Tag Archive for 'philadelphia-flyers'
Wow. Not even four hours into the UFA market and one of the biggest names out there just moved into our division. TSN.ca reports Daniel Briere signed with the Flyers.
The Philadelphia Flyers made a big splash to kick off the offseason, signing centre Daniel Briere to an eight-year contract worth $52 million.
The deal will average $6.5 million a season against the salary cap, with the first year paying him $10 million. The contract also features a no movement clause.
From NewYorkIslanders.com
The Islanders completed the first of three steps towards making the postseason by defeating the Philadelphia Flyers 4-2, Saturday at the Wachovia Center.
Wade Dubielewicz had another strong game in goal, stopping 28 of 30 shots for his third consecutive wins. The Islanders used two power-play goals and one even-strength tally to take 3-0 lead halfway through the second period. The game got interesting in the final minute, when Mike Richards tallied a shorthanded goal to make it 3-2, but Tom Poti put secured the victory with a power-play, empty-net tally in final minute.
“Yashin, Smyth and Sillinger played well on the power play,” said Ted Nolan. “We couldn’t ask for a better time to get the power play going.”
The win means the Islanders have become instant Toronto Maple Leafs fans. A win by Toronto over Montreal tonight would give the Islanders an opportunity to control their own destiny. The Islanders would then have to knock off the New Jersey Devils tomorrow afternoon to reach the 2007 postseason.
“Go Leafs Go,” said Nolan following the game. “We wanted to have that opportunity to control our fate and we need to have some lady luck on our side tonight.”
UPDATE - 8 pm Eastern
Tom here to provide an update on Leafs-Habs. Toronto leads the Canadiens 2-1 after one period.
UPDATE - 8:15
Toronto took a 3-1 lead. That’s now gone. Canadiens scored twice in about four minutes to tie the game. Oh boy.
UPDATE - 8:20
Sonofabitch. Montreal scores again. Habs lead 4-3. Toronto! Wake up Toronto!
UPDATE - 8:35
Canadiens score on the power play. Season is crashing down all around us. 5-3 Montreal. Anyone have any pride in Toronto?
UPDATE - 8:42
It’s Alive! The Toronto will to live, that is. Leafs score. Down 5-4 in second. Come on now! This game is nuts. Thanks for not getting it on TV, Mr. Bettman.
UPDATE - 8:55
After two, it’s 5-4. I’m sweating over here.
UPDATE - 9:32
Toronto HAS THE LEAD - 6-5. Five minutes left. Come on baby!
UPDATE - GAME OVER!!!!
The Maple Leafs win! The Maple Leafs win! The Maple Leafs win!
20 more minutes to go to keep hope alive. The Islanders lead the Flyers 3-1 after two periods down in Philly. It’s been a back and forth game of sorts, with the Isles asserting themselves in the opening minutes of the first and scoring on a Satan power play goal and the Flyers countering by controlling the the second half of the period, outshooting the Isles 9-0. The Isles came out strong in the second period with goals by Yashin and Park. Again, the Flyers dominated the second half of the period and this time got on the board with a Simon Gagne power play goal. 20 more minutes and then it’s up to the Leafs tonight against the Habs.
Make that 11 minutes to go and we’re at four-on-four with a holding call on the Flyers and a dive on Mighty Jason Blake. Probably a good call. Haven’t see the replay yet. Satan with a great chance off a Witt rebound. Nittymaki makes the save. Isles control faceoff, Poti shot is blocked and the Flyers come out. Upshall shot, save. Poti brings it out.
Eight and a half to go. Four-on-four is history. Flyers spending a lot of time in the Islander zone. Isles win faceoff and come out. Blake goes down and Flyers comeback out. Isles steal and loft it back down. Flyers return offsides. Isles need to keep their heads here. Play smart. Be ready to help out on D. Robitaille makes a bad pass on a two-on-one break. Would’ve been a nice opportunity.
Five minutes to go. Isles in deep. Cycling well. Isles are basically falling back and sending one man in deep to forecheck on the dump-ins. Playing very conservatively.
Just under four minutes. Smyth carries into Flyers’ zone. He’s taken down. No call. That was debatable. Wait. Now there’s a call. Seems like Eager might have given Smyth a shot or held him down after the hit. Islander power play with 3:48 left. Doube Minor! Eager gets tossed. That’s four minutes of Islander power play, folks, with less than four minutes to play.
