Primeau's Done

The good news is the Flyers will soon have some money under the cap to pick up a good second line goal scorer (think Keith Tkachuk or GASP! Mark Recchi) before the March 9th trade deadline. The bad news is they'll have that money because Keith Primeau will announce that he's officially done for the season.

"I haven't made any decisions known or made an announcement," he told the Daily News yesterday. "But I have an idea what I have to do. I'm having such a hard time committing to not playing. I can't come to grips with it and I just keep procrastinating, and avoiding it. I can't even say it."

"I know what I want to do," he said. "But my heart is telling me one thing, while my head is telling me another."

And so without actually saying so, Primeau made it clear that he was done for this season. The decision about the season already has been made. Really, there is no surprise in this. The Flyers' doctors told him 2 weeks ago that they would not clear him to return.

I'm mixed on this. In the few games he actually did play this season, he was a non-factor, so in reality the Flyers can only gain from the situation. But we all know (including Ron) that Primeau gets the job done during the playoffs, so I think it will hurt the team a bit. Recchi could be a great addition in the locker room down the stretch, but do you really think they'll bring him back? Tkachuck, meanwhile, still has a no trade clause, so who knows if Clarke can even pull the trigger on him. I only wonder about the timing of this announcement, as Doug Weight would have been the best possible pick up in my opinion, but Carolina snatched him up right before the Olympic break.

And speaking about the Olympics, they soon may stir up yet another goaltending controversy here in Philadelphia. Esche got his only start thus-far today for team USA (in a game that did not really matter, as the US knew they'd be making it into the next round) and got burned for 5 goals on only 21 shots (5.10 gaa and 76.2 save percentage if you're picky about the numbers). Meanwhile, Niittymaki has been stellar, only allowing 2 goals in 3 games, and posting 2 shutouts for the flyin' team from Finland.

If you're interested in seeing how it plays out, team USA faces-off against Finland tomorrow in the quarterfinals (don't expect to see Esche though, as the team USA coaches know that he sucks). Team Finland looks unstoppable in this tournament, and if Niittymaki continues his great play, Hitchcock and company might just have to do what every Flyers fan wants them to do: go with the rookie come playoff time.

Let's just hope there's a new tough, gritty forward who will be there right along side of him (and that Forsberg's groin doesn't rip apart).

Olympic open thread

I've only bothered to watch small bits and pieces of the Olympics. So far my overall impression is "eh". I did watch the US outplay Slovakia today but lose 2-1. It's like watching some of the recent Flyers efforts - tons of chances, no goals while the other team makes one play and scores. Slovakia though did play really good defense and did a great job backchecking and blocking shots. But to me the real reason is the US lost is they did not put their chances in the back of the net.

Feel free to talk about the Olympics in the comments.

Super Bore

A patriotic American, I watched the self-congratulatory iconization of sport become national holiday that is the Super Bowl. As in most years the game blew. The refs sucked and would be burnt in effigy in Seattle, 'cept you know, all that rain. And coffee. And grunge. And Bill Gates. That's one set of stereotypes out of the way, so now on to expert analysis. Seattle dominates first half. Their punter is unable to keep the ball from going into the endzone. Stevens talked shit and backed it up by dropping the ball 5 times. (He did catch a TD while wide open) Porter talked shit and backed it up by doing next to nothing all game. Rothlisberger did not score. Andy Reid obviously learned clock management from Mike Holgram. Half time 7-3 Steelers. Rolling Stones suck. All commercials suck cept the one in the hospital. Anheiser Busch's ad agency is stealing money. Diet Pepsi song commercial sounds like something P. Diddy actually produced. 2nd half: Pittsburgh gets a big run to take a 14-3 lead. Everyone in Pittsburgh waves a terrible towel, drinks an Iron City Beer, goes to Eat & Park to get perogis, then plays a polka. Pittsburgh threatens again but Big Ben pulls a McNabb and throws a big time INT. Seattle scores. Pittsburgh scores on some trickery. Seattle comes up small. First an Eagles-like failure to make a defensive stand when everyone knows the Steelers are going to run the ball (twice) and then more Reidesque clock manangement to end the game. Cower has a wet shirt and stupid moustache. Holgram just has a stupid moustache. Read what this hack has to say: Even cornier shit than what I just wrote.

Crap on ice continues

I'll just let Sami Kapanen say it for me.

"It's getting to the point where it's ridiculous," Kapanen said after the Flyers (31-15-9) lost for the fifth time in six games. "The other team is smiling and laughing [while] skating off the ice. At least punish those guys when they have the lead and they're playing like that. We just have to go after them. I don't care what we're doing. We just have to fight a little harder."

Anyone notice what happened in the Rangers game previous? Flyers were sucking, Brashear finally stepped up, handed Orr a beatdown, Flyers withstood a horrible call by the ref, came back from 2-0 and even went ahead 3-2 before eventually blowing the game.

Mostly the Flyers are playing scared and tenative. They're going all out at times but with no direction. How many times have they gone into a scrum digging for the puck tenaciously and if they don't end up losing the battle like they do most of the time, they get the puck and then do nothing with it. They hesitate all the time. They make bad passes. They pass it to guys that are stationary, they have no flow and no aggressiveness. They just wait for something bad to happen which it inevitably does.

McNabb the total chump

McNabb has always annoyed me. I don't like his demeanor, I don't like his robotic monotone news conferences and his constant nose wrinkling, I don't like his constant empty talk about how he's a leader as if he's trying to convince not only us that it's true but also himself, and what's always really annoyed me is his forced, fake jocularity when he's trying to show his "lighter side".

I have to think McNabb is totally insecure and that's why he always feels so victimized -- the most victimized multi-millionaire sports star ever. He STILL whines to this day about the 30 drunks that booed him on draft day. McNabb probably still holds a grudge against the kid that hit him with a snowball in 3rd grade. Now McNabb's latest whine is about what total non-entity Freddy Mitchell (who?) once said and TO's comments from last year's ESPN interview that everyone else had moved past. But the real kicker is he had the gall to call TO's comments "black on black" crime. TO didn't come up with Brett Favre anyway, Irvin did, it wasn't racist at all, but in McNabb's mind I don't think he's dealing with reality anymore. He has to be mentally ill.

McNabb thinks he gets more criticized than other QBs? Remember Jaworski? Booed mercilessly. Fans chanted "Randall! Randall!" as soon as he threw a bad pass and I think he once took the Eagles to the Super Bowl if I'm remembering correctly. If that's too far in the past, remember Doug Pederson? He wasn't supposed to be good but did he get any slack? Elway was constantly criticized in Denver, Phil Simms was booed on draft day too, Browns fans cheered when Tim Couch got hurt a few years ago. Saints fans did the same for Bobby Herbert. McNabb, get some perspective.

It's Eric Lindros all over again. I'm ready to get rid of McNabb, his tiresome Chunky mom, his dumb "black-on-black crime" dad, and all his hurt feelings while he still has value and before he pouts, mopes, and whines, through another losing season. Maybe the Eagles can get lucky and find a modern day Minnesota to make a deal with.

I realize none of this will happen of course because McNabb is Reid's BFF but with McNabb and his pathetic attitude and warped perspective I don't think the Eagles will be any better than last year. The window has closed.