When you go 0-5 on power plays which included 38 seconds of a 2-man advantage you deserve to lose. So the Flyers earned their 0-1 loss to Buffalo who took advantage of their one big opportunity. Overall the Flyers played better, made quicker decisions and played solidly defensively, but at the same time they still seemed stuck in a lower gear.
Other notes:
Shoot the damn puck on a 2 on 1 instead of trying to make a pretty pass through the defenseman, especially you Veruseless
Shoot the damn puck on a 5 on 3, especially you everybody on the ice.
Bob looked shaky to me. He seemed to just be focused on making the initial save no matter where the rebound might go. But he played well otherwise.
Not sold on how awesome Miller supposedly played. Flyers made it easy on him shooting at his chest, having no screens, and not getting to any rebounds.
Nice hits by Briere.
JVR was the standout Flyer of the game.
April 13, 2011
Halladay Is A Stud
That's all I got. Really. He's the man. What more can you say?
Actually, 123 pitches does concern me a bit. Can we keep the innings down a little bit on these starters at this point in the season? His last outing was worst in number of pitches.
Well, Lee had a nice short outing last time, so hopefully he's fresh for tomorrow's game. Not that anyone will follow it that closely given the Flyers game up against it. But....
The Werth boo-ing while in Washington was priceless again. At bat and in the field. Pretty stuff. Not that we can blame him for leaving, but what else can you do besides boo him? You have to.
April 11, 2011
The second season begins
The Flyers begin the "season that counts" this Thursday after sputtering through the last 2 and half months, losing 14 of 21 games, losing their #1 Eastern Conference seed without much of a fight, and barely holding on for the Atlantic Division title. (Though without fake hockey Pittsburgh wouldn't have been close.) They had been so inept and listless Holmgren had to yell at the team, but even after that they blew two leads vs. Buffalo and lost in OT on a terrible breakaway and then blew 2-0 and 3-2 leads and even trailed the 27th place Islanders before DiPietro's terribleness let the Flyers come back to win their final regular season game.
The Flyers seem to think they can just turn it on, whatever "it" is. Really? What about the 3+ breakaways they've been giving up per game and the 6 or more odd man rushes? While not awful, the goaltending is getting its shakiest and most inconsistent right on cue, so I can't count on it erasing many defensive breakdowns. Offensively, the power play still struggles and they repeatedly failed to put teams away in the latter half of the season – they'd get a lead and then relax, or even worse they'd panic. Along with the "we're just waiting for the playoffs to start" pose, the Flyers have also gone to the tired, "us against the world" schtick to try and motivate themselves as many are picking the Sabres to win (ESPN, USA Today, TSN). To me it all sounds desperate. The Flyers even have a lame-ass playoff slogan: "With all of our will...we will."
So you can probably tell that I am not optimistic at all. I don't think you can just flip a switch. The bad habits the Flyers have developed can't be fixed overnight. They might start working harder and get better forechecks, but there is just too many terrible defensive lapses and they can't hold a lead. In addition, the Sabres are playing really good, going 16-4-4 in their last 24 games, and beating the Flyers twice. I see the Flyers getting bounced in 5 or 6 and a sweep is even possible if Pronger doesn't play, but I think he will play instead of being given passing out the hats duty to feel useful.
Other predictions: Boston vs. Capitals in the Eastern Conference Finals with Boston coming out of the East, and I think Vancouver won't choke and will win the Cup. Very controversial picks, I know.
Flyers first round schedule: Game 1: 7:30 Versus, CSN Game 2: 5 pm CSN Game 3: 7 pm Versus, CSN Game 4: 7:30 Versus, CSN Game 5: 7:30 Versus, CSN Game 6: 3 pm NBC Game 7: TBD CSN
Bracket Results
Sorry that I'm late getting to this. Here are the final standings for posterity:
Kemba Breaks Ankles 108
The Puffy Vest 80
Max Power 73
KBock 61
T-shirt Time 61
F-duke 56
The Wright Bracket 56
Puffy Vest 56
Juggalo 4ever 55
TheSystemWillDeliverTheCup 55
Robb's Bracket 53
WWEW 51
warlock fang 45
ronscrappypicks 41
Bad Tawny! NO biscuit! 38
PSU was in the Dance.....shit. 36
T 9
Congratulations to Kemba Breaks Ankles.
What this years tournament proves to me is all you need to do to win is get hot at the right time and get lucky with the right match-ups–yours and the teams that can beat you–and the previous 4 months don't matter at all.
April 1, 2011
Rallyday
If you're going to listen to Chris Wheeler sniffling — not sniveling, although that's not foreign to him — incessantly for half a game, you kinda want a win. The Phillies provide.
