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The Flyers already had the most difficult and rigorous opening month scheduled among all NHL teams going into the season. Nine of their eleven games were against 2008-09 playoff teams, and when added to the most bizarre scheduling the team had seen in years, it has made for some hard times.
Once again the Flyers are orange. The black jerseys that Philadelphia has worn for years have been dropped for the more traditional look. The former orange thirds have become the new home jerseys as the blacks will now be scheduled in for specific games. The change comes at an important cross-roads in the team’s history of course; one that leaves many to speculate whether or not the 2009-10 Philadelphia Flyers have an identity crisis.
Flyers training camp opened to a record attendance for the Flyers Skate Zone in Voorhees, NJ early Sunday morning. The excitement had not yet worn off from the incredible rookie scrimmage between the Flyers and Capitals where former second overall selection James van Riemsdyk showed exactly why he was taken so early with a four goal, five point performance. It had been standing room only in the Skate Zone for all open to the public practices all weekend.
In 2007-08 the Flyers intended whole heartedly to come back into the NHL with a sense of vengeance. It wasn’t necessarily a plan to beat up physically and mentality anyone who stepped on the ice with them, but bitter after the worst season in franchise history, the Flyers had an impressive parade of five total Flyers that watched some games instead of skating on the ice due to suspensions. Steve Downie and Jesse Boulerice were the first to fall to the trend, Boulerice with 25 games for a clearly dirty cross-check to the face of Ryan Kesler (video) and Downie with 20 games for a black and white call for leaving his feet when he lunged into a check on Dean McAmmond even though the result was far worse than the intention (video). While those were clear cut with their intentions to punish a certain player on the ice, two other suspensions to Randy Jones (video) and Scott Hartnell (video) didn’t show any true intent to injure. Both were hits when the player was in a vulnerable position and nobody wants to see that in the NHL of course. Still it’s clear that league cracked down more on the result because these are just penalty worthy offenses in an ordinary game when no one is hurt. The Flyers in fact have taken quite a few of these in the past two season and bounced right back up to not even a powerplay. It’s a shame that the league works this way, but there’s not much that can be done about it. The last of the Flyers to see time on the suspension list was Riley Cote with three games on a hit from behind on Dallas Star blueliner Matt Niskanen.
All jokes about the Penguins being Bettman’s team aside, the image of former Flyer Scottie Upshall being blasted by a ref (left) during the Eastern Conference Finals just under a year ago tells the story of these two rivals better than any box score complete with penalties or an article predicting the outcome ever could. This may in fact be the ultimate powder keg ready to blow with each team’s fans already tearing each other apart.
Anyone who has played the Bruins this season and has been forced to watch a NESN (New England Sports Network) knows Jack Edwards. The ESPN analyst/Bruins play-by-play is well known in the sporting community for things such as ABC’s Wide World of Sports and ESPN’s hockey coverage up until 2003 when the league switched to Versus. Unfortunately for Jack Edwards, who has a resume as a broadcaster that would rival the President’s, many people last night were calling for his job.
It’s no secret that Randy Jones gets very little love in Boston. In fact everytime he touched the puck during today’s Saturday afternoon game up north echoes of booing flooded the TD Banknorth Garden. It would be impossible to guess why there was such dissatisfaction in Jones’ presence in Boston without knowing an event from last season. One hit connects the entire city of Boston to the Flyers offensive defenseman. From tonight onward though he will be remembered in Boston as the cause of even more heartbreak as he nets the overtime game winner against the dominant eastern team.
There are many rumors flying around Philadelphia these days. Often though these rumors are not actually started by the Flyers own moves. They range from being able to steal players and prospects from the Flyers for almost nothing to the ever popular inability for the Flyers to be players at the trade deadline due to salary cap restrictions. The vast majority of them happen to be false. The Flyers pride themselves on making deadline moves to put their team in a better position to win the Stanley Cup. History actually shows that teams that make some kind of move perform better in the playoffs than teams that don’t so to believe on of the best GMs in the league, Paul Holmgren, will not get involved is hoping or a lot.
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