ESPN PowerRankings Week 25

March 30, 2006

The Flyers have won five of their last six games, including a win over the Atlantic-rival Rangers. But will the goalie controversy take on new meaning come late April? Robert Esche again voiced his "frustration" to the media, saying the "writing was on the wall" that Antero Niittymaki is going to be Philly's No. 1 goalie.

Frustration? Eh, maybe a little but he just speaking the truth.
Up to 11 from 13.

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Flyers Sign Ryan Potulny to Contract

March 29, 2006

2006 Hobey Baker Memorial Award finalist joins Flyers organization

The Philadelphia Flyers announced that they have signed 6Ã¢â‚¬â„¢0Ã¢â‚¬Â, 192-pound center Ryan Potulny (poh-TUHL-nee) to a two-year entry-level contract, according to club Assistant General Manager Paul Holmgren.

Ã¢â‚¬Å“We are excited about having Ryan in our organization,Ã¢â‚¬Â said Holmgren in making the announcement. Ã¢â‚¬Å“If you look at his track record in the USHL and in the WCHA playing for the University of Minnesota, he has always been a point producer. He is more of a goal scorer than a playmaker. He has an exceptional release and an elusiveness, an ability to get open, in the offensive zone. He is one of those guys that has demonstrated at each level that he has played that he can score goals.Ã¢â‚¬Â [.continue.]

Under the rules of the new CBA Potulny can not currently play for the Phantoms because of his age. So for now he will be skating with the Flyers.
He took part in his first practice Tuesday.
Hitchcock Ã¢â‚¬â€œ "As he moves along into next week weÃ¢â‚¬â„¢ll take a hard look at him. One day out there, IÃ¢â‚¬â„¢ve got to tell you, he looks like a very smart, skilled player."

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Flyers flat against Maple Leafs, lose 3-2

March 29, 2006

The Flyers had their small winning streak snapped by the Maple Leafs last night, losing 3-2. The Flyers squandered a chance to reclaim first place in the division back from the Rangers. The Maple Leafs played a hard, fast, high energy game, the Flyers did not.

Flyers jumped out to a 1-0 lead on a power play goal by Joni Pitkanen early in the first period. Mat Sundin of the Maple Leafs redirected a shot past Antero Niittymaki to tie up the game at 1 later in the first. The Flyers only had 4 shots on goal in the first, the Leafs had 13. Considering only 1 of the Flyers shots was at even strength, you start to see how dominating the Leafs were in that period. Flyers did come out with some better energy in the second period. The game was more balanced, but no scoring in the second. The third started with the Flyers coming out basically flat. They gave up 2 goals in the first two minutes of the third period. R.J. Umberger did score late in the third, but the Flyers couldnÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t score the tying goal in the last seconds to get the game to overtime.

Nitty for the Flyers and Aubin for the Maple Leafs played really well.

The Flyers played a totally different game last night as compared to against the Senators this weekend.

Coach Ken Hitchcock - We had the wrong attitude to start the game. We knew what the game was going to be like. They play a heavy game, an old NHL game. We wanted to play around the game instead of plow through it. We got it back a little bit in the second period with some of our guys, we were down two goals and we started to get it back in the third. We had a terrible start in the third period. We had a neutral zone give away. When we started the game, it looked like we just threw our sticks on the ice.Ã¢â‚¬Â

Yep, that about sums it up.

Matt Sundin, Alexei Ponikarovsky and Michal Handzus were the three stars.

Branko Radivojevic and Turner Stevenson were healthy scratches.

Looking at the Flyers plus/minus stats Petr Nedved and Brian Savage are at the bottom with minus 15. Much of NedvedÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s stats are from Phoenix, but SavageÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s is all Flyers. With the lazy play tonight and since Savage was minus 1 I hope Hitchcock shakes things up a bit. Like scratching Savage and letting Branko Radivojevic play some games. Sure Branko is minus 4, but thatÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s a hell of a lot better than minus 15.
I believe it was Glenn Healey that made the comment last night during the game about SavageÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s crappy plus/minus stats. Career wise Savage is a minus 77 player. That cant be good.

Good news for Kim Johnsson. On Tuesday he skated for the first time since January when he left with a concussion. Although he is still weeks away from joining the team in full practice. Keith Primeau is continuing to improve, but really not much hope with him returning for the playoffs.

According to a Street & Smith's SportsBusiness Journal survey in the March 20-26 issue, the Flyers led the NHL in total ticket sales through March 13. The Flyers sold 667,427 tickets for their first 35 home games. Tuesday night's game against the Maple Leafs marked their 34th sellout in 36 games. Street & Smith's ranked the Detroit Red Wings second in the league with 662,178 tickets sold and the Calgary Flames came in third with 655,826 tickets sold. So are the US venueÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s larger than the Canadian ones or are fans in Detroit and Philly more passionate about the game than the teams up north?

