'm not quite as angry as this famous fan, but I'm very concerned about the Flyers...

 

It's definitely a slide. Tonight, while I was freezing my butt off at the Phillies game (more about that in another post at some point), the Flyers lost 5-2 in Ottawa and fell two points behind Washington in the Eastern Conference race. In addition, they're just one point ahead of Pittsburgh in the Atlantic Division. There are two games left for the Flyers, Caps and Pens. It's very possible that the Flyers could fall into fourth place in the East by the end of the week.

They are just 6-8-5 since the end of February. They've lost six in a row at home (four went to the inane shootout). Many of these games, including tonight's, were against non-playoff teams. Most of the games, win or lose, have been marked by sloppy, inconsistent play. They desperately miss Chris Pronger, who is said to be likely to return for the start of the playoffs. With all their touted depth, they shouldn't miss him that much, but they do. Beyond that, though, this lack of intensity and this careless play, with the postseason starting in a little over a week, is alarming.

And their possible first-round opponents have either (a) handled the Flyers well this year or (b) have strong goaltending -- if not both. One year after barely making the playoffs on the final day of the season (having to win in the shootout to do so) and making a stunning run to the Stanley Cup finals while great regular-season teams like the Caps and Pens were bounced out in the early rounds, the Flyers look more and more like they'll be the team getting bounced out early.

Hmmm...I'm beginning to think David Boreanaz is right.

Can The Gays Rally The Flyers?

This ridiculous Flyers season is rapidly drawing to a close -- more rapidly than usual, with the compressed post-Olympic schedule. The inconsistency that has dogged them all season, except for perhaps those four wins right before the Olympics, continues. Since the season resumed they're now 5-6-1, coming up with the occasional inspired effort (3-2 win over Chicago on a Chris Pronger goal in the final 3 seconds) followed by the inevitable lazy followup (3-1 loss at the NY Rangers the next day). And now it's taken a turn for the worse.

After losing starting goalie Ray Emery for so many games, and eventually the season, due to injury, they were basically saved by the surprisingly fine play of Michael Leighton. Then Leighton had to go and get the dreaded high ankle sprain on March 16th at Nashville, sidelining him for 8 to 10 weeks -- meaning he can only return if the Flyers make a long playoff run. The Flyers are down to Brian Boucher and heaven knows who from the minors to back him up.

Boucher ended up losing the Nashville game in the shootout, but won the next night at Dallas. The Flyers haven't won since, losing a home-and-home set to Atlanta over the weekend and at Ottawa Tuesday night. (More on that in a moment.) If that isn't bad enough, the team hasn't scored more than 3 goals in a game in their last 11 games, and just lost leading scorer Jeff Carter to a broken foot bone. He's expected to be out 3 to 4 weeks, and we're in the final 3 weeks of the regular season...

Philly Sports FIVE-team update!

Finally! I don't know why I haven't really blogged about the local teams much recently, but I promised I would do so this weekend. As I begin to write this, there's an hour before Daylight Saving Time takes effect. If you don't believe me, it says so at philly.com:

See? The Associated Press confirms it. I suppose that makes for something of a deadline, like professional writers have to deal with. So let's get to work, shall we? And hey, I've got a mention of a brand new team! In order of best to worst...

The Phillies are in the midst of spring training, and even so they're in the best shape of our local teams. They're a pretty solid favorite to win their third straight National League championship. I have some concerns (the bullpen, the bench) but if their key players are in good health, I don't see why they won't be in the World Series once again. Thus far in the spring, their starting pitchers have been excellent. Roy Halladay, of course, is the main focus, and in his first two starts he hasn't allowed a run in 5 innings while striking out 8 batters. With the offensive support he should get, with the switch to the NL meaning he'll face lineups that include opposing pitchers instead of designated hitters, with the fact that he's now in the same division as the Nationals and Marlins instead of the Yankees and Red Sox, he ought to rack up a lot of wins.

The Flyers need to rack up a lot of wins to secure a playoff spot, but they're still too inconsistent. The Olympic break, as I feared, dented their momentum. They've gone 4-2-1 over the last two weeks, but have been rather subpar defensively, capped off by an embarrassing 5-1 loss at home to Boston on Thursday night. But they followed that up with a 3-2 win over the tough Chicago Blackhawks today, coming from behind to tie the game with 2:04 left, and winning on a Chris Pronger goal with 2.1 seconds left. Besides the inconsistency, their goaltending has to be considered a question mark. Ray Emery is out for the season (and may never play again), and even though Michael Leighton has played very well, this is the first time he's had such a stretch of success. There's no guarantee it will last, or that he can step it up for a playoff run, and after Leighton there's Brian Boucher, who has been poor in very little playing time.

The Eagles need a great draft to shore up their weaknesses because they haven't done it through free agency. It's a weird situation because clauses in the collective bargaining agreement that's going to expire in a year or so have led to there being no salary cap, but also to most of the quality free agents being restricted instead of unrestricted (meaning if you want to sign one, the player's current team can either match the offer or receive draft picks as compensation). Still, all the Eagles have done is sign a guy coming off injuries (we saw how well that worked out with Stacy Andrews in 2009) and bring back Hank Baskett, who is now known for his fumble of the onside kick that jump-started the Saints' comeback to win the Super Bowl, but is still best known as Mr. Kendra Wilkinson. Also, they still haven't traded any of their quarterbacks, so the endless Donovan McNabb debate continue to pollute the airwaves.

