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Written by Fran
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Thursday, 11 March 2010 12:23 |
 Tonight the surging Flyers take on the artists formerly known as the Bruins for the first time since that Winter Classic where the Carcillo devils horns first made a national appearance. The Flyers are coming off back to back come from behind wins where the team's patience, skill and restraint were all showcased. I'd say confidence is pretty high (for everyone not named Steve). So much so that Claude Giroux doesn't even feel like he needs gloves to get assists anymore. Put the damsel-in-distress Bruins in the way of the Flyers locomotive and watch the blood spatter.
The B's are in a bad place. After finishing last year as the best in the East, this year's campaign has been marred with injury and offensive frustration. Milan Lucic, the team's poster boy, has been bothered by bad ankles all year. Marc Savard, the team's offensive pulse, got Booth'ed at the hands of the Pens' Matt Cooke. And now, their workhorse...the guy who used to run so fast and far he'd pass out...to work out, Zdeno Chara is day to day with a lower body injury. Apart from all of that, the Bruins are still in 8th place, fending off the wolves. And what's a bit scary is that we're only 4 points ahead of the fading Bruins. So who scores for the B's? Who logs the blue line minutes lost if Chara can't play? It's not looking good for the Bruins. They'll always bring a physical game, but without Patrice Bergeron scoring, I don't see how they can keep pace with anyone. Right not they're relying on Mark Recchi to be their goal scorer. Mark Recchi is older than dirt. Fact. The Bruins have a few guys to watch tonight. Along with Bergeron, Recchi and Lucic, I'd put monopoly money on David Krejci being around the net causing a ruckus. Don't forget about Blake Wheeler, the young gun who in my opinion, screwed Phoenix over to get on a better team by playing 3 years of college hockey after being drafted (something FGSB was afraid that JVR might be doing when he was hackey sacking in New Hampshire).
For the Flyers, just gotta keep on keeping on. To critique a bit, I'd like to see a more dominant first period than we have been seeing. Maybe start off with a Asham-Thornton man dance, and a Simon Gagne snipe to get the crowd to the stratosphere. Tonight is a perfect night for Steve to get going again. Boston can be disruptive and prickly, just the type of sandpaper Hartnell likes to play against. I won't be surprised if he gets some roughing penalties and a goal...I also won't be surprised when he falls on his ass every shift. Defense has been rolling. Leights has been good enough and the special teams have been superb. Tonight, with a maniacal Jack Edwards in town, we can shut these Massholes up and send them out of the playoffs.
And remember, with this post, we're officially underway in our Thursday T-Shirt Giveaway. If you need a refresher on rules and what to do, check out Ryan's post here. You need to pick your 3 player team(all Flyers) and watch the game with the hope of scoring one of these kick-ass Carbomb shirts. Since Ryan has the shirt locked away in his basement, I can't even tell you what it really looks like. It's that top secret. More secretive than Area 51. More secretive than Sean Avery's sexuality (spoiler alert: he as queer as a three dollar bill). So get to it! Email us at
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with your team and enjoy a game within a game tonight before your significant other makes you switch the channel to that lame doctors anatomy in Seattle show.
So crack 'em open and get sexy. It's weekend eve and we got a great Eastern Conference battle down at the Wach. The fourth game of the season, could be the third victory for the Flyers, two points at stake, and one pussy of a Bergeron to face. Countdown is on bitches! Email for T-shirts. Never let an enemy back up....Bash the Bruins. Lets Go Flyers. |
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Written by Ryan
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Thursday, 11 March 2010 08:16 |
 This is a great find, by me. As usual. There's this kid who's a 20 year old freshman at Merrimack and is 4th in scoring in Hockey East. And it get's better. He's from Paris. Yeah Paris, France. His name is Stephane Da Costa and if there's anything my 4 in AP French taught me it's that we should sign this kid and stop signing 21 year old vets from every league in the CHL.
Da Costa has 44 points in 31 games in the same league where JVR topped out at 40 in 36. And Stephane is playing on a sub .500 team. This is his 4th year playing North American hockey and he posted decent numbers in the NAHL and USHL before heading to college.
