Ooooh, that’s gotta suck. We’re playing them tonight – it’s always great when the Flyers come to town – bring 'em on!
The Blues are looking GREAT in November…Last nights trouncing of the Av’s was a huge boost for Hitch and Co.
I was very surprised Pat Roy didn’t leave the bench and start brawling (or bawling) himself!
Go Blues!
The losing streak is over, thank god. I was seriously going to cry if we had lost.
(Although Wednesday’s game – what the fuck was that? Beaten by the goddamned Flyers?)
Flyer fans are something special.
I’m late to this thread as well, but that hockey fight was one of the worst fights.I can remember seeing. Not from the abuse perspective, but from one guy just not wanting to fight perspective. I hate fighting in hockey anyway, and I wish the NHL would get rid of what I believe is nothing but thuggery.
A big unwritten rule is if your opponent doesn’t want to fight, you don’t drop gloves with the guy. Especially goalies, where there is no animosity built up during a game because of a late hit, or a wayward elbow. They never come in contact with one another. For one goalie to skate all the way down the ice to engage the other goalie, who was clearly not interested in brawling, is something that should generate a large fine and suspension. Emery really embarrassed himself, the Flyers, and the NHL. How can a league build up their fan base to legitimate numbers if they keep fighting in the game? And to give him stars for the fight? Unbelievable.
[hijack]
During the Pens run with Lemieux, I would go to Flyer/Pens games in Philly in my Penguins 66 jersey. I was verbally abused by more female than male fans… These are not finishing school-type ladies, I can tell you that!
People used to hate going with me because i tended to draw a lot of negative attention with that jersey on. I was actually told once by a security guy that I should take my jersey off… Especially when I left the arena. I never removed the jersey, but I would have saved myself some serious abuse if I had.
I don’t know if other hockey cities are like that, but in Philly, you are definitely putting s target on yourself by wearing the opposing team’s jersey. The only other places that seem to be a bad place to wear the visitor’s jersey and openly root for the opposition is at Philadelphia Eagle games and Oakland Raider games. Maybe someone else can shed some light on this for other hockey cities.
[/hijack]
As for the Pens, they were in a funk, but have finally come out of it. For a game, at least. My concern with is team this year is Fleury in net. He really inspires no confidence, which is amazing considering he has a cup to his credit, and a finals loss as well. Without Vokoun, Pens fans could be in for a short playoff run.
Agreed, but unfortunately it’s also part of hockey strategy to goon it up sometimes to “send a message”. Sometimes it even works. People still talk about how the Colorado-Detroit goalie fight in 1997 was the turning point of the season for the Red Wings who went on to win the Cup.
Just wanted to point out that the Caps are in first place. Don’t expect to be able to say that after tonight’s games. 
That is cause they handed it too us last night…at least we kept Ovie off his hat trick!
Go Blues!
Yes, it was evident that the blues were on the back end of three games in four days. Stretches where they outplayed the caps but longer stretches where they looked tired.
For anyone that really likes hockey strategy, y’all should try to catch the next couple Pens games. They were in one of the worst slumps since Therrien got fired, in terms of giving a shit/offensive potency – especially the chemistry of the lines, like the “best line in hockey” – and Bylsma had refused to do anything to change the lines, and kept doing crazy shit like having the Glass/Adams fourth line take offensive zone faceoffs against the other teams top lines (on home ice) which directly resulted in them losing two games. Well, something was said, because the last game shit got jumbled around, and… yea, ever see that meme with the dog at the computer with the caption “I have no idea what I’m doing”?
At one point the top three lines, in order, were: three left handed shooters, three left handed shooters, three right handed shooters. In the third period, Adams was promoted to Crosby’s right wing – fourth line to first line in 3 periods! And then, he says shit like this…
I’ve learned to stop caring and love the dumb, and it’s awesome.
Stink Fish Pot
I have gone to many Toronto games over the past 20 years, and the worst I’ve ever seen, or even subjected fans of the opponent to personally, has been very brief and good-natured ribbing. For the most part, I’ve had seats in the mid-level: not the nose-bleeds, but not the high-end business suit seats either. Although I do venture to the smoking area and I use the subway as well, so I tend to think my experience is likely typical.
I follow a New Jersey Devils-centric online forum, and have heard some stories about some pretty nasty goings-on in Philadelphia toward Devils sweater-wearing fans. Most of the people say they don’t wear any Devils gear to the games in Philly, out of fear.