It took until the seventh inning to get more than one guy on base at the same time, but the bats finally came to life and the Phils rallied for a ninth-inning win on Opening Day.
Cutting the Astros' lead in half in the seventh proved pivotal, and the batters in the ninth were locked in (save for an Ibanez infield fly), pushing across three runs on six singles off Astros closer Brandon Lyon for a 5-4 win. John Mayberry Jr. came off the bench for the pinch-hit winner, whacking a line drive over center fielder Michael Bourn's head.
The late arriving offense wasted was a typically strong outing from Roy Halladay, who had six K's over six innings, surrendering a lone run. He threw 101 pitches and would have batted second in the sixth, and so was lifted. If this is later in the season you have to figure he'd be left in the game.
Former Phillie Brett Myers was as impressive as Halladay — maybe more so — even if his beard was the opposite of impressive. Myers also got two hits off Halladay.
NOTES:
* Ryan Madson picked up the win with a scoreless top of the ninth.
* Having just released Luis Castillo, the Phils signed veteran Ronnie Belliard to a minor league contract league contract yesterday. But if Wilson Valdez continues to play like he did last season and today, you have to think he'll be the regular second baseman while Utley is out. Valdez went 2 for 4 with an RBI at the plate, and had an error charitably ruled a hit in the field.
* With Utley out, Jimmy Rollins is hitting third. I like Rollins in the three-hole, but that means Shane Victorino leads off. Leading off the first, Victorino tried to homer the second pitch he saw, hitting a fly ball to center.
* Bill "El Wingador" Simmons stood out from the crowd behind the third base dugout all game, and was sporting an Angry Birds T-shirt. He was also constantly checking his messages and/or texting during the last couple of at-bats.
* Only four games on MLB's Opening Day yesterday was weak.
* Cliff Lee is back on the hill tomorrow night.
March 31, 2011
Won and won
It's that time of year again — March.
Also, the MLS schedule is off and running, and that means it's time again for Sebastien Le Toux goals and defensive blunders courtesy of the blue and gold/tan/whatever that color is-clad Philadelphia Union.
Or not. Two games into their season the Union have completely flipped the script from their 2010 campaign, winning a road opener against Houston and then taking out the expansion Vancouver Whitecaps at home — surrendering a combined 0 goals.
Shutouts might be fairly common in soccer, but they weren't for the Union last year. They had a grand total of two — against Chicago and Chivas USA, both in September. They weren't exactly giving up 5 goals a game either, but their defense last season could be best described as extremely sketchy, and at times brutal.
They started making necessary changes late last season — inserting fullback Sheanon Williams into the lineup and signing Columbian defender Juan Diego Gonzalez. But the big change came this offseason with the signing of veteran Columbian goalkeeper Faryd Mondragón, most recently of German Bundesliga side Koln. Mondragon has 50 caps for Columbia and a ton of experience with South American and European clubs. And I do mean a TON of experience — dude is 39.
All that experience seems to be coming to bear for the Union, however, as the defense looks much more organized, and moments of panic have been few and far between so far. The same couldn't be said last season with young goalkeeper Chris Seitz — now with Dallas. Emphasizing the point, Mondragon has been named the Union's captain.
The improved defense might be even more important if the offense continues to struggle for goals, but it's early yet and Le Toux is yet to get off the mark. Le Toux, however, seems to be the only Union player capable of producing a bit of magic offensively. Second-year forward Jack McInerney clearly has skills, but the teenager has yet to see a lot of playing time.
Newly acquired striker Carlos "Soccer Chooch" Ruiz scored the winner against Vancouver, and has scored a lot of goals in the MLS. But most of those goals were a while ago, and he's been around the block several times at this point. He's looked dangerous at times through the first two games, though. If he and Le Toux can get on the same page, they could be a dangerous pair of scoring threats.
NOTES:
* The Union debuted their all-white third kit against Vancouver last weekend. Solid look, but I still prefer their regular all-navy and all-gold kits.
* The Vancouver game was chippy as hell, and while a lot of yellow cards were shown, several more could have been. The announcers were hyping Vancouver's two big strikers entering the game, but Eric Hassli got yellow carded on two moronic fouls and took himself — and his team — out of the game. Nice one, dumbass.
* The Union picked up a team sponsor this season in Bimbo, or more specifically Bimbo Bakeries USA, "the American corporate arm of Mexico's Grupo Bimbo." Mmm, corporatey. I was dreading this a bit because the uniforms were so nice without a sponsor, but it's not bugging me so far. Maybe I've just seen a lot of ridiculous soccer sponsors before, though, because it still says "bimbo" on my team's jersey. As all the MLS teams' sponsors are also league sponsors (as far as I know), I was hoping for a more color-correct "Bud" sponsorship, but at least Bimbo USA is local (in Horsham).
