Milbury May Have Been onto Something

Ovechkin must have been looking down at his yellow laces. The league's frontrunner for the MVP (regular season mind you) came up small tonight, especially on Mike Knuble's game winning goal in the second OT. Totally out of position, he had nothing to do but watch the Flyers celebrate as the man he was supposed to be covering jammed the puck past Huet, and it's been the same story for the entire series thus far with the Russian caveman. If it weren't for a complete 3rd period breakdown in game one, the Flyers would have handed the Caps the broom tonight. Your final score: 4-3 in a great game with an amazing pace.

Other notes:

• The fourth line was great tonight. Kapanen, Thoresen, and Dowd all were as important as the Carter line, which had a monster game.
• Modry had a great game as well. Dude is playing with a ton on his mind, but he had a nice assist on Carter's second, and he also blocked a shot in the first OT that could have been a game saver.
• Biron should not stickhandle the puck.
• Ovechkin took another dive, what a wussbag.
• Stevens deserves a ton of credit for the way he's coaching this series.
• Briere took three stupid penalties in the first period alone, but redeemed himself with his game tying third period goal off an incredible feed from Richards.
• Flyers had 6 minutes of back-to-back powerplay time in the first and could not score. This needs to be addressed in game 5, as their PP has been small (but not as small as Ovechkin).

Games like this make me feel like I'm in 4th grade again, heart pounding, watching the '87 team rumble through the playoffs. Who knows if they can put the nails in the coffin (my prediction was Flyers in 6), but ride this excitement boys, because if they get out of this round, Montreal will be tough.

Eagles 2008 schedule

Sept. 7 St. Louis Rams - 1 p.m.
Sept. 15 (Mon.) @ Dallass Cowboys - 8:30 p.m.
Sept. 21 Pittsburgh Steelers - 4:15 p.m.
Sept. 28 @ Chicago Bears - 8:15 p.m.
Oct. 5 Washington Redskins - 1 p.m.
Oct. 12 @ San Francisco 49ers - 4:15 p.m.
Oct. 19 Bye
Oct. 26 Atlanta Falcons - 1 p.m.
Nov. 2 @ Seattle Seahawks - 4:15 p.m.
Nov. 9 New York Giants - 8:15 p.m.
Nov. 16 @ Cincinnati Bengals - 1 p.m.
Nov. 23 @ Baltimore Ravens - 1 p.m.
Nov. 27 (Thurs.) Arizona Cardinals - 8:15 p.m.
Dec. 7 @ New York Giants - 1 p.m.
Dec. 15 (Mon.) Cleveland Browns - 8:30 p.m.
Dec. 21 @ Washington Redskins - 1 p.m.
Dec. 28 Dallass Cowboys - 1 p.m.

Not too bad. The Eagles can probably get more than the 8 wins they struggled to achieve last year.

I like opening at home, the bye is in a good spot, and the last block of games they won't be traveling anywhere distant. My complaints (since I'm old) are, 1.) I'm not into all these night games. I'd like every game to be at 1pm, but 4pm is acceptable. 2.) In principal I'm against any games that were created to be broadcast on the NFL Network, so I'm against the Thanksgiving night game. But I assume some local station will pick it up and it will be nice to sit around with family after Thanksgiving dinner watching the Eagles struggle with the Cardinals like they always do. And I can't wait for all the announcers' bird jokes. 3.) Putting Dallass in week 2 and dead last is stupid. Because it's Dallass there will always be interest, but for week 2 it's not as big of a game as it could be and there's a real good chance that the Dec. 28th game will be meaningless. 4.) Dallass sucks.

No way, Huet

The 6-3 victory over the <Milbury>Crapitals</Milbury> in game 3 of the series was another impressive win by the Flyers. Again everyone contributed, but the stars stood out. Prospal had 3 assists, Briere had 3 assists and 2 goals (the first to get the scoring started and a huge second one with 10 seconds left in the second to reestablish the Flyers 2 goal lead), and Richards had the great pass on Briere's second goal and then scored a huge goal himself on a penalty shot in the 3rd after the Captials had once again pulled to within 1, cooly slipping the puck 5 hole through Huet with his patented move. All night long if the Capitals did something, the Flyers responded.

And how sweet were the Flyers goals, not just the finishes but the set ups? Briere's shots were great, the Hartnall's shot was great, Kapanen's was great, Richards move was super smooth, and Knuble was finally able to score on a wide open net.

The defense was also pretty good once again. Modry fell asleep for 1 goal, the second was on the PP, and the third probably shouldn't have counted - Toronto decided the replay was inconclusive, naturally. But most importantly, Ovechkin had only 1 assist, 4 shots, and was a -1. Now if they could only keep the Brashear line in check. Also of note Hatcher was a +3 in his return.

