Koz: KNOW YOUR PHILADELPHIA FLYERS

by Koz

koz81@comcast.net

Everything you need to know about the Flyers you can get from their marketing line for 2008 – “Vengeance Now.” After finishing 2007 in the cellar, the Flyers have defeated the Capitals and the #1 seeded Canadiens. They were also a ten-minute misconduct away from the league lead with 1471 penalty minutes, which is just a little bit more than a whole day in the penalty box.

The Penguins have never won a postseason series against the Flyers.

But Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Marc-Andre Fleury have never played the Flyers in a postseason series.

I’m not sayin’… I’m just sayin’.

As the higher seed, the Penguins have home ice advantage, making that final regular season game officially pointless.

Motivation: The favor of Ed Rendell? Oh yeah and the chance to play for the Stanley Cup.

Leading Scorer: In the regular season it was Mike Richards (28-47-75), closely followed by playoff scoring leader Daniel Briere (31-41-72, 8-6-14 playoffs).

Public Enemy #1: Wow, it’s so hard to pick just one. Riley Cote was the team leader in penalty minutes this season, but after that last Flyers game at the Igloo, Scott Hartnell was looking desperate for consideration. There’s also Derian Hatcher. This team has no shortage of scumbags, that’s for certain.

Goaltender: Philly acquired Martin Biron in a trade from Buffalo for a draft pick. The idea was to end the turnstile of goaltenders they’ve gone through since Ron Hextall’s departure. Biron is playing well right now, but he’s no Henrik Lundqvist.

Soon to be Overplayed Storyline - RJ Umberger is from Pittsburgh: Rangers fans were offended when Chris Simpson of the Versus network interviewed Umberger after the Flyers clinched against Montreal and asked him what he thought about playing against the Penguins. In her defense, she did sort of leave the door open for the Rangers, but not by much. It was ballsy, let’s put it that way. OK, maybe not ballsy. Ovariesy? Funny, that’s how I like my eggs. Wow. Anyway… back to hockey… RJ seems to play his best games against Pittsburgh. Seeing as he’s coming off an eight goal second round, that’s scary news.

Hockey related YouTube of the Week: Speaking of ballsy… a shout out to Patrick Thoresen, who took a puck to the junk (seen below), is back playing again. Flyer or not, I feel your pain man.

Playoff Link of the Week: http://www.hockey-reference.com/ just opened, from the same folks who brought you every-other-sport-reference.com. It already rivals http://www.hockeydb.com/ and should get better and better.

When Rivalries Go Wrong: Look, I hate the Flyers more than any other sports team. That being said, I don’t know that it could ever drive me to vehicular homicide (no pun intended).

Remember, Flyers fans are people too… even if they can’t read and don’t shower.