And now for the new team: the Philadelphia Union, a new expansion franchise of Major League Soccer. There are three things wrong with this. One, it's soccer. Two, their stadium is in Chester. Three, the team may be shut down before it plays a game because the league's players are threatening a strike.

Still, they rank ahead of the pathetic 76ers. One of the worst teams in the NBA but probably not pitiful enough to really improve their draft lottery odds. A building that's half-empty almost every game. A coach who seems to be a moron, even to a non-basketball expert such as myself. And Allen Iverson's season was ended because of some combination of his daughter's illness, his wife's filing for divorce, his alleged gambling problem and his alleged alcoholism. Sorry, Sixers. Thanks for playing...



One bit of good news: I've beaten my deadline!

Now Back To Your Hockey Season, Already In Progress

The Vancouver Olympics are over. The United States won the most medals overall but host Canada won the most gold medals, including the one they needed the most, the men's hockey gold. Team USA gave a great effort, coming from behind to tie the game on a goal by Zach Parise with 25 seconds left to force overtime, only to lose when -- ugh -- Sidney Crosby won it for the Canadians.

Despite the result, it was a great game, a great spectacle, and certainly can't hurt hockey's popularity in the USA. How much will it help? Honestly, I don't know. It's not like hockey is going to become our national pastime. And as great as hockey is in the Olympics, the NHL regular season can never live up to it.

Why? The talent is diluted among 30 teams. The 82-game schedule is bad enough, but when the league shuts down for the Olympics it's really condensed. There are more instances of teams playing on back-to-back nights or three times in four nights. It affects the quality of play. The teams have been sitting around for the better part of two weeks. And for the Olympians, those players could wear down from the extra games. For the Canadian players, having been forced into an elimination game, their "regular season" is now 89 games. And the travel will be worse in 2014, when the games will be held in Sochi, Russia instead of North America.

Unlike in international play, fighting is not only condoned, it's practically encouraged. (By the way, we saw hard hitting throughout the Olympics without one single fight. Any rationale for the allowance of fights in the NHL is, frankly, shot to hell...wait, what's that noise? Why, it's a bunch of angry Flyers fans marching to my door demanding my head on a platter for that comment! Here, I got a picture of them...)

Speaking of those Flyers, they were on a four-game winning streak a couple of weeks ago. They won two huge home-and-home sets, first rallying from a pair of 2-0 deficits to beat New Jersey twice, and then taking two more from Montreal, one of the teams in the Eastern Conference playoff morass. That momentum came to a screeching halt thanks to the league's shutdown. Sure, it might be regained, but the Flyers have had enough trouble being consistent without a two-week vacation thrust upon them. And Mike Richards and Chris Pronger are two of those Team Canada guys who got no rest, with Pronger being 35 years old. That's not good for the Flyers.

The NHL derives little real benefit from stopping for the Olympics. It's great for Olympic hockey but not for the NHL. There may be a ratings increase but it won't be huge, and it won't be enough to get the league a better TV contract. As I stated above, it affects the quality of play, it disrupts the season. It could work if the league cut back the schedule during Olympic years -- or, better, cut the schedule every year -- but the league won't be willing to give up the revenue from those games and the players won't want reduced salaries as a result.

A final decision hasn't been made as to whether NHL players will participate in the 2014 Olympics. The players want to play, the league isn't fully committed. If I had my way, they wouldn't go, but since when do I get my way in these matters?

Post-Thanksgiving coach curse hits Flyers' Stevens

An interesting trend has developed in recent years involving the Flyers' annual day-after-Thanksgiving matinee home games: one of the teams playing the game has fired their head coach for 4 years in a row.

In 2006 the Columbus Blue Jackets fired coach Gerard Gallant and eventually replaced him with former Flyers coach Ken Hitchcock, who made his Columbus debut at the Wachovia Center the day after Thanksgiving. The next year the Washington Capitals fired their head coach, Glen Hanlon, and Bruce Boudreau took over -- against the Flyers, the day after Thanksgiving.

Slightly going against the tide, last year the Carolina Hurricanes faced the Flyers in the Black Friday afternoon game, but they actually waited until December to fire coach Peter Laviolette.

This year's post-Thanksgiving game featured the Flyers and Buffalo Sabres, but in a twist, it wasn't the Sabres firing their coach. Instead, it was the Flyers, who fired John Stevens today -- and in another twist, Laviolette has taken his place.

Stevens seemed to be a promising choice at first. He coached the AHL Phantoms to a championship in 2004-05, and a number of players from that team have been Flyers since then. However, despite one strong run to the Eastern Conference finals, the team has been maddeningly inconsistent, as I mentioned last night. This year, with the additions of Chris Pronger and Ray Emery to a team that already had players like Mike Richards and Jeff Carter, expectations for a Stanley Cup run were very high. But the hot and cold streaks have kept this team from living up to their hype.

