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Bobrovsky and Boucher Get Shelled
I don’t have a good feeling about this one…
It didn’t matter who was in goal for the Flyers, as they were dominated by the Bruins in Game 1 in Philly, 7-3.
Looks like another miracle will be needed this year.
Tags: Flyers Bruins Game 1
Welcome to the time warp known as the Eastern Conference semifinals. While it might not be the exact calendar date, it was on the final Saturday of April last year that the Flyers and Bruins began their Eastern Conference semifinal series. While we all know how that series turned out, this year’s series promises to be just as thrilling, compelling, and hopefully not as worrisome. Though if the regular season was any indication, the Flyers may have a tougher time than they did against Buffalo.
The Flyers come into this series with their leading goal scorer of the regular season, Jeff Carter, on the injury list. He is hopeful to return at some point, but probably won’t be back until game 4 at the earliest of this series. By coming back I mean actually active on the ice, while we may see him earlier on in the series, he will probably be a shadow of himself like he was last year when he came back early from injury.
Even without Carter in the lineup, this is still a very powerful offense that can find efficiency from multiple sources. James van Riemsdyk had a coming out party in the first round. He scored four goals in the series and recorded the most amount of shots compared to anyone else in the playoffs. Danny Briere had six goals in against his former team. Briere has had more playoff points than anyone else since the lockout, he has found a way to raise his game at the time when you need it the most. Claude Giroux was very quiet in the scoring department in the first series, look for him to turn it around against the Bruins
The Bruins come in with some fire power on the offensive side of the ice. Chris Kelly and Nathan Horton led the team with 3 goals in the first round series. Boston’s most dynamic scorers, Milan Lucic and Patrice Burgeron can give the Flyers fits at times. And former flyer Marc Recchi always finds a way to make a play when he needs to.
With loss comes some gain, and the Flyers have gotten a huge boost, especially in the power play from the returning Chris Pronger. With the couple days off since the Sabres series to heal, Pronger should return to the ice time that we are used to seeing him play. He averaged just over 28 minutes in the playoffs last season.
By Amy McCormick
Last night, my best friends and I had a girls’ night at the ballpark. To be honest, we never expect an exciting game when the Mets are in town. We surely had no idea what was in store for us.
Joe Blanton, now on the DL, seemed long forgotten when Vance Worley took the mound. We saw him a few times last year; his record was 1-1 and his ERA was 1.38. Not too shabby for a 22 year old kid brought up to the bigs for the first time. Last night, Worley was our starting pitcher, and he proved that he has more than just potential. I love that he’s calm and focused – something you don’t often see in someone so young. Getting the win, Worley’s line was: 6 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 4 BB, 5 K. Needless to say, my friends and I were pleased with his performance. Is he a better choice than Blanton for our #5 spot? Hard to say, if you ask me, but it’s nice to know that the Phils are adept at making quality substitutions when necessary.
Offensively speaking, Philadelphia brought their A Game last night. And by “Philadelphia,” of course, I mean Ryan Howard and Placido Polanco. Howard hit two homers, one of which was a grand slam; he was responsible for six of the team’s ten runs. Polanco’s base hit in the seventh scored two runs. Ryan Howard now has 27 RBIs in the month of April, which breaks the Phils’ record set in 2008 by Pat Burrell (he had 24). I think that it might be time to stop blaming Howard for losing the NLCS in 2010. The man is an RBI machine. Polanco is no slouch, either. He has posted nineteen RBIs thus far and is batting .390. If Halladay, Lee, Oswalt and Hamels are the four aces, then Howard and Polanco are our offensive dynamic duo.
Last night, aside from having to set eyes on David Herndon, we saw a formula for winning games: solid pitching and aggressive offense. The Phils showed that even with two starting pitchers being out, the show must go on. They had an offensive slump lasting about a dozen or so games, and it appears to be over. I know that it’s still April, but Philadelphia is asserting itself as the team to beat.
Tags: Placido Polanco, Ryan Howard, Vance Worley
If you’ve read my non-baseball articles in the past, you’ll know that I am not exactly the biggest football fan in the Philadelphia metro area. To be honest, if it’s not baseball, I am pretty ambivalent towards the outcome of the game. That’s not to say I don’t root for the home teams. Heck, if I got stuck watching the Union somewhere, I’d root for them, but on to my point. I don’t get what all the hype around the NFL draft is all about.
With baseball, there is only really one way to play the game. With football, there are tons of different schemes and systems to learn. Learning to play a certain style of football is not easy by any stretch of the imagination. Then having to translate it from an extra curricular activity into a profession, which may put you in a new role, situation, and/or position, is down right maddening. How does anyone know how Cam Newton or Dan Watkins or whoever will be drafted in this or any other year will do? It seems like a lot of the individual teams pick players based off of assumptions and we all know what happens when we assume things.
"Experts" Yeah Right!
The best part of the whole process is the prognosticators. By definition, to prognosticate means to forecast or predict from present indications or signs. So basically, all the Mel Kipers, Todd McShays, and Mike Mayocks of the world can tell you who they think SHOULD go to a certain team, but honestly what do they really know? For the most part, they sit and look at tape and make assessments based on what they see.
Tape doesn’t tell you about the person. Tape shows ability, but not mentality. So these prognosticators watch tape all year long to blog or go on TV or write an article in the press about what player will be the best overall blah, blah, blah and they actually get paid a hefty amount to give their opinion on who should do what. Then they’ll turn around and tell everyone how well or horrible a team has done selecting players BEFORE any of those players generally have even signed a contract or even play a single down in a system that there is a 50/50 shot they will either succeed or fail.
Francisco Treat (Corny but had to...)
So far this season, Ben Francisco has competently filled the offensive void left by Jayson Werth’s departure.
2011 Stats thus far:
Jayson Werth is hitting .233 with 4 HRs, 7 RBIs and 15 Runs Scored.
Ben Francisco is hitting .261 with 4 HRs, 18 RBIs and 10 Runs Scored.
A possible microfracture surgery down the road has dropped Da'Quan Bowers, a top 5 talent out of the first round.
By Brandon Pemberton
www.brandononsports.WordPress.com
The other day I released a list of my top 50 prospects in the 2011 NFL Draft. Here are my top remaining prospects going into todays 2nd and 3rd round.(the number represents where they were ranked coming into the draft on my board.) Look for these players to come off the board early today in the second round. The concern with Da’Quan Bowers knee is the reason why he has dropped out of the first round. Rumor is that he eventually might have to have a micro-fracture surgery. Enjoy day two of the draft.
6. Da’Quan Bowers DE Clemson 6′3” 280lbs
Domonic Brown hit his second home run in as many days for the Threshers on Thursday. It’s only two games, but Brown has apparently gotten back to his comfort level at the plate. In 9 plate appearances, Brown has two singles, two homers, four RBIs, and a walk.
Meanwhile, in Reading, possibly Brown’s second destination on his rehab tour, Phillipe Aumont pitched a perfect inning of relief Thursday afternoon striking out all three batters he faced. For the year that bring Aumont’s K:BB ratio to 15:4 in just 9.2 innings.
Success is the ability to go from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm.
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