TSN Power Rankings January 29
January 30, 2007
The most talked-about player during the All-Star break was a Flyer, Peter Forsberg. The bad news for Philly fans is that the topic was whether he's going to remain a Flyer.
Key Injuries: None.
TSN Power Rankings January 29
30 out of 30
Forsberg not remaining a Flyer, I don't think is bad news depending on what the Flyers get in return and I think his foot is putting the Flyers in a hard position. If his foot cant be fixed he isn't going to resign with anyone. So how long does he wait until his foot is good or not? There are 13 games left before the trade deadline.
If his foot is good to go then Forsberg would still have to waive his no trade clause. Unless the trade is going to be with a playoff bound team I don't see it happening. Who is going to give up enough for Forsberg? Lots of rumors going around and Im sure there will a lot more before Feb 27
TSN Power Rankings January 22
January 22, 2007
MVP: Simon Gagne
Unsung Hero: Mike Knuble
Top Rookie: Ryan Potulny
Best Call-up: Ryan Potulny
Second-half Breakthrough: Jeff Carter
Key Injuries: None.
TSN Power Rankings January 22
30 out of 30
True, true.
One of the many problems with the Flyers is there are no defensemen on that list.
Rookies Picard and Jones have been ok. Nolan Baumgartner could have been one of those guys, but he is stuck on the Phantoms for the rest of the year.
Flyers vs Devils Jan 20
January 20, 2007
Last game before the all-star break for the Flyers.
Jan 18 vs Islanders
January 18, 2007
The Flyers host the Islanders tonight in Philly. The Flyers should be rested and healed after a 4 day break. Back in the lineup are Mike Richards and Geoff Sanderson. Denis Gauthier and Mike Rathje still out with injury.
Hmmm I wonder how the lines will look.
Forberg-Gagne-Knuble is a given
There is currently 2 extra forwards so….
Carter-Calder-Richards
The CCR line was really good in preseason. Since Calder is out of his slump I would like to see them work together again and see how they do.
Sanderson-Potulny-Kapanen
All 3 of those guys are solid hard workers.
Fedoruk-Umberger-Eager
The banging energy line or the FU-E line.
I like both Fedoruk and Eager and don’t think long term the team has to decide on one or the other.
That leaves Afanasenkov and York. York hasn’t shown me much yet as a Flyer, not sure how he fits in. Afanasenkov work ethic I like and could easily fill in on the third or fourth line.
But according to the local Flyers reporter lines could be
Carter-Sanderson-York
Richards-Calder-Kapanen
Oops forgot, Eager is suspended a game because of the BS ‘New NHL’.
So fourth line could be Fedoruk-Umberger-Afanasenkov. Been talk of Potulny going back to the Phantoms that is until the next injury.
As far as defense goes David Printz was sent back to the Phantoms with Nate Guenin being called up his first NHL game.
What TSN has to say about him.
Assets - Has the size and aggressiveness teams love from the back end. Is a solid team-first player with stay-at-home qualities and a mean streak.
Flaws - Must prove capable of playing in the 'new' NHL without taking bad penalties. Needs to work on his mobility and decision-making in order to play regularly.
Career potential Top six defenseman.
The Flyers are on a 6 game losing streak last winning on January 2. Flyers last game was a loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins at home last Saturday. The Islanders are coming off a 5-2 loss also to the Penguins on Tuesday. The Flyers have won 2 of the 3 meetings this year with the Islanders losing the last one 3-1 on November 9.
TSN Power Rankings January 15
January 17, 2007
The Flyers have lost six straight and have now taken to giving positive statements about that night's loss.
Key Injuries: LW Geoff Sanderson (abdominal strain).
Sanderson is back, the only injuries and ya they are key are Gauthier and Rathje.
Still 30 out of 30 in the ranking.