It goes without saying that the officiating sucked, but since the Flyers won I'll let it go this one time, except maybe the Timonen getting deliberately injured play that wasn't called.

Anyway, good win, keep it going on Thursday. In the comments praise those that I left out. Also, the picture above by B Bennett should be made into a poster and without some big giant PHILADELPHIA FLYERS and giant logo plastered on it ruining it. But maybe Photoshop out the referee first.

That's right

Very impressive win today. Despite being outplayed for the majority of the first period the Flyers took advantage of their 2 big chances and went up 2-0. Umberger's breakaway goal started the change of momentum. From there the Flyers picked it up, scored another, and then took over in the second and totally controlled the third, shutting down the Capitals, outplaying them and outshooting them. The only reason it can't be called "domination" was they didn't score more goals (Prospal). Biron really came through today making the huge saves when the Flyers defense broke down. But after the shaky start, the team in front of him blocked shots, intercepted a ton of passes, picked up the rebounds, and did a great job back checking and killing penalties. Also very impressive was the overwhelming number of face-off wins. There was a meaningful contribution from everyone on the team today, showing the Flyers depth.

On Washington's side their star players came up small. Ovechkin was fighting the puck the entire game and was a -2. Mike Green's turnover at his own blue line led to the Flyers second goal. (Perfect shot by Knuble by the way to set up the rebound.) Huet once again looked somewhat shaky and the Flyers really should have had more goals (Prospal). Semin was probably their best player today but he loved to shoot it wide. The rest of the team, eh.

Hopefully the trend established in this game continues to play out - Flyers depth and rolling all 4 lines wins out over the Capitals bright stars. Flyers have the home ice advantage now and the momentum in the series and should win their 2 games at home and further ruin the NHL's dream of an Ovechkin - Crosby matchup.

Wick - Wick - Weak

Did the Flyers somehow forget that a hockey game is 60 minutes long, not 40? Or perhaps they just decided to get an early jump on one of their patented final five minute collapses? Either way Washington won the opening game on some Youngbloodesque bullshit from Alexander Ovechkin, the last of three, third period goals given up by the Flyers. It is easy to see why the Capitals played themselves into the playoffs during the last few months of the season- Washington simply refuses to lose and came out in the third, after have given up 3 straight 2nd period gaols, hungry to win. The Flyers appeared lost when confronted with the Capitals effort.

As per usual Biron made no big saves, and as an added bonus, gave up a soft ass goal to 4th liner David Steckel. Danny "Peachfuzz" Briere and Vinnie Prospal played great for two periods, but Brier's 3rd period high sticking penalty was costly. Jeff Carter also had a good two periods. The entire team had a horrid third period, where the Flyers managed an anemic three shots on goal. Mike Green starred for the Craps, though I am sure the NHL will make sure everyone knows all about Ovechkin's heroic three shot effort. There were also far too many turnovers from the Flyers, especially in the vicinity of their own blueline.

Game 2 is on Sunday afternoon, where the Flyers hopefully will play 60 full minutes and get more shots on a rather sketchy looking Cristabol Huet. Patrick Thoreson and his famous hockeysense will most likely not be playing, as he was downed blocking a shot shortly before Washington's fourth goal.

Round 1: Flyers vs. Capitals

Odd thing is that even though I'm full of hate, I don't hate the Capitals. I even like their superstar. And even though I got in a "fight" (that I won of course) at a Capitals game 2 years ago I don't hate their fans. They barely even have fans. Of course like the Devils, people will jump on the bandwagon for the playoffs, but everytime I've gone to the MCI/Verizon Center it's always been half empty even when Flyers fans were there in numbers. But what does having no fans and playing in a city that couldn't care less mean? Sadly, it means if things keep going as they have over the last couple of years the Capitals will be winning the Stanley Cup and the Flyers are one and done. This curse of annual seppuku upon the NHL will not end until Bettman is gone. The Hockey Gods are vengeful gods and they're pissed.

Anyway, the Flyers suprised me and lots of other people by going 7-1-1 in <cliche>crunch time</cliche> to make the playoffs. To make it more impressive, this was primarily against division rivals with their best effort of the year against their evil nemesis New Jersey to clinch. Is this the Flyers we can expect in the playoffs?

To win the series the Flyers can't have bad blueline turnovers, can't be in their own zone failing to clear the puck for 2 minutes, they can't be trading end-to-end rushes and they need to stay out of the penalty box and score on the power play.

