If You've Watched The Flyers This Year...

You know a few things about this years team. Such as:

Scott Hartnell could shell out five bucks for a skate sharpening.
Get up you fool!

Nikolai Zherdev recently watched a Youtube video about the history of the Spin-O-Rama.
Third times the charm.

The refs aren't exactly Philly Phans.
20, two minutes for... Height.

They play more aggressive on the Penalty Kill than Even Strength, or Power Play for that matter.
We better be shorthanded or I'll miss.

James van Riemsdyk has apparently never heard of this Sophomore Jynx.
Soft what?

Sean O'Donnell reminds one of Moe Howard, and not just in attitude.
What are you crackin' wise.

If you haven't noticed these things, you obviously haven't seen a Flyers game this season.

Playing State Rival Again

For those who don't know, the game starts at 6:00 tonight. Laviolette smartened up and played Bobrovsky tonight. Also, Andreas Nodl is playing in his first game of the 2010-11 season. He has been swapped in for... Leino? Carcillo? I think it's the latter. Yes, Carcillo has been scratched so the power play... Nodl on the Power Play? I don't know what is going on but if we have to call up Andreas Nodl to play on the PP unit we're in trouble. How about we trade a certain bird-dog for someone who can stay on their feet. I hate the FSN Pitt play-by-play, color, people. They really put the anal in analyst.

Let's Talk Rookies. For The Last Time.

This is the last Let's Talk Rookies post. If you missed any they're all here.

Tampa Bay:
Dana Tyrell - Not much to say here.

Not many rookie choices in Tampa.

Toronto:
Nazen Kadri - 96 points in 56 OHL games last year, adding 27 in 12 games in the playoffs.

Strong candidate for Calder.

Vancouver:
Cody Hodgson - 20 in 13 games before injury sidelined him.

Top prospect until injuries hit.

Washington:
Marcus Johansson - Very smart player who played in Farjestad last year.

The Swedish Center, that's right, I went there.

Okay, So I'm A Little Pissed.

Not only does Philly's power play stink, but Laviolette went with Boucher. Again. Lavvy, I'm speechless.
Who else thinks Simon Gagne looks bad in blue. It just aint right.
Not only this, but I learned Tom Scholz is making a new album under the name Boston. Are you kidding me, Brad Delp (rest in peace) is deceased and you can't change the name. I mean Tom is the only original member left. Not only THAT, but there is a WOMAN in the damn band. AAAAAHHHHHH!!! Tom, I hope you don't think this album is going platinum, or gold for that matter.

Winter Classic Concepts

Do you remember this? Well if you don't, here's the scoop: I hate the penguins(who doesn't), therefore them being in the Winter Classic again pisses me off. Why should they get to repeat while the Rangers or Hurricanes haven't been in on it yet. So I have devised my own Winter Classic scheme for the next few seasons. Without further adou, Winter Classic 2011:


Relax, it was my first one. They do get better. Invesco Field, Denver, Colorado, January 1, 2011. It was gonna be in Minnesota, but I had already colored the jerseys. I brought gold back to Minnesota and used Nord's colors for the Avs.

Also, thank you NHL Uniforms and Chris Creamer.

I Have A Feeling...

I have a feeling that Sergei Bobrovsky is the new Steve Mason, Cam Ward, or maybe even Patrick Roy. I might be getting ahead of myself but his name has been on my blog 5, no, 6 times now. Not to mention this from a previous post, "Philadelphia's Sergei Bobrovsky puts together a Steve Mason-esqe season and wins the Calder Trophy as best rookie..." This may seem a little steep for just two games. I don't care. The last time I liked a rookie this much, well let's just say he is a captain, wears 18 and has lead our team in points for two of the last three seasons. That's right when Jeff Carter, and R.J. Umberger, and Antero Niittymaki beat Richards out for Flyers rookie of the year I still knew he was special. He was my favorite all year. Among other Flyers rookies I have favored Steve Downie, Claude Giroux/Luca Sbisa, and James van Riemsdyk. Two of which are league known, one is getting better as the days progress, and the last will be a Timonen-like player. So, in this being the first goalie, I still feel confident. Hey Laviolette, do us all a favor and keep Bob in net.

Let's Talk Rookies. How Am I Not Done Yet?

A short break from the rookies but I'm back with the next four.

Phoenix:
Oliver Ekman-Larsson - 6th overall in '09 enjoyed a nice season in Sweden.

Well, Turris isn't even a rookie any more.

pittsburgh:
Eric Tangradi - power-forward, I can't stay on the page with penguins on it for too long.

Came over in trade with the Ducks

San Jose
Nick Petrecki - Might not even play this year.

From Schenectady, which is like an hour from PhPh HeadQuarters.

St. Louis:
Alex Pietrangelo - big d-man, 29 points in 25 games for the Barrie Colts last year.