Well they blew that one. Flyers steal puck and come into Isles zone and Poti slashes Hatcher. For the love of God, Tom Poti.
Two and half to go and the Flyers pull their goalie in four-on-four action. Very aggressive move but why not?
Smyth carries the puck in neutral ice. He’s lining up for the empty net shot. He’s hooked. Isles back on the power play. I’m feeling pretty good about this. Nittymaki returns. 1:45 to go.
Me and my big fat mouth. Mike Richards scores a short-hander with 1:02 to go. You gotta be kidding me. Terrible job. How do you give up a shorthander under these circumstances? 3-2 game. This team kills me. I’m sweating.
Flyers pull goalie again. Flyers with a good chance. Save Dubie. Isles come down. Shot wide of open net. Isles pick up rebound. Poti shoots. SCORES!!!
4-2 Isles.
That’s a wrap. Isles keep on keepin’ on.
Who loves Toronto more than me?
So here we are 5 games left, 2 points out, destiny in our own hands. For a moment, let’s forget that we are missing our 15-year franchise goalie, missing our trade deadline blockbuster, missing a forward suspended for 25 games, and missing so many defensemen that GM Snow has signed two players from the German Hockey League this week alone. Just another season in the life of a Ringling Bros and Charles Wang’s Circus hockey team fan - right?
Let’s look at 6 games, 8 points and what could have been a comfortable 6th place in the Conference with 91 points.
5. Bruins 4 Islanders 3 (OT/SH) 2/10/07
The Bruins have been doing the Islanders no favors the past three weeks, rolling over TWICE to BOTH Montreal and the Rangers giving those teams important points. Meanwhile back in February, the Islanders threw away a point vs the lowly Bruins failing to hold onto a 3-2 lead with 16 minutes left to play. The teams played a scoreless OT which forced a marathon shootout that saw ex-Islander Zdeno Chara score the game winner in round 9 of the shootout.
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4A. Rangers 2 Islanders 1 (OT/SH) 3/5/07
4B. Rangers 2 Islanders 1 3/8/07
OK so this list is supposed to be 5 games, but it’s pretty hard to separate these two games. It’s early March and the Isles are in the playoff hunt. They have a home and home against the Rangers who they are 4-0 against already this season - a chance to expand their 4 point lead in the standings - and they manage to get only 1 point out of the two games.
First on a Monday night at the Garden, the Islanders defense fails to show up. Maybe it was bowling night? DiPietro bails them out all night long with an Islander record 56 saves, but it’s not enough as the Islanders lose in a shootout.
Then three days later on a Thursday night at the Coliseum in what is affectionately known as “The Simon Game”, the Islanders play a much better game and are tied 1-1 in a third until Simon loses his cool and force feeds Ryan Hollweg some lumber. The Rangers score on the resulting powerplay and the Isles lose 2-1 in regulation.
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3. Canadiens 5 Islanders 3 3/13/07
If the Islanders fail to make the playoffs, this is the game that will get all the attention. DiPietro comes way out of the net in the first period to play the puck and collides with Montreal’s Steve Begin. DP leaves the game, misses the next two, and two weeks later the Islanders finally fess up and admit he suffered a concussion on the play. Dunham comes in the game and lets up 5 goals on 32 shots as the Islanders blow leads of 2-0 and 3-2 to a team they are battling neck and neck for a playoff spot - another four point swing.
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2. Red Wings 4 Islanders 3 (OT) 1/30/07
The Isles had a tough schedule after the All-Star break, first there was Atlanta - they came back from 3 goals down to force OT and get a point on the road. Then they hosted Buffalo and won with a 3 goal explosion in the 3rd period. Finally, they hosted Detroit and were sporting a 3 goal lead after 2 periods when things went south.
Detroit rallied for 3 goals (2 powerplay) to tie the game and force OT - where Henrik Zetterberg finished the Isles about halfway through. Detroit outshot the Isles 11-5 in the third and 3-0 in the OT.
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1. Blues 3 Islanders 2 (OT) 3/1/07
So blowing a 3 goal lead to a good team in the last 20 minutes is bad, how could the Islanders ever top that one?