* I considered "Not Chooch" and "Chooch II" for Carlos Ruiz nicknames, but I think Yahoo commenter Brian W. nailed it with "Soccer Chooch." Any other suggestions?
* Next game, late Saturday in L.A. against Donovan, Beckham and the Galaxy.
* Get used to a heavy dosage of the below ad:
March 24, 2011
Philly Sports Round
Kinda dead these days with the Tourney taking front stage. But even the tourney.... It's not the same as a home team sports run.
In any event, anyone watching the Sixers lately? Sure, they're not a top conference team, but their performance has caught my eyes. I regularly read their recaps anyway, since I'm cable-less and can't watch many games.
The Flyers are in the toilet. Wow. How about a goalie? Can we pick up Hextall or something? This is brutal. Oh, and the shootout is dumb. Turned the radio off last night once that was ready to start.
The Phils are struggling with injuries. As is no surprise, Utley is nowhere to be found. They must either be letting him lie low and out for the season with an expectation to bring him in late and let him play through pain. Or they have no clue. Otherwise, why not just go get surgery? I had read that the likely injury doesn't have a lot of definite outcome, and that the surgery would involve a long recovery.... Additionally, since there's no risk of further injuring it, he could play through it, although the pain would be significant and could hurt his performance. No idea if those "experts" really know what the injury could be or is.... but.... Unlike the Flyers at this point in their trapped goalie situation, the Phils were able to sign Castillo for a try out with the team. Good grief. Don't be surprised if the Phils make a midseason move w/ their strong pitching staff IF they don't find something that works at 2B. Oh, and did you see the Oswalt scare? It didn't seem like the ball had that much juice on it... sure a serious stinger, but it wasn't as fearful when I saw it vs. read about it.
NFL = lame. Trade Kolb. Trade the whole team. Draft a bunch of scabs for the next year. I'd like to see the owners start the league with scabs and the players try to start their own league. Let's settle this the old fashioned way with a duel, may the winner be declared by the followers and dollar. Hopefully they both lose in the short term, greedy pigs all of them.
March 12, 2011
The correct way to determine a champion in college sports
Bracket registration closes at tip off of the first game of Round 1 on Thursday, March 17.
I set up "team" willweeverwin over at Yahoo! again. First go to Yahoo's Tournament Pick'em page and click "Join a Group". On the next page click the "Join a Group" button again. If you have a Yahoo account, login. If not, follow the instructions and get one. Once logged in, enter the info below.
Group ID#: 60101 Pass: check the comments of this post
Where it says "Bracket Name" is where you would put your bracket's name. I am "ronscrappypicks" again. Finish filling the required stuff out and make your picks by the first game on Thursday. I decided to use the default Yahoo! scoring system again because it's simple.
The winner this year gets to go on a date with Jessica Biel or Justin Timberlake (if that's your preference) who I convinced to break up so they could be available for this contest.
March 6, 2011
Flyers lose fourth in a row, fall to Rangers 7-0.
January 30, 2011
Philadelphia Passion advances to 2011 Lingerie Bowl
The Philadelphia Passion has advanced to the 2011 Lingerie Bowl by defeating Tampa Breeze 31-12. I am not sure this avenges the Eagles crushing 2002 NFC Championship defeat at the hands of Tampa Bay, but it's a start. Marirose Roach, with 3 TDs, was the star of the game. The Passion face off against the Las Angeles Temptation in the final, which will be held in Las Vegas on February 6. If you wish to bet on the Lingerie Bowl the odds should be posted here, while game stats are here, so you can determine how the Passion play as a neutral site underdog coming off two straight covers.
January 9, 2011
Eagles blow it. Again.
Much like the opener against the Packers and the Bears later in the season, the game leaves a feeling of "if the Eagles played them again they'd win!" But they DID get to play the Packers again and still came up short.
The Eagles got breaks and only took advantage of one while giving the Packers far more in return that were not squandered. Eagles dropped crucial passes, couldn't convert on third and short, couldn't get off the field on third downs, made terrible tackles, were penalized more than the opposition (of course), and the defense sucked just as much or more than they did in the regular season (fire McDermott). But if Akers makes his field goals the Eagles probably win.
And once again it was another game of a lot of "too little too late." If the defense played with the same intensity and fervor all game instead of just in the waning moments, the result might have been different. If the offense was playing with the same urgency and was making plays (other than Vick and Avant) and the offensive line was pass blocking as well the entire game as they did in the second half the end result might have been different.
If Akers didn't completely choke, the result would definitely have been different. Probably.