While being a 20 year old Freshman might catch your eye it's actually pretty normal in the college hockey scene. Unless you're a phenom who's most likely drafted out of high school it generally goes high school, American juniors for at least a year and about half the time 2, and then onto college. Da Costa is the youngest player of top 20 scorers in Hockey East, a group made up of mostly sophomores and juniors.
This is our concern - we've pretty much stretched the Simon Gagne and Danny Briere baguette and red wine jokes as far as they'll go. But if we got a real French dude in the mix we could break the glass ceiling that everyone's been talking about and really get into the Eiffel Tower, Jacques Chirac, and some stinky cheese.
In semi-seriousness though, this kid scored 5 goals in the second game of his college hockey career. While it was extremely un-American to do, seeing as the game happened to be against Army, we'd be willing to let this kid in on a professional tryout this July after the draft. The Flyers need to go all Red Wings and start getting something for nothing. Our version of the 7th round Zetterberg is Vaclav Pletka. If you're all like 'what?' that's for good reason because he played a single, solitary game as a Flyer.
Other notable unsigned Frat Boys:
SO Jack Connolly - University of Minnesota Duluth
FR Andy Taranto - University of Alaska - Fairbanks
SO Cameron Burt - RIT
JR Chace Polacek - RPI
Invite them all. What have you got to lose? |
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Written by Ryan
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Wednesday, 10 March 2010 12:14 |
 In honor of the 20 some orange t-shirts I bought last year to do something awesome with, and never did, for the next 4 Thursdays we're going to be giving away a Flyers t-shirt that is simple, yet elegant. This week Daniel Carcillo earns the honors.
All you have to do is email us at
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(after the game day post goes up) or retweet Frans game day tweet tomorrow with 3 Flyers names for a chance to win. And the winner is determined by the most FGSB points. And a FGSB point is defined by the following rules:
Goals are worth 10 points.
Primary assists are worth 5 points, secondary are worth 4 points.
Anything short handed doubles those points above.
PIM
Concurrent penalties are 1/2 a point per minute. Solitary penalties are -1/2 a point per minute.
For example last night:
Claude Giroux 15 points (1 goal, 1 primary assist)
Jeff Carter - 10 points (1 goal)
Simon Gagne - 10 points (1 goal)
Danny Briere - 5 points (1 primary assist)
Mike Richards - 5 points (1 primary assist)
Kimmo, Carle, and Pronger with 4 points a piece on their secondary assists.
Krajicek with -1 for his tripping minor.
*First tiebreaker is your team's +/-. Then your team's total shots. Then earliest submission time wins. If the Flyers are shut out we'll have two winners the next week - even thought we all know that could never happen.
Team Carter-Timonen-Pronger(18) beat Team Gagne-Hartnell-Briere(14) last night.
When we add your team's totals up at the end of the night we'll have the winner, and we'll descretly post the top 5 entries the next morning. The winner should have his/her shirt by Tuesday, Wednesday if you have a mean dog that scares off the postal service.
This week we decided to give you a little time to run your stats and get your chickens in a row. But tomorrow, when Fran posts his gameday, use technology to clothe your family. Voting closes when the puck drops against the Bruins.
Up next week: Either Darroll Powe or JVR! We don't know, we haven't made it!
*Our previous winners can attest that there's no catch involved. We only stalked one of them after we sent their Lappy shirts - and he like totally deserved it. |
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Written by Ryan
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Wednesday, 10 March 2010 08:33 |
 Tampa Bay 92 points in 2005-06
New York Rangers 92 points in 2006-07
Boston 94 points in 2007-08
Montreal 93 points in 2008-09
Listed above are the 8th seeds from the Eastern Conference for the NHL seasons that came after the lock out. No matter what the other teams in the Conference end up doing, just to make the playoffs it'd be fair to say that this is a decent and precise enough sample for inferring that 94 points will do the job. Which means that the Flyers only need(i) to go 10-7 in their remaining 17 games this season. Now, let it be known, I'm with you and am looking for a 17-0 run into the playoffs. But let's take a minute and put things into perspective.
