Congrats Phillies!

Taking a break from hockey, the Phillies wrapped up their third consecutive division title today with a 10-3 win over the Houston Astros. This time the Phillies didn't have to make a comeback in the division to win it, as they lead comfortably in the East for most of the season. Hopefully we can pull off a few more victories to earn homefield throughout the conference playoffs...

In other *hilarious* baseball news... click this link to listen to a strange prediction that came true on Sunday.

2 days til hockey season!!

Good Bye Randy Jones!

Randy Jones is finally no longer a Flyer! I can't say I'll miss the fifty or so bad turnovers you make every year. Maybe you'll find your way to Pittsburgh so you can lose them game after game due to your mediocrity. Buh bye!

Flyers' Roster Battle

There's a fight for the last roster spot for the Flyers' defense. Right now Ole Kristian Tollefsen is battling Danny Syvret for the 7th d-spot. I really hope it goes to Tollefsen for this reason (taken from Anthony Sanfilippo's blog): "Tollefsen hasn't had much of a chance to play after losing a tooth and requiring two other root canal surgeries after being hit in the mouth by a Mike Richards shot during practice last week. 'He's a nice captain to welcome me to town that way, eh,' OKT joked Monday"

See? He fits right in.

Thoughts on the Offseason So Far

So we've almost arrived at training camp. All the big deals are done and the draft has passed. Teams will be spending the rest of the summer just tweaking their roster here and there while preparing for the beginning of training camp. Since things are pretty much set for the Flyers, I figured that I'd break my 3 month hiatus and comment on their moves this offseason.

Ray Emery:
I'm already on record saying that I do not like this deal as I think we could have gotten someone better. However, my position is changing and I'm looking at this a little more optimistically. If we hadn't signed Emery, and instead had gone after someone like Khabibulin or even re-signed Biron, I don't think we would have been able to pull off some of the moves that we made later on. Emery can be a great goalie, but I still don't trust his head until he proves that he can go a season without being crazy. However, if he wants to get into a few goalie fights this year with say... Marc-Andre Fleury... I'm all for it.

Chris Pronger:
This was our big splash for the summer. We shipped an underachieving Joffrey Lupul and an unproven defensive prospect in Lucas Sbisa for one of the best defensemen in the league in the past 15 years. Pronger has played in two Stanley Cup Finals, winning one of them. More importantly, he made the finals as part of an 8th seeded team, so he knows that no team is out of it based on their seed. He also hates losing, is an offensive force, and can lay someone out when he feels like it. This guy is the complete package, and when you look at his game, you realize that he was born a Flyer, it just took him several years to come home. A lot of people have complained that we gave up too much to get him. I disagree. Lupul was overpaid for the production that he put out, and Sbisa is a prospect. We don't need prospects, we need a proven, shut down guy, and that's what Pronger is. The Pronger acquisition has also caused me to rethink the Emery signing. I believe that Pronger will not put up with any crap that Emery might try and pull, so his guidance and maturity will help keep Emery in line this season.

Ian Laperriere:
Laperriere is good at two things- annoying the other team, and faceoffs. The latter is the more important part. Over the past couple of seasons one of the Flyers biggest issues has been winning faceoffs in clutch moments of the game. Hopefully the addition of Laperriere will give us a boost in that department. He should also help Richards and Carter get better at taking faceoffs. It's little moves like this that could really help us this season.

Ole-Kristian Tollefsen:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzEtEXmyDjo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tq3ebZeYU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhC3DTEYnqQ

Translation- come across our blue line at your own peril.

So yea, I'm excited for this season. I have a feeling that the Flyers are going to play rough and tumble hockey. It looks like toughness and discipline will be the theme this year. Even if we lose, we won't be losing without a fight. It's going to be a classic Flyers year. GET EXCITED.

Waaa We Lose Lets Hurt People

Seriously, is there a more chicken team than Pittsburgh in the league? Down five nothing and Crosby and Talbot slash the two best players on Detroit?!? HOW ARE THEY GETTING AWAY WITH THIS STUFF? A two minute minor is not going to discourage them from bringing this crap to the table again. I hate the NHL's front office. They are doing a poor job of officiating evenly and fairly, and somebody is going to get seriously hurt, and it's going to be a Red Wing. They need to grow some backbone and send a message to the league that goonery when you're losing will not be tolerated. Crosby intentionally slashed Zetterberg away from the play, and Talbot intentionally slashed an injured Datsyuk. What purpose does that serve other than trying to knock them out of the playoffs? They should both be suspended for their actions and it's ridiculous that they continue to get away with slaps on the wrist. I'm getting so sick of the NHL.

You Have Got to be Kidding Me

Ray Emery? Really? This is who you choose to sign when goalies like Nikolai Khabibulin and Jean-Sebastian Gigure will be available. The guy is a team cancer, with a terrible work ethic and couldn't cut it in a city with low expectations... just how do you think he's going to cut it in Philly where there will be a lot of pressure and no veteran leadership. This is just another chapter of the Flyers front office failing to address our greatest needs properly. We need a goalie that is consistent. Emery is anything but. He's going to flop in Philadelphia, and if we rely on this guy, we're just going to keep exiting the playoffs early while Pittsburgh continues to go to Stanley Cup finals. Seriously, how could Holmgren decide that Emery is the answer. Ridiculous.

NHL Double Standards: Part Two

This is absolutely ridiculous. The NHL rules state that if you get an instigator penalty in the last five minutes of a game, you are automatically suspended for the next game. Apparently there is some fine print that says "unless your one of Pittsburgh's stars". In game two of the Stanley Cup Finals, Evgeni Malkin started a fight with Henrik Zetterberg with about 15 seconds left in the game after Maxime Talbot took a vicious stab at Detroit goalie Chris Osgood. Malkin was given 5 for fighting, a 10 minute misconduct and a 2 minute instigator penalty. Minutes after the game was over, the NHL issued a statement saying that they weren't suspending Malkin for game 3. GROW A BACKBONE NHL. YOU CANNOT LET YOUR STARS RUN AROUND LIKE THEY ARE ABOVE THE RULES. It really sickens me to see the double standards that exist and really makes me want to stop watching hockey altogether. The more I see this, the less I feel that teams are treated fairly by the league brass.