Last night, after their dismal 3-0 loss to Vancouver, I wrote the following about the Flyers' recent stretch: "This is the type of thing that should get a coach fired. The sooner it happens, the better off the Flyers will be." It should be noted that another highly-touted team, Pittsburgh, struggled mightily for a good part of last year. The Penguins then made a coaching change and promptly won the Stanley Cup. And Laviolette won a Cup with Carolina in 2005-06. So, less than 24 hours after I wrote that, the Flyers are instantly better off. I wish I had such power over other matters.

Strong start for the Flyers

I still can't quite get around the fact that it's fall, the NFL and college football have been in full swing for weeks, and now it's hockey season. Where does the time go? At any rate, the Flyers began the 2009-10 season with 2 fine road wins. Last night's 2-0 win at Carolina was followed by tonight's 5-2 win at New Jersey. Beating Martin Brodeur and the Devils has been difficult over the years, so to get 5 goals off him (in his 1,000th career game, no less) is very nice. And if the info I'm getting from the post-game show on TV is correct, it's the first time in about a decade that the Flyers have started a season with two wins.

Prior to the season I was skeptical about the additions of Chris Pronger (due to his age and how much he'll count against the salary cap) and Ray Emery (due to his various team-disruption issues). But the Flyers' retooled defense, anchored by Pronger, looks much more secure than it has in recent years, and Emery has been very strong. These two games don't exactly end my skepticism. After all, Pronger is still getting up there and there's plenty of time for Emery to self-destruct. But so far, so good.

The Flyers start the home portion of their schedule with games on Tuesday and Thursday against two Eastern rivals, the Washington Capitals (featuring the awesome Alexander Ovechkin) and Pittsburgh Penguins (featuring the whiny Sidney Crosby). If anyone has extremely inexpensive (or better yet, free) tickets for me, please get in touch.

Another Philly Sports 4-Team Update

I thought I'd compile some comments on the big four teams into one post. Let's do this thing!

Phillies: Phrustration, Panic? - The magic number to clinch the NL East remains at 3. The Phils lost a hideous game last night to Houston, and haven't beaten the Astros all year. There are 6 games left in the season starting tonight. The Atlanta Braves keep winning, so it behooves the Phils to win their games. There's way too much talk of 1964 around here, even though the Phils' lead then (not to mention the New York Mets' lead in 2007) was a lot smaller than the current 4-game lead at the same point in their respective seasons. The pitching staff is in a state of flux (especially the bullpen), between injuries and ineffectiveness. That is not a good sign. The hitters are not doing all that well either, which makes things worse.

Eagles? Still A Mystery - There's no real way to know how good the Eagles may be. Their 34-14 win over Kansas City Sunday was just another easy win over a very poor team. They're 2-1, with a blowout loss against a strong team sandwiched by two blowout wins over poor teams. The Birds have a bye this week, and their next three opponents (Tampa Bay, Oakland, Washington) aren't the best, to say the least. So if the Eagles are 5-1 going into their game Nov. 1 against the Giants, they'll finally have another test. Anything less will be a poor sign. That they signed linebacker Jeremiah Trotter, who's been out of football since the end of the 2007 season (and was cut by the Eagles before that season started), to a contract today says that there are still worries about the defense's weakest link.

Flyers: High Expectations - The NHL regular season begins Thursday, and the Flyers take the ice for the first time on Friday at Carolina. The Hockey News has picked the Flyers to win the Stanley Cup this season. There seems to be a consensus that this team will be in the mix, at the very least. The addition of Chris Pronger has to be pushing much of this. It's hard for me to join this chorus, as I worry about the goaltending and I'm still not 100 percent sold on head coach John Stevens.

76ers: Ummmmmm... - No, I still don't really care much. But they started training camp today. They have a new coach (Eddie Jordan) implementing a new system. Will it work with too many of the same old players?

Flyers make a possibly bad move

There's completely unexpected hockey news on a warm summer night here. The Philadelphia Flyers got defenseman Chris Pronger from the Anaheim Ducks in a trade (along with someone I never heard of, center Ryan Dingle). This in itself isn't necessarily bad. What makes this risky is the rest of the story.

To make the deal the Flyers gave up forward Joffrey Lupul and his long-term, rather expensive contract, which is okay in this salary cap era. However, they also gave up a young promising defenseman, Luca Sbisa, as well as their first-round pick in this year's NHL draft (being held tonight) and their first-round pick next year, plus a conditional 3rd-round pick.



Pronger is 34 years old. It's hard to tell how long he'll continue to perform at a high level. It's pretty much impossible to judge what the draft picks would've turned into and Sbisa, while showing promise, still isn't a proven commodity. But Pronger only has one year remaining on his current contract. If he leaves after this season (and he once forced a trade from Edmonton because his family was unhappy there) the Flyers may have given up an awful lot for very little.

But for one year, at least, we get to stare at the guy on the left (and still kinda miss staring at Eric Lindros, the guy on the right).