Sadly, Comcast has finally realized their error and removed the NHL Center Ice package from my service. I got it for free since the beginning of the season. Oh, well.

The Flyers are in Carolina for another game against the Hurricanes -- the third in 12 days, and their 4th and final game against Carolina is next week. Weird scheduling.

And although it was delayed, the day-after-Thanksgiving jinx happened after all. The Canes fired Peter Laviolette on Wednesday and re-hired Paul Maurice. It's the 3rd straight year that the team playing in Philadelphia on the day after Thanksgiving has fired its coach around the same time.

The Flyers were down 5-1 to Carolina tonight after 2 periods, but score 4 in the third to tie the game and then (shocker) win in the shootout. They're saying on the broadcast that it's only the second time in Flyers history that they've come back from a 4-goal deficit to win, but that doesn't sound right to me. Anyway, they're now 15-4-3 since their 0-3-3 start.

After back-to-back heartbreaking losses, the Penguins exercised their frustrations on the hapless Islanders in a 9-2 rout last night at Mellon Arena. Pens' RW Petr Sykora notched his first career hat trick, Pascal Dupuis had another hat trick and rookie G John Curry stopped 24 of 26 shots to pull the Pens back into a tie with the Flyers for 2nd place in the Atlantic Division.

That tie will be broken tomorrow afternoon at the Wachovia Center.

I will have to check to see if the NHL Network is carrying that game. ALWAYS entertaining when these two tangle.

Today's Toronto Star has a big feature on the new Russian hockey league: Does Russia's Kontinental league threaten NHL?

The Blackhawks are rollin. Winner of their last 5 straight. Looking forward to Detroit/Colorado this evening. ALWAYS interesting when these two get togther....

Wow. TGI Fridays is the place to be! Paris Hilton, Diddy, etc. will all be there soon.

The Flyers' win over Pittsburgh on Saturday puts them within 4 points of the Rangers for first place in the Atlantic, with FOUR games in hand.

What an odd game this afternoon. The Flyers were outshot by the Capitals 25-6 in the first period. 14 of the 25 Washington shots were on three power plays. Through two periods the shots were 39-13 for Washington. And they weren't just run-of-the-mill shots. The Caps had a lot of good scoring chances.

Final score: 7-1...Flyers. They scored on 1 of the 6 first period shots. Then Jeff Carter scored 2 goals less than 3 minutes apart, the second a shorthanded goal, in the second period. They turned it into a rout in the third.

After last night, they have now won SEVEN straight! I watched the last two periods on NHL Network, and Vancouver mounted a furious attack in the 3rd period, including a short-handed time when the puck was in the Chicago zone throughout the two minutes...
We're heading off to watch the Panthers play the Avs tonite...

I am sure the Blackhawk fans in Chicago are glad to see things looking up in a big way in their hockey team. They and the Flyers, and the Devils are all some surging teams right now.

...and the Panthers are playing surprisingly well as of late...
Just got back from the game and Thomas Vokoun looked great in a 3-0 shutout vs the Avalanche...

...and last night he recorded his 2nd straight 3-0 shutout, this time over his former team, the Nashville Predators....
The Cats have now won 8 of their last 11 games.....Nice to see them getting hot early in the season for once!

The Flyers' annual post-Christmas road trip has gotten off to an ugly start, and not just on the ice with back-to-back losses. Their flight Friday to Chicago for Friday night's game was eventually diverted from Midway to O'Hare because of some runway problem, causing them to get in too late to have a day-of-game skate, as is the usual practice. (That's ridiculous in itself -- the players union's contract bans any team travel on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. Since that's the case, the league shouldn't then schedule any games on December 26th!) Then they couldn't fly to Columbus for tonight's game until this morning because of fog. Next stop is a game in Vancouver on Tuesday (or Tuseday, as the Comcast Sportsnet graphic displayed incorrectly tonight ) -- assuming they can make it in time.

Last night, Vokoun looked terrible in giving up 6 goals--all off of rebounds-- to the lowest scoring team in the NHL, the Lightning....
Craig Anderson will probably be in the net for the next game...

Now franchise record 9th win in a row for the Blackhawks, going into the home and home series against Detroit...
Hopefully a cold snap is going to hit Chicago in the next few days prior to the Winter Classic at Wrigley Field....

Right now AccuWeather is calling for a high of 37 and cloudy skies on Thursday.

I just looked at a seating chart for Wrigley Field for the game, with the hockey rink placed on a straight line across the baseball diamond from third to first base. It looks to me like there's not a good seat in the house.

There really isn't....Still not sure why they didn't play the game at Soldier Field....I guess they thought the Bears might make the playoffs.....

I'm curious as to what the TV ratings will be like. Based on the teams' play this year, it being an Original Six matchup and two of the larger TV markets, it's a good matchup. But there's no marquee name (like Crosby last year) to sell. Something tells me the ratings might suffer.

I think ratings will easily top last year's game in both the US and Canada. Last year's game had so much POST GAME buzz compared to the minimal pre-game publicity to draw viewers. This game has had a ton of promotion including those very cool commercials to the tune of 'Take Me Out to the Ball Game'. I've seen video of that Zamboni crashing off the back of the truck about 30 times alone. NBC even had a live overhead shot of Wrigley Field during the Chargers - Broncos pre-game Sunday night. And with both Detroit and Chicago being MUCH larger local TV markets than either Pittsburgh or Buffalo I think NBC will be disappointed if the ratings are not up by at least 15-20%.

Especially with the renewed interest in the Hawks this year and with them on such a roll heading into the game combined with reports we heard during the finals last year that indicated that the Wings had more fans spread across the USA than any other NHL team.

I too, would be mildly shocked if the ratings weren't really good. I mean it certainly wouldn't be because it wasn't advertised. There is a commercial for it about every 10 minutes on the NHL Network.

I would add that this is getting a fair bit of hype in Chicago which should garner excellent ratings there. I get WGN up here and they've had numerous stories about the game on their various newscasts. Up here there has been all kinds of promotion for the game. The Rogers Sportsnet Hockey Central guys have already been doing their show live from Chicago the last two days. And Sportsnet is not even covering the game - it's on CBC.

And this description of the hype in Chicago from today's Toronto Sun..
**********
" While cynics north of the border claim the concept of these outdoor games might be getting old, this is a big deal here in the Windy City, where hockey once again matters. Calling it "the biggest Hawks game this city has seen in a very long time," one columnist in yesterday's Chicago Sun-Times took it a step further by referring to tomorrow's Rumble at Wrigley as "the NHL's Super Bowl."

It's a concept John Collins, the NHL's Chief Operating Officer, can relate to. Collins has a deep background in the National Football League, having served as the league's senior vice-president of marketing and sales. He also had a stint as the VP and president of the Cleveland Browns.

Collins is warm to the concept of the Winter Classic turning into a "mini Super Bowl," at least from the standpoint of an event that attracts the attention of fans from all over, no matter which teams are involved.
To this point, the league does not have such an event. Maybe the all-star game used to be one, but we prefer to see no-hitters in baseball, not hockey, thank you very much.

And you can't argue with the success of the Winter Classic concept. For a sport thirsting for any exposure it can grab in the U.S., the fact that tomorrow's game will be broadcast live across North America by NBC, smack dab in the middle of college football's Bowl season and just before the kickoff of the NFL playoffs, is a slam dunk winfall for the NHL.
**********

And just from my own perspective - last year I remember making a mental note to myself the night before the game to remember it started at 1PM and to look in on the game to see how it looked and not just watch the Bowl games happening at the the same time. This year not only do I KNOW I'll be watching the game - I even have friends coming over to watch it with me - including Blueraider who'll be in town from Buffalo as he is going to the Sabres - Leafs game that night. I'm excited about it - and my Leafs aren't even in the game!

And I recall posting last year that if the NHL were smart they should work with CBC and NBC to do this annually on New Years Day to make a real tradition of it to build up the audience over time. Many others were posting that the NHL should not do it again because it would spoil the one-time 'special event' attraction of it and that over the long haul the NHL would have trouble pulling viewers away from the Bowl games. Well with the 'BIG' Bowl games no longer all jammed on to January 1, with no Bowl games involving any teams in the Top 10 that conflict with the NHL game tomorrow - (the Rose Bowl does not kick-off until 5:00PM ET - well after the hockey game will be over) - my guess is that based on the success of this Chicago event already - with over 240,000 people applying for tickets - I think we all can count on another outdoor NHL game next year on January 1. The only question - what teams and where? Rangers vs Bruins at the new Yankee Stadium or Fenway? Or how about Pens vs Flyers in Happy Valley?

And speaking of 'Happy' - Happy New Year everybody!