Been up with Blues twice, but sent back to the OHL.

Trading Cards

Trading is always a fun thing to be a part of. I started this trading season off with a 9 for 9 card swap with Sal over at Puck Junk. He's a wicked cool guy and everything went smoothly.

I Traded:
2008-09:
O-Pee-Chee-checklists of the Kings and Senators
Upper Deck-Salmela (rookie)

2009-10:
Fleer Ultra-Whitney
MVP-Pat Kane
Victory-Kane, Niemi (rookie), Kane and Toews Game Breakers


I Received:
2003-04:
Upper Deck-All-Star Game Pronger and Lecavalier

2006-07:
Fleer-Stillman, Bourque, Gionta, Yashin, Hunter, Richards, Collins (rookie)

It's hard to give away cards you open, especially the ones you remember and, when seen, you know it's in your collection. But thanks to Sal, I now have completed 91.5% of 06-07 Fleer, the base set that is. Rookies came one in every six and there were four insert sets so it's hard to get a good hold on those from just one tin and a few retail packs.

I Thought Kerry Fraser Retired

Oh, he did you say. Well then who was that reffing the Flyers last night? Oh, none other than Chris "Kerry Jr." Lee. 41, PIM that is. 21 for Hartnell. That game was bogus. If we could've had 5 guys on the ice for more than half the game, we could've won. Maybe if our power play was better or even passable as a pro power play we might have scored more than one goal. Why Boucher? Bobrovsky is awesome, and I think Boucher can take not playing in two games, he's a big boy, and he backed up Nabokov before. For those who don't like Pronger, he had 26 power play points last season which was second on the team. How about Stepan's hat trick for the Rangers? pittsburgh lost again, and again in their new building.

Let's See Some More Tonight

Thursday brought about the start of the NHL season. The Flyers won their first game against their intra-state rivals. Tonight they play St. Louis, a tough team that might remind one of the late 60s-early 70s Blues... might.

Last night I put together my list of predictions for the Conference Standings and total goals and points for some players.

West:
1 - San Jose*
2 - Vancouver*
3 - Detroit*
4 - Chicago
5 - Calgary
6 - Los Angeles
7 - Edmonton
8 - Colorado

---

9 - Phoenix
10 - Nashville
11 - Anaheim
12 - St. Louis
13 - Minnesota
14 - Dallas
15 - Columbus

---

East:
1 - Washington*
2 - Boston*
3 - Philadelphia*
4 - Montreal
5 - pittsburgh
6 - new jersey
7 - Tampa Bay
8 - Buffalo

---

9 - Ottawa
10 - New York Rangers
11 - Toronto
12 - Carolina
13 - New York Islanders
14 - Florida
15 - Atlanta

---

Goals:
Ovechkin - 59, Maurice "Rocket" Richard Trophy
Carter - 51
Ryan - 45
Marleau - 40
Iginla - 32
Richards - 32
Kopitar - 31
van Riemsdyk - 28
Alfredsson - 26
Getzlaf - 26
Doughty - 24

---

Points:
Ovechkin - 116, Art Ross Trophy
Datsyuk - 111
Malkin - 106
Kopitar - 98
Backstrom - 98
Thornton - 91
Stamkos - 87
Richards - 87
H. Sedin - 87
D. Sedin - 85
Stastny - 82
Iginla - 74

---

Explanation: San Jose puts together another great regular season, with Calgary making it back to the playoffs and Detroit having a comeback season, the Phoenix Coyotes fall out of their playoff position from last year.

Philadelphia's Sergei Bobrovsky puts together a Steve Mason-esqe season and wins the Calder Trophy as best rookie, Montreal's Price plays great for the first 3/4 of the season getting injured in February stopping his chance at the All-Star game and the Habs chances for the NE division champs, Tampa Bay makes the playoffs and Buffalo's slow start puts them on the bubble for the whole season.

The Ovie-Backstrom-Semin line becomes elite in NHL history scoring 137 goals with Ovechkin taking home the Richard, Jeff Carter comes back to form-playing with Mike Richards all season didn't hurt either, Stamkos doesn't reach 40 goals but Bobby Ryan hits 45 in a career year, van Riemsdyk is not affected with the sophomore jynx and Drew Doughty leads defensemen in goals and points (tying Larry Murphy's record of 76 points in 80-81).

Ovechkin takes home the Art Ross with fellow countryman Datsyuk not too far behind, Anze Kopitar leads the Kings with 98 points (becoming the highest-scoring King since Gretzky in 93-94), Henrik shows last season was a fluke and Daniel tries but can't even the career total.