Did you see that guy behind the bench last night? Do you remember when he wasn't our coach? And then do you remember when he was, and he helped us cap off a 3-13-1 run in November and December? Trades were imminent, the team needed to be broken up, Homer was next to get canned, the Flyers were going to miss the playoffs again. You remember all that? Damn it's a long season. And now we're a team that's gone 20-8-2 since we put that previous streak to rest. I'd say that's a pretty serious turn around. And last night was a great example of how far the Flyers have come.
Down 2-0, then down 2-1, then tied. They just kept coming. Working hard in stubborn silence. Swinging away at that tree until they finally heard a crack, and then it toppled. Even against the Islanders the Flyers of November and pre-Christmas would have taken penalties, been afraid to make risky passes, and in general just hoped that someone else would do it. Last night our big guys stepped up like they needed to and led the comeback.
Yeah Steve Hartnell is still skating directly into the boards, but at least he's not earning minors lately.
And if we take an honest look forward we have 12 games against teams below us in the standings, games against the West's Chicago and Minnesota, and 3 games where we need to send a message to Ottawa, Pittsburgh, and New Jersey. I don't know when it happened but there's only one month left in the NHL season. And to see the Flyers approaching in 4th in Conference - and quotes like the one below even though Claude Giroux might not even be aware of the more general point he was making about coming back as a team, in games - well it just makes me so proud I could eat some crab fries.
"I'm pretty sure everybody in this room, if there is any chance they can come back in a game, they will. We saw it earlier this year when Lappy (Ian Laperriere) got hit in the face. It's part of the game." |
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Written by Ryan
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Tuesday, 09 March 2010 17:07 |
 Defensive systems, I suppose. Fran was right this afternoon. The Islanders suck. But it's not all their fault. Look at what they're working with:
These guys don't even have one real scorer. They are loaded with future scorers and have one former scorer, but no right-now scorers. And when I say defense is the worst thing to happen to the NHL I don't mean the Islanders defense - they're great. At sucking. BOOM!
Check this out, the Islanders leading scorer is Kyle Okposo, of the B squad Olympic Team. Guess how many points he has. Yep, 41. 41! That's the 4th lowest point total for a player that leads his team in scoring in the league. That's a GD joke! What happened to scoring in the NHL when actual defensive systems arrived, you're asking yourself? What happened is that Kyle Okposo started leading your team in scoring with 41 points and less than 20 games left. In 1986-87 the Buffalo Sabres were the worst team in the league with 64 points when the year ended. The Islanders currently have 60, so that Buffalo team REALLY sucked. They scored God Damned 280 fucking goals that year! The Islanders have like 45 goals this year, no joke. Dave Andreychuk had flipppin 73 points that year! Defenseman Phil Housley had 67 points. The NHL should sell that year to the casual fan.
Defensemen should have to play with their sticks upside down on their own side of the red line. Run that one by the GMs.
If you're sitting at the bar waiting for someone and reading this on your genius phone before you head down to the Wach, well then Amen for you. You should finish that one and have another one. You are the salt of the Earth.
Here's my predictions for tonight - the Flyers score 10 goals. You get laid and call out tomorrow. |
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Written by Fran
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Tuesday, 09 March 2010 13:38 |
 Tonight at 7:30(!) the Flyers take on the Islanders in what will probably be another boring game of hockey. I'm sorry. I'm not trying to lose any of you right off the bat, but c'mon...it's the Isles! This is the fifth time this year these two teams will play, and three of those games ended in a 2-1 victory for Philly. The Flyers have won all four meetings so far against the Islanders and a young team that is slowly on the rise will need a brilliant effort to match up against a well rounded Flyers team.
The Flyers are playing good hockey right now. After a good February, the team will look to keep climbing the standings, and distance themselves from the logjam at 8th place. I have to admit something to you three people reading this....but are you, how do I put this..."excited" for the game tonight? I am not. I am considering going to the gym instead of watching the game. Did you read that? I'm thinking about going to a place filled with hairy, gross people wearing too little clothing all jamming out to Lady Gaga on the Top 40 station they play at my overcrowded smelly sweat room of a gym. Maybe it's because it's the Islanders, but I think it's bigger than that. After watching a somewhat exciting Buffalo game, then a downright snoozer of a Maple Leafs game, my anticipation for tonight isn't sky high. Playing the Isles certainly increases the odds that the Flyers will be victorious, but I'm not really into watching Flyers hockey just for the sake of being rewarded with a victory (I'm not Pavlov's dog...er, I mean a Penguins fan). I'm looking for story lines, match-ups and individual battles. That being said, my focus tonight is on Steve. Steve Hartnell. It's the only story line our MSM is scribing today and its about Steve's inability to put the biscuit in the basket. (And yes, he'll be "Steve" until he starts showing us why he makes so much "Scott" money) Harts is in a tough place and one of FGSB's favorite skaters needs to bust out of this funk, and soon. We'll see if playing a less than stellar defense and maybe a Marty Biron can help shake the cobwebs from his silly orange haired dome. If he doesn't, how long until Ville Leino gets sloted in over a guy making over 4 million this year?