Hockey Fans Unite
January 17, 2007
This is a very interesting idea and one I hope gets some old media publicity.
http://www.hockeyfansunite.com is a site dedicated to bring the old NHL back which lots of hockey fans want. As mentioned on the site January 20th is Save the NHL Night. The Flyers will be in Jersey against the Devils for that game. The site wants everyone to bring signs to the hockey games on that day and show support for the old NHL I hope many people do and the media pays attention to them.
Here is a list of some suggestions to changes with NHL rules by hockeyfansunite.com and some of my observations.
Cut down on pointless obstruction calls. While obstruction calls (e.g. hooking, holding, tripping, interference, etc.) do cut down on the clutching and grabbing in the league, some of the calls have little or nothing to do with the play. Making these calls completely disrupts the flow and emotion of the game.
I agree, what gets me is the ‘intent’ penalty calls. Hooking is called the most with this. If a player gets his stick parallel to the ice and is anywhere close to the opposing player then a penalty is usually called even if the player was not interfered with in any way. As more of these non-penalty are called the flow of the game is disrupted and what you are left with is a special teams game.
Decrease the width of goalie pads. Simply put, goalie pads are too wide. …. HFU does not support increasing the size of the goal.
I agree again. The pads should be big enough for the players to be safe and that’s it. The equipment should fit without providing extra padding just to take up space. Making the goals bigger is not the answer the goals aren’t broke and for the love of god please do not put lights or any crap like that in the pipes. This has been experimented with in the AHL and it is just wrong on so many levels. The lights bring fans excitement they say. No the goals and a good goal horn brings fans excitement. No more ‘dink’ off the pipe of a hard slapshot if/when the goals are implemented.
Goalies should be allowed to play the puck in the corners. This will cut down on icing related injuries.
Not sure how this cuts down icing. First, yes they should be able to play pucks in the corner. The whole trapezoid thing is just wrong. I like this rule instead, if goalies are more then 5 feet out of the crease they are playing defense and should be treated as a defensemen. In other words they are fair game to being checked. This by itself would keep goalies from wandering around too much. This is hockey people, it is a contact sport. As far as icing, I like the no touch icing that international hockey has, that would greatly reduce the chance of injury for players chasing pucks back. Speaking about international hockey I also would like to see the rinks larger to what is played everywhere else which would make the rinks about 10 feed wider. That would open the game up more. Of course that would never happen though.
Remove the shootout.
Yes please, remove the f-ing shootout. Professional baseball in the US doesn’t use a homerun derby to decide the game, they keep playing. Professional basketball in the US doesn’t use a foul shot or 3 point shooting competition to decide a game, they keep playing. Professional football doesn’t allow each team to each run 3 plays and sees who scores the most, they keep playing and accept a tie. Why on earth would hockey use a penalty shot to decide a game?
It is more exciting for the fans they say. Sure, so is fighting but the NHL is doing its best to kill that in the game. The shootout is a gimmick. Along with the ‘new’ NHL rules it was all a gimmick to get people to watch. Looking at MLB’s record after the strike the NHL had to do something to get fans interested again or so they thought. Hockey fans were going to watch, most hockey fans are like that. What the gimmicks did was to get non-hockey fans interested in the game and it worked. But with attendance and interest down this year from last the gimmick has worn off. That is where these lighted goal posts and form fitting uniforms come in, more gimmicks trying to get fans while it destroys the fan base at the same time.
Modify the instigator penalty. Players should still receive a two-minute minor for instigating. However, the accompanying ten-minute misconduct should be removed all together. In general, losing a player for 17 minutes of a game is ridiculous. On top of this, some players receive instigators for jumping in to protect a teammate that was on the end of a cheap shot. A 17 minute package for such actions tears down the characterization that hockey plays "are tough."
Yup agree. Example of how the NHL is trying to kill fisticuffs. To add to this insane rule, after 3 instigator penalties a 2 game suspension, the fourth instigator another 4 games suspended, the 5th 6 more games suspended.
Remove the “third period final five minute instigator rule†all together.
