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Written by Fran
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Wednesday, 03 February 2010 12:41 |
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 Tonight the Flyers continue their Western Canada swing when they take on the absolute worst team in the league, the Edmonton Oilers. I can't help but think that the Flyers are playing their 2006 selves tonight, and it might be this bizzaro time-warp flux capacitor type game tonight. (If you know what that means, please tell me...I'm so drunk on coffee right now the words are flying off my fingers)
There are quite a few story lines for tonight's game. The biggest one may be Chris Pronger's return to Edmonton, where he came within one game of winning the Cup. After that season, Pronger asked to be traded and ended up in Anaheim, where he won the Cup. Talk about some salty fans. Can you imagine that happened to Eric Lindros? People will still be burning his effigy. Pronger will be booed much like every other city he plays in. It'll be interesting to watch his ice time, as the past 3 games have seem him dip below his average. With Lukas Crackerjack and Oscar 'Huber' Bartulis playing well against Calgary, I'm all for that. Ryan already mentioned that it's Mike Comrie Day in the FGSB office. I hope your Mike Comrie parties are all set, but if you still need a place to celebrate, come to our office where the Mike Comrie piñata will be up and the Hilary Duff music blasting all day. Another thing to carefully watch are those tradeable assets that Edmonton has. One of them may wind up on the Flyers by the deadline. Sadly, no amount of Paul Holmgren magic will get Sam Gagner or Ales Hemsky in Philly.
The Oilers suck, like 2006 Flyers sucked. They didn't win a game in January and just snapped a 13-game losing streak by beating the second worst team in the league, the Carolina Hurricanes. Hard times for such a great hockey town. Long gone are the days of #99. We asked the always great Oilers blog, Low on Oil to answer a few questions about tonight's matchup. Here is Jay's response. ( You can check out Low on Oil's full gameday post here)
Q: Now a quicker question for you: Are fans still into it out there? Even with the Oilers sucking? Are the Flyers a big draw? And if you end up with the 3rd pick in the draft and Hall and Seguin are gone who would you bring in?
A: For the most part, Oilers fans with myself included have fully embraced the 'Fall 4 Hall' or the 'Don't win for Seguin' campaign this season. However, I don't think many including me anticipated quite how painful this would end up being. Let's put it this way, having your team get their ass handed to them on a platter on Hockey Day while on Hockey Night in Canada against the Calgary Flames of all teams (who also swept the season series against the Oilers) provided maximum humiliation as a fan. With the Oilers now in their fourth year of missing the playoffs, it's definitely had an impact on the fan base. Average fans have stopped watching games on TV especially pay-per-view games. Attendance at Rexall Place has dropped, but not as much as it probably would in other cities since the Oilers have a pretty robust fan base. Season ticket holders who were once able to sell their seats at a profit are having a difficult time now giving them away let alone selling them at a discount. Seeing the Oilers as a cap team that's last in the league while also not making any roster changes is killing most of us here. For the Oilers, I would guess that the biggest draws are either teams that have superstars like the Penguins and Capitals, or teams that the Oilers have a rivalry with like the Flames or Canucks. I would guess that the Flyers are probably somewhere in the middle-of-the road in terms of being a draw. It probably helps that fans here are still angry with Chris Pronger for publicly requesting a trade along with the fact that the Flyers are currently in a playoff position. Other than that, the Flyers are an Eastern Conference team for which there's not a huge amount of interest around here.
Tough question about drafting third overall. Really, the Oilers at this point will need to sell hope for next season and anything short of Seguin or Hall will be a disaster. Of course, many have already argued that the Oilers screwed up the 2007 draft by winning their last game against Calgary. The end result being that they drafted Sam Gagner instead of Patrick Kane, so I could see something like this happening again. Really, the Oilers could use a center, but the only center ranked in most scouting reports in the top 10 is Mikael Granlund. Unfortunately, the Oilers don't need another midget in their system. The simple answer is obviously Cam Fowler who from what I've seen looks like a great pick. However, defensemen can take time to develop and the Oilers have a greater need for talent on their forward roster. Still, if you do get to draft 3rd overall, I think that you have to take the best player regardless of need, so I'll go with Fowler.
For the Flyers, the game against the Flames was an all around great effort. Defense was stifling and the offense was attacking all 60 minutes. I'd hope for the same type of game tonight against a weak opponent. I always worry about trap games, but I don't see how the Oil will have much fire tonight. What, are they pissed at Chris Pronger? Are they still upset at Hextall's slash on Kent Nilsson? Anyway, playing a team like Edmonton is always a great test to see the mental stability of a club and how hard they can focus and concentrate. Edmonton has a sniper in Gagner and a bruiser in Sortini. While I'd like to see them both do what they're good at, I also want to see them do something they've done a hellova lot already this year: lose.
I hope the young guys get a lot of ice tonight. I'd like to see Mikey Leighton back in goal as well. Two points are there, and execution will make them obtainable. What does Giroux have in store for us tonight? Another late start so put the kids to bed and have your favorite porn on standby for the intermissions. Let's Go Flyers.
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