What the Flyers have going for them is depth. They have 3 defensemen with 30 or more points and 7 forwards with 20 or more goals. What the Capitals have going for them is Ovechkin, his linemates, and maybe Mike Green and Huet and to me a weak Flyers goalie in Biron. But the Flyers better not just think about Ovechkin and let the scrubs beat them.

Breaking it down

Special Teams : Flyers
Flyers were the 2nd best PP in the NHL and to counter, Ovechkin leads the league in PP goals. But the Capitals PK is 25th.

Forwards : Flyers
Flyers have more depth and are more balanced. Ovechkin is the best player in the league though and the rest aren't all scrubs.

Defense : Push
Both have young players coming into their own. Both have young players that make mistakes. Capitals Poti is past his prime. Flyers geezers Smith and Hatcher seem to be damaged goods at this point.

Goaltending : Washington
I think Huet has a winning record vs. the Flyers but I gave up looking for the exact numbers. Huet's playoff record is 2-4 and Biron has never lost a playoff game.

Coaching : Push
Stevens took the Flyers from 22 wins to 42 wins in 1 season. Boudreau got the job 20 or so games in and got the Caps into the playoffs after a horrible start. Stevens has won the Calder Cup. Boudreau looks like Nikita Kruschev and was an extra in "Slapshot."

X-Factors : Washington
The Os - Ovechkin and Officiating. Ovechkin is great so he alone could be the difference. As far as the refs, the entire league and all the sportswriters want a Penguins vs. Capitals series so it's inevitable that lots of bogus calls will be going Washington's way. We should all be used to it by now but I'm getting pissed off right now just thinking about what's to come.

Overall I see the series being really even because both teams have holes, are unproven, and are mostly new to the playoffs. Over the course of the season the Flyers were good, really good, really bad, then good again. The Capitals were really bad, bad, ok then really good. Who knows what version of the teams will show up?

There will probably be some overtime games and bounces determining the outcomes. Flyers have been getting some bounces lately, but Carter breaking his blade on the empty net attempt vs. Pittsburgh could be a bad omen. In the end I see the Flyers in 6 in a struggle but it's really a toss up.

Now to the hockey media

The sportwriters crush on Sidney Crosby is fading as no amount of their fawning can cover up his crying and diving or the fact that the Penguins did just as good or better when he was watching from the pressbox. So the bloom is coming off that rose. What's giving them a spring in their step these days is "Ovie". And the fact that he's led the sad sack, perpetuallly losing Capitals that play in an empty building in a city where no one cares to their first playoff appearance in 5 years makes them swoon even more. The Caps are their Cinderella and we all know how sportswriters love Cinderellas and even more than that they love to pick Cinderellas so they can seem smart when she surprises everyone at the ball while they come off looking like they're some kind of savants. Media members also are part of a herd. Both these factors explains their nearly universal choice of the Capitals winning the series despite it being a toss up.

Scott Burnside - Caps in 6. Seems to follow the trend of writers being in love with Ovechkin and seeing the Capitals as the sad little puppy dog franchise (aww, aren't they cute?) that gets adopted by the nice family and lives happily ever after, or at least through this round.

John Buccigross - Flyers in 7. Looks to see the Flyers "grit" prevail if they stay out of the box.

TSN panel predictions - Bob McKenzie, Darren Dreger, Mike Milbury, Darren Pang, and James Duthie all took Ovechkin, I mean the Capitals. Some monkey they use as a stupid gimmick took the Flyers.

Scott Morrison (CBC) - Capitals in 7. Says it will be tough and even series but leans Capitals.

Sportsnet.ca - Capitals in 7. Gives them the home ice edge.

Howard Berger - Capitals in 5. Says Capitals have the momentum but then hedges his bet and says Flyers can stop it and win.

Chuck Gormley - Caps in 7. Flyers are better but Ovechkin and Capitals are "on a mission".

The Hockey News - Capitals in six. More of "the Capitals have the momentum" stuff plus Biron is weak.

I'm sure there's plenty more where that came from but I'm bored of reading the same thing over and over and I'm sure you are too. So instead, write your own analysis and prediction in the comments.

Beat the Mets

Getting hit by a pitch three times at the plate wasn't enough for Chase Utley. So he went and got hit by a Carlos Delgado throw to second base, breaking up a likely double play and making the key play in the Phils' win over the Mets Tuesday, spoiling New York's last home opener in Shea Stadium (awwwww).

Moyer looked pretty good over six innings, and with the help of a fortuitous double play in Chad Durbin's seventh, the bullpen held New York scoreless after the Phils got the lead, with Romero and Gordon pitching perfect eighth and ninth innings.

There was some bad news, as Jimmy Rollins left the game with an ankle injury. Hopefully it's not serious.