Does any other penalty have a time restriction on what part of the game it can be apply? I don't know of any. Any other penalty fine a coach for what a player does on the ice? Don't know, but both are wrong. Why? This new penalty was in response to the Flyers Senators brawl on March 5, 2004. With less then 2 minutes left in a game emotions erupted and fights broke out. Official Score Sheet, video of the fights. Anyone watching the video can see how much the fans enjoyed it. But the NHL wanted to take that away because apparently that type of excitement is bad.
The schedule should be modified. The NHL has been busy promoting budding stars such as Alexander Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby. However, their new schedule does not allow them and other players to travel to all of the NHL cities.
I think every team should play every other team twice, once home and once away. That would leave 24 games for conference and division play. If the team plays non-conference division teams once again that would leave 14 games to play conference teams to ‘build rivalries’. This still works out to at least 6 games between conference teams with 2 extra. So the Flyers would play ever team in the Western Conference twice, teams in the North East and South East divisions 3 times and Islanders, Devils, Rangers and Penguins 6 or 7 times. Seems logical to me.
The NHL should cut down the number of teams (e.g. Florida) and should relocate teams to traditional hockey cities (e.g. Winnipeg).
Ya, with the salary cap it should be easier to finance a team or 2 in Canada now. For a sport that Canada claims as their own it does not make much sense that only 6 of the 30 teams are in Canada. But I do not see Florida moving anywhere and with the talk of divisional realignment it opens the door for a couple more franchises which the NHL would want to stick south of the border. Vegas anyone?
Simon Gagne All-Star
January 13, 2007
Simon Gagne has been selected as the only Flyer for the All-Star Game to be played in Dallas on January 24.
This is his 2nd allstar game.
I never bothered with the voting for a couple reasons. First I dont think any of the Flyers played good enough over a long enough period this season to vote for them. Secondly I think the fan voting considering how easy it to stuff the ballot box is just a waste. Check out the voting results. Both Peter Forsberg and recently acquired Alexei Zhitnick both received more votes then Gagne. In fact 25 other forwards received more votes then Gagne. But hey its the new NHL.
Anthony SanFilippo has an interesting point about fans voting the starters focusing on Buffalo.
Oh and the whole Rory Fitzpatrick movement, ugh what a sideshow.
Eric Desjardins Video Tribute
January 13, 2007
The video tribute shown at the January 11, 2006 game honoring Eric Desjardins
Jan 13 vs Penguins
January 13, 2007
This is the first nationally broadcasted game this year for the Flyers as they face the Penguins in Philadelphia at 2pm eastern today. The Penguins have won all 5 meetings so far this year last winning 8-4 on December 13.
The Flyers are coming off a 4-2 loss to the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday. The Flyers are on a 5 game losing streak and have not won at home since November 24.
The Penguins are coming off a 5-2 loss to the Florida Panthers on Wednesday. The Penguins are also on a 3 game losing streak.
Antero Niittymaki will get the start in goal even with a record that includes 12 straight losses. With the pickup of Leighton and the continued play of Nitty one could easily speculate that Esche will be gone before the end of the season. I suspect the Flyers want to get something in return from him instead of just letting him walk at the end of the season.
Injuries for the Flyers include Mike Rathje, Mike Richards, Geoff Sanderson and Denis Gauthier. Both Richards and Sanderson should be ready sometime next week.
For the Penguins Josef Melichar, Nils Ekman, Eric Cairns and Mark Eaton are listed as injured.
Flyers pickup Mike Leighton
January 11, 2007
The FLyers claimed goaltender Michael Leighton on waivers from the Nashville Predators,
So the Flyers now have 3 goalies. My initial reaction was that Niitty was going to have surgery early before the end of the season. But that seems not the case. According to Timmy P. this is just an insurance policy since both Esche and Nitty has been injured this year. For $63,750 he sounds like a deal.
What tsn has to say
Assets - Has good size and excellent fundamentals for the goaltending position. Displays an exemplary work ethic.
Flaws - Needs to fill out his 6-3 frame without losing flexibility. Must show more consistency in order to get back in the NHL.
Career potential - No. 2 goaltender.
Flyers @ Kings 1/3/09
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