Posts Tagged ‘NHL’

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Flyers Confidence and Special Teams Shine in Win vs Habs

February 3rd, 2016 by Joe Buscemi | Comments Off on Flyers Confidence and Special Teams Shine in Win vs Habs | Filed in Flyers, General, Hockey
Forward Ryan White Celebrates the Flyers win with goalie Steve Mason

Forward Ryan White Celebrates the Flyers win with goalie Steve Mason

The Flyers returned home to Philadelphia as they hosted the Montreal Canadians to begin the second half of the season. They went into the all-star break with a win and were five points out of the wildcard and needed another regulation win to inch closer to the final wild card spot and distance themselves from the Canadians. They did just that, thanks to a full sixty minutes of good/disciplined hockey. The special teams played a vital role in last nights victory, as they went 2-4 on the powerplay, goals from Simmonds and Schenn, and killed 3 of 4 Habs penalties, including a 5 minute major given to Radko Gudas for his hit on Lucas Lessio.

The Flyers 2-0 lead would be cut in half thanks to a powerplay goal scored by Habs Andrei Markov, with just 1:42 left in the first. After scoring late in the first, the Canadians would score the tying goal just 2:30 into the 2nd period, courtesy of defensemen Jeff Petry, Halfway into the second, Wayne Simmonds netted his second goal of the night, giving the Flyers a critical 3-2 lead. After killing the five minute major, Matt Read put the dagger in the Habs, as he scored the empty netter to put the Flyers up 4-2 with just 43 seconds left in regulation.

Wayne Simmonds 3rd period go-ahead-goal.

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Flyers Offensive Outage

November 4th, 2015 by Joe Buscemi | Comments Off on Flyers Offensive Outage | Filed in Flyers, General, Hockey, Sports

EDMONTON, AB - DECEMBER 28: Jordan Eberle #14 of the Edmonton Oilers exchanges words with Claude Giroux #28 of the Philadelphia Flyers prior to a face off on December 28, 2013 at Rexall Place in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. (Photo by Marko Ditkun/NHLI via Getty Images)

The Flyers will stay North of the Border as they head to Edmonton to take on the Oilers tonight at Rexall Place. They are currently on a four game losing skid, and have been outscored 15-6 during this recent slump. They did however put up quite a fight last night to the Canucks for most of the game, especially during the third period where they outshot, out-hit, and had the majority of scoring chances. None of this would matter to Canucks goalie Ryan Miller, who to his credit stood on his head throughout the entire game and kept the most promising of Flyers opportunities from reaching the back of the net.

  • Takeaways: Despite the tough loss, the team’s only highlight came just under three minutes in the second period, where captain Claude Giroux scored a dazzling goal. He muscled through a Canuck defender and just has he approached the net, he went fore-hand, back-hand and flicked the puck top shelf to tie the game at one.

NHL: Edmonton Oilers at Dallas Stars

  • Planning for Connor McDavid: Despite the Oilers slow start, as they are 4-8 on the season, the Flyers defense has to plan carefully for the always dangerous Connor McDavid. Just in case you were living under a rock the past few months, he was the first overall pick in this season’s NHL Draft and has been the talk of the league ever since. The Oilers are currently undergoing a youth movement somewhat similar to the Flyers and are no team to take lightly. The Flyers are going to need to stay solid on defense and absolutely need to start cashing in on scoring opportunities, especially during powerplays as they are only four for thirty-four on the man advantage, if they want to end their current losing streak.

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Flying Jet-lagged

October 22nd, 2015 by Joe Buscemi | Comments Off on Flying Jet-lagged | Filed in Flyers, General, Hockey, Sports

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Too much of anything is no good, just ask any athlete about a long lay-off and they will give you a similar answer to that of Jake Voracek in reference to the the Flyers six day break.  “We will most likely have to shake off some rust in the first twenty minutes of play against the Stars”. Unfortunately it took the Flyers a good forty-six minutes to shake off the rust and score their first goal to trim the Stars 2-0 lead in half with 8:57 left in the 3rd period. The offense looked flat throughout the first two periods, this included a lot of ill-advised passes, turnovers, issues setting up, and barely any time on attack. The Flyers also failed to convert on all four of their power plays as the team continued to turn the puck over multiple times while entering their own zone.

Despite winning 56% of their face-offs and out shooting the Stars 35-33, the Flyers failed to capitalize during multiple opportunities and to add insult to injury Braydon Schenn wound up committing an untimely slashing penalty with only 2:08 remaining in the game, which pretty much ended the Flyers from having any shot at potentially tying the game.

  • Positive Takeaways: Despite ending up with the loss and an early 2nd period goal, Steve Mason played brilliantly between the pipes, especially for returning from what seemed to have been a serious personal issue.
    • The defense really picked up for the lack of play in the team’s offensive zone and weak fore-checking. Had it not been for the solid play by both Mason and the team’s defense, the deficit could easily have been larger.

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Back to Hockey 2015 Pre-Season Edition (Did somebody say free food?!)

September 12th, 2015 by Joe Buscemi | 1 Comment | Filed in Flyers, General, Hockey, Sports

flyers opening promo 2015

 

That’s right Flyers fans the orange and black are set to open the season in a little under a month, on October 8th, when they face-off against the Tampa Bay Lightning.  However before I go on about the upcoming regular season, here are a few things you should know about the pre-season, which is only ten days away!

flyers time change

2015 Flyers pre-season schedule:

September 21st vs the Islanders (split squad)

September 22nd vs the Rangers

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Philadelphia Flyers & Jakub Voracek Agree to Massive, Eight Year Contract

August 1st, 2015 by Ryan Waterman | Comments Off on Philadelphia Flyers & Jakub Voracek Agree to Massive, Eight Year Contract | Filed in Flyers, General, Hockey

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It’s the end of July, which is usually associated with the MLB and their trade deadline. This time period, also just happens to fall in the middle of the NHL’s offseason. Lost in the shuffle of the Phillies active deadline week, another Philly team has quietly made some quality moves to lock up some of their young studs. Earlier this week, the team re-signed lockdown center Sean Couturier to a six-year extension. Yesterday evening, news broke that the Flyers locked up another key piece of their young core. The team announced that they had signed forward Jakub Voracek to an eight-year, $66.5 million dollar contract.

