I'm trying to shake off the disappointment today after another 2nd round loss. My life was literally changed by the Broad street bullies, as I was one of many kids who spent much of their youth playing ice hockey entirely due to the explosion of interest in the sport, and the Rinks built and and leagues started after the Flyers won their two cups, some 37 years ago.

Having watched all but three Flyers games this season, I've truly come to love this batch of players, and marveled at the success of this rookie heavy group, even if it seemed improbable at times, and the team fought through more than their fair share of injuries. They were damn fun to watch.

I have not had much time for BSH posting this year, although I certainly read the site religiously and as always, appreciate the efforts of the editors and band of regulars to explore every aspect of the team.

What changed for me this year, is that I decided at that start of the season, I would for the first time, follow my hometown team as well as the Flyers. Although, I grew up in the Philly burbs, I have lived here in Los Angeles since moving to the city after college. My home is here, my professional career has been here, and I have two kids now. I've always followed the Kings through the years, but never as more than a bandwagon fan.

This year has been different. I saw every LA KIngs game this season, and let me tell you that is a lot of Hockey, but it also allowed me for the first time to feel like I had a first hand perspective on the best teams in the league, rather than one filtered through an Eastern conference bias.

Continue reading this post »

The incident allegedly occurred at the end of the Winter Classic between the Boch Blazers for whom Milbury coaches and his son plays forward vs. the Boston Junior Black Hawks. It is alleged that after Milbury’s son and a player for the Black Hawks got into a scrape on the ice, Milbury charged out onto the rink and verbally berated and grabbed and shook the 12-year-old opposing player.

Oh please, please, please let this be true, and result in Milbury being fired by Versus as a broadcaster.

http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/news;_ylt=AsdZ46YAjkCLA1J20NGbqdN7vLYF?slug=ap-milbury-assault

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/capitals-insider/post/report-mike-milbury-charged-with-assaulting-child/2011/12/16/gIQAydpYyO_blog.html?wprss=capitals-insider

I couldn't help but wonder in light of recent events, as well as news that Maroon has been signed to a new 1 year contract, what the Maroon debacle says about the current state of the Flyers organization.  Maroon was at the time he was literally kicked off the Phantoms, the teams' leading scorer.  Holmgren went up to "investigate" the situation, which apparently meant having a meeting with Maroon to inform him he was being kicked out of the organization.  This was the first incident where the organization would make a move based on the premise that a player simply could not be managed by the organization and coaches, but as it turns out, it was only the tip of the iceberg.

Continue reading this post »

According to Dean Lombardi:

Well, it’s been a pretty hectic four weeks, actually, between everything. I would say the issue of possibly acquiring him was broached about four weeks ago. Things just kind of evolved and then moved to a pressure point, to so speak, which is usually the draft and July 1. So in terms of the possibility of acquiring him, I was aware of that about four weeks ago, but I wasn’t sure how sincere they were...

Seems to me this looks a lot more deliberate and less about reacting to Bryz the more information comes out.  I guess we will not get the real story anytime soon.  Sad to hear Richie say he singed his deal because he planned to retire a Flyer, and that the first he had any idea about the trade was 30 minutes before it happened.

Stevens
NHL sources say John Stevens is getting a look for the head coaching job in Minnesota. The ex-Flyer coach is Terry Murray's assistant in Los Angeles.

--According to Tim Panaccio on CSNPhilly.com

I'm still a fan of Stevens and the great job he did in Philly both in the winning of an AHL championship, and then bringing with him what is now the nucleus of our current team.  I'm pulling for him to get another chance with the Wild.

I saw the news item today by Chuck Gormley that the Zherdev is sharing alternate reps on the 4th line.

It's clear that his career as a Flyer is over.  They must be close to a deal for him, or have plans to waive or dump him in some way.  There doesn't seem to be a shift, or a play, or an incident that explains what touched this off, other than moving Zherdev over to the Richards line.

While Versteeg is a great pickup, only time will tell if he finds his niche on the team.  He's a fantastic role player, and should make the team better, but it seems clear when looking at this from outside, that there's something else going one.

What we already knew was that Giroux Carter Zherdev was not only a combination that works well, it was a combination that at times took over games, and had the ability to carry the Flyers to a number of wins and contributed substantially to getting Carter back to flashes of the form he hasn't displayed since his broken feet. 

Since when is it good strategy to break up a line that is clicking based on the argument that you need to get more out of another line that is not, especially when that line is adding to the W column?  Maybe that's something you do when you're desperate -- when the entire team is floundering, but when you're first in the conference, I have a hard time understanding what possible justification there is for such a move.  If your goal was to come in and give Mike Richards a better wing to play with, then getting Kris Versteeg makes sense, but that's not what we're seeing happen.  Any reasonable person would expect to see a restoration of a line that was smoking only a few short weeks ago, before YOU broke it up.

I know my own agenda: I've bled Flyers orange since I was a kid, and I'll continue to do so for the rest of my days, so I feel completely justified in saying, that this doesn't look like a move to make the team better, it looks like there's a relationship between a coach and player that doesn't seem to work, and the one thing I know for sure about that relationship is that the one with all the power happens to be the coach.  I'm livid right now, and I have been throughout this entire affair.  Peter Laviolette -- you better be right, because you'll have no excuses if things go southwards.  This is a team that has been masterfully built for a Cup.  There are no guarantees, but what I do know is that the players have to play the games, and you made a decision to put players with less skill and with less on ice results in the lineup, over a better player for reasons that only you and perhaps your inner circle of coaches seems to understand.

So long Nick.  You made some fans here, and I wish you luck in your quest to reestablish yourself in the NHL against the best hockey players in the world.