The other bad news is there are other teams on the remaining schedule besides the Mets, whom the Phillies can't seem to lose to at the moment. Thankfully the Nationals and Marlins are around to keep heads from getting too big.

UPDATE: Rollins out for Wednesday night's game.

The Will We Ever Win Bracket results

It took longer than I thought, but the crap free throw shooting of Memphis finally caused them to lose. So with his pick of Kansas, Big Daddy B becomes this year's bracket champion. Congratulations.

Final Standings

1. wwew (Big Daddy B) - 137pts
2. Not Last Place (Sean - He must have read "The Secret") - 100
3. Chilly V's Picks - 98
4. goldie - 89
5. tjm (Tim) - 89
6. ron - 88
7. i heart romo (Tam) - 86
8. I passed Calculus (OB) - 84
9. TheWrightBracket (Jon) - 77
10. JeffCan'tPickem (another victim of nominative determinism) - 75
11. Bad Newz Kennel (Ed) - 75
12. Flying Hellfish (Steve S.) - 72
13. clueless (Stephanie) - 69
14. William Kristol (as usual, wrong about everything but wants everyone to know that they are anti-American for not picking them to be the champs like he did.) - 11

NCAA Tourney report 2

Well, the geniuses on the NCAA Tournament Committee finally got one right — all four #1 seeds advanced to today's Final Four.

Whereas the tourney's usually competitive across a few more teams at the top of the ladder, I only saw Stanford and Texas as really capable of cracking this top group this year. And so, by most accounts, we really have the country's best four teams slugging it out.

Yes, it would have been cool to see Davidson make it, but it's equally intriguing to see the absolute four best teams, the four 1's, going for it.

All these teams have incredible talent, so it will be interesting to see how the games play out, and what factors in the wins — coaching adjustments, free-throw shooting, fouls, pressure defense, or just one team's talent taking over.

And should Kansas advance to the final, only to lose to UCLA, you're reading the words of the Will We Ever Win tourney pick-em champion. Not Last Place indeed.

UPDATE: If Kansas wins, Big Daddy B takes the championship. If Memphis wins, OB does. The final standings will be posted and the winner congratulated when the game is over.

Brodeur sucks

This dude is an amazing goaltender, but he cheated on his wife with his wife's sister, and he's ruined countless Flyers postseason dreams, and tonight he got his due.

But we have to rewind to when Lauren Hart sung "God Bless America," because they cut in Kate Smith singing it from the 70's (frosted glasses in full effect) and I must say tears were in my eyes. People were pumped for this game, and a little over 5 minutes into it, the roof blew off with the Flyers 1st goal. And who would have thought, but the Flyers actually forechecked tonight too! Two great periods in the books, but there was still that lingering feeling that the other shoe would drop, as there were no insurance goals.

Fast forward to the 3rd, and once the Flyers got another one past Brodeur, that was it. After their last goal, the place was as noisy as it was in game 6 against Tampa a few years back (and as I write this, I must remind everyone that teams like the Lightning and the Ducks have cups all in the last decade and the Flyers have squat for the past 30+ years). Seriously, it was shaking and drunk girls were jumping up and down and even the Polish Water Ice dude got into it. My pregnant wife did too, as she actually stood up and pumped her fist a bit, and hopefully my unborn twin girls got to hear their father scream, "F*CK you Brodeur!" Seeing him get pulled is great on TV, but it's nothing compared to seeing it in person, as you can almost taste his tears.

It was refreshing to go to a game with zero Boo Birds, but my only other wish was that the guy they call Boo could have been there, as my seats all season long were shared with Tam. But alas, this is not the end of this season, as the Flyers are making it into the post season with a goaltender who has NEVER PLAYED A PLAYOFF GAME! Reason for panic, or was tonight's great performance by Biron somewhat of a preview of good things to come?

Everything is still up in the air as far as where the Flyers finish. Pens or Montreal could get the 1st seed, and the highest the Flyers can go is 6th, which would be ok in my book as you'd play the Caps (probably) or the Hurricanes (not likely, as the Caps will probably beat Florida tomorrow). If you finish 7th and the Pens somehow still finish 1st (with a Boston win tomorrow), then you get the Habs, and that worries me. I'm all for an 8th place finish with a Pens win on Sunday so the Flyers can knock baby Sidney out of it the first round.

And, I must remind you all, that the Flyers clinched a playoff berth tonight without their 54 million dollar man Briere.

Playoff bound

Congratulations to the Flyers and the Sixers in returning the playoffs. Woo-hoo! Hopefully someone that went to the Flyer's game (cough, Pelly, cough) will write up the game and the experience.

