Game 3 Preview: Philadelphia Flyers @ Pittsburgh Penguins

This is the first of six battles for Pennsylvania this season. Last year the Flyers won the season series 5-3, but lost the Eastern Conference Finals 4-1. This season the Flyers have gotten off to a slow start, and it doesn't help that their first road game is at Pittsburgh. The Penguins started off the season in Europe, and split the two games with Ottawa, but then lost in overtime to New Jersey on Saturday.

The Game: Philadelphia Flyers(0-0-2) @ Pittsburgh Penguins (1-1-1)

What's Good:
The Flyers won twice in Pittsburgh last season. Mike Richards and Simon Gagne have both scored in each game this season.

What's Bad:
Martin Biron has given up 8 goals in 4 periods of hockey.

What to Expect:
The Flyers have come close in both of their games this season, but couldn't hang onto a lead last night, and couldn't complete a comeback on Saturday. They will need to figure out a way to get a point tonight, or the beginning of this season will begin to mirror the terrible 2006-2007 season.

The Prediction:
Pittsburgh 5 Philadelphia 2

Game 2 Preview: Montreal Canadiens @ Philadelphia Flyers

Game 2 of this young season pits a rematch of the 2008 Eastern Conference Semi-finalists; the Montreal Canadiens and Philadelphia Flyers. The Canadiens are off to a good start already, as they've gone 1-0-1 in their first two games. The Flyers started really slow against the New York Rangers on Saturday and were never able to recover. They'll have to avoid that if they want to win tonight.

The Game: Montreal Canadiens (1-0-1) @ Philadelphia Flyers (0-1-0)

What's Good:
The Flyers looked really good during the second and third periods on Saturday, they just couldn't complete the comeback. Look for that energy to continue today.

What's Bad:
The Canadiens have a lot more speed on offense than the Rangers did, so their forwards could present match-up problems for the Flyers defense all night.

What to Expect:
Marty Biron to bounce back and have a monster game. Biron played out of his mind against the Canadiens in May, maybe he just needs a foe he knows how to beat to get him on his game again this season.

The Prediction:
Flyers 3 Canadiens 2 (OT)

I HATE COMCAST

They're STILL blacking out Flyers games at State College. I call bull shit on that. But props on the NHL's game center for streaming 610 WIP flawlessly out here.

Flyers/Rangers Recap

I only got to watch the first and third periods of this game. But if one bounce would have gone our way, the game would have been completely different. Ugh. We should have won that one.

Rangers 4 Flyers 3.

Phillies!

In honor of the Phillies bid to break the 25 year title drought of Philadelphia, I've changed my blog colors temporarily.

Go PHILLIES!

5 down, 6 to go.

Game 1 Preview: Flyers vs. Rangers

Happy Rosh a hockey everyone! The new season is upon us, and tomorrow the Philadelphia Flyers and the New York Rangers face off at the Wachovia Center in Philly. It's gonna be a good season, so I'm going to try my hardest to blog everything I can this year.

The Game: New York Rangers (2-0-0) @ Philadelphia Flyers (0-0-0)

The Good:
The Flyers will pick up where they left off last season. New captain Mike Richards has (according to Kristen) looked great this preseason and the team is following his lead. Simon Gagne is back and hopefully his chemistry with Daniel Briere and Mike Knuble will still be there. The Flyers can roll three good lines and will have a dangerous fourth line that teams won't want to mess with.

The Bad:
The defense is still a big question mark. While Braydon Coburn and Kimo Timonen will be solid all year, the jury is out on how newly acquired defensemen Steve Eminger, Ossi Vaananen, Danny Syvret and Patrick Hersley will need to step up early. The loss of Sami Kapenen and R.J. Umberger may hurt the Flyers more than expected.

What to Expect:
The Flyers get a win in their first game, it will take them a little while to get started, but they will pull it out in the end.

The Prediction:
Flyers 4 Rangers 2

What Are They Thinking?!?!

It's time for me to get a little political. The Flyers' home opener is Saturday, and while I have a deep love the Flyers, sometimes the front office makes decisions that make me go "WTF?". The decision to let Sarah Palin drop the puck at their home opener is one of those decisions that make me quizzical. Flyers owner Ed Snider had this to say when questioned about his choice of Palin for Saturday night: "Because of the tremendous amount of publicity she has brought to our sport, we invited the most popular hockey mom in North America to our home opener to help us get our season started. We are very excited she has accepted our offer and we are very proud of the publicity she is generating for hockey moms and the sport of hockey." Call me crazy, but the image that Palin gets from being portrayed as a hockey mom, that is an image of a cute, homely mother, is not the image I want my potential leader projecting. Can anyone really take her seriously anymore? I have this feeling that if (god forbid) she and McCain get elected next month, the rest of the world will be snickering that America has elected a hockey mom to one of the most powerful positions in the world.

The Daily News columnist Will Bunch has called for a protest of the Flyer's home opener Saturday night. He says that anyone offended by Snider's choice of Palin should turn their back to her when she comes on the ice. Hockey is not the proper forum for making a political statement, and Ed Snider should be ashamed that he is shamelessly using the Flyers to promote the Republican agenda.

Links: Yahoo! Sports article
Will Bunch