March 1st: the first day of the last full month of the NHL season, time to prepare for the playoffs, Ryan Smyth’s first game as an Islander…and the Islanders go out and blow a 2-0 lead AT HOME in the final 2 1/2 minutes to a team with no chance of making the playoffs. Un-frickin-believable. Adding insult to injury, DiPietro picks up a penalty before the end of regulation and it takes the Blues just 20 seconds to score the PP game winner in OT . That’s 3 goals in the 3 minutes to a team near the bottom of the “goals scored” category all season.
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Honorable Mentions:
11/30/06 and 1/2/07 - The Islanders sport the NHL’s worst team, the Flyers, a 3-0 lead in both of these games and then come up one goal short in the comeback effort, losing 3-2.
12/30/06 and 1/4/07 - Right in the middle of their season high 6 game losing streak, Martin Brodeur personally steals 4 points from the Islanders. The first game should have been a 0-0 tie after regulation - the Devils scored a fluke goal when Islanders defenseman Alan Rouke tries to bat the puck out of the air…and into the net. The other goal that night was an empty netter. Five days later, Brodeur makes 40 saves, 17 in the third period as the Devils hold of the Islanders.
We pick up the action in the third period.
10 minutes left: F.L.A.T. That pretty much sums up the Isles’ performance this afternoon against the Flyers. With 10 minutes left, the game is tied at 3. Isles are 1 for 6 on the power play, including a just finished man-advantage in which they registered zero shots.
6:30 left: Isles just did a hell of ajob killing a Flyer penalty. DP made at least three fantastic saves, including one in the middle of a scrum in which he lost his stick.
5 left: Yashin curls and fires towards net. Kozlov grabs rebound. It deflects and hangs in there in front of the Philly net. So close.
4:40 left: Bergeron flying in down the right side, makes a gorgeous backhand pass to a streal Andy Hilbert in front of the Flyers’ net. Hilbert deflects the puck past the keeper. GOAL!!! Isles up 4-3! Just a beautiful pass by Bergeron.
3 to go: Flyers have it deep in Isles end. Robitaille stickchecks and Islanders gain control.
2 to go: Flyers come down again. Upshal shoots one wide. Isles corral the puck and head out. Hunter sends it in deep. Hilbert kills time with the crosscheck. Pucks come to Hill. He dumps it in. 90 seconds left.
1 to go: Biron heads to bench. Flyers have the extra skater.
30 seconds: Poti makes a great check at the blue line and clears. Flyers come back. Smyth checks and dumps puck in deep.
GAME OVER!
Isles escape with a huge win. Meanwhile, the Rangers are tied 1-1 in overtime against Boston. Biggest game of the year is tomorrow against the Rangers.
Here are the Isles/Philly highlights from Tuesday. Most remarkable are Howie Rose’s comments in the beginning of the game/clip:
“I would be comfortable going out on a limb and say Blake is going to have a big night tonight. I have not seen him in his entire Islander career…this pumped up.”
Nice work Howie. Do you feel comfortable going out on a limb for tonight’s game? How about the 4th race at Aqueduct tonight?
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Chris Campoli got credited with a goal off a shot near the blue line early in the Isles game versus the Flyers. Replays look like the goal may have come off a deflection by Blake. If so, it would be his 30th. Isles lead 1-0.
Randy Robitaille, Blake, and Chris Simon tear down the ice on a 3-0 rush. Robitaille keeps the puck, shoots, save. Blake is right behind him for the rebound. SCORE.
Isles lead 2-0. Coliseum is real loud. Team looks strong.
Got sidetracked by a phone call and then Chris Hansen on NBC’s “To Catch a Predator.” Show those perv’s whose boss, Hansen! Isles up 3-1 with two minutes to go in the first. Big Goal Trent Hunter scored the third goal.
20 seconds to go, Blake steals the puck right in front of the Flyers’ net, stripping Kapanen and then slides the puck past an overmatched Nittymaki. SCORE.
Isles lead 4-1. Blake has two, maybe three.
Period One over.
Flyers tally to cut the lead in half. We’re at 4-2.
Isles’ rush. Blake shoots, save. Takes rebound behind the net crosses it in front to Simon. Shoots. SCORE. 5-2!
