TropicalFruitGirl26

David Perron with an a-hole crosscheck move on TK....

Blues defense has looked beatable today.. Flyers not giving up and just continue to take shots and go to the net. 2-1 score in their favor says they need to keep doing that the rest of the game.

Must skate harder too..... And PK harder.....and after 20 minutes, drink Gatorade harder!! No exceptions!!

PP goal St. Louis..... Justin Faulk left all alone for the easy shot. Philly did most everything right on that PK though...attacked the puck carrier, gave no time or space to shooters, but the obvious numbers game caught up with them and the Blues would always have someone open. Can't really blame Elliot on that one....not so sure even a guy like Hasek could have stopped Faulk just now.

Flyers playing a perfectly fine "boring road game" so far. Elliot seems to be tracking the puck well enough....and I've even seen some Flyer players go towards the net when one of their guys has the puck down low....and they seem to be beating Blues defenders to certain areas around the front of the net. Could bode well if they keep doing that.

Meh...he doesn't have to. That's what his skaters are for! Besides...all Elliot has to do is stop pucks. If he can do that, it may frustrate some of the Blues who feel they "should beat Philadelphia", and could open the door for the Flyers to capitalize on the "vaunted Blues defense".

Really Rux….don't mince words...tell us how you REALLY feel! Was just listening to NHL Live on NBC and they were going on about how "Gallant let things get out of control while DeBoer went calmly about his business" The reasoning for replacing Gallant with his rival from the Sharks? Not sure exactly what Gallant "let get out of control", but as for DeBoer going about his business "calmly", look, the man (DeBoer) ALWAYS looks like that. I swear he must take valiums before each and every game....

Perhaps, but not like idiotic decisions haven't been made already.

Well now.... And the coaching carousel continues to whirl..... Coaches fired, presumably because they weren't getting the job done or "lost the room"....but never fear, they will just be replaced with another guy that was fired from somewhere else for about the same reason. Agree the Gallant firing was odd, but, now that I think about it, Gallant was the SAME guy, who, before ending up in Vegas, was fired, via email or text, or something like that, from the Florida Panthers, while the team was on the road, and on top of that, ownership didn't even have a car ready for him to transport to the airport, essentially leaving him on foot and/or his own devices to get around. At the time, I called that "low class" on the part of the Panthers, but maybe there was something more to that? Gallant rubbed the wrong person the wrong way in Florida....and, errrr, did the same in Vegas?????? Who knows...all I know is, guys like Peter Laviolette needn't worry..... the NHL has definitely gone "green" with regards to coaching and he too will soon be recycled somewhere.... DeBoer, Hynes.... all "washed up" with their former teams, only to be polished off and picked up elsewhere. As for coaches who MAY see the axe (maybe Boudreau, hell, even rumblings Jon Cooper has gone stale in TB), well, they will have a position waiting for them with another team too.... I am sure. Back to Gallant...…….maybe this was a master plan of his to get OUT of coaching in the All Star game and end up in Seattle with a new house in the great Pacific Northwest! All without being fined by the league. In that case...BRILLIANT! Why not? How else can we explain how Pete DeBoer ends up coaching a better laid out team in Vegas than the one he was let go from (rival too!) in San Jose? Apparently, San Jose and Vegas don't know SC winning coaches when they see them

@JR Ewing Not sure why, but reading your posts, I started humming "Margaritaville" halfway through...

Heh....from smiling like the Cheshire Cat (no, really, the man was LITERALLY all smiles even BEFORE it was announced the Devils would be picking first overall......almost like he KNEW!), on draft day to no longer the GM of the Devils....how quickly things can turn in the world of front office sports, eh?

Is there really a feud though? Don't get me wrong, hockey could use some more really intense rivalries (and if you look around the site, I have been a proponent of the Battle of Alberta meaning something again), and this game certainly had that, especially between the players mentioned. But unless this goes on for the rest of the season and it truly becomes "a thing", particularly if it spills into some sort of playoff series, just seems to me that this is Tkachuk doing Tkachuk things to other players. Kassian, Doughty, you name him and Tkachuk will get under his skin if he can. That all said, I'd have to agree that Tkachuk has gotten the better of the exchanges so far. Funny thing is, Kassian has always been that 4th liner type, but since playing with skilled players, especially McDavid and/or Draisaitl, his visbility as a top six guy has been raised......AND he seems to have found better success actually playing hockey rather than grinding, smashing, and generally knuckle dragging. I think a player like Tkachuk sees that, and does everything he can to get Kassian playing like a Neanderthal again instead of a hockey player, thus diminishing Kassian's value to the Oilers. But, like I said, that sort of tactical approach is par the course for Tkachuk....whether its Kassian or anybody else he feels he can derail. Tkachuk, much like a guy like Patric Hornqvist is a very skilled player who is doubly frustrating to deal with because he CAN play hockey and mixes in very effective agitator tactics. Well, whether an actual feud or not, this certainly should raise interest for the next meeting. But a playoff series would ultimately cement this. From Kassian's point of view, I'd be careful about following Tkachuk too far down the rabbit hole. He shouldn't take any crap from Tkachuk, obviously, but this whole war of words, agitation, get you thinking about things other than hockey is right up Tkachuk's alley, while Kassian is still a tough on ice player, but has maximized his productive value. Which he could see diminish if he buys too much into what Matt Tkachuk is selling. In straight up fisticuffs, I am inclined to give Kassian the advantage, though I certainly don't want to discount Matt...he is clearly tough as he is aggravating, but Kassian is a known quantity in the tough guy department. But somehow, I also don't think Tkachuk cares whether Kassian is actually tougher than him or not....all he cares about are the game results, and in that regard, yes, he does have the upper hand so far.

Bolts win 10 straight. Flyers did a good job in blocking shots, disrupting plays, and even had some real good scoring chances that were foiled by Vasy or bad luck. Bolts took advantage on a goal by Maroon that Niskanen didn't flag down out of the air properly, and it was all the difference. TB stays hot, but the Flyers showed why they have one of the best, if not the best home record in the league....they simply didn't give the Lightning very much to work with and played them tough.

Giroux, just now, had an open net, but couldn't control the puck long enough to take a shot. Bolts got away with one there.

Yes, he's in there. Bolts doing a good job on his line though...whenever Giroux and his line are out, Bolts get somebody out there and make them spend most of their shift at their own end.

Travis Sanheim may wanna fill out a police report... He just got robbed by a Russian mugger wearing a goalie mask......

3rd period, puck dropped... Game ON!!

Game getting a bit chippy. Both sides looking to antagonize the other. Yanni Gourde certainly is trying to do that to the Flyers. Raffl with an unnecessary crosscheck on Stamkos just now. Refs letting stuff go for now. So far, its all been 'love tapping'. But it may escalate, especially if the game gets to where one team takes more control. Right now, both teams are trying to stir, but doing it carefully in a 1-0 game.

Bolts break the ice.... Maroon.... 1-0 TB

No score after 1. Bolts with some real nice pressure near the end of the period. I will say this for the Flyers, they are doing a hell of a job getting in shooting lanes and using sticks to disrupt a lot of the TB attempts at plays and set ups. It served Philly well during that double minor they killed off, and served them well during the Bolts zone time near period's end. Bolts looked like they may have turned up the physical play the first period. Will Philly respond to that? Travis Konecny certainly was fired up a bit, both after being called for the high sticking infraction and after getting rubbed out along the benches by Coburn. He needed a stepladder, but he did get in Coby's face a bit.

Bad, bad TK.... 4-min high sticking minor. First real big test for the Flyer PK...even moreso than the first TB PP chance.

Braydon Coburn stirring some stuff up a bit in front of the Flyer net. He has been good about doing that recently, without taking penalties. Getting under the skin of the opponent. In this case, his former team.

Tricky shot from the point for Philadelphia, but Andrei Vasilevskiy seems to be on point and made the stop. JVR has managed to get some net front presence. Good for Phi, bad for the Lightning. I'd like to see him kept asleep of course, but Flyer fans wanna see him do just that: bother and screen the goaltender.

Alexander Volkov in the lineup for TB. He is a young AHL player the Bolts have been wanting to bring up, but his development has been a bit slow. He made his NHL debut earlier in the year, but got sent back down after just four games. He is a good sized checking forward with some offensive skill.

Puck is dropped... Game ON!!