Zebra Sha Sha
When Pittsburgh hired Jacques Martin this summer, my first thought was “Here is Bylsma’s replacement.” Very savvy move by Shero, should Bylsma be fired, considering Martin should realistically be a head coach in the NHL anyway, let alone he has a pretty good track record of success, especially defensively.
Is Bylsma on the hot seat at all, or will there be a lot of patience with him?
For myself, I have taken my Devils season with a grain of salt. They have been excellent defensively, but their goal-scoring has mostly only showed up when Brodeur is manning the net. Poor Cory Schneider. He’s played well enough, but he hasn’t completely stolen a game, which is apparently what his teammates need him to do when he’s in the net. Brodeur has looked timeless, the past few weeks, after a sluggish start.
They may actually make the playoffs.
Or tonight’s, for that matter. 
Well, Shero is GM of the American Olympic team and Bylsma is the coach, so there’s zero chance Bylsma goes without Shero this year, one presumes. And I don’t have a problem with Bylsma as a coach in general, but he’s young and I think he’s taken this team as far as possible, and in many ways they’re stagnating.
Martin is actually an interesting addition, and I feel like there’s a lot happening behind the scenes this year. We started the season in this incredible defensive orientated style, with a collapsing d and some left wing locks thrown in, and for the first time in years we looked like actual contenders, with Crosby going at nearly a 2 ppg pace.
Then, we kept the collapsing d and some elements of the defensive game, but the offense reverted back to Bylsma hockey, which I can’t really describe – and I don’t think the players can, either. They have this thing about exiting the zone within 8 seconds, and stretch passes, and all sorts of weird stuff that looks incredible the 1 out of 10 times it works but looks like idiotic chaos the other 9 times.
And as a result, they slumped, with both Malkin and Crosby verging on career low droughts.
Submitted too soon, but check out this weirdness. Bennet is a second year “rookie” that’s the only prospect in the farm with top 6 potential, and he’s insanely creative with Malkin and Crosby… and he doesn’t get Top 6 minutes, because Bylsma seems to hate him. The biggest thing is that Bylsma is in love with Dupuis, and refuses to break up the Kunitz / Crosby / Dupuis line, even though Dupuis’ skillset always has and always will be suited to the 3rd line (he’s one of the worst starting first liners for playoff teams, and yet would be one of the best 3rd liners.)
If you remember the ECF last year, where Penguins got 2 goals in 4 games, one of the biggest reasons is that Byslma refused to break up the top line – Dupuis could have been replaced by Iginla, maybe recreating some 2008 olympic magic…? – but it never happened, and in fact Byslma played Iggy on the off wing on Malkin’s line for no apparent reason.
So this year, Penguins go on a slump, Malkin and Crosby go cold at the same time, Bylsma refuses to change anything. Then, suddenly, it’s announced two games ago that Bennet will play with Crosby, and Dupuis will be with Malkin, and Bennet / Crosby kills it – just endless, ferocious cycling in the offensive zone – and it lasts maybe 3 or 4 shifts, before Bennet is replaced by Craig F’n Adams, a fourth liner and one of the worst offensive forwards in the Penguins entire organization (hyperbole, but not by much…)
Anyway, that was two games ago. And at practice for tonights game, Bennet was again announced to be with Crosby. And Bennet starts on Crosby’s wing, but plays 6 minutes in the first and second period combined, and the KCD line kept appearing in the middle, like Bylsma was trying to hide it.
Oh, and in that 6 minutes Bennet played he scored this beauty from a Malkin feed. And Bylsma was visibly pissed afterwards.
(Also, Dupuis ended up getting 17 minutes of ice time, more than Crosby and Malkin and double what Bennet got.)
So it seems like someone up high – Mario, Shero, who knows – is forcing Bylsma to make changes which are working, which pisses him off, and he’s doing everything he can to sabotage the efforts. Makes no damn sense, and it’s getting pretty damn weird – Dupuis would be a strange cross for Bylsma to die on.
I’m hesitant to say that Pittsburgh won the hockey game because it didn’t look like they were playing the same game as the Caps. Total domination.
I think for the last five minutes or so, there were more Penguins fans in the Verizon Center than Caps fans.
Philadelphia could learn from this, all three stars rightfully were awarded to Pittsburgh players.
Grasping for something positive, Holtby stopped twice as many shots as Fleury. Too bad he faced twice as many plus four. :smack: