The Philadelphia Flyers mounted an astounding comeback in the final minutes of regulation, but still fell in overtime to Colorado 4-3.
Scoring for the Flyers were Kim Johnsson Power Play, Mike Knuble Power Play and Peter Forsberg.
Liles Power Play, Clark, Laaksonen and Tanguay Power Play scored for Colorado.

The Flyers were down 3-1 late in the game. With 3 minutes left and on the power play the Flyers pulled Niittymaki to make it a 6 on 4 PP. This worked, with Mike Knuble scoring making the game 3-2 at 17:24. A little over a minute later with the momentum the Flyers had, Forsberg scored to tie the game eventually sending it into overtime.

Bad officiating basically cost the Flyers the game, or at least a chance at a shootout.
The first goal by Colorado was off a hooking call against Michal Handzus. Handzus clearly hooked the stick and not the body. Is that not a stick check and is allowed? I guess it depends on the official. The hook was up near the hands so I guess it was questionable.
What wasn’t questionable was the non-call on Tanguay who tripped Savage that led to a 3-2 which resulted in a goal.
Then there was the dive in overtime, which put the Flyers down 5 on 3. The second penalty eventually led to Colorado scoring the winning goal.

Ken Hitchcock “The second penalty in the overtime was a dive. Everyone on the ice knew it, their bench knew it, our players knew it. It was a dive. That’s more of the issue. [Sakic] grabbed [Rathje’s] stick, hooked it under his body and went down. It was a dive.
It is hard because we won some of these games before. In the end it evens out. What’s hard is when you’re short handed and then you’re put short handed again on a dive.”

Yeah, that comment will probably cost him a little cash.
Officiating is not perfect, and is down right bad sometimes as it has always been. The new NHL hasn’t fixed that. What the Flyers need to do is get back to playing hard every shift and not just play good enough to win, since bad officiating is something they just can not control.

Even if the Flyers seemed out played many times in that game, overall the game was good and exciting. It is just good to be home.

As far as NBC’s performance on their first games broadcast this year, it was decent. Nice to not have homers calling the games, especially since I usually pick up opposing teams broadcasts. No goalie cams in this game. The play by play was a little off. There is no player by the name of Jeremy Stevenson and Rathje wears #3 not Hatcher. But overall good.

Forsberg, Sakic and Gagne were the three stars.

With the return of Turner Stevenson, Ben Eager was sent back down to the Phantoms. Both Donald Brashear and Chris Therien returned to the lineup after missing two games with minor injuries.

Antero Niittymaki has officially been added to the Olympics roster for Finland.
Sylvester Stallone made an appearance at the game wearing a Flyers jersey with Balboa 06 on the back.

Hot, damn! They are finally home!
The Flyers play at home today against the Colorado Avalanche at 2pm, their first home game since December 22 .
This is the only regular season meeting between the two teams this year.
The Flyers are coming off a 6-3 loss in Detroit to the Red Wings on Thursday. The Avalanche are coming off a 2-1 victory against Montreal on Wednesday.
This will be Peter Forsberg first game against the Avalanche since signing with the Flyers.
Injuries for the Flyers include Eric Desjardins, Robert Esche, Joni Pitkanen, and Keith Primeau.
Chris Therien and Donald Brashear are questionable for the game.

Turner Stevenson is expected to return to the lineup today, which would scratch Jon Sim. Lets hope Stevenson can play a whole game without re-injuring himself.

Injuries for the Avalanche include Steve Konowalchuk, Brad May and Pierre Turgeon.

Peter Forsberg needs 1 point to reach 800 in the NHL. He currently has gone 3 games without a point, his longest point drought of the season. Simon Gagne needs 3 points to reach 300 in the NHL.

First game on NBC this year, which will have goalie cams. Camera mounted in goalies masks, no word on if Niittymaki will participate.

All fans attending the game will receive a 3 by 5 foot Flyers banner. The Flyers will also be celebrating the 30 year anniversary of the Philadelphia Flyers becoming the first NHL team to defeat the Central Red Army hockey team of the former Soviet Union. On January 11, 1976 the Flyers beat them 4-1 at the Spectrum.

I really don’t like the back to back games. Especially when I get a new game to play, just not enough time.

The Flyers beat the Blackhawks in Chicago on Wednesday 5-2.

Scoring for the Flyers was Ben Eager, RJ Umberger, Mike Knuble, Mike Richards and Branko Radivojevic (empty net).