For the Isles, it's tough going right now. They haven't won on the road all year against the Atlantic, except for the Rangers. Their last road win came a month ago. Wunderkin John Tavares has dropped off, going through a late season slump similar to JVR's in December. But the Isles do have a few playmakers, keep your eyeballs on Kyle Okposo and Matt Moulson as these two guys along with sneaky ex-Flyer Richard Park will try to provide some offense for this club. The Islanders blue line is a mess so anything less than barrage of shots from the orange & black will be considered unfinished. I look for the Flyers to carry all the play tonight. For better or for worse. Quite simply, they can come out and rip out the Islanders jugular, or they can sit back and play laissez-faire hockey and let a young, sometimes dangerous team hang around the way they let the Leafs.
Is tonight's game a blockbuster of a heavyweight fight? No, of course not. It's one game in a long season. It's against an opponent who is not as good as you. That is a fact. What we have here tonight is an opportunity to stay mentally sharp and to start some new storylines. Maybe it's Giroux's dazzling top cheese in the 2nd period. Or it's Asham's triple TKO of Kohn, Shremp and Comeau. It could be Lappy scoring a Carcillo, or a Carcillo blocking a Lappy. And maybe....juuuust maybe, it'll be a Steve turning back into a Scott. There is nothing scary about Strong Island, except for the women. Send these Isles back to their basement. Let's Go Flyers. |
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Written by Ryan
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Tuesday, 09 March 2010 08:28 |
 There was a very interesting stat in Frank Seravalli's piece on Scott Hartnell and the Flyers this morning:
'On Dec. 6, Hartnell and Carter both had nine goals. In the 38 games since, Carter has 21 goals and Hartnell has scored just three times.'
That is a disturbing stat. But rather than focus on the negative, I want to take a look at the positive and give Carter a little bit of credit. Not sure how he's done it, but although he hasn't yet overcome my first impressions of his season, he does sit in a tie for 8th in the league with 30 goals.
Frank goes on to average out Carter's production, which he says will land him at 38 goals this season. Which is right, if you subscribe to one school of thought - that a player's pace, at any point in the season, is dependant upon his scoring throughout the entire year. A flat line.
But there's something to be said for getting hot in sports. Everyone believes in it. Or they at least spend a lot of time talking about it to pass the interviews. So I think the trend that Frank points out earlier in the article should be incorporated into his projected totals. If the science of accounting has taught us anything it's that there's different views on what the proper way to count is. Nothing is simple in this world - except the iPhone.
So while I'm not going to project Carter at his goal-a-game pace he's been carrying over the last 8 games and hit him up with a 48 goal season, I think if there is any truth to a player getting hot, and assuming he doesn't cool off and fulfill the bell shape productivity trend that would be so 'Jeff Carter', then we need to give Carter credit where credit's due for getting his game back together, and at least assume he'll continue his scoring pace from the last 38 games, not the first 26.
Hold on tight, because here we go. Over the last 38 games Carter has 21 goals. That's .5526 goals per game. There are 18 games left. That's 10 more goals this season. That's a total of 40!
Frank, you were waaaaaaay off, buddy.
If Carter can score 40 goals this season it will really be a testament to his arrival as one of the game's true stars and not a flake who only scores against the Thrashers and Islanders. The most impressive part, and promising, would be the 31 goals in 56 games, that would see him glance against his 2008-09 scoring rate. The last Flyer to score back-to-back 40 goal seasons was Simon Gagne (yeah I looked this one up). And before him John Leclair. And before him was the Big E before the first lockout with 41 and 44 in only 125 games during his rookie and sophomore seasons. So yeah, shoot for 40 Jeff, and join the elite ranks of the back-to-back 40 club.
