once more into the breach
January 29th, 2008 by Ianthe 2nd half begins in earnest and i would like to quickly highlight the hottest team in the league over the last 10 games before the break. no it isn’t the Detroit Red Wings, the Washington Capitals or the Montreal Canadiens who are all pretty much smoking along too. the hottest team over the last 10 is the Philadelphia Flyers.
the Flyers have gotten themselves a bit of a reputation this season for all the … what i’ll call hard-nosed hockey, although some would call it goonery, thuggery or troglodytism. as a matter of fact, i’m pretty sure i’ve referred to some Flyers as troglodytes this season so i guess i need to be included amongst the “some”.
where in the world would the Flyers get a blueprint for success like they have this season? well, look no further than the Stanley Cup Champion Anaheim Ducks. the Ducks won their cup last season after leading the league in PIMs and generally flattening every team they came up against like bugs on the windshield. there’s no denying that the strategy works, the Ducks showed that and the Flyers are showing that they are to be reckoned with.
the Flyers have a lot of skill, skill that doesn’t really get recognized enough. Simon Gagne is a 50 goal guy who hasn’t been able to contribute significantly to them this season so far; Kimmo Timonen might be among the best cheap options as a D1 that really hasn’t contributed like he can either, Scott Hartnell contributes as a power forward option that was ignored for most of the first half of the season, lots of people knew Mike Richards was good but few really expected him to be this good; Braydon Coburn is a young D whose name you need to remember, and Antero Niitymaki has been forgotten as the fab goalie that led the Finns beyond their ability at the last Olympics.
Niittymaki is a difference maker for the Flyers and yet he sits on waiver wires in fantasy leagues everywhere. he’s 6-1-1 since Dec 30 when he began starting more often for the Orange and Black. people are equating his value about even to Ty Conklin’s in Pitt but in truth the future is a lot brighter for sushi-boy this season now that the hip issues are resolved for him.
the Flyers have jumped into the lead in the Atlantic Division and they have a game in hand on the Devils with whom they’re tied in points. they’re not giving up that division lead guys, hear me now on this one. their offense is wide awake, Hartnell is teaming up with Richards to take some of the offensive heat off Briere/Gagne; Timonen/Coburn have their pace settled, and sushi-boy has shown that if you want to try and beat the Flyers on the board, you have to go through him. by the way, if any team figures they’ll try and beat the Flyers with elbows and knuckles then they have a bunch of guys who’ll just say, “oh, that’d be fun, let’s do that”.
watch out for the Philly Flyers folks, they look to have all the pieces poised for a good long run and it looks like they only have a flagging Senators team on their way to a Finals berth. that’s right, i said it. maybe we can have a rematch of the ‘97 Final, this time i don’t see no Red Wing sweep though.
Posted in Flyers
2 Responses to “once more into the breach”
By Ronny on Jan 29, 2008
Nice analysis, but you’re forgetting one thing with your Stanley Cup prediction. The road to the dance doesn’t go through Ottawa. It goes through New Jersey.
It’s a popular misconception that Ed Snider owns the Flyers, when in fact Martin Brodeur does. Just look at the series record with the Devils over the last 3 seasons for your proof. Actually, you can look a lot further back than that, but I digress.
And this is a Flyers fan talking.
By Steve on Jan 29, 2008
I was doing some number crunching and the thing that leaped out at me the most was the following: Steve Downie is 2nd in the NHL behind Sidney Crosby in respect to Time On The Ice between points. Basically he scores a point every 15 minutes or so he’s out there. Right behind him is Henrik Zetterberg… maybe if he stayed out of the box he could improve his stat sheet a tad more… and help me out in my hockey pool in the process.