What a Birthday Present…

The Flyers winning on May 4th for my birthday, how satisfying. Before you quit of comment however on my bad time keeping skills. I write this from the UK and the game started at midnight, therefore, May 4th, not May 3rd.

The Flyers are going to the Eastern Confrence Finals. That’s a satisfying phrase isn’t it? I just can’t stop smiling because for once, I’m just glad to be wrong: I predicted Flyers in 6, they did it in 5, defying the odds for a second time.

You couldn’t ask for more in a hockey game, the NHL should be using stuff like that for their marketing – the teamwork and effort that players put into these sorts of game, not Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin. That was one of the most dramatic games I’ve seen in Hockey. 1-1, then 2-1 Habs, then 3-2 Flyers, then 3-3 Habs, finishing 6-4 to the Flyers. I’d like to point out right from the start – The Flyers didn’t drop a 2-0 lead!!!! The Canadiens did!!!! The planets have aligned!

Anyway, I’ve got alot of respect for Carey Price despite what i’ve said up till now, he had a fantastic start to the game despite it trailing off towards the end. A “Nice Job” to the Habs fans at the game too – I am very impressed. I doesn’t forgive you for what happened at the end of the 1st series, but cheering Price while he was down and cheering your team after the game was finished, that’s something special.

The Flyers had a slow start to the game, letting the Canadiens dominate for most of the first which ended in a 2-1 lead for the Habs. The beggining of the Second was much the same, with the Habs quickly taking a 3-1 lead. At this point, I was ready to turn my TV off and call it a night. But Lo! Mike Richards slips one in using his glove and the magnificent R.J. Umberger putting one in with a wrister. The Flyers found a new energy and blitzed on, with Scott Hartnell scoring. In the third period, I think I found religion…about 2 seconds after Kostitsyn scored for the Habs. I was in a state of distress throughout this period (as I’m sure was the mood in many bars around Philly). Scottie Upshall, man of the hour, put one in the back to almost seal the deal before Mike Knuble scored an empty netter – Forget Soap Opera’s, Game 5 was PURE drama.

Biron again continued to lay down a level of shock-and-awe with magnificent goaltending. Some may say: “4 goals aint magnificent goaltending”, but the Habs were doing what they should have done since Game 1 – Getting traffic infront. I’d praise the rest of the team aswell, but I don’t think you wan’t 20 paragraphs of love (plus coaching staff), so I’ll just focus on what lies ahead.

It’s a safe bet to say that the Flyers will play the Penguins in the Eastern Confrence Final (I can’t get enough of saying that…) and we know that the Flyers can not only beat them, but demolish them, both home and away. I imagine Steven’s will use a similar contaiment tactic on Crosby and Malkin as was used on Ovechkin earlier in the playoffs. However, I think the evil penguins (Oh boy will I be biased in the next series) will have gotten over confident, picking up 7 straight wins, hence why the Rangers suddenly knocked them down for no aparant reason. I still think the Penguins will win, but will be badly bruised from the first two series and will not look forward to a series with the hardcore physical Broad St. Bullies. As we all know, the Penguins dropped the last game of the regular season just to avoid Philly inorder to play Ottawa. They have no choice now, they must play us and suffer the consequences of not playing us earlier.

Should, by some magical comeback of amazing proportions, the Rangers win, the Flyers would have a harder time, especialy with Jagr and the Rangers goalie Lunquvist (I think that’s how it’s spelt). But it’s so unlikley that I’m not gonna dwell on it further. It would be good however for either the Sharks or the Rangers to hold on a little longer to give the Flyers a rest, maybe take their series to 6 or 7? If they do, I’ll send them a dollar.

Also, if there is bias amongst the Referees and Gary Bettman, it will be revealed in this series, the one Mr. Bettman wanted to avoid at all costs.

I think there was something else, but I can’t remember, so the prediction…

My Predition is: Flyers in 5, with Crosby dead in 2.

Flyers and the Media

I’ve noticed in some areas of the Media, and some of the blogs I read around and about, is the horrifying portayl of the Flyers, the way they play, and the fanbase.

