By Charlie O’Connor (@THG_Charlie) A multitude of issues have been cited as the reason for the Philadelphia Flyers’ recent struggles. Poor defensive positioning. A lack of physicality. Bad penalty killing. Troubling problems, to be sure, but fixable ones. The recent acquisition of Nicklas Grossman is expected to go a long way towards improving the defense, ...
By Charlie O’Connor (@THG_Charlie) After a weekend of defensive breakdowns and penalty killing follies, the Philadelphia Flyers’ need for a defensive upgrade became obvious. Before the puck dropped on Thursday for the Flyers’ contest against the Buffalo Sabres, general manager Paul Holmgren pulled the trigger on one such upgrade. Defenseman Nicklas Grossman was acquired from ...
By Charlie O’Connor (@THG_Charlie) Same story, same result. And Kimmo Timonen, for one, has had just about enough. For the fifth time in the 2011-12 regular season, the Philadelphia Flyers faced their division rival, the New York Rangers, in a battle for Eastern Conference supremacy. And for a fifth straight time, the Flyers found themselves ...
The Philadelphia Flyers claimed to be satisfied with their play after Tuesday’s 1-0 shootout loss to the New York Islanders. Following the game, the sentiment was clear: that level of effort will win a lot of games. At the Wells Fargo Center on Thursday night, the Flyers proved their point. Again outshooting and outskating their ...
Photo Courtesy of AP By Charlie O’Connor (@THG_Charlie) Tight checking, opportunistic goal-scoring, stellar goaltending. After signing Ilya Bryzgalov and anointing him the presumptive franchise netminder, this was the type of game that the Philadelphia Flyers were expected to play, and win, on a regular basis. Coming out of the all-star break, they may have finally ...
By Charlie O’Connor (@THG_Charlie) Evgeni Malkin and Claude Giroux. One-two in the scoring race; one-two in the race for the Hart Trophy at the all-star break. With all due respect to other worthy candidates such as Pavel Datsyuk, Jonathan Toews and Henrik Lundqvist, Malkin and Giroux remain a cut above their competition. The two Atlantic ...
By Charlie O’Connor (@THG_Charlie) On October 20th against the Washington Capitals, Scott Hartnell was held scoreless for the fourth time in the first six games of the 2011-12 season, finishing the game with only 12:41 minutes of ice time and a -3 plus/minus rating. On January 22nd against the Boston Bruins, Hartnell scored a natural ...
After a December filled with injuries, rumors and poor production, Flyers forward James van Riemsdyk had become a popular target for criticism from fans and media alike. But Thursday night, van Riemsdyk showed signs of moving past his poor conclusion to the 2011 calendar year. The 22-year old forward scored two goals in a 5-4 ...
The yearly outdoor hockey game known as the Winter Classic has become the NHL’s premier regular season event. Initially praised for its pond hockey “back to basics” appeal, the Classic is now hockey’s version of a heavyweight championship fight, complete with press conference trash-talk and pre-matchup cable documentaries. It’s all meant to build hype for ...
By Charlie O’Connor http://twitter.com/thg_charlie Following Jakub Voracek’s one goal, two assist performance against the Columbus Blue Jackets on November 5th, Philadelphia Flyers coach Peter Laviolette lauded his young forward’s effort. “[Voracek] was close, he was doing the right thing and it was nice to see him get some of those rewards tonight. He’s talented ...