For those who like to keep tabs on some of the ex-Flyers of the fairly recent past, you might be aware of Joffrey Lupul's injury nightmare, where he was operated on for a herniated disc, then sustained an infection of the spinal column that eventually required a 2nd operation.  Lupul had 3 tuneup games, and after nearly a year on LTIR, finally made his debut with the Ducks, playing in place of Teemu Selanne who is now out with a nagging groin injury.  Unfortunately for the Ducks things did not go well, as they got blanked by the Yotes 3 to zip. 

Lupul faced off against his former drinking buddy Scottie Upshall who is also back from a season ending injury -- a torn ACL that derailed him from a breakout year in 2009 where he was leading the Yotes in goals (18) and 14 helpers in 49 games.  After a slow start, Upshall has started to get his scoring touch back, and is again leading the Yotes in scoring albeit with only 8 goals.  Given the ongoing ownership issues in Phoenix, the Coyotes continue to surprise everyone, having clawed their way into 2nd place in the Pacific with 32 points. 

It's nice to see both these guys back in action after their run of extremely bad luck.  Speaking personally, if there's one trade that still gnaws at me, it's the Upshall trade. 

You can read a short story about Lupul's return to the Ducks here:  http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-ducks-coyotes-20101206,0,4020632.story

Sometimes you really have to hit rock bottom before you can rebound, and seeing this picture represents for me, the bottom of the barrel -- salt in a painful wound.  Sure Vince Vaughn is a guy you could imagine being friends with, the type of guy who seems like he'd be fun to hang out with at the bar, and despite his increasingly evident lack of a physical fitness regimin has been through a bevvy of Hollywood's hottest starlets, before he apparently married the woman in this picture.  Yeah he's from Chicago, and I can't fault him for revelling in the success of his hometown hockey team, but it still pisses me off.

Some of the Flyers have talked about the pain of losing in the SCF.  Seeing this picture reminds me of that, and I guess that's why I find myself glued to this site in search of news about next season, and wondering what people like Giroux and JVR are doing with their offseason conditioning program.  I hope they're looking at this picture and using it as inspiration.

via l.yimg.com

I understand the pessimism given the wildly uneven performance of the team in the last 2 years.  Then we can factor in the seemingly unending stream of bad luck and injuries, only the latest being the loss of Brian Boucher who was leading the playoffs with a .233 GAA and posting a respectable .915 save %. 

The thing is-- this is not the regular season.  If anything the Flyers have shown incredible consistency and resilience getting into the post season and so far.  From a statistics point of view, we all know the incredible odds against coming back from a 0-3 hole, but at this point, there are a lot of reasons to think the Flyers have everything in place to mount a historic comeback.  I lay out 14 separate factors after the jump.

Continue reading this post »

When questioned about not getting a nom for the Norris as best defenseman,  Pronger's answer----

"I'm looking for a different trophy."

F*ck yeah! 

So he may not be the captain, but do you think it's too soon to nominate him for Mayor? 

I gotta think that deep down, with all the adversity one of the major reasons the Flyers believe they can still win is having Pronger back there punishing people and making it near impossible to get anything going in the offensive zone.  I knew the guy was good watching him play with the Duck the last couple of years, including the playoffs last year where he was unbelievable, but having an entire season to see him game in and game out, the guy was worth every dime and then some. 

Looking back at it, no matter what happens from here out, I think this is the year that the younger guys got an education from Lappy, Betts and Elbows on what it takes to hoist the cup.  We got a long way on youthful exuberance the last two seasons, but I think the team may finally realize that it's going to require a gut check, and that there's a heavy price to be paid for glory, and I'm seeing the signs that the team is finally willing to go out and play for each other -- which is exactly what Pronger said the team needed to do, about half a season ago.

Not a huge shock, as the Lightning failed to reach the playoffs again, but it appears that Rick did a pretty good job considering the turmoil and the cards he was dealt (no pun intended).   It takes guts to put Lecavalier on the 4th line as a kick in the pants, and for a while it looked like things were working there, but the team faded badly after the Olympic break.

Rick is one of my all time favorite flyers, and I hope he lands on his feet.

SBNation story on the firing.

Up to this point, Scottie Upshall was leading the suprising Coyotes with 18 goals.  About the only city where this wasn't a surprise is Philadelphia.  I know that many of us felt that the Upshall for Carcillo trade was a turning point in last year's season, and one that appeared to take a lot of wind out of the sails of a Flyers team that was enjoying success and striking fear into the hearts of anyone they oppossed, even if they were inconsistent.  Upshall played limited 3rd line minutes, and found himself in Steven's dog house several times, yet was a huge fan favorite for his high energy shifts that often seemed to swing momentum and ignite the team, even if it didn't show up on the scoresheet. 

Unfortunately Scottie is now out indefinately with a torn ACL --- a terrible break for a guy who found out about his trade from a cup contender to the sinking ship in Phoenix from a reporter (talk about your classy moves, thanks to the Flyer's front office for that beauty.)

With that said, I have to admit that I was wrong about Carcillo who has shown this season that he is without a doubt a better skater and all around player than I could possibly have imagined, having watched his play last year.  In many ways, Carcillo has taken Upshall's place as the guy who plays a role postion and manages to go out and make the hits, and occassional goals that get things flowing in the right direction.

I have to admit that I misjudged Dan Carcillo, but then again, I wonder if Homer would be able to admit that the Upshall trade wasn't the best move for the Flyers last year, and maybe, just maybe, the army of hardcore fans who howled at the move last year, actually saw something in Upshall that the Flyer's organization apparently couldn't.  Is there such a thing as being too close to a situation? 

Here's wishing Scottie a speedy recovery, and hoping that it's one that won't completely derail what could very well have been a break out season for the guy.

Some interesting statistics from the series:

Goal differential was 18-16.  Let's not forget how close the series was, as disappointing as the ending turned out to be.

Continue reading this post »