Also, last night I purchased The Rocket: The Legend of Rocket Richard from Best Buy's website. I've seen a little of it, from what I remember it's in French, multiple NHLers are in it such as Ian Laperierre and sean avery (who gets his ass whooped by Richard), and it was rated PG for adult language and smoking (?).
I would have put the trailer on here but I just can't figure out how. I do love the narrator of the trailer.

Way to go Boys

The Flyers won their season opener in pittsburgh. Hey fleury, Suck It! Awesome play between the pipes for debuter Sergei Bobrovsky, for the first two periods that is. My fantasy team got 10 points for that display by the Flyers. But thanks to Kiprusoff, I didn't get all the points I could have. The Flames went 7-0 in the pre-season and they got shutout in the first game, disappointment.


This post was sponsored Custom Ink

Season Starts Tonight!

Laviolette decided to go with Bobrovsky, you know Bobrovsky-from... Russia. He did have a great pre-season. The Flyers as a whole had a terrific pre-season, they had the second best record (next to the undefeated Flames) in the NHL. Another question is, with the absence of Pronger, who will take that final d-spot, Walker or Bartulis? I do want the Latvian D-Man to take the cake on this one. Walker could add an extra bit of rough and toughness, but the Flyers have enough of the toughness eminating from their line-up. I guess I'm still bitter because of the Gagne trade, you know the one where we got jack-squat. Lappy is out and was told to retire due to his PCS. But I'm pumped for the game against the... why? Why must we start against (and in) pittsburgh. I've had enough of the whole pittsburgh thing (as stated in this article that I am not done posting about). Hopefully the Flyers win with a ton of goals, that would be a good present for my fantasy team, the Philly Phanatics.
Good luck Flyers!
(by the way, who saw Atlanta's pre-season performance, hahaha.)

Let's Talk Rookies. Philly Rookies.

Well, this blog isn't called Random Prospect Phan in New York. Let's talk rookies.

Johan Backlund, G - Might have a chance at more than a period this year.

Played a few NHL minutes last year.

Sergei Bobrovsky, G - Looked great in the pre-season.

Great pre-season stats.

Marc-Andre Bourdon, D - Solid season in Adirondack last season.

Should be up in the next few years.

Ben Holmstrom, RW - He'll be called up for a few games this season.

He looked good, playin' in the pre-season with the big boys.

Jon Kalinski, C - Top-notch agitator, almost died last year when he was cut by a skate in L.A.

Strong chances at making team this year.

David Laliberte, RW - Scored in his each of his first two games, also assisted in the first game.

Shows a lot of potential.

Joonas Lehtivuori, D - Finnish defender, looks like 5th pair, which isn't bad considering Philly's depth.

The Finnish D-Man. Oh, yeah.

Luke Pither, C - 3rd in OHL points behind Hall and Seguin.

On the cover of CHL 11.

Mike Testwuide, RW - Played at Colorado College last year.

Scouts say he has what it takes.

Eric Wellwood, LW - 68 points in 65 OHL games last year.

Has the skill to be a third line role player.

Let's Talk Rookies. Some more.

Montreal:
P.K. Subban - Obviously the Habs big rookie this season. But lets not forget about Dutchman Lars Eller.

An early favorite for the Calder.

Nashville:
Jonathon Blum - was drafted with the Preds '07 first rounder, originally traded with Parent (who is back in "The Music City") and Upshall for Forsberg, and later traded back to Nashville for Hartnell and Timonen.

I had a Coach Blum when I was younger and played hockey.

new jersey:
A Swede? A New Yorker? Mattias Tedenby has been their biggest prospect since '08.

Two CNYers on the Devils this year.

New York Islanders:
Nino Niederreiter - Great young Swiss player should make team this year.

Niedermayer? Niedenfeitter? Nino? Oh, he's Swiss.

New York Rangers:
Mats Zuccarello Aasen - The Norwegian Winger played with Forsberg and Naslund last year. Lucky.

You think he knows the Danish D-Man?

Ottawa:
Zack Smith - Cowen and Lehner were both sent down, so...

I know a Zack Smith.

Six! my bad.

This reminds me...

All of the trades I've been making lately have reminded of the ultimate trade. This trade got my collection off to a huge start. A few years back I had but a few hundred cards, made a couple trades with my brother and sister (mainly for Flyers). One day I went to my friend Dave's house and he offered me a deal that would've been just plain stupid not to take. I had two autographed Dom Hasek cards, "The Dominator" is Dave's favorite player, and he wanted them so bad. Me, being the awesome person I am, said I would trade the 2003-04 Honor Roll to him. Dave, without even seeing what my deal was said "I'll give you this whole box." I was baffled. He gave me a box full of cards from 1989-2004 and I felt weird taking all of those cards for one 'graph. He said that he didn't care and just wanted the sig. Over 500 cards were in that box and that was the day I became a true collector. Thanks Dave, thank you for your generosity. I can't look through my cards without thinking about that wonderful night.