Thursday, March 7, 2013

Flyers Pens Preview 3/7


Battle for Keystone State Supremacy
            There is not much debate around the NHL right now that the best current rivalry is the Philadelphia Flyers and the Pittsburgh Penguins. The real question is what will cause another brawl? Or will the total penalty minutes be over or under 150?
            Tonight will be the third of four meetings between these two clubs this year, with the teams both winning on the road in the prior two contests.  Pittsburgh comes into this game red hot winning seven of their last 10 games.
            For the Flyers, they are the first team to reach the halfway point this season, and the results thus far are not nearly what they hoped. That being said, the Flyers sit just one point out of a playoff spot, and will have the luxury of not having a packed a schedule to close out the season.
            The Flyers need to show some desperation tonight, much like they did the last time they played Pittsburgh. Guys like Danny Briere and Luke Schenn are going to have to play a lot better for things to turn around.
            L. Schenn had two sloppy changes in Tuesday night’s game against the Rangers that both led too soft goals. For Briere, he has just simply not been himself this year, scoring just five goals with a -5 rating. What is also surprising is given how well Claude Giroux, Jakub Voracek and Wayne Simmonds have played recently, all three still have a negative plus/minus rating.
            You can bet that Pittsburgh is going to try to defend heavily against Simmonds and Voracek, after the two combined for five of the Flyers six goals in a 6-5 win over Pittsburgh a little more than two weeks ago. This should leave the door open for guys like Scott Hartnell and Brayden Schenn too get their offensive games going.
            Defensively, if Nicklas Grossman cannot go (he is questionable after suffering a lower body injury during the first period of Tuesday night’s loss in New York) then the Flyers are going to have a real hard time containing Pittsburgh’s offensive attack. Grossman leads the NHL in blocked shots, he had 61 going into the game against the Rangers. He has also been arguably the Flyers best penalty killer, and it is no secret that the Flyers spend a lot of time in the sin bin.
            For Pittsburgh, head coach Dan Bylsma has decided to give rookie Beau Bennett a chance to play right wing on a line that features two of the league’s most feared goal scorers, center Evgeni Malkin and left wing James Neal. Bennett, who was the 20th pick in the 2010 NHL draft, has scored three points in his last four games.
Key’s to the Game for the Flyers
·         Stay out of the box
The Flyers are the most penalized team in the NHL, and if Grossman cannot play the Flyers penalty kill will be a little weaker. The Penguins power play is operating at a deadly 25.6%, which is good enough for third in the league. Discipline will be essential, especially with how chippy things can get when these two clubs meet.
·         Shoot the puck
Seems simple, right? The Flyers have had a tendency this year to try to make that extra pass, or wait for a lane to open up and it never does. While this can work sometimes, I think the Flyers just need to get shots on goalie Marc-Andre Fleury. We all remember what happened in the playoffs last year, and you know the crowd will be all over him again tonight.
·         Score first
Now hold on before you all tell me how the Flyers always come back against the Penguins and scoring first does not matter, it does. Not only because teams winning percentages go way up when they score the first goal, but because dating back to January of 2009, the road team is an amazing 17-5-1 in this series. Keep the fans at Wells Fargo into the game by scoring first and playing with the lead, and the chances of the home team winning become so much higher.
Tidbits
·         Under Dan Bylsma, the Penguins are 8-2-1 in Philadelphia, and have not had a losing record playing in Philadelphia since the 2007-08 season when they were 0-4.

·         In the Flyers last 22 meetings with the Penguins, there has been at least one power play goal scored in each game.

·         Fleury has a 52-18-10 career record in the month of March. 

Injury Report
Out for the Flyers is forwards Matt Read(ribs), Tye McGinn(orbital) and Jody Shelley(hip) and defensemen Andrej Meszaros(shoulder). Defensemen Nicklas Grossman is questionable with a lower body injury. Harry Zolnierczyk is serving game two of a four game suspension.
For the Penguins, defensemen Paul Martin is questionable with a lower body injury.

Let’s hope the Flyers play with some “JAM” tonight.
Enjoy the game, and GO FLYERS!

Saturday, March 2, 2013

show from 10-14-12

Enjoy our show from 10/14/12

Shows online

Shows Online
I know not to much has been going on with the blog. School and such will do that, but we'll try to get back to posting stories again.
As of now, I'm uploading our past shows to an audio site, so if you ever want to catch a show, it will be up online.

http://yourlisten.com/user/public/sportsman81
^If you ever want to check out our shows, this is where they'll be.