Immediately after the ensuing face-off, Fedorek picks a fight with Simon. Simon takes control, landing three hooks and opening up a cut over Fedorek’s eye. Fedorek hangs in there and lands some shots but Simon counters with several more big hits. Isles doing everything right.
On the NEXT FACE-OFF Asham and Reed go at it! Asham’s jersey comes off but he lands three big righthands. Reed goes down. Isles lead 5-2 on scoreboard and 2-0 on the fight card. GO COLISEUM HEROES GO!
This game is awesome. In the last nine seconds, Simon scored, beat the crap out of Fedorek and Asham beat up Reed. Islander hockey.
Wait a minute. Getting ahead of myself. Flyers score when Afanasenkov is standing all alone in front of DP and puts one in. When I say all alone, I mean really all alone. Not one Islander in the picture. Settle down guys. Let’s finish the game. 5-3.
Everyone has pretty much stopped playing defense at this point. End to end action. Isles need to slow this game down a bit.
Islanders kill an Asham penalty and most of a Freddy Meyer penalty with some big-time saves from DP. After two, it’s 5-3.
We’re back with 12 to go in the game. Flyers have just scored twice in the span of about 30 seconds. I just threw up. 5-5.
OT
So at least we have one point but we really need to win this game.
Isles power play. Bergeron blasts a one-timer. Save. Bergeron blasts another one wide. Puck gets worked to Sillinger in deep. Sillinger crosses in front to Hunter. One-timer. GOAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Big Goal Trent Hunter comes through yet again. Islanders win and grab two huge points. What a day for this team.
Jason Blake is named the #1 star. Crowd is chanting “JASON BLAKE. JASON BLAKE.”
Blake: “Thanks guys. It’s been a tough couple of weeks. I’m just glad I’m a New York Islander.”
The win caps off the Isles’ best February since 1982.
Awesome new fight video popped up on YouTube last week. Classic Islanders/Flyers benching brawl. Hart, Howatt, Gillies (leaves the Penalty Box to join the fracas, that’s like a 10 game suspension nowadays!), Hart, even Billy Smith mixes it up.
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The Islanders beat down a miserable Flyers team 2-0 last night. It was the eighth straight game the Isles managed to grab at least one point, going 5-0-3 in that span to improve their record to 26-21-7. The win also put the OrangeAndBlue at 21-0-2 when leading after two periods. That says a lot about the team’s discipline, not to mention the defense, coaching, and goaltending. Meanwhile, the once-potent Flyers have lost 12 straight at home and have just 13 wins on the year. Here’s an assortmant of what some of the players were saying after the game:
“We’re not near where we want to get yet, but we’re getting better,” Sean Hill told Newsday. “If you need something to bring you back down to Earth, you just have to look at the standings. We’ve got points in eight straight but we’ve hardly moved at all.
“We had a pretty good start in the first period,” Flyers captain Peter Forsberg told the Philadelphia Inquirer. “Their first goal, we were in their zone like 40 seconds and had a couple of chances, and they got the break and came up and scored on us. It was a tough. We had two decent periods and nothing more than that.”
“They won most of the puck battles, and it comes with the desperation… to win games,” Flyers winger Sami Kapanen told the Inquirer. “We got beat too many times on loose-puck battles on the boards.”
“They’re struggling but they’re still a very good team,” Victor Kozlov told the Associated Press. “They’ve got very good players, so you cannot relax.”
“Coming off the [All-Star] break, guys were disappointed how we finished the first half. Just play consistent hockey, hard hockey, and I think we’ve done that and been rewarded for it,” Rick DiPietro told Newsday.
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Here’s the game preview from NewYorkIslanders.com.
More importantly, here’s the injury update.
Poti and Gervais are set to return after missing four and seven games respectively. Poti leads the team’s defense in points with 22, while Gervais has already reached a career-high six assists in one season, and is one point away from tying his career high of seven points in one season.
And from the wild rumor department, Newsday starts it, FauxRumors crushes it. Blake ain’t going nowhere.
So we were surprised to read in Sunday’s News day this from Steve Zipay: “Jason Blake, having a career year, will be dealt if the Islanders fall out of the race - and maybe even if they don’t.”
It apparently was just the reporter’s own opinion and not based on ANY inside information. Discussions ARE on going and remain ‘cordial’. Though a deal is NOT imminent it IS likely and a trade is only the VERY remotest of possibilities.