The matchup of Antero Niittymaki and Craig Anderson was the same as the Caulder Cup Champoinship last year in the AHL.
The pace of the game was good, the Flyers were able to dominate the first half of the game, but really had nothing to show for it. The Flyers had scored 2 goals on 22 shots, the Blackhawks 2 goals on 9 shots. Niittymaki over played the breakaway and Vrbata scored on the wrap around. Not totally his fault, definsevly he should have been taken out. The other Blackhawk goal he didn’t have a chance on. The game opened up a bit in the third for the Flyers with Knuble scoring to take the lead.

The three stars were Handzus, Richards and Keith.

The Detroit Red Wings beat the Flyers 6-3 in Detroit last night.

Simon Gagne scored twice, one even strength and one power play. Dennis Seidenberg scored the other goal.
Although the game was tied after two periods, I thought the Red Wings controlled much of those two periods. The Flyers only had 13 shots on goal compared to 27 for Detroit. Detroit’s penalty kill was almost smothering against the Flyers in the first period.
Brian Savage had a goal taken away from him in the second period, he was called for inference. He would have put the Flyers up 1-0 if not for the bad call. Detroit started to capitalize on their play in third scoring a shorthanded goal 15 seconds in. The Flyers were playing catchup the rest of the game, but could not get back even. The Flyers gave up more shots in this game than the last two games combined.

I think Coach Hitchcock summed it up pretty well. “we got schooled.”

It was very obvious the Red Wings where the better team on the ice. One could look at various injuries the Flyers have Desjardins, Primeau, Stevenson, Pitkanen and to a lesser extent Brashear, Therien and Esche. Another excuse could be playing the night before in Chicago while Detroit had two days rest. At any rate the Flyers should take a hard look at their play and level of effort, since there is a good chance that this could be a preview of the Stanley Cup finals.

Datsyuk, Zetterberg and Gagne were the three stars.

Personally, the one team I wouldn’t want the Flyers playing for the Cup is Detroit. Besides the sweep by Detroit the last time Flyers made it to the Finals, the Flyers have not won in Detroit since November of 1988. Obviously there is a mental block of a sort when it comes to playing in Detroit.

Chris Therien missed both games with a sore back. Donald Brashear was also out with a quad muscle strain.

Well, the road trip is finally over.
Before the road trip if someone were to tell me the Flyers would go 8-3, I’d be pretty happy.

The Flyers head to Chicago tonight to play the Blackhawks. This is the only meeting between the two teams this year. The Blackhawks are coming off a 4-3 OT win against the Capitals last night in Washington. The Flyers are coming off a 3-0 loss against the Devil in Jersey on Monday.

Injuries for the Flyers include Robert Esche, Turner Stevenson, Eric Desjardins, Joni Pitkanen, Keith Primeau and Dennis Seidenburg.
Sami Kapanen is questionable for the game.

Injuries for the Blackhawks include Toumo Ruutu. Nikoali Khabibulin, Eric Daze and Brent Seabrook are questionable for the game.

It will be interesting to see how well former Flyer Patrick Sharp plays against his former team. He wears #10.

The New Jersey Devils stopped the Flyers point streak at 14 games beating them 3-0.
This was the first time this year the Flyers have been shutout.
The Devils were able to score on 2 out of 6 powerplay chances. The Flyers were 0-3 on their PP. Antero Niittymaki really didn’t have a chance on either PP goal scored by the Devils. The third goal was soft, but at that point it really didn’t matter.

“I don’t think we played with the emotional level that we have at times, but I think that’s a lot with New Jersey. They play a very methodical game and they take the emotion out of the game. I think we got a couple guys that got sucked down that path a little bit, but what are you going to say? You give up 16 shots on the road; those are a lot of good things. But, we weren’t able to capitalize on the chances. We had two no-brainers in the first period and we missed them. That usually comes back to haunt you, and it did tonight.” Ken Hitchcock

The Devils have now won 4 in a row since the return of Patrik Elias.

Gomez, Brodeur and Elias were the three stars.

Sami Kapanen was scratched with a sore shoulder, he should return to play either Wednesday or Thursday.

Tonight the Flyers try to keep their 14 game point streak alive in New Jersey against the Devils.
The Flyers have won both meetings between the two teams this year in Philadelphia.
The Flyers are coming off a 3-1 win in Washington over the Capitals on Friday.
The Devils are coming off a 3-2 win in Buffalo over the Sabres on Saturday. The Devils are 3-0 with the return of Patrik Elias.

Injuries for the Flyers include Eric Desjardins, Robert Esche, Joni Pitkanen, Keith Primeau, Dennis Seidenberg and Turner Stevenson.
Injuries for the Devils include Cam Janssen.

Peter Forsberg needs three points to reach 800 in the NHL.

The last regulation road loss for the Flyers was on November 14 in Tampa Bay.

When it comes to Olympians, it looks like the Colorado Avalanche will soon have company when it comes to which team will have the most players in Italy next month. According to several sources, it appears Antero Niittymaki will be headed to the Olympics after all to represent Team Finland, upping the Flyers total to 11 players, the same as the Avalanche.
The interesting thing is, not only will Niittymaki be going to the Olympic Games, but it appears he may be the starter in net as well. [.continue.]

This situation has been really bizarre.
Initially Finland had Calgary Flames goaltender Miikka Kiprusoff starting. Atlanta Thrashers goaltender Kari Lehtonen was supposed to the backup. Here is where it gets interesting. Lehtonen and Nittymaki’s number last year in the AHL were pretty even. Except for the fact that Niittymaki won the Calder Cup and was selected MVP. Add in the fact that Lehtonen had not played a game this year because of injury when he was selected, makes me think something is up. Third goalie selected for Team Finland was Frederik Norrena, he plays in the Swedish Elite League. Is Norrena better than Niittymaki? I don’t know, but this next part I think proves it.

Both Calgary and Atlanta want their goaltenders not to play in the Olympics, they want the goaltenders to rest and more important not to injure themselves.

So who should start for Team Finland, well Norrena of course.
No? He isn’t good enough? Now Finland is possibly going to go with Boston’s Hannu Toivonen and/or Niittymaki. Toivonen right now has an ankle injury. So it appears that Niittymaki will not only go to the Olympics, but could start.

So why was Norrena going in the first place?
I smell some politics.

The Flyers are halfway thru the season, time to look at some of the good and some of the bad this year in hockey.

The Good – Hockey is back after the lockout.

The Bad – Players received a 24% pay cut which itself is not bad, but ticket prices did not go down anywhere near 24%.

The Good – The Flyers signed a great player in Peter Forsberg.

The Bad – The Flyers trade Patrick Sharp for Matt Ellison, who is now down with the Phantoms.

The Good – The Flyers are first in the Eastern Conference despite all the injuries.

The Bad – The Flyers have missed 200 man games from injuries.

The Good – Derian Hatcher and lately Donald Brashear have adjusted their game for the new NHL.

The Bad- Sleepy Chris Therein hasn’t.

The Good – New rules in the NHL, less obstruction, offside touchup, two line passes.

The Bad – New rules in the NHL, the shootout.

The Good – Young guys Umberger, Meyer, Carter, Richards, Eager.

The Bad – The Captain, seems might never return.

The Good – NHL Center Ice, allows me to see any game.

The Bad – NHL Center Ice, have to listen to commentator in every city mock Freddy Meyer since his given name is Fredrick Meyer IV.

The Good – A lot of hockey bloggers out there sharing their passion.

The Bad – hmm, don’t have one for that.

The Good – The Flyers have the best chance in recent memory for making a run at the cup.

The Bad – I seem to think that every year.

The Good – The new NHL schedule, playing division teams more in a season.

The Bad – The new NHL schedule, having 6 days off straight to then play 3 games in 4 nights. Playing back to back games on the road against a team who had 5 days rest.

The Good – Flyers prospect Steve Downie help lead Team Canada to the World Juniors gold medal. Hopefully in several years he should make a good addition to the Flyers.

The Bad- The Elbow from Team USA player Jack Johnson on Downie, yeah that was bad. What was worse though was the absolute hatred shown toward Team USA by the fans in attendance. It is one thing to cheer for your team and boo the opposition. It is another to boo the US national anthem, to boo Team USA no matter who they were playing, to chant US sucks, US go home, etc. Maybe it’s just because I grew up during the cold war, but I would never ever EVER cheer on Russia over Canada in anything.
Also bad for the World Juniors, the coverage in the US. If it wasn’t for Center Ice wouldn’t had seen any of it.
The missed Russian goal in the gold medal game was also bad.
Team USA not medaling? Eh, World Juniors really doesn’t tickle my tickler.

The Good – Flyers play later tonight

The Bad – I have to wait until after work to watch it, which makes having a DVR good!

Like a wandering knight-errant of old, former Edmonton Oiler and 10-year NHL veteran Shjon Podein is roaming far from home in search of not-so-chivalrous adventure.

Based in the picturesque Japanese city of Nikko, he sallies forth on weekly crusades to test his mettle against Vikings, Dragons and Lions – not to mention the usual challenges of a new culture and new language.

Welcome to the Asia Hockey League …. [.continue.]

Former Flyer Shjon Podein talks about playing in the Asian Hockey League.
I wasn’t aware that there was an Asian Hockey League. In recent years there has been several Asian basketball and baseball players make it to the NBA and MLB. I wonder how long before some good hockey players start coming from that region of the world.