Should I move the clock ahead a smidge?

Win #1

The Phillies finally found some offense and won their first game, beating Washington Thursday afternoon. It started out rough with Moyer giving up five runs in the first, but the bats finally woke up in the sixth, albeit via several singles, and the Phils pulled it out in the 10th.

Unfortunately I started watching Primary Colors on HBO and missed most of the rally, but I got back in time to see Tom Gordon almost blow another game. Thankfully he didn't, but confidence is not high.

Let's hope the offense has woken up for good, and that it just wasn't a case of a former Rutgers pitcher remembering where he went to college.

Note: I would have linked to a Daily News or Inky story, but the main story still isn't up as of 2 a.m. Friday. If you're gonna have web sites boys, you may as well use them. Do they seriously wait until the paper's on the street to post? Update pending.

The 1940s throwback uniforms, which will be worn for all home day games, looked really good.

Loss #1

The game went pretty much as I predicted. Flyers played physical and had the Penguins, especially Crosby off their game. Then some questionable calls and non calls by the officials, and a soft goal by Biron and it was 3-2 Penguins. Flyers played tough, but ultimately could not tie the score. The real difference in this game was the goaltending and power play. Fluery made big saves (Colburn from the point, Lupul on a nice feed from Richards) and Biron did not. Penguins scored four power play goals, the Flyers one. Shine up the golf clubs, boys. But always remember Crosby sucks!

Flyers vs. Penguins

Well the Capitals defeated Carolina last night, and should cruise to victories over Florida and Tampa in their final games. Carolina should also beat Tampa and Florida. Boston may lose to the Devils tonight, but that is all the help the Flyers can expect. So the Flyers must get 4 points out of a possible six in their remaining games in order to make the playoffs. The Flyers final three games begin tonight in Pittsburgh.

The Flyers are sort of catching a break in the schedule as Pittsburgh played on Sunday and Monday, so it is 3 games in 4 days for the Penguins. All the Penguins are back save Gary Roberts. Luckily the game is televised on Comcast so fans are not subjected to two and half hours of Crosby and Malkin hero worship on Versus/NBC. RJ Umberger is back in for the Flyers- which is also a plus as this dude is a Penguin killer. Flyers were destroyed 7-1 by the Penguins in the last meeting, in one of their worst performance of this year.

Hopefully the Flyers come out and establish some sort of forecheck and score early. With the Penguins offense it could easily be 3-0 after one period. I hope Stevens comes up with a plan. I would target Crosby early and try to get this dude off his game. Put Hartnell on this. Crosby in the box for slashing or sitting on the bench cause Laraque has to take extra shifts is a good. Flyers won four games over the Penguins this year because they were physical. Biron also has to play well, making at least two goal stealing saves for the Flyers to win.

I predict the Flyers come up short, 5-2. They also are not going to make the playoffs.

Phils 2008: Drop the ball, or pick up 2007 and run with it?

Well, if you saw the home opener Monday you know J-Roll drops that ball. But hey, that's just one of 162 fine Major League Baseball games we have to take in, so let's get to it.

The Phillies stormed to the NL East title last season (with help from the historically bad Mets), only to be swept the hell out of the playoffs by the Rockies. Having made the big step of making the playoffs last year, will the Phils step up their game this season or slide backwards?

Sadly, it's not completely in the hands of the players. Uncle Charlie's already made a questionable call in running out Tom Gordon for the ninth after J.C. Romero pitched a perfect eighth inning. And the front office is operating on their self-imposed salary cap again, a cap that's left the pitching staff thin by most accounts. If Brad Lidge continues to have injury problems, and if third and fourth starters Jamie Moyer and Kyle Kendrick can't approach last year's output, we're talking real thin.

The good news is the Phillies probably have the best offensive, and maybe defensive, infield in baseball with MVP candidates Ryan Howard, Chase Utley and Jimmy Rollins, along with new third baseman Pedro Feliz. There should be no shortage of runs, even with the departure of Aaron Rowand.

Aside from Feliz though, it looks like the Phils stood pat in the offseason, and that's a prescription for falling back, not advancing.

Predictions for 2008:
— SI guy says Lidge not enough pitching help, no playoffs.
— Other SI guy says pitching too thin, no playoffs.
— Assorted ESPN dudes mostly pick Mets or Braves for division, others for wildcard. The Braves, Brewers, really?
— PECOTA the super computer says third place, but the article has incorrect stats for Hamels and others from last year, so who knows there.

Phils won 89 last year. I'm predicting 85 this season, and no playoffs. Hopefully I'm wrong and management steps up if moves are needed. I'm also going out on a limb and predicting a 0-1 start.

What's everyone predict?