But in the end, although it was a different quarterback, there was still the same game ending interception and the same familiar disappointment with the Eagles losing this one, 21-16. So McNabbesque.
Other notes:
Kicking the field goal when Reid did was the right decision as you could see by the end of the game. Akers missing the 34 yard "chip shot" was not.
That "fumble" on Rocca's first bad punt was bogus. Of course the Eagles failed to take advantage of that huge break.
The first 2 Packers TD drives were courtesy of Eagles stupidity. The first was extended by Clayton jumping offsides, the second by Quentin Mikell failing to recover a ball that he was laying on. HOW ARE YOU NOT AWARE OF THE DAMN BALL MIKELL WHEN YOU ARE LAYING ON IT!!?!?11?!?111? How can anyone be that stupid and clueless?
Which movie should I see first, Dilemma or Hall Pass?
The defense sucks.
Jackson probably cost the Eagles a TD before the half by trying to run before catching the ball.
It's a cliche, but it really is a game of inches. There was Celek's 2 point conversion catch that didn't count because an inch of his foot went out of bounds was huge. And in the last minute of play with Jackson running in the open and probably for a TD being brought down by a shoestring tackle. Another inch away and he's still running.
Um, when they said Celek's 2 point conversion catch was no good you HAVE to accept the penalty or decline it and it becomes good. Right? Glad the refs figured it out.
At one point the Packers were 8 for 10 on third down conversions. Packers were 3 for 3 in the redzone. Some nobody named Starks rushed for 127 yards - more yards than the rest of his NFL career combined. The defense sucks.
Let me reiterate what will be on sports talk all week - Fire McDermott.
Agent Cooper should have interfered instead of letting that dude push off and pick it.
Next year, no excuses, and I will be back into being in angry mode, but I'm not irate over the loss. I wasn't expecting anything this season and winning the NFC East and getting into the playoffs was a bonus to me. Your miles may vary.
This Deadspin piece on the Winter Classic is a fun read, including bits on Barry Melrose growing impatient in a bar (been there Barry), an attendee throwing piss at a stadium worker, and Pens and Caps fans joining in chants of "Flyers suck."
There's also a mention of former Flyer fourth-liner, opposition annoyance and bad tie aficionado P.J. Stock, who recently took part in Canadian reality show Battle of the Blades.
To invoke to voice of Rod Serling for a moment, we offer no judgment here. Stock would probably be fairly entertaining on something like this, especially compared to most of the dunderheads who made a living in the NHL.
The presence of another former Flyer, Jeremy Roenick, as "judge," is a lot more suspect. I don't watch Canadian TV obviously, but I'm starting to imagine Roenick taking on a "Hey now" Hank Kingsley role of endorsing/appearing on anything and everything. Weasels with no skills will still shamelessly use Roenick and the Blackhawks in NHL '93, no doubt.
Suffice to say, I'm not shocked Valeri Bure won this past season of the show. His partner was probably throwing him around.
NOTES:
— Even if you don't want to watch Stock and partner's actual routine, there's a couple nice Flyer moments and a tremendous Stock training belly flop to be had in that video.
— Hockey players trying to be Olympic-style ice skaters just seems pointless without Moira Kelly.
January 2, 2011
Dallass sucks
Eagles scrubs pretty much dominated Dallass's first teamers the entire game but the offense blew too many chances while turning the ball over too many times, and the defense saved its usual game long crappyness for the last 3 minutes and surrendered its only points of the game to lose, 14-13. The good news is Dallass probably blew a couple positions in the draft. Losers even when they win.
Other notes:
Dallass's only points of the game until their final possession came when Kolb was stripped by Anthony Spencer, the guy the Eagles gave to Dallass when they traded out of the first round to choose Kolb in the second.
Know nothing national media morons to Philadelphia regarding McNabb: "Be careful what you wish for!" What we got: a record 439 points and McNabb a 3rd string benchwarmer. What we won't get - apologies and acknowledgment of who was right.
Rocca has had a ton of punts downed inside the 20 this season but was totally weak on that last punt of the game giving Dallass a short field.
Austin Howard sucks.
The difference between Vick and a normal QB is that when a play starts breaking down normal QBs like Kolb just try to minimize the damage and run backward while lamely heaving up ducks off the back foot into the sidelines while Vick attacks.
Kolb was mediocre all game.
Clay Harbor makes Celek's hands look all-pro.
Fox, enough with Jerry Jones. He's a complete loser.
I approve of Fox ridiculing Jason Richards celebrating his sack. Do more of this to more players, please.
When #57 dropped an easy pick 6 I knew the Eagles were going to lose the game.
Next week is Green Bay on Sunday at 4:30. Vick gets a chance to make his postgame comments after game 1 stand up.