This was a significant move, that was necessary for the team’s long-term success. Voracek was a huge piece of the limited success the Flyers had last season. In a breakout season, Jake tallied 22 goals, and 59 assists, good for a 4th place tie in points last year. He was also highly effective on the power-play last season, finishing with 33 points (11 goals, 22 assists). He really came into his own last season, and stepped up as one of the leaders on this team. Paired with Claude Giroux, Voracek helps make one of the most explosive duos in hockey. Often compared to the Malkin/Crosby duo in Pittsburgh, or the Kane/Toews duo in Chicago, the Voracek/Giroux duo may not seem all that impressive. Digging deeper into things, the duo of G & Voracek have actually outscored the duo of Kane/Toews over the last three seasons, by a margin of 396 points, to 370.

Now that the Flyers have locked up their young guns, their focus will turn towards winning. The team is in a bit of a “retool” mode, and Voracek stepping up as a leader will make things easier as far as a veteran presence in the locker room. At the young age of 25, Voracek will be entering his 8th season in the league. He’s been around the block more than a few times, and has gathered some playoff experience in his time as a Flyer. At an annual value of $8.25 million per season, there are high expectations coming with this contract. Jake is strongly expected to be one of the players, that will help end Philadelphia’s Stanley Cup drought of 40 years. With a big contract, comes big expectations. He’ll be expected to meet those expectations, or he can expect to hear it from the Philly faithful.

Overall though, this is a good signing for the Flyers. Ron Hextall has done everything right in his tenure as GM, to this point. He’s centered his focus on re-tooling for the future. He’s not admitting defeat, yet he’s also admitted that the team will remain competitive. Hexy has set this team up for long-term success, and it shows from his patience with the prospects, to his ability to secure long-term commitments from the young studs. With Voracek and “Coots” already locked up, I personally have to wonder where Brayden Schenn. Is he next in line for a long-term payday? Or, will Schenn find himself on a new team by this time next year? Only time will tell, and I for one, am looking forward to what this team has in store for us this upcoming season. If you check back towards the end of August, and I will have my “Official Flyers Season Preview” up for your viewing pleasure.

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Sean Couturier Signs Six Year Extension

July 30th, 2015 by Joe Buscemi | Comments Off on Sean Couturier Signs Six Year Extension | Filed in Flyers, General, Hockey, Sports

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The Flyers signed center Sean Couturier to a 6 year contract extension worth $25 million on Tuesday July 28th. He is in the final year of his current 2 year $3.5 million contract, in which he will be earning a cap hit of $1.75 million.

Most fans have mixed feelings about “Coots” due to his moderate offensive numbers, however many forget that he is only 22,  has played under two different coaches at a very young age, and despite being a center he has been heavily utilized as a defensive specialist during many penalty killing opportunities. He has done an excellent job shutting down opponent’s star players including Evgeni Malkin, especially during the 2012 Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Couturier has generated 45 goals and 73 assists in regular season contests and 3 goals and an assist in 18 playoff games as a Flyer. He also assisted in Team Canada’s 2015 World Championships Gold Medal run, where he recorded 3 goals and 4 assists in 10 games.

During an interview with CSN Philly, Couturier mentioned that he is extremely excited to continue his career with the Flyers but most importantly he understands that it is time for him to step-up his game on offense and feels as though he can really improve under new head coach Dave Hackstol.

It would be nice to see if Hackstol could help revamp Couturier’s offensive skills as he continues to develop. It would turn him into quite a highly skilled two-way forward that would strengthen the team’s offense as he could be utilized on both the 2nd and 3rd lines.coots 2

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ICYMI: Recap of Flyers 2015-16 Promotional Schedule

July 1st, 2015 by Joe Buscemi | Comments Off on ICYMI: Recap of Flyers 2015-16 Promotional Schedule | Filed in Flyers, General, Hockey, TalkSportsPhilly

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Last year was a special year in Flyers history. John LeClair, Eric Lindros, and Eric Deshardins, three members of the “Legion of Doom” era, were inducted into the Flyers hall of fame. If you grew up in the 80’s and 90’s you knew just how nostalgic those ceremonies felt and how well deserved they were. Each of them played a critical role in the success that brought the Flyers to many memorable playoff appearances including the 1997 Stanley Cup Finals.

It looks as though the Flyers are going to keep the party going with a few ceremonies that will have fans feeling quite special this year as well. On October 14th vs. the Blackhawks, the organization will honor Kimmo Timonen’s retirement, which many have phrased as a storybook ending.

Even though he did not hoist the cup with the Flyers, Kimmo went through quite a lot prior to this past season, when he was diagnosed with blood clots in both of his lungs back in August, causing a health scare and uncertainty to his playing days. Kimmo is an example of the phrase “hard work pays off” and nothing is more important than having a positive outlook despite life’s obstacles. I can only imagine the kind of reaction he will get from the fans that night.

The Flyers have also inducted Rod Brind’Amour and Jim Waton into this year’s hall of fame class. Each player was also very much loved during their respective stints with the organization.

“Brindy” was quite an asset to that Legion of Doom team on and off the ice.  He wound up recording 235 goals and 366 assists for a total of 601 points. He ranks 10th overall in goals in Flyers history and 4th overall among centers.

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