iban3z

I picked him up on my Fantasy Team. Could this be the year #99's record is broken?

The Flyers are 1-5 to start the season. This is the 2nd season in a row where the Flyers are off to a poor start and the fans are restless. Needless to say, the organization is restless and it’s shown for 38 years. To begin, we can pick any moment in Flyers history dating back to the 1969 when Flyers’ Chairman Ed Snider ordered then GM Bud Polie to change the team to which would make them the “Broad Street Bullies.” Unfortunately, it seems like the Flyers are stuck in 1970s and refuse to change their culture. This is evident as recent as last week when Snider blasted the media by saying “We don’t need a culture change, we know what we’re doing.” Well, I have no idea what they’re doing but I can tell you what they don’t have and that would be patience. I’ll begin with the 2006/2007 season. The Flyers fired Coach Ken Hitchcock along with GM Bob Clarke and hired Paul Holmgren, and John Stevens. The Flyers promoted both within the organization which seems to be their motto. Homer began building his team for the future and it looked like the Flyers could actually see a “rebuilding” phase. Instead, the moves Homer conducted made him look like a genus and the Flyers went from worst to the Eastern Conference Finals. But the Flyers failed to beat the Penguins. That would be where the “rebuilding” phase ended and the Flyers would emphasize the word “Retooling” and refused to “rebuild.” Why you might ask? Snider was quoted in an interview once saying, “We don’t rebuild, we retool.” This is further proof that he does not have any patience. The Flyers refuse to be patient with any of their players. I’ll go back to 2005. Here is a list the Players the Flyers gave up on because they either didn’t reach their potential yet and they refused to wait, or they traded them for older veterans who’ve already won and are passed their prime. The list: Patrick Sharp (05): Won the cup with the Blackhawks in 2010 and 2013. Denis Seidenberg (06): Was traded for Petr Nedved and Won the Cup with the Bruins in 2011. Michal Handzus (06): Was traded for Kyle Calder and Won the Cup with the Blackhawks in 2013. The Flyers in (08): traded Alexandre Picard and a 2nd round pick for Vinny Prospal who was solid only to trade him back to Tampa at the end of the season and only gained 7th Rd pick and a conditional 09 pick. That’s a loss to me. Scottie Upshall (09): Traded along with a 2nd round pick for Dan Carcillo who had a career 41 pts over 3 seasons. Note: The Flyers decided not to resign Carcillo and he ended up winning the Cup in 2013 with the Blackhawks. Luca Sbisa & Joffery Lupal (09): Both along with two first round picks were traded for 35 year old Chris Pronger who played only 1 full season with the Flyers. Pronger played two more injury plagued seasons before sustaining an unofficial career ending concussion. This was a classic “We must win now” Trade. Simon Gagne (10): Traded for Matt Walker, won the Cup with the Kings in 2012. 2011’s First Rounder and 2011’s 3rd Rounder : These were traded for Kris Versteeg who was later traded for a 3rd rounder. This was a horrible trade and a classic “We must win now” Trade. Mike Richards (11): The Flyers traded away their franchise face and captain due what Holmgren described as “An offer he couldn’t refuse.” However Richards, the good player he was, was immature and the Flyers refused to help him grow into a mature Hockey player so they shipped him off to the Kings for unproven Prospect Brayden Schenn and Gritty Power forward Wayne Simmonds. Richards responded to the trade by helping the Kings win the Cup the following season. Jeff Carter (11): Although, I like Jakub Voracek and have a personal hatred for Carter because of my off ice encounters with him, he was the Flyers Goal leader for several seasons (29,23,46,33,36). He also responded to his trade by winning the Cup the following season with the Kings. Sergei Bobrovsky (12): The Flyers finally found the goalie of the future and first home grown goaltender since Ron Hextall. However, despite playing solid through the regular season in his rookie year (28-13-8) He had a poor performance in the Post Season mainly due to Coach Peter Laviolette’s goalie carousal. Ed Snider refused to be patient and forced the Flyers to sign Illya Bryzgalov to an outrageous contract for 9 years thus making the guarantee that Bobrovsky wasn’t in the Flyers future plans. Bobrovsky responded by winning the 2013 Vezina Trophy. (Note, the Flyers would buy out Bryzgalov 11 months later.) James Van Riemsdyk (12): JVR had a hard time finding his role and development with the Flyers. Injuries weren’t kind to him in a season where the Flyers made it a make or break season. He was traded for Luke Schenn and in the 2012 season, JVR has his best ratio for points vs. games played. He scored 18 goals. The Flyers refuse to sit and wait and let the team get to know one another and develop. Instead, year in and year out, the Flyers give up youth for veterans who are passed their prime. Three examples would be the 2013 offseason where the Flyers signed 35 year old Mark Streit, 38 year old Hal Gill and 33 year old Vinny Lecavalier. The Flyers want to win it all every year and that’s a given however that’s not a reality. Winning takes planning, development and yes you guessed it, patience. The Flyers don’t have any of this. Building and developing takes a couple of years, but if you’re patient enough, you can win it all and have the glory. Flyers fans have been thirsty for 38 years, but until Snider eases up and Paul Holmgren is fired, fans may grow to become just like the Flyers. Impatient. Follow me on Twitter @http://www.twitter.com/iban3zhead