I refer to evidence A, an article by Mike Wise of the Washington Post, which can be found here. The article was written during the Flyers-Caps series, after the series was 2-1. If you can’t be bothered to read it, here’s a brief summary. The first page refers to the Flyers and the Caps play in the Games 3. Wise states “The tenor of this rugged series is terrible news for hockey progressives everywhere“. To this I point out that the leader of the so called Hockey progressives is none other than Garry Bettman himself, our loveable NHL commisionar who is slowly destroying Hockey. By trying to make the sport less violent and more skillful to attract new fans, Bettman has shot himself in the foot by turning away alot of long-standing fans who enjoyed that level of action. That is what Hockey’s all about! I was at the season opener in London and their were a couple of Irish guys that were gonna demand their money back because their was only one fight (If you could call it that). The Flyers have seen through this plan and ignored it, as the number of suspensions shows, and has kept the physical game going – something the Flyers are famous for.

The next line in Wise’s little article shows the amount of Bias floating around in US sport coverage: “the way the Flyers have punked a nice bunch of free skaters…” I am I the only one who see’s this for the bias it is? Where can I get a decent website for some unbiased hockey articles?!?!?!?!. The local papers are all heavily biased, the NHL articles focus on one team or a player, the SI website links back to the local papers, all the blogs are biased (I admit mine is no better), and ESPN denies the NHL exists. Only the Canadians (I mean as a nation) seem to know how to commontate on a Hockey game. I watched a regular season Caps-Flyers game that had Washington based coverage. Between the periods, I expected some nice Hockey analysis, looking at the goals, the saves, the plays, the good points and the bad points of either team. I was upset to discover after 5 minutes of analysis (looking at Caps saves, goals and a Flyers misktake), there was an little piece on the Caps first cars. First cars?!?! I was disgusted. What real hockey fan would want to know about Federov or Green’s first car for goodness sake? I understand that Flyers television coverage will also be biased and I’m a little dissapointed at that aswell. All coverage of sport should be unbiased (except of course for things like Blogs etc. because they are personal opinion.)

On to the second page of Wise’s article. It was focused on the Flyers fans. Wise states: “For most of the evening, there was this unmistakable air of testosterone coming from the Flyers’ direction that just reeked of physicality, a way of exerting their mauling style on the Capitals that just sent their denizens into some medieval state of euphoria.” I only have one thing to say to this: Mike Wise is obviously what I call a “fair weather fan”, only interested when the Caps are doing well and as such, doesn’t understand what it means to be a true fan. The worst I’ve known Flyers fans to do is get a *little* mouthy with popular chants including “Crosby Sucks” and “F*** Ovechkin”. If Mr. Wise ever went to a soccer match in Britain, particularly a Heart of Midlothian match in Scotland, he would suffer a combination of a heart attack, stroke and 5 or 6 bloodclots from what he would hear. The popular chant, which comes up regularly in a match is “Oh the Hibees are G*y!” sung to the tune of White Stripes: “Seven Nation Army”. Then he should go to a London soccer match…

I could go on and on and on about this article, but I should start to cut it short with comments about other teams. Mr. Wise’s precious Captitals and their fanbase threw trash at the Flyers. You will find me ranting about this alot as I find it disgusting, it is the lowest of the low. The only reason these types of actions don’t recieve criticism from the upper echelons of the NHL is becaused the Caps (And the Penguins) are two of Bettman’s favorite teams, he’s admitted it so there’s no point arguing it.

I can take enjoyment from what the Flyers did in response to Mike Wise’s article. They decided to distribute it at the next game. The Washington Post stopped the Flyers from doing this, in fear of retribution. As such, the Flyers put it on the big screen, which I just think is classy. Also after Wise’s comments “Many of the women and children looked as if they could work security for Megadeth“, one of the members of the Flyers marketing department dressed in a black wig, torn jeans and a black tee-shirt that had “MEGADETH” stamped on the front of it. I still can’t stop laughing.

The image below, has little to do with the Flyers or the NHL, but If someone does this and is able to prove it, I would send them a dollar!