Grindin' In The Corner with Moose

Guys, I have really exciting news to share with you. I don't have all the details yet, but everything will happen quick, so keep up.

This blog will cease to exist in it's current form in just a few weeks. The good folks at Genemix have presented me with a golden opportunity...to have my very own sports website.

www.thephillymoose.com

Don't lose the number :)

At The Philly Moose, we'll be covering not just the Flyers, but all Philadelphia sports, and more! I won't be doing it alone. I have two writers besides myself on staff at this time, and am definitely looking for more. I'll introduce them and all when the site launches.

What you read here isn't going away. You can expect the same coverage on the new site, as well as tons of other material.

There's also a radio show podcast in the works, where we'll cover all kinds of cool shit!

Stay tuned for more information on both projects, and thank you all for your continued support. Nothing is possible without you, and I never forget that.

LateR!

It would have been really, really shitty if the Flyers lost tonight. Between raising the Eastern Conference Championship banner into the rafters, Chris Pronger's unannounced return to the lineup tonight, and oh yeah, that whole home opener thing, I think beating the Avalanche tonight was the only possible outcome.

The Flyers pounced on the Avs early, with the forwards as a whole showing an energy that just wasn't there in the previous two games. Players were skating harder, finishing their checks, and creating tons of good scoring chances. For the whole game, they managed to put 37 shots on goal, but there were really times where it seemed like they all came before the first intermission.

Claude Giroux got the scoring going at 12:13 of the first, with Jeff Carter banging one home five minutes later.

The second period saw a drop off for Philly. During the second intermission, Neil Hartman called the Flyers play "uninspired". I think this was really my only complaint of the night. I can't tell you what else he said, as I decided to flick between the Jets game and WWE Raw until some intelligence came back on the tube, but I really don't think the Flyers came down from their game at all. Colorado stepped it up quite a bit, and their coach Joe Sacco should get credit for that. It wasn't that the Flyers fell off, it's just whatever Sacco said to his players worked.

It pisses me off to see members of the Philadelphia sports media be so quick to lambast all the local teams, not just the Flyers, when there's a lack of production or a loss. I wish these people (Howard Eskin, i'm talking to you. Angelo Cataldi, you too homie) would just take a second to realize that sometimes, the other team is just better. If a team plays hard and does everything right, but it just ain't enough, it's not that team's fault. The other team was just better. Lighten up, douche nozzles.

But I digress. Colorado got one midway through the second, and Milan Hejduk (it's pronounced heyduke, your welcome) tied it up thirty seconds into the third, but Jeff Carter poked in his second goal of the night at the 17:22, which proved to be the game winner. Darroll Powe scored an empty netter with 1:11 remaining in the game to put an exclamation point on an awesome night.

I think this was a great night to build off of. The team felt the difference of a friendly crowd, felt the difference in their performance when they clock in for a full sixty minutes. This was the first game of a five game homestand, their longest of the year. This win generates momentum for the next one, and on we go. Before you know it, we're through the stretch with guns blazing, and last season starts all over again.

Next game is Thursday night, c'mon back then for another round with Moose. Thanks for reading, and take care.

Danny Briere scored the Flyers only goal, the defense played okay, and Boosh made a few decent stops.

That's where the love fest ends.

The Flyers lost to the St. Louis Blues 2-1 in overtime last night, and frankly they are damn lucky the score was that close.

Like in the Pittsburgh game, the offense put forth no significant effort until the third period, lazily carrying the puck into the zone, favoring line changes over offensive chances. They got away with it against the Penguins, but if this is a trend that is going to continue, it's gonna be a long season for the orange and black faithful. There was simply no intensity until it was too late.

The lone bright spot was the play of the Scott Hartnell - Danny Briere - Ville Leino line. They generated the team's only scoring, and continued the reckless, rowdy and effective style together that made coach Peter Laviolette keep the line intact from last season.

What Laviolette did wrong, was putting Brian Boucher between the pipes.

Am I a little bias toward Sergei Bobrovsky, yes I am. Do I feel he's a better goalie, yes I do. Why? Because he fucking is! Boosh will make the initial save, then completely lose sight of the puck and everyone around him. At one point last night, he made a pad save. Cool! As the puck skitters behind him and comes to rest against the right post, Boosh just stands there and stares down the ice. You got eight players around you, and you freeze. Garbage!

Here's the long and short of it. The Flyers are a 1-1 team. A lazy one and one team. Did Mike Richards and his boys start drinking heavy again? I think maybe. Does Laviolette need to light a fire under their asses? I think maybe that too. Because if he doesn't, watching Flyers hockey is gonna become a really shitty thing to do here soon.

Someone sang the National Anthem.

Then Mario Lemieux poured water on center ice at the Penguins' new house. They said it was melted ice from Mellon Arena. Maybe it was, maybe it was Evian. We'll never know.

There were these fancy introductions for the Penguin players.

Finally, the lights came on, and Sergei Bobrovsky took his place in the crease.

And the game was won before the opening faceoff.

The first ten minutes of the first period were sketchy for Philadelphia. The Penguins looked great, and spent most of this time in the Flyers' defensive end. Bobrovsky looked like a Vezina winner, not a 22 year old kid making his NHL debut. He single handedly kept Pittsburgh out of the net through the first.

Peter Laviolette took his timeout midway through the period, and lit a fire under Philly. The defense tightened up, the Flyers started getting physical, and finally started getting chances. The game was scoreless after 20 minutes.

The Flyers finally got on the board at 2:51 of the second, when Danny Briere slipped one in on the power play. Mike Richards and Ville Leino got the assists. Blair Betts scored towards the end of the period, sending Pittsburgh to the dressing room staring at a two goal deficit.

The Penguins finally got on the board early in the third, but Claude Giroux scored a shorthanded goal to put the lead back at two. Pittsburgh scored once more, but it wasn't enough to overcome Bobrovsky's goaltending, despite 1:30 of a 6 on 4 empty net attack at the end. The game ended with the Flyers winning 3-2.

The young goalie was low key after the performance.

"It wasn't anything too extraordinary," Bobrovsky said after the game. "I wasn't too nervous. I was ready for this."

The Flyers next game is Saturday night in St. Louis, when they play the Blues.

Moose's Three Stars -

Third Star - Kimmo Timonen
Led all skaters with 25:34 of ice time. Without Pronger in the lineup, Kimmo is the big dog in the yard. He quietly held up his end of the deal all night.

Second Star - Danny Briere
Scored the first goal of the night, and set the pace for the rest of the night by creating several chances.

First Star - Sergei Bobrovsky
Stopped 29 of 31 shots. Absolutely masterful debut, plain and simple. The defense looked decent tonight, but you can see they need some time to gel. "Bob" carried the load for the D, and got Philly this win.

Hello everyone. If you are reading this, I thank you for visiting my blog, and I hope you like what you see. If this is your first time here, this post may mean nothing to you. I apologize in advance for your time, please go ahead and read the subsequent articles about the Flyers and have a great time doing so :)

This one is for last season's readers, as well as the good folks at Genemix Industries, who vouched for and have supported me from my first post.

You may be thinking to yourself "Why hasn't he really posted anything all summer?". I mean, things happened over the summer. Ilya Kovalchuk and the Devils learned that trying to circumvent the collective bargaining agreement is really bad. There was a complete fire sale in the Windy City, as the Blackhawks dumped ten players after winning the Stanley Cup. Even the Flyers, the very basis of this blog, saw a ton of free agent signings, crucial injuries to Chris Pronger, Ian LaPerriere and Michael Leighton, and much more that I will think of when it isn't 1:00 in the morning.

I got sick. Really, scary, sick. I owe those of you who don't know an explanation.

I was diagnosed as pre-diabetic when I had my heart attack in the spring of 2009. It was never really an issue until recently. I carried on through my days at 415 pounds, chain smoking, eating take out and watching hockey. Sounds fun, right?

Around the time last season's playoffs hit the conference finals, I started peeing alot more than I used to, and I started having weak spells. Nothing that stopped me from writing or living. Doctor chalked it up to a bladder infection and too much Wawa Lemonade Tea (c'mon locals, holla at some tea!). Around the time the playoffs wrapped up, it started getting a little worse. Same problems, but I couldn't eat anything. I started losing weight. This made me happy!

But as the summer moved along, I got sicker and sicker, eventually getting to a point where I could barely get out of bed. Doc finally calls for blood work, and sees that all the things that say I have full on diabetes, say just that. So he finally gives me a blood tester thing and tells me to head home.

Two days I was sitting in an emergency room as doctors frantically tried to get my blood sugar down from over 600. It took them five days, but they finally got it down to under 200. My heart problems also reared their head, as every time I got out of the hospital bed, my heart rate shot up over 160.

There were some adjustments and things that had to be done when I came home. New diet, new drugs, needles.

Oh yeah, I moved to a new place in the middle of all this.

They told me I could have (maybe should have) died from the blood sugar thing. But I didn't, so here I am, to hell and back.

I'm 80 pounds lighter, I eat better, feel better, and am once again a handsome bastard. But with that being said, guys i'm really sorry. I had a responsibility to maintain this blog for my friends and fans who wish to read it. I hope to not let you down again.

The Flyers look really good this year. I look forward to covering them, I hope you look forward to reading about them. It's my hope that next summer, i'll be healthy still, writing about the parade down Broad Street.

Thank you all, let's have a fun season together, and god bless.

Slainte'
~Moose