By Charlie O’Connor (@THG_Charlie) A playoff berth has been clinched, and just in time, Danny Briere is back in form for the Philadelphia Flyers. With only one goal scored in his last 29 games, Briere broke out in a big way tonight against the Montreal Canadiens at the Wells Fargo Center, scoring two power play ...
By Charlie O’Connor (@THG_Charlie) As the final seconds ticked away in overtime, a collective groan echoed throughout the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia. The fans knew what was on the horizon. The dreaded shootout. Hockey purists take issue with the shootout due to its gimmicky, skills-competition nature. But in Philadelphia, the antipathy from the fanbase ...
By Charlie O’Connor (@THG_Charlie) Entering the 2011-12 preseason, Philadelphia Flyers forward Eric Wellwood had a legitimate chance to earn a roster spot out of camp. Instead, the 22-year old found himself back in Adirondack for a second straight season. But following an injury to James van Riemsdyk in early March, Wellwood was given his first ...
By Charlie O’Connor (@THG_Charlie) With less than a minute remaining in a tightly contested battle between the Philadelphia Flyers and Detroit Red Wings, the 6-3, 218 pound forward Johan Franzen tried to manuever into scoring position in front of Flyers goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov. With one goal already on the night and time winding down, “The ...
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 ...