Don't let Frank and his calculator hold you back at 38. |
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Written by Ryan
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Monday, 08 March 2010 14:10 |
I'm not sure that's what I'm trying to say. As a matter of fact I'm pretty sure that's not what I'm trying to say. Either way you'll understand momentarily. This is a very simple though never asked question because it's too provocative for the average mind.
If you had to flop the forwards and the defense for the Flyers who would you keep?
The rest of the NHL is doing it (possibly inspired by Def Leopard's placement of the Stanley Cup last spring), and you have to organize 2 forward lines out of our 8 D-men and 3 pairs of defense out of our 14 forwards. Who are you going with? Here's what we've got:
Pronger - Timonen - Syvret
Coburn - Bartulis - Carle
Gagne - Richards
Betts - Lappy
Powe - Giroux
Up front don't even get on me about Bartulis - he played forward in Latvia before being converted to D in Juniors.
And on D Gagne is a good skater, our number two unit is defensively sound, and Powe-Giroux are the wild card!
Try and name a better lineup. Except you can't. Because there isn't one. |
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Written by Ryan
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Monday, 08 March 2010 08:45 |
 Look, I like anyone in a Flyers uniform too. And Daniel Carcillo is playing a lot better than even in my wettest dreams I hoped he ever would. But you guys have to back off, because you're heralding of his play is driving casually across state lines from Support into North Blow Job.
Carcillo made a smart decision to not fight Colton Orr. He earned himself some praise for actually taking the face shots Orr was dishing out and not pulling a Claude Lemieux like Derrick Dorsett did against Brad Staubitz on Saturday night. But like most things he does as a performer, which is really what agitators are at heart, he was even embellishing those face shots (ironically he looked a bit Upshallian, didn't he!). It's probably been made very clear to him that as a first liner he is expected to be on the ice more and in the penalty box less. You could even hear it in his words between periods because he used to be the guy playing 2-3 minutes a game. But now from the first line he can hardly see those workers anymore.
And yes, he made a nice pass to Simon Gagne. He does a number of good things throughout a game. But no, just because he's a Dementor Apprentice doesn't mean that every decent pass he makes means you have to make a power point presentation out of it and hang it on the fridge. Claude Giroux's pass to JVR in Tampa? Yes. A pass to a guy 10 feet from you in the slot? It's great but a 'nice pass from Carcillo' would be enough.
Not:
The Toyota Great Look of the Game.
The Dannon Great Preparation to Pass of the Game.
The American Standard Great Pass Into Somebody's Skates of the Game.
The Trojan Great Follow Through of the Game
The KJ and the Sunshine Band Great Celebration of the Game.
Our goony agitator didn't drop the gloves against a meathead and we didn't score on the double minor that ensued. The next period he got an assist. I like what Car Bomb brings to an extent but don't, and I'm talking directly to you Coatsey, even though I'm cross-eyed, don't act like if Carcillo did that to Orr you wouldn't be secretly chirping Orr for not stepping up to the plate. I've heard you argue both sides of the stick breaking slash penalty 217 times (last night in the same game) this year. The league 'has to reexamine that rule' when Jeff Carter knocks someone's stick out of his hands, but when Phil Kessel does it to the apparently weak-gripped Chris Pronger 'that's the rule.'
I expect a little less homerism (no pun, Paul) on Thursday. |
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Written by Ryan
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Sunday, 07 March 2010 12:07 |
 This picture just goes to show you the old adage is true - you can lead a rich person to their unobstructed view but you can't teach them that there's no need to stand when you're the very first person behind the net.
I'm not sure what the etiquette is for polo matches or crab walk races, but in sports when there's nothing between you and the action please try to be cognisant of the little children behind you who even when they stand on their seats can't see past your bald spotted dome or fried blond hair.
If you have hemorrhoids go for the top row in any arena. You can stand all game. Hell, you can even be a fat guy and dance all game, and earn yourself the clever moniker 'Dancing Fat Guy." |
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