When Pronger was out in 12, G stepped up and he was a natural leader. He shined and fans praised him and rooted for him to be the next Captain. "I want that first shift" and everyone was all about him. Then he goes 48 pts in 48 games, in a season where everyone was horrible and he got a lot of riff raff for poor performance. People need to be patient.

I spoke with a few NHL reps and they all came under the same consensus that before the league even considers the thought of removing fighting, a death would have to occur.

Well, this blog became obsolete. LOL

3 games in? You keep him all summer to fire him less than one week in????? Homer has to go... He has to.. This is garbage. And Berube? This makes my blog seem to go to waste where I mention they should part ways with him and the other assistants...

That one is a shot in the dark......

So here we are. We’re three games into the season and the Flyers are 0-3. Not the start the players wanted. Not the start the organization wanted. It’s definitely not the fans wanted, yet we are here and we’re frustrated. Before we go firing the coach or firing the GM (which I’m in favor of) simple changes can be made to help right this ship before it sinks. First off let’s see where things went wrong. I’m going to go all the way back to July when Homer had a chance to trade Brayden Coburn (4.5 Mil) and get a prospect or a pick. The Flyers all off a sudden have an abundance of defense now and moving him not only would have made some room for a young player like Gustafsson who’s a solid 5th/6th man but it would have taken 4.5mil off the books! Second, the Simon Gagne situation, which left some people scratching their heads including Gagne. This wasn’t a rumor or myth but Gagne’s agent and Homer did have an understanding, given the cap situation. Gagne couldn’t be signed for a reported 1.3-1.5mil contract until the season began so Pronger could be placed on LTIR. Instead Homer had a change of heart and thought he could sign Dan Cleary to replace him (to a much larger contract). Instead that came to bite Homer in the rear. Cleary, seemingly used the Flyers to get Detroit to offer him a contract (which he denies) and decided to say no to Philly leaving the Flyers without a solid two-way player. Homer then decided not to revisit the option of Gagne and sever ties with one of the organization’s most beloved players. Third, he did not give Scott Laughton a chance. When it seemed that the rookie beat out the others for a roster spot, he was scratched for the opener in favor of Jay Rosehill. (Rosehill has a life time of six points through an eight year professional career.)The following day instead of giving Laughton his nine game window, it was slammed shut. Laughton was sent packing and he headed to back to Juniors for another year. For what it is worth, Laughton has nine points in three games so far on his Junior team. I nstead of fixing an aging team and finding younger defense, Homer signed 35 year old Mark Streit. However, from what I’ve seen I think it’s a good signing as of now. But 38 year old Hal Gill who is labeled as the eight defenseman, was signed and is only going to action if an injury occurs. Before this becomes a rant of the GM, I’ll get to my original point and say that all the Flyers need are simple changes. First and foremost I’ll tag Brayden Coburn. He’s the worst of all the defenseman. He was brought to the Flyers because of his potential, not because of skill. He has not lived up to his potential and he’s had six years to do so. A change of scenery is what Coburn needs. There are plenty of teams asking for a defenseman. If you trade Coburn, you have a defensive corps that would look like this: Meszaros –Timonen Schenn-Streit Grossman-Gustafsson Mez the younger, faster and more offensive mined defenseman is paired with the teams’ best defensive defenseman. Schenn, the hit machine is paired with a puck carrying and big bodied defenseman that is Streit. The same reasons would apply the Grossman-Gustafsson pairing. Those are simple changes to help make your defense better. Next you move Max Talbot down to the fourth line. He’s a clutch player that’s great for the penalty kill but he’s not your everyday third line player. You put him on a line that should look like this. Rinaldo-Talbot-Newbury (If he stays up). You take your fourth line which is commonly known as the “Checking line” and form a line that can create offensive chances and still check. The Flyers’ lines should look more like this: Voracek-Giroux-Hartnell Read-Lecavalier-Simmonds Couturier-Schenn-Read Rinaldo-Talbot-Newbury These are easy changes that would provide a spark and create some offensive chances. Next, you have to consider reassigning your power play responsibilities to another assistant coach that is not Craig Berube. For the last 4 seasons, he’s been in charge of the Flyers Power play. It’s been terrible. I think the Flyers need to cut ties with their assistants but that’s not here or there. A new face needs to be behind the special teams because scoring on the power play is what can make a difference in hockey games. The Flyers don’t have to blow this team up or make coaching/GM changes yet. These simple changes can be just what the Flyers need, before things get really ugly.

I really wish they didn't send Laugton down so fast. I also wish Coburn were traded and we had a good two way player like a 33 year old Gagne who would have taken 1.3 million. Simple Changes... Why Chris Newbury? Why Jay Rosehill? I love Talbot but he's not a third liner. I've been inspired to write a blog now. Read that in about an hour.

He was met by a barrage of fans this morning and he signed for everyone! Wish more players were like him!

I just saw this. It looks like it was clean and targeted the shoulder but Josi bent down and made himself square to Downie. Too late for Downie to react. No further action should be taken.

The Ottawa Senators are my pick. Trying to keep a prediction streak of 5 straight years.

I never seen this. I wear a visor and I don't have fog issues. I can't wear a cage.. I've tried. I took my cage off mid game.

As of 10/6 he's 5-0-0 2.20 GAA .934 Save %. Pretty good numbers. And I don't wanna hear about a stacked team in front of him. His back up played 1 game so far and gave up 6 goals.

What I think the issue, here is we've all put Lavy under a microscope. We're 2 games in with no wins and no results. Our expectations aren't met and we're jumping the gun for a change already. Patience. 10-15 games, lets see but we're 2 in! 09/10 gets to cup! We love him! 10/11 Swept in 2nd round, we blame Richards/Carter. We still love Lavy 11/12 Lost in 2nd round. We blame Bryz. We still love Lavy 13 Miss playoffs, NEW COACH!!! WE NEED A NEW COACH!!! Sometimes we just need to be patient. Coaches need time. We can't fire every coach who doesn't bring us a cup. I know that's our expectation, but it's just not logical. If we're so bad like 3-9-2 then okay. But if we end up doing well and make the playoffs but don't win the cup, we don't need to fire the coach.

The Flyers seemed to lack some jump during their 60 minutes of play in Montreal. Peter Laviolette’s club came out flat against a hungry Canadians team, only firing 23 shots on Carey Price. The Flyers are lacked their discipline and took 11 minor penalties that resulted in nine power play chances for the Habs. Despite killing off seven of those chances, the Flyers handcuffed themselves being shorthanded for 18 minutes of the game. Some of them you can argue that they were just bad calls like Ray Emery’s “Embellishing” after he was run into for Goalie Interference. (I’ll come back to that later.) But it was Grossman’s tripping, Timonen’s holding, and Couturier’s hooking which are simple mistakes that takes time and chances away from the Flyers. “It seemed the first two periods, every time we got going 5-on-5 it lasted about two to three minutes and then the penalty killers went back on the ice,” Laviolette said. “After they scored the goal to start the third, the penalties happened and we lost our composure. It unraveled from there. We’re not going to win a lot of hockey games if we go to the box as much as we did tonight.” Despite not having any jump, the game was close going into the 3rd with the score being 1-0. Just 12 seconds in, the Habs took control and never looked back. Lars Eller took a fortuitous bounce and fired it passed Ray Emery. It took almost halfway through the 3rd period for Laviolette to finally reunite last year’s top scoring line: Giroux, Hartnell and Voracek but it was too little too late. I don’t understand why, this line hasn’t been together since the beginning, but in a move of desperation, they’re were reunited, but the Habs had full control and didn’t let off the gas. My other concern is that Jay Rosehill is being dressed. Rosehill is simply an enforcer and brings no hockey skill to the table. Even though I’m a fan at times to have an enforcer in, the Flyers have several players who can stand up and fight. In fact the Flyers have 3 fights so far this season and none of them involve Jay Rosehill. I’d rather see a young 4th line winger who can score if other Flyers are going to police themselves and you have Zac Rinaldo in the line-up. The new guys: Streit and Lecavalier have two points in two games, but the old guys such has Giroux, Hartnell and Voracek have yet to record a point. It’s only two games in and it’s not time to panic yet, but some simple adjustments need to be made. Once these are made and hopefully before 5 PM tonight, we can start to see some success. So settle down Flyers fans. It’s only two games in. It’s easy to be frustrated, but before we bash the goalies, the coach, the GM, the captain or the refs remember there are 80 games left to play. Going back to the Ray Emery Penalty, I hate when the refs try to even up calls when they’re not warranted. Especially when an obvious infraction happens and you try to even it up. Take Ray Emery’s “Unsportsmanlike” call for embellishment last night. He was bumped into Brendan Gallagher which is a penalty. Emery falls from being bumped, which I didn’t think he embellished. Even if he did, it doesn’t take away the fact that he was interfered with. If he wasn’t touched and then fell down trying to get a call, then yes that’s embellishing. But Emery was hit and he fell. I attended a game back in 2006 when Peter Forsberg was crosschecked from behind by a player for the Predators. He went face first into the boards. The Nashville player was called for crosschecking but Forsberg was also called for diving. I don’t understand how you can be crosschecked from behind, and called for “diving.” Last night’s call against Emery was the same thing. We all yell at Sidney Crosby for diving, game in and game out and he can sell himself and get away with it. But the league lets that stuff go and it happens to a lot of other players in the league. “Diving” goes uncalled constantly. But when it happens, they seem to get the call wrong by still calling an initial infraction that caused the so called “dive.” I’ll tell you this, if I’m playing and I get hooked, crosschecked, or interfered with and I fall, I’m not diving! I’m being impeded with! That’s what happened last night. The league should look at all the “diving” calls and come up with an action plan to ensure that they can get it right in the future.

I liked "the doop" and "Bro hymn" but the song before that I don't even remember the name or who it's by, but it was bad..... "Song 2" from 2003/2004 was my favorite.

You're not one of the Greenmen are you?

I wish I knew who said what. Tim Pannaccio is a total hack.

I can't believe what I'm reading. So many Hockey fans in favor of banning fighting. It's part of the game! I think with all the rules, they make fighting an obstacle, but to ban it all together. I'm not in favor of it. I enjoy the fighting. I think it should come about when it's fully necessary though, and not just two people fighting for the sake of fighting. All fights should be warranted.

I doubt this. Not that TSN reported it, but I doubt that this would happen. They are a "package" and won't waive their NMC. They've already stated that before they were signed. Plus if Vancouver did attempt this, they would ask for a Kings Ransom. They're 33. I wouldn't do this. If this were 10 years ago, yeah only because I'd sign them to lifetime deals. But not now. They're good during the season, but the post season, they don't step up.

This is Karma for a player in his rookie year wanted 4mil+ when he had a very good playoff run and now he's getting injured beyond belief. I liked him when he played in Philly and when I found out how much he wanted I was happy the Flyers let him walk. Buffalo overpaid for him. It's a shame. He's the type of player who had a lot of potential and skill and a style that no one knew, but once they figured him out, he never got the change to change his style because he's constantly injured. Oh well. I hope he saves his money. He won't see a contract like that again.

Unfortunately we have to endure this at every game. I've been all over the place and this doesn't just happen at Flyers games. You have certain types of people who attend these games. Knowledgeable hockey fans, Fans who play hockey, people who like hockey but don't know the scientific dynamics of the game (People who yell shoot) and those people looking for a boxing match but got lost. It's hard to deal with, but you have to deal with them. Philly is the worst for "shoot." Pittsburgh is the worst for thinking everything is a penalty. Boston, they want everyone to hit everyone. The don't even care about the shooting. NYI, they just want to see some good hockey where it's not a blowout against them.

Devils fans don't even visit scenic Newark, New Jersey!! LOL I say that as the place is empty tonight... Lovely arena, terrible location.

The Flyers season opener at home is like Christmas day for Philadelphia Hockey fans. Philadelphia is labeled as a football town, but if you remember Philadelphia was voted the #1 hockey city in North America for 7 straight years. It also has the biggest numbers of amateur hockey leagues throughout the Delaware Valley than anywhere in the United States. This is a hockey town. The media won’t say that though. So when I’m not driving around seeing other fans in the off season wearing jerseys, sporting Flyers license plates, or playing recreational hockey at the park, I’m attending the other part of my life, Flyers home games. On Wednesday, I drove down to the Wells Fargo Center with my wife. I’ve been a season ticket holder since 2007 and have attended every opening game. I got down there just after 5, and the parking lot was packed with thousands of tailgaters. Everyone had Flyers fever. Despite being heavily favored to have a poor season by the media and some skeptic fans, the Flyers faithful showed up in mass numbers (19,000+) to support the boys in orange in hopes that this could finally be the beginning of the end of a long cup drought. Recently the Flyers passed their 14,000th day since they last hoisted the cup. I, dressed in my Scott Hartnell Jersey and Hartnell wig, entered the arena, grabbed my opening night puck and met up with some regulars who I haven’t seen since April. Everyone seemed to be in a wonderful mood. The Flyers came out to warm up with thunderous cheers. Before long, the rest of the crowd settled in and the game got underway. The Flyers looked great during the first period. They looked like they had a lot of jump. The defense played well, and the new comers looked comfortable. Then in the final seconds they scored the games’ first goal. The arena roared. The only thing that took life out of the fact that the flyers scored a goal was the sounds of the hideous goal song. Thousands of fans began to sing “the doop song” but were met with something different. “TNT” came across the speakers. AC/DC’s hit song from forever ago was played instead of “the doop” (Maria, Maria). Several fans seemed bummed. I personally liked “the doop” but I’m all in favor of change however, “TNT” is an awful choice for a goal song. It’s just not something you can jump up to. If several other fans think the same thing, I hope they voice their opinion. I don’t care if they bring the “doop” back, but please, change it from “TNT.” The final two periods the Flyers seemed to lollygag. They looked awful on the power play, couldn't keep good puck possession and the crowd got out of it. The Flyers ended up losing a game they could have simply won, but failed on 6 other PP chances. But it’s the first game of the season. Despite the loss and the finish, I was happy with what I saw. Mason made some spectacular saves and it’s a shame he got a loss. If Emery plays as good or even better than how Mason played, then the Flyers goalie problem is no longer a problem. Perhaps special teams may still be the problem. That will fall on the assistant coaches, but if these issues linger for the next 10 games, will the assistant coaches take the fall or will the head coach take the fall. The Flyers will see a familiar face on Saturday as they face Danny Briere and the Canadians at 7pm. Follow me on Twitter @ iban3zhead