Flyers Take on New-Look Flames

The Philadelphia Flyers begin a 3-game west coast trip tonight against a Calgary Flames team that underwent a major shakeup yesterday.  Bruising defenseman Dion Phaneuf, towering 6′ 6″ defense prospect Keith Aulie and winger Fredrik Sjostrom were dealt to the Toronto Maple Leafs and in exchange received defenseman Ian White and three forwards: Niklas Hagman, Matt Stajan and Jamal Mayers.

The Flames were in need of change.  Prior to their last game, a 6-1 victory over the Edmonton Oilers Saturday, Calgary had been in the throes of an 0-7-2 slump which took them to the brink of the cutoff eighth spot in the Western Conference standings.  The Flames have been in dire need of offense, as prior to Saturday’s game they had managed to score just 15 goals in their previous 11 home games.  They are hoping that Hagman and Stajan will bring additional offense, but giving up Phaneuf was a huge price to pay.

 While Calgary has plenty of high-end quality rearguards, Phaneuf was their best.  Even in a down season for him, his mere presence on the Flames blueline was intimidating.  Calgary still boasts one of the best stables of defensemen in the NHL in Jay Bouwmeester, Mark Giordano, Robyn Regehr, Ian White, Adam Pardy, Aaron Johnson and Cory Sarich. 

Flames General Manager Darryl Sutter was not done after that blockbuster, as he believed he may have completed another major deal with Glen Sather and the New York Rangers.  This trade would have sent forwards Olli Jokinen and Brandon Prust to the New York Rangers in exchange for Ranger forwards Christopher Higgins and Ales Kotalik.  The deal is not completely dead, but there reportedly is a hangup with a No-Trade Clause in Kotalik’s contract that apparently includes Calgary as one of the destinations named to where Kotalik does not wish to be dealt.

Captain Jarome Iginla has been the hottest Flame, recording 3 goals and 7 points in his last 3 games.

At any rate, it appears as though Philadelphia will start goalie Ray Emery for a sixth consecutive game since returning from abdominal surgery.  It is understandable to want to have a netminder play his way back into game shape, but it seems that head coach Peter Laviolette was just waiting for Michael Leighton to lose his first game with the team to play Emery every game.  While “Razor” has been for the most part sharp, he has still had trouble controlling rebounds around his feet and pads.  There have been far too many instances where Emery thought he had the puck frozen, only to see it scooped up by an opposing forward and deposited into the net.

Another interesting sidelight of tonight’s game will be that of the Flyers’ Daniel Carcillo and the Calgary’s Mayers.  They had a heated feud back in a game in Philadelphia on January 6th when Carcillo gave the throat-slit motion to the Leafs bench after fighting Mayers.  The much anticipated rematch in Toronto on January 14th fizzled as there were no fights, so maybe Mayers will want to take Carcillo on and impress the new team and fans.  Something to look out for…

Jeff Carter has been one of the hottest Flyer scorers, scoing 5 goals and 8 points in his last 6 games.  Captain Mike Richards has gone cold, registering just 1 assist in the past 4 contests.  The orange and black will need much more production out of their #1 center if they are going to hit the Olympic break on the right track.

Another Curious Call Goes Against Philly

Philadelphia is coming off of a hard-fought 2-1 win over the New York Islanders Saturday, a game in which they had yet another questionable disallowed goal.  Flyer’s agitator Scott Hartnell was skating by the crease, outside the blue paint, in an attempt to screen Islander’s goaltender Dwayne Roloson.  After the point shot by defenseman Kimmo Timonen sailed past Roloson and into the net for a power play goal, as signalled on the ice by the officiating crew, Hartnell brushed Roloson.  Roloson angrily went after Hartnell and pleaded his case to the officials, who after breaking up an ensuing melee, conferenced at the scorers table.  After a lengthy discussion, they decided that Hartnell had interfered with the goaltender’s ability to make the save, took the goal away from Philadelphia, and assessed a minor to Hartnell.

This is a non-reviewable play, so the call on the ice, a Flyer’s power play goal, should have stood.  If they wanted to assess a minor on Hartnell after the fact, which no penalty was being called until after the Roloson complaints and was called after conferencing, then it should have been a Philadelphia goal and a NY power play, at worst. 

It was the second consecutive weekend game that the Flyers saw a legit goal taken away from them.  Last Sunday against the Pittsburgh Penguins, Mike Richards had scored a goal to give Philly a 2-0 lead, only to see matching minors to Simon Gagne and Evgeni Malkin wipe the goal out.  Once again, the goal was scored prior to any whistle or arm being up from an official.  Gagne, who had missed almost an entire season with post-concussion syndrome, was upset with Malkin for a flagrant elbow to the head.  As Richards’ shot sailed past Marc-Andre Fleury and into the Pittsburgh goal, Gagne and Malkin wrapped each other up in bear hugs.  Instead of the 2-0 lead, it was 1-0 in a game that the Flyers would end up losing 2-1.

Gagne had another goal, this one shorthanded, scored in Pittsburgh against Brent Johnson that was disallowed when Fox SportsNet Pittsburgh failed to send a replay that clearly showed the puck completely across the goal line.  While there are plenty of ridiculous conspiracy theorists in Philadelphia that believe the NHL has a bias against the Flyers, there has been an increasing number of events that lend credence to their outcry.

Taking a Flyer:  Philly enters tonight’s game in sixth place in the Eastern Conference standings, tied with two other teams with 57 points.  Spots 6 through 12 are seperated by just 2 points.

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