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Maple Leafs in Philly March 28

March 28, 2006

The Toronto Maple Leafs come into town tonight to play the Philadelphia Flyers.
The season series is tied between the teams at 1 game a piece. Flyers won the last meeting between the two teams way back on October 22 5-2 in Toronto.
The Flyers are on a 4 game win streak, coming off a 6-3 win against the Senators in Philly on Saturday. The Maple Leafs are coming off a 4-3 win over the Devils on Sunday. The teams really seem to be headed in different directions. The Flyers weathered an obnoxious rash of injuries and are fighting for first in their division. The Maple Leafs are slowly seeing any playoff hopes fade, if there is any left at this point. Key injuires have hurt them and it looks like there will be some off season moves that wont be restricted to just players.

Injuries for the Flyers include Keith Primeau, Chris Therein and Kim Johnsson.
Injuris for the Maple Leafs include Ed Belfour, Eric Lindros, Carlo Colaiacovo, Karel Pilar, and Jason Allison.

Antero Niittymaki will get the start in goal tonight.
There has been a lot said about the Ã¢â‚¬Ëœgoalie controversyÃ¢â‚¬â„¢ the past few days.
This really got going with Robert Esche stating on the record that he thought Nitty was already unofficially chosen as the number one guy. In his mind, Hitchcock might already have done this, but he isnÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t letting on to it. Back in 2003 Hitchcock proclaimed Roman Ã¢â‚¬ËœUniÃ¢â‚¬â„¢ Chechmaneck the #1 guy in February while some were pointing to Ã¢â‚¬ËœrookieÃ¢â‚¬â„¢ Robert Esche as the one that should start. He doesnÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t want to repeat that mistake again. So we probably wonÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t know who the #1 will be until after the first week in April. Well, officially that is.

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TSN Power Rankings March 26

March 27, 2006

The Flyers are on their first four-game winning streak since late December and the surprising leading scorer this month has been D Joni Pitkanen, who's put up 14 points in 13 games.
Key Injuries: D Kim Johnsson (head).

TSN Power Rankings March 26

Up to 4 from 8.
Flyers starting to get into the groove. Now if they could just beat #14 ranked Lightning, then they would be doing something.

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29th Annual Flyers Wives Fight for Lives Carnival

March 27, 2006

The 29th Annual Flyers Wives Fight for Lives Carnival took place yesterday at the Wachovia Center. This is a huge fundraiser the Flyers do every season. Unfortunately there wasnÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t one last year with the lock out. About 10,000 fans showed up for the event. Fans got to meet and chat with their favorite players. Pictures, autographs and games were the agenda for the day.
Through money raised at the Flyers Wives Fight For Lives Carnival and through charitable efforts throughout the year, the Comcast-Spectacor Foundation provides donations, random gifts of kindness and player appearances to numerous non-profit groups, organizations and individuals to improve the quality of life in the Greater Philadelphia Region. To date, the Comcast-Spectacor Foundation has contributed more than $20 million to various charities.
If you missed the carivnal and would like to donate to the Flyers Wives Charities, you can do so here. The Flyers Wives Charities also has an online auction that is taking place over the remainder of the season.
Here are few photos from the event.

Robert Esche signing an autograph

A whole lot of stuff

Program Front Cover

Forsberg Picture from the Program - Just for Jes GÃ…â€˜lbez

Bernie Parent, Gary Dornhoefer and some clowns.

Thanks to Lady Nic for providing the Fan Picts.
More Carinval pictures can be found here.

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Flyers over Senators 6-3

March 26, 2006

A fast start was enough for the Flyers to beat the Senators 6-3 last night. The Flyers scored 4 goals on 14 shots in the first 8 minutes of the game. This chased Ray Emery from goal and was replaced by Michael Morrison.
Scoring for the Flyers were Petr Nedved, Niko Dimitrakos, Jeff Carter, Michal Handzus, Peter Forsberg and Donald Brashear, every line scored at least one goal.
Antero Niittymaki played a good game in goal stopping 33 of 36 shots, although he looked a little too nonchalant at times.

After going down by two goals a couple minutes into the game the Senators looked to jumpstart the bench with a fight, Donald Brashear vs Brian McGrattan. Have to give the edge to McGrattan, but the fight really didnÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t help with the Flyers scoring two more goals in the next 4 minutes of play. One other fight late in the game with Chris Neil going after Denis Gauthier. Gauither not really a fighter just stood and tried to avoid the hits. I guess he just didnÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t want to turtle.

The Senators were without some key players, but so are the Flyers. Scheduling would be the one disadvantage Senators had coming into the game with them playing the night before. The Flyers had several days off. But at any rate it was a good win stretching the win streak to 4 and for now giving the Flyers third in the Eastern Conference.

Anything bad to say about the game? Sure, special teams. The Flyers gave up 2 Power Play goals on 4 kills, plus a short handed goal. Yeah the game was already out of reach, but still Ã¢â‚¬Ëœspecial teams win playoffsÃ¢â‚¬â„¢. At least thatÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s what I have been told. But if you can score 4 goals in the first 8 minutes of the game, I donÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t think that matters much.

