Pronger, Giroux, Reimer, Crosby - Wow !!! This has to stop

Concussion drama keeps shaking the NHL this season with Chris Pronger being knocked out of action this week for the Philadelphia Flyers.  This disaster hit Philadelphia just days after Claude Giroux was also put on the sidelines with his on concussion. That's right folks the Flyers are in danger of being tipped off their pedestal because of the actions of their opponents.  The Flyers have been steady all year through force of will and skill and now they may suffer a tailspin because everyone on the ice are acting like locomotives off the tracks.

Old time fans remember when the world's fastest game was played without helmets.  Concussions were few and far between because players were aware that not only was the opponent without a helmet but so were they.  They didn't take shots at others because they didn't want others taking shots at them.  Yes there was fighting but fighting is done when players are immobile or virtually immobile.   Concussions on the other hand are caused by players barrelling together with helmets on.  Why doesn't anyone show these guys that head protection doesn't solve problems it only mitigates them.  Case in point the rash of NFL players with concussion issues.  Imagine if NFL players wore skates and now you have an idea what kind of shot Giroux and Pronger took to the head.  No wonder they are out of action.  Just because players wear the best and latest helmets that won't solve the concussion issues.  It is kind of like smoking low tar cigarettes and thinking you won't get cancer.  Low tar cigarettes will kill you and being hit by a 200 pound+  NHLer in the head will cause a concussion.

This year has seen some of the best fall by the wayside after a flurry of head shots.  The turmoil has hit front line players like Pronger as well as up and coming goalies like James Reimer. The NHL is trying to deal with this growing problem by handing out penalties and game suspensions from head office.  We have a  suggestion for the NHL.  Send the players back to 1970s equipment and the concussions will slow or stop.  This BS with concussions has to come to an end and giving people suspensions is not cutting it.

  

Chris Pronger - The Best Playoff Defenseman

Since the lockout Chris Pronger has been the best playoff defenseman in the game. His success cannot be disputed. He has appeared in 3 of the 5 Stanley Cup Finals and won once since the NHL took its yearlong break in 2005. What makes his contributions more impressive, is that he had been to three finals, with three different teams (Edmonton 2006, Anaheim 2007, Philadephia 2010). Never has he been more valuable than this year. Take a look at the Philadelphia Flyers with and without Pronger in the lineup. The team lacks leadership and misses his nastiness on the blueline. Last year Pronger would play between 25-30 minutes per game, and shut down the opposing teams best line on most nights. This year, he has only played in three playoff games. 

Back in March Pronger broke his right hand blocking a shot. Since then he has not been the same, nor have the Philadelphia Flyers. Without him, the Flyers have struggled in the playoffs, barely beating the Buffalo Sabres in 7 games, and currently losing in the conference semi-final to Boston three games to none. 

In the playoffs matchups are key, and over a 7 game series Pronger wears teams out with his gritty, often dirty play, and his uncanny ability to be in the right place at the right time. He is a guy you hate when he is on the opposing team, and love him on yours. Pronger is a master of mind games, and as proficient a defenseman as there is on the power play. He is most missed when the team begins to break down in their defensive zone. Pronger is the type of player that makes everyone around him better by covering up mistakes made by other players. Without him in the lineup, those mistakes are magnified. Great defensive pairings are broken up, and players that look great with him on the ice, look below average without him.

The most obvious place where Pronger is missed is in net. Everyone knows what a circus the Flyers have been in goal, but last year they made the Stanley Cup Finals with the almost the same below average goaltending. Pronger was vital is making sure the opposition only got one shot. He clears the front of the net, and is a master of intimidation. There is no doubt the Flyers are a different team without him in the lineup. Did anyone know they would miss him this much?

Send comments or questions to me on twiiter @chyz1

Tonight’s schedule

San Jose @ Detroit 7:00pm EST

Philadelphia @ Boston 8:00pm EST

Philly is Ready To Ride !!!!

The 2010 Philadelphia Flyers came within two wins of hoisting the Stanley Cup for the first time since 1975. They were beaten by a strong, talented Chicago Blackhawks team led by the trio of Patrick Sharp, Patrick Kane, and Jonathan Toews. Flyers faithful all over the country are hoping for those last two wins this season. However, doubts have risen amongst Flyers fans. Will another year of goalie shenanigans, the trade of Simon Gagne, and the limited playing time of Chris Pronger eventually end the team’s playoff steak, or will they be drinking champagne out of the Cup come June?

On Tuesday the Flyers finished off the Buffalo Sabres with a dominant, offensively strong win. There were times throughout game 7 when the Flyers looked like a team on a one way street to the Stanley Cup Finals. With the Bruins finishing off the Canadians, we will see a rematch of last year’s unforgettable Eastern Conference semi-finals. There are big differences between the Flyers and Bruins this season. The Flyers, a balanced, deep team focuses on aggressive fore-checking and solid team defense. However, consistency in net could be a problem for the Broad Street Bullies. The Bruins on the other hand have a world class goaltender in Tim Thomas, but not much more than that. Chara is an overrated, soft defenseman, who supposedly “leads” the team. Offensively, they’re about as boring as a weekend trip to the grocery store. In my opinion the Bruins are soft, untalented and HIGHLY overrated. Watch for Philly to ride their momentum through Boston, and into the Eastern Conference finals. Flyers win the series in five.

From there the Flyers would face the winner of the Washington/Tampa Bay series. Both of these teams would test the Flyers. Washington is just as deep as the Flyers, however they also have questions about their netminder. The other possible matchup in the Eastern Conference finals is Tampa Bay, one of the most underrated teams in the playoffs. They have an amazing power play unit, and an experienced goalie in Dwayne Roloson.  Defensively the Bolts are just too undermanned; Capitals win the series in 6.

The Flyers have to focus on playing physically, while staying out of the penalty box. If they can do this and their power play continues to produce like it did against Buffalo, the Flyers will be a tough matchup for any team remaining. However, Brian Boucher will have to be consistently at the top of his game for Philadelphia to make a run for the cup. Anything short of a strong performance from “Boush” and the Flyers will fall short. There are eight teams remaining, can the Orange and White rise again this year and fight through the Eastern Conference into June? Beginning Saturday at 3:00pm Eastern Time we’ll begin to get a sense of just how far they will go. Get up Philly!

- Matt Gamelin

Crosby Has a Little Pronger in Him

Obviously at 6'6", 220 pounds, Philadelphia Flyers defenseman Chris Pronger is not a little anything, which makes one wonder just how he would fit in the diminutive Pittsburgh Penguins captain, who is just 5'11", 200. Still, bad and dirty jokes aside, there's little denying that Sidney Crosby did his best dirty-player impression last night, taking out Ryan Callahan of the New York Rangers with an undeniable slewfoot on Monday during the Penguins' 3-1 win.

No word yet on the length of suspension Callahan has coming his way for clearly getting in Crosby's way, but it will most likely be a long one.

P.K. Subban Needs an Attitude Check like Mike Richards Needs a Reality One

"Cocky? Me??? Man, Richards needs to know his place and get ready for Primetime just like everyone else."

Does anyone else get the sense that the Philadelphia Flyers are just an oversized bunch of sore losers, especially after the Montreal Canadiens shut them out on Tuesday night?

Exhibit A: Scott Hartnell accusing Maxim Lapierre of choking him in a scrum, little over a year after he himself was accused of bitting Pittsburgh Penguins defenseman Kris Letang under similar circumstances (see tail-end of vid). We’re not saying it didn’t happen, but choose your battles. Especially since trying to get Lapierre to admit something like that happened would be like pulling teeth, but let’s not give him any ideas for the next scrum, with the teams renewing their hostilities next Monday.

Exhibit B: Chris Pronger falling off the puck-stealing-addiction wagon, only to be caught by Scott Gomez and Brian Gionta. I can only imagine what that would have looked like, two vertically challenged Habs running after a 6’6” giant like Chris Pronger in the Bell Centre hallways asking as politely as possible for the game puck back. Yes, I can only imagine, and yet I can’t stop laughing.

Exhibit C: Captain Mike Richards mouthing off to anyone who will listen, telling reporter Shaun Starr from the local Team 990 radio station in regard to P.K. Subban:

“He’s a guy that’s come in the league and hasn’t earned respect [just like me]. 

“It’s just frustrating [NOT losing 3-0 to a much smaller team, right after which I am making these seemingly out-of-frustration comments, but rather] to see a young guy like that come in here and... think that he’s better than a lot of people. 

“You have to earn respect in this league. It takes a lot [like running goalies and making it look like it was an accident, see above video; or knocking guys out like I did David Booth last season]. 

“You can’t just come in here as a rookie and play like that [you need three, four years under your belt, tops; then you can behave like an ass as much as you want].”

Please note that Richards didn’t actually say those things in parentheses. They were added in to illustrate a point. Indeed, a day after Richards was the subject of much praise on these pages for his penalty-killing efforts against the Ottawa Senators, I’m taking him to task for his hypocritical tirade last night. Richards may be a leader, but last night he was only showing his team and whoever else was watching how to be an idiot by example.

One example of many took place midway through the third period when he took a few extra shots at Andrei Kostitsyn, who promptly gave him one right back only to see Richards change before his eyes into an insane-asylum escapee in need of a good sedative. P.K. Subban stepped in to help out his teammate, and all of a sudden he’s a disrespectful pissant? Sorry, your highness. We didn’t realize that you were king of the universe and that the league charter specifically laid out that everyone is allowed to take garbage from you and not dish it back out.

Subban may be cocky, but you need some measure of arrogance to have a successful career. Just look in the mirror Mike; you’re a 25-year-old, talking like you’re 35, but acting like you’re 15. If that’s not cockiness, I don’t know what is. And, for the record, Subban is four years younger than you and clearly has way more class. He may be brash, but he’s not the one talking smack to the media about you behind your back.

"Yep, looking classy... to make up for my huge lack of class."

No one will ever confuse Subban for let’s say former Hab Saku Koivu, whose actual leadership skills (take note Mike) were equalled only by his sense of modesty. Subban’s got skills, and he isn’t afraid of letting people know it or of people thinking less of him for it, as this tweet today from local reporter Arpon Basu will surely prove:

“Asked Subban today if his spin-o-rama could be construed as cockiness. ‘Well, then Bobby Orr was the cockiest player in NHL history.’”

Somehow Subban is able to both make the greatest comeback ever AND seem like a delusional schizo for comparing himself to Orr! How does he do it? Who knows? Just one of his many skills, it looks like. He’s got charisma, and that’s why we love him.

The bottom line is Richards doesn’t have a leg to stand on if he’s going to complain about how Subban carries himself. He has more pressing things to worry about like how he’s going to go about getting in Carey Price’s kitchen next Monday, hopefully without having to run him.

Paul Holmgren is no Bob Barker, both Literally and Figuratively

"Crazily, we decided to keep the smaller of the three. More crazily? It's worked out for the best."

The Philadelphia Flyers continued their dangerous game of The Price is Right on Monday, making Claude Giroux the latest contestant in their continual attempts to get as close to the salary cap as possible without going over. Makes you kind of wish Bob Barker was around to beat some sense into general manager Paul Holmgren.

In all seriousness, Holmgren has done a decent job in general of making the Flyers contenders. People forget that it was only 2006-2007 when the Flyers finished last overall in the league by a pretty huge margin with 56 points (and still missed out on Patrick Kane). The very next season, they made it to the Eastern Conference final, serving as proof of some sort that Holmgren knows what he’s doing. Flash forward several years, and it’s become readily apparent that the Flyers have been so successful not necessarily due to Holmgren but shockingly in spite of some of the moves he’s made.

How’s he doing it? Luck? Sorcery? Deal with the Devil? Crystal ball? Through blackmail when rival general managers refuse to play ball upon receiving sexual favours from him in exchange for a thrown game here and there? Your guess is as good as mine, but I will say I’m leaning towards the last one, because luck doesn’t exist (the Devil does; he just clearly has better things to worry about, like getting his team out of the dumps above all else).

Here’s a guy (Holmgren, not the Devil) that reached out to Ray Emery to solve the Flyers’ goaltending problem in net... Ray Emery, the emotional train wreck of a goaltender that wasn’t even good enough to man the crease for the Ottawa Senators! The Ottawa Senators! Whose idea of a number-one goaltender is Damian Rhodes!

Of course, Emery gets injured and the Flyers turn to former waiver-wire trash Michael Leighton as the team’s saviour, and somehow that turns into a miracle, up until the point that he lets in perhaps the softest Stanley Cup-winning goal in history.

“Don’t worry, buddy, how’s a two-year, multi-million-dollar contract sound as a reward? Awesome, but, wait, what’s that? You’re injured to start the year? No, prob, we’ve got this unknown goaltender by the name of Bob Tverdovsky, or something like that. He must be Oleg’s brother. He’ll manage just fine until you’re good to go.”

Now Sergei Bobrovsky’s stellar start to the season (8-2-1) aside, it should be readily apparent that Holmgren has more lives than a cat equipped with body armour, or he’s just in really good with the man upstairs. And now comes Giroux’s three-year contract extension, to the tune of $11.25 million, which will come into effect next year. This means that he will become a very rich man, thanks mainly to one solid stretch of playoff hockey over the course of his inconsistent career (which admittedly has led him atop the Flyers scoring ranks early this season as well with 14 points in 15 games).

Logic would dictate that Holmgren should have perhaps waited at least a few months for Giroux’s point-per-game ratio to inevitably tank, thereby getting him somewhat cheaper, but all in all it seems as if Giroux is here to stay, so the deal can’t be bad-mouthed all that much. Conversely, you have the fact that the team’s payroll for next year is already above $50 million ($52,893,096) with just 18 players under contract.

So, seeing as the salary cap has gone up from $39 million to $59.4 million in five seasons, figure Holmgren has about $10 million with which to sign five players, including Daniel Carcillo, Ville Leino, and Jeff Carter among others (Nikolay Zherdev has been left off this list for the very simple reason that the only way he stays in Philly is if he gets on board and starts giving out the aforementioned sexual favours in Holmgren’s proxy).

"The jersey must be cursed, 'cuz both will be former Flyers pretty soon."

This situation could clearly have been avoided and, with each passing contract handed out, the end result is less and less pretty. Maybe Giroux’s contract was unavoidable, but the Flyers are still without a big-name goaltender (unless you count the one with the actual big name), Chris Pronger is set to man the team’s blue line until he’s a brittle old man (although he may already be considered brittle), and one of the team’s top goal scorers is set to get offer sheets aplenty come July 1. As such, the writing is likely on the bathroom wall regarding Carter’s departure from Philly... right beside Holmgren’s phone number for a good time.