All Entries in the "Philadelphia Flyers" Category
Well, That Was Fun. Now Back to Work!
We know it’s been a while since we posted, but we wanted to bask in the rare light of an Islanders playoff appearance by taking in the games, atmosphere, and enjoyment that came with a series that ran one game longer than we predicted which included two embarrassing shutouts, yet somehow left Islander fans with the feeling that [...]
Rink Recollections: Jeff Odgers, NHL, 1991-2003
By Brian D’Ambrosio Jeff Odgers played every NHL game as if it were his final. He never took a game for granted –scared that his career could fade away at any moment. Odgers scrapped and gritted his way onto the roster and he made sure he never provided his coaches with a sufficient reason to [...]
Can They Pull This Off?
Here we stand, in relative disbelief. As previously noted, we expected this team to miss the playoffs by a fairly wide margin. We expected that 53 points made a playoff team, and we expected the Islanders to be limping in at the end at the 46 point level. So bully for them, they shut us [...]
HOW Did We Get Here?
It all seems surreal. At the halfway point, the Islanders were playing one point better than our midterm predictions. The scorers were all pretty much on pace to hit the benchmarks we expected. Okposo we mentioned was failing in ways we never imagined, as was Hamonic. Roughly 12 games later, and they’re in 8th place, [...]
One Bright Spot For The Flyers . . . .
One bright spot for the Flyers . . . . A number of Flyers have been secretly testing these suits out this season and they really work! http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/9902307/Invisibility-cloak-unveiled-at-TED-conference.html One bright spot for the Flyers . . . . A terrible 48 game season is much better than a terrible 82 game season! One bright spot [...]
Is This Their War Face?
Before we take a look at are what may be considered success by some- and more of the same by others- let us state this: We very much want to see this team win. We have been fans of this team for as long as we have been alive. We have seen this team win, [...]
Bruins Score Three in First Period to Bury Struggling Flyers
BOSTON, MA – For the first time in nearly a full calendar year (March 17, 2012 was the last time these two teams met), the Boston Bruins and Philadelphia Flyers took the ice against one another on Saturday for a matinee contest at the TD Garden. After taking nearly half the period to register their first [...]
Brendan Witt: A Life of Old-Time Hockey, New Beginnings
By Brian D’Ambrosio Brendan Witt knew one of the Philadelphia Flyers would approach. After all, the bruising fourth line tended to drop the gloves. Slightly after the six-minute mark of the first period, the “Dan Line” -consisting of Dan Kordic, Daniel Lacroix and Scott Daniels - hoped to send a message. “Philly put these guys [...]
EAST COAST BIAS Presents: NHL Goes To The OSCARS
Coming up soon will be a troupe of bloggers who are the creme of the NHL blogosphere to provide expertise, humor, observation and more. We are coining the project: East Coast Bias. As a bit of a taster to the effort we present to you an image tribute for Oscar night… PRESENTS NHL [...]
Honey, I Lost the Kids (part 2 of 2)
In the first part of this epic, we promised three pieces of evidence to explain how Garth Snow does things with the sole intention of job preservation. We pointed out how he is relatively awful at drafting in part one. Part two will speak to other shortcomings, starting here: Two- Garth Snow uses salary cap [...]
Honey, I Lost the Kids – part one of two
It’s almost like a reflex when you ask hockey fans about the best way to build a winner “It’s the draft!” Drafting allow you to develop players or trade for established ones. Since the Isles have had no playoffs since 07-08, they’ve been in rebuild mode. We’re going to look at this draft rebuild with [...]
Why Was John Tavares Holding His Head in His Hands?
For the 9,000 or so fans in attendance (way below the average of 13,000 that they had when they were a winning team), the debacle that was the 6-4 loss at the hands of the not that good Carolina Hurricanes had a few unusual moments. The Islanders scored 4 power play goals and lost. That [...]
Hockey Myths Exposed – Defensemen Need Time to Develop
Anyone who has watched more than a handful of hockey games gets serenaded with statements that are undisputed in the hockey world, but in reality it doesnt make a lot of sense. We’ve already disproved the myth that power forwards need years to develop in our article “Ninogate,” in which we use the “talent is [...]
Deep Six DP
This is the most obvious, to the point thing we’re ever going to write. The DP era has to end. Not should end. Not must end. Those are thoughts, not actions. Rick DiPietro is a good guy. He wanted to be an Islander for life. He signed a lifetime contract which, at the [...]
The Islanders 2008 Entry Level Draft- Highly Rated or Overrated?
Like many Islander fans, we have been hearing about “the rebuild” and “the future.” Not only did our system produce John Tavares (who never played one day in our minor league “system”), but also Andrew MacDonald, Travis Hahahamonic, Kyle Okposo, Josh Bailey, Franz Neilsen, and Rick DiPiawful. Garth Snow, it has been said, produces more [...]
Destination Unknown, part four
Part Four: The most important rebuild of all After covering all aspects of the Snow rebuild – the on ice acquisitions, the redevelopment of a minor league system, the new arena’s impact on free agency- there is one area that is in DIRE need to a rebuild, more than even the outdoor concession stands at [...]
Destination Unknown, Part 3
Part Three: Free Agents aren’t actually Free Chronicling the failures of the Garth Snow regime takes time, energy, and ideally, beer. In fact, watching the Islanders play is best done through a haze of sudsy goodness. We suggest that if you’re looking for a Belgian Style ale that’s full of deliciousness, you’d be good to [...]
Destination Unknown, part 2
Part Two: Does it feel drafty in here? Snow inherited a team that made the playoffs with regularity, and had a polarizing but successful head coach. Theorizing that the playoff team handed to him was underwhelming, Snow started what is lovingly referred to as a rebuild by fans, and a disaster by anybody else’s standard. [...]
Destination Unknown, part 1
When it comes to the Islanders, there are two storied histories. One is the epic run including 19 consecutive playoff series wins, something not done by the likes of Michael Jordan, Wayne Gretzky, Terry Bradshaw, or whatever teams you associate with winners. Speaking of associating with winners, one team that is universally not associated [...]
Hockey Independent Roundtable: Preseason Stanley Cup Predictions
Hello everyone and welcome again to the Hockey Independent Roundtable. In today’s piece, five HI writers will provide you all with their early picks for the playoffs ad the Stanley Cup. This piece will double as Part III of my five-part 2013 NHL season preview. Part I –> Northeast Division Preview Part II –> Eastern [...]