What has helped the Flyers break out of their funk? Besides the hard play it is the other 3 lines contributing. The Forsberg-Knuble-Gagne line has not had to carry the team as of late. A big factor in this is line consistency. For the first time since October the Flyers have gone 5 straight games with the same lineup. Handzus and Nedved have really started to play well together. Although I would rather see Branko Radivojevic on that line instead of Brian Savage and not just so I could call it the Czechoslovakia line. The hottest line of late is the Carter-Umberger-Dimitrakos line. Carter has scored 5 goals in the past 6 games with the others adding in a few. Dimitrakos who some thought would end up heading to the Phantoms has so far added energy and a real offensive threat to that line. The Richards-Brashear-Kapanen line has also played well as of late.

Jeff Carter, Donald Brashear and Niko Dimitrakos were the three stars.

Branko Radivojevic and Turner Stevenson were healthy scratches for the Flyers.

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Senators in Philly March 25

March 25, 2006

The Ottawa Senators the first team this year to clinch a playoff spot come to Philly tonight to play the Flyers. The Flyers lead the season series 2-1 against the Senators. The Senators won the last meeting 3-2 in Ottawa on February 11. This is the last regular season meeting between the two teams.
Ottawa is coming off a 3-1 win against the Sabres on Friday. The Flyers are coming off a 6-3 win over the Rangers on Wednesday.

Antero Niittymaki is expected to get the start in goal. Senators also have a rookie goaltender starting with Ray Emery.

Injuries for the Flyers include Keith Primeau, Kim Johnsson and Chris Thereien.
R.J. Umberger will be fine to play tonight against the Senators, although he will be wearing a half shield visor and will have his eye taped to stay open. Yeah, his eye will be taped to stay open, guess he isn't looking too pretty right now.
Injuries for the Senators include Dominik Hasek, Zdeno Chara, Martin Havlat, Mike Fisher and Anton Volchenkov.
Wow this might be the first game in quite some time this year that the Flyers have less injured players then an opponent.

A win tonight for the Flyers and a loss by the Rangers would put the Flyers back in first in the division, third in the conference.
The Flyers need one win to reach 40 for the season which would be the 6th season in a row reaching 40 wins. Mike Knuble needs one goal to reach 31 for the season a new career high.

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Flyers over Rangers 6-3

March 24, 2006

The Flyers used special teams to beat the Rangers 6-3 Wednesday night. First game in awhile the Flyers was able to win like that. They went 3-5 on the power play, but did give up one PP goal to the Rangers on 3 kills.
For the Rangers it was all about Jaromir Jagr, scoring all three Rangers goals getting his 15th career hat trick. Although the Flyers improved since the last meeting with the Rangers with covering Jagr, they still need to work on it. No one was laying the body on Jagr. In years past Chris Therien was very effective at taking the game out of him.

For the Flyers, Mike Knuble scored twice on the PP, Michal Handzus also scored on the PP. Simon Gagne and Jeff Carter scored at even strength. Sami Kapanen added a short handed empty net goal to seal the victory. Jeff Carter has scored 4 goals in the last 5 games. This from a guy who averages less than 12 minutes of ice time a game.

Robert Esche stopped 20 of 23 shots. He played pretty good, except against the Jagr shots which all looked eerily similar.
The big turning point of the game came when Ryan Hollweg boarded R.J. Umberger in the first period. Umberger went hard face first into the boards. Hollweg was ejected and gave the Flyers a 5 minute major Power Play, which they scored twice on. Without that penalty the game could have easily gone the other way. Hollweg was handed a 3 game suspension for the hit. Umberger did return in the second period and besides some stitches and a black eye seemed ok.

Jaromir Jagr, Mike Knuble and Simon Gagne were the three stars.

The win gave the Flyers a tie with the Rangers for first in the division. This lasted for about a day since the Rangers earned a point tonight against the Florida Panthers.
For the season series between the teams, the road team has won every game. Two more games this year between them, one in Philly and one in New York.

Petr Nedved earned his 700th point in the game. Eric Desjardins played his 727th game as a Flyer, moving him into eighth place on the all-time list.

Just noticed the Flyers Players Blog is no longer being updated. Here is the link to the last entry on February 1st. I guess when you are sucking, not a whole lot of good things can be said.

The Flyers have a three game win streak going. After beating the Thrashers, Devils and Rangers I would have to say the Flyers are out of their funk. That is as long as they donÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t get embarrassed by the Senators on Saturday night.

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Flyers Sign Denis Gauthier to Three-Year Extension

March 23, 2006

Flyers sign recently acquired Denis Gauthier to a 3 year extension.

Bob Clarke - "When we traded for Denis, we obviously liked him and wanted him on our club. We knew his contract was up at the end of this year and he was going to be unrestricted so we pursued him and we were able to come to a deal. We think he adds a lot to our club. Besides being a solid NHL defenseman he brings a physical part to his game that we felt is necessary for our team." [.continue.]

Signing Gauthier for three years will mean someone else won't be back. So right now you have Gautheir, Hatcher, Rathje, Meyers, Jones. Both Meyers and Jones can be sent down to the Phantoms

Pitkanen, Johnsson, Therien and possibly Desjardins will have to be resigned after the season.
Even if you send both Meyers and Jones down you will still only keep three out of the other 4. So who will it be?

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