I hope it's a big ratings hit, I hope it's a good game, but I just can't help but be skeptical. The NHL so often manages to screw up a good thing. Next year they'll probably play it in Phoenix.

The Flyers broke their two-game losing streak with a win at Vancouver, but lost Simon Gagne for 7 to 10 days with a strained shoulder suffered when he was checked into the boards from behind. Another cheap hit that the league will do nothing about.

The Flyers haven't lost in Vancouver since January 1989 -- almost 20 years! Of course, they've only played 14 games there in that span...

GO HAWKS!!!

What is it about outdoor games? Between the Canadiens-Oilers Heritage Classic and these two Winter Classics, the home team hasn't won yet. Which makes me wonder -- if they ever do feature Flyers vs. Penguins at Penn State, although one team would be designated as the home team for record-keeping and last-personnel-change purposes and such, since Penn State is out in the middle of nowhere would it really be a "home" game?

Anyway, the Blackhawks had a fine first period, at least, and then the Red Wings took over. I felt a little less compelled to watch it from beginning to end this time. I found myself switching over to other stuff a few times in the third period.

I'll be curious to hear what the TV ratings were. The event is getting rave reviews in every media account I've read or watched about the game. Here is just a sampling of some quotes taken from various media.
**********
From the LA Times:
- "It was surreal. It was stunning."
- "Detroit forward Jiri Hudler said. "We're standing during the national anthems looking at each other like, wow, this is awesome." And it was."
- "Altogether, it was grand entertainment."

From the Chicago Tribune:
- "It was a strange, wonderful day at Wrigley Field, a day of incongruous sights, starting and ending with a hockey game taking place a few feet from a pitcher's mound that was peeking out of snow a machine had produced. But more than anything, this was the day the Hawks finally, officially came back from the dead. And this coming-back party was for the fans."
- When Jim Cornelison's stirring rendition of the national anthem was drowned out by the roar of the crowd, as Hawks tradition demanded, it had the same effect as the weather."Everyone got chills," Blackhawks wing Kris Versteeg said. "I got chills, and I had goose bumps."
- this Winter Classic had to be the most fun Hawks fans ever had with all those clothes on.

From the Sun Times:
- FROZEN CONFINES | Despite Hawks' loss, fans have a blast at outdoor hockey game
- By all accounts, the NHL's Winter Classic at the Cubs ballpark was a hit, despite the score
- Cubs park, billed for the day as "the frozen confines,'' was the hot ticket in town. The best seats -- which were actually in the upper deck, which offered a better view of the ice -- went for $325 each. Scalpers outside sought twice that much.

From ESPN:
- Going, going, gone. Home run. Touch 'em all, NHL. Forgive the obvious baseball allusion, but from the cool retro uniforms worn by the Detroit Red Wings and Chicago Blackhawks, to the 40,818 fans bundled up and jammed into venerable Wrigley Field belting out the national anthem en masse, to the old-style black fedoras sported by the Detroit coaching staff, to the wildly entertaining game itself, the 2009 Winter Classic was another red-letter day for the league.
- For the second straight year, the NHL has taken its game outdoors, and this success at Wrigley virtually guarantees the Winter Classic will become an annual event and the National Hockey League will carve its own place on the sporting calendar with its Jan. 1 hockey lovefest. For a league that continues to wage an uphill battle to establish itself as a pan-American sport, it has hit on a signature event that should continue to draw the casual fan for years to come, regardless of where the game goes.

The Stanley Cup playoffs will always be the league's most dramatic event, but by its very nature, interest narrows as teams are eliminated. In a surprisingly short period of time, the Winter Classic has become something that fans, regardless of allegiance, will be drawn to, whether it's the atmosphere, the drama or the total buy-in from players.
*********
My guess for next year - New York - the new Yankee Stadium. Maybe not against Boston though - maybe Philadelphia or perhaps Washington to take advantage of how that city is falling in love with Ovechkin. Then in years after that - Fenway - maybe against the Canadiens to appease the CBC and owners of Canadian teams. And some day I would love to see the Leafs in it - maybe at the Big House in Ann Arbour against the Red Wings? You could easily fill that place with 50,000 Leaf fans and 50,000 Wings fans. Of course if the Leafs ever do make it to the game - they better play better than what they did last night. I went to the game at the ACC last night. What a snooze fest.

But no matter where - it is clear January 1 has a new annual sporting event - of that there can be no doubt.

Well I thought last night's game was a great game...just sayin'

And hell, if the Lions can be on Thanksgiving Day every year then I say the Winter Classic stays in Buffalo dammit!!

Wishful thinking I know.....

Bloomberg: NHL Sees 12% Rise in Early Ratings With Wrigley Game

Doesn't surprise me. Cool.

That's very good news. Let's hope they can keep the momentum going with this.

Edit to add:

The Flyers' shootout win at Anaheim puts them in a first-place tie with the Rangers, but the Flyers still have a game in hand.

And the Pittsburgh Penguins are reeling! After today's 6-1 rout at the hands of visiting Florida the Penguins have lost 10 of 14, 5 straight at home, and are in 8th in the East with teams breathing down their necks. It's gotten so bad that Sidney Crosby is getting physical, and not in a good way:



That's no way to fight. That's just a sucker-punch attack. Terrible.

According to Crosby as the two players were lining up for the face-off they were trash talking each other and Crosby asked the other guy 'Do you want to go?' (meaning fight) and the other guy said 'OK - let's go.'

And speaking of fighting tragedy because of a hockey flight here in Ontario. See new thread for that sad story.

I doubt that, and even if they did agree, the fact that Crosby started right that second is still cheap. Usually players who agree to fight both drop the gloves at the same time and square off.

But then, there's more. Somehow we missed this priceless moment, where Crosby was punching an Atlanta player in the crotch. The league did nothing about it. If a non-superstar did that, if a Sean Avery did that, the league would come down swiftly. But Crosby got nothing. It's a disgrace, especially since Crosby is always whining about rough play against him. It's why, as a Flyers fan, I'll always like Alex Ovechkin as an opposing player more than Crosby.

Meanwhile, the Flyers are suffering through injuries, again. I can't remember the last time they had really good luck staying healthy...

But, look who is in first place now in their division......

True, they're getting by, but it would be nice to see them at full strength. Maybe they're getting the injuries out of the way now and they'll be healthy come playoff time.

Last night I had a dream that I was sitting in a hotel lobby in Toronto reading the local papers, which were all full of articles about how the Maple Leafs needed just one more win to finally win the Stanley Cup. Talk about nightmares!

hey, they gotta concentrate on making the finals first.....1967! 1967! 1967!

Your signature reminds me...at the NHL store in NYC (I was there briefly on Wednesday) they have t-shirts with "Is This The Year?" and the logo of particular teams. I saw the t-shirt with the logo of the NY Islanders and I had an urge to take a pen or a marker and write in big bold letters, "No."

Looks like beefy Brendan Shanahan is about to "officially" say good-bye to the Rangers and sign with the Devils. Stay tuned.

Really. Wow, that would be interesting....

I'd still love to know how they come up with some of these scheduling quirks. After 3 games in 4 days, including back-to-back games Thursday and Friday, the Flyers now have 4 days off, then a game Wednesday, then 5 days off (part of which is the All-Star break). I guess it's good in that they'll get some rest for injured players, but it just seems too extreme. Plus, since they're showing signs of a swoon like last year's 10-game-winless stretch around this time, I'm sure they can get in some good practices targeting their biggest problem area, getting the puck out of their zone cleanly.

The head of the NHL Players' Association is on the Hockey Night in Canada pre-game show, confirming this ESPN.com report that SIX teams will start next season with games in Europe, and EIGHT teams will travel overseas the following season. Also they plan to bring back the World Cup of Hockey in 2011.

Meanwhile, the New York Islanders have agreed to play a preseason game in Kansas City in the fall. It could be a precursor to the team's being sold and/or moved from Long Island if a new arena isn't in the offing.

The Kansas City Islanders? Makes sense. Like the Utah Jazz and the Los Angeles Lakers.

A week ago all the talk was about what the Flyers would have to do to get under the salary cap once Danny Briere was activated from long-term injury. Trade a player? Send Luca Sbisa back to juniors? They even had Briere play a 3-game conditioning stint with the AHL Phantoms last week, which some saw as a delaying tactic more than a conditioning assignment.

Turns out, Briere was still feeling discomfort and had exploratory surgery today. The doctor discovered that he had a nerve entrapped in what appeared to be a tear that had begun to heal. So they took care of that problem and Briere will now be out another 4 weeks or more.

GM Paul Holmgren said today that last week he inquired about the health of none other than Peter Forsberg. It's still not certain whether Forsberg can or will be able to attempt a comeback. Maybe he should wait 5 years and then return, just like Claude Lemieux?

LOL! I'm sