Other Philadelphia Sports Thread IX

Re: Other Philadelphia Sports Thread [Huit]

I have to agree with Bryan, both the Sixers and the Flyers gave it a hell of a run. The Pistons have a very good team this year and the Sixers managed to beat them twice, including in Detroit. Thaddeus Young's improvement was a huge plus and gives us a fairly good, extremely young power forward. The talent on the team, coupled with the huge amounts of hustle they exhibited many times, makes me thing they could really contend next year.

The Flyers were, according to the rankings and most of the sports pundits, supposed to lose in the first round to the Caps, if make the playoffs at all before that point. Instead, we beat the Caps and we beat the 1st seed Habs convincingly to get to the Eastern Conference Finals. We also gave the Penguins a run for their money in many of the games and that was without several key players. I would definitely say that is a successful season, especially after last season's collapse.

Good showings by both teams, and it makes me very hopeful for next season.

 

Re: Other Philadelphia Sports Thread [Huit]

As much as I loved the run, I think the Flyers overachieved amazingly this post season. so much so that I wouldnt be surprised if they regress next season. everything just kind of fell into place for us this year and thats probably why we went so far.

If you look at the washington series, it took the capitals 4 games to wake up and play to their ability, and after that they won 2 of the last 3 and only losing the last game because of an ulucky non-call by the official. If that team had the veteran leadership that we have, they probably could have won.

With the Canadiens series, the Flyers ran into Carey Price, a 20 year old prospect who played one of the worst series for a goaltender that i've ever seen. if they hadn't traded Cristobal Huet, that series would have been much more competitive.


there are 2 things that I am really concerned about with this team.

One is the inability to hold a lead. the defense on this team gets very suspect when they are up 1 2 or even 3 goals. it seems like one of two things happens, either they sit back and try to trap which is ineffective, or the other team comes at them with everything they've got which is something they cannot handle.

the other thing that I saw not only in the Penguins series but the others as well, was the fact that they could not break the trap, something that has plagued us since 1995. the only reason we came back in the games against Montreal was because Price was letting in soft goals. When the capitals got a lead, the Flyers had a tough time getting back into the games. Against the penguins, our only win was when we scored first.

 

Re: Other Philadelphia Sports Thread [Huit]

There is no doubt that the Flyers had a lot of things fall into place for them, but one cannot take away from them the things they did achieve. I'm hoping what we saw was a young team growing during up these playoffs.

Bottom line is that a) there is a young core to this team which is expected to have batter days ahead of them, b) the front office needs to address the defensive part of the team and add depth there because there are holes. Hatcher is too old at this point. So I'm hoping to see a few moves this summer.

 

Yeah, I don't see the Flyers beating the Habs without Price's meltdown. To many soft goals trickling off his glove hand.

The Flyers probably would not have beaten Pittsburgh even with fair officiating, but we will never know. Too many weak calls early, and a complete lack of calls late clearly benefitted the Penguins in every game, even if it wasn't some sort of conspiracy.

Until the league and refs call the rules and make the Neutral Zone interference/trap impossible, it will still ruin the game for years to come.

I did find it funny that the allegedly faster and more talented Penguins spent the entire series trapping the "slow, dirty Flyers". Why does a "skating team" need to resort to constant interference, hooking, slashing, and tripping to beat a "physical team"?

 

I still don't understand how a "gritty" team loses a knock out game 6-0.

 

The thing to remember with the Flyers is that the goal was the playoffs.

Winning one series was extra, and winning the second was really beyond expectations.

This wasn't a team built to win the Stanely Cup this year, this was a team built to be better than last year and then they can compete for the Cup in the near future. There's lot's of encouraging things, and Holmgren obviously got a lot a pieces of the puzzle last offseason, hopefully, he can repeat the process this offseason.

 

The Fleecing of the NHL -- the Great New NYT Best Seller by Paul Holmgren, GM, the Flyers of Philadelphia
Sheeet - no GM in the league will even TALK to him this summer for fear of becoming the latest to be duped in the Flyers' return to glory!

 

When will be the next time the Phillies get an RISP hit?

WTF!!!

 

Re: Other Philadelphia Sports Thread [Huit]

Minor grammatical quibble.

This might be one of the better young teams the Flyers have had since the days of Poulin, Brind'Amour, Craven, Hexy, and Zezel.

 

Re: Other Philadelphia Sports Thread [Huit]

BTW - he played men's amateur league soccer in SJ and had been rumored to be a member of a Canadian jr nat team.
And don't omit Tocchet from that group, though he has lately become tainted goods.

 

I think we need more Ron Flockhart, Pelle Eklund & Ilkka Sinisalo type players.

 

Flockey Hockey

 

Remember all of those first-rounders that the Flyers once had? Pat Falloon, Alexandre Daigle, Mike Ricci, Jeremy Roenick, Kerry Huffman, Glen Seabrooke, Claude Boivin ... and that Lindros guy?

 

We've have plenty of first rounders now. The statistic on versus said we had 15 players in our line-up that were once first round picks. Whereas the cup champs only have 1 (red wings)

 

Shows you good dealing, eh?

 

I won't say clarky didn't do a lot for this club, but I highly doubt he could have ever turned this club around like Holmgren. Now all we have to do is get rid of Hatch and Smith and find a defenseman and Stanley here we come...I mean we will lose again next season

 

Speaking of number 88...

Crazy story about Keith Jones saving Lindros' life:

"...But Jones insisted that Lindros be taken to a nearby hospital and it was discovered Lindros had a collapsed lung caused by internal bleeding of his chest wall. It was estimated he'd bled out more than half his body's total blood volume..."

With video.

 

He led w/ his head!
He leans in and attacks Stevens' shoulder w/ his head. He was intentionally trying to get out of Philly!
He'd do ANYTHING.

 

"Is it pronounced Lind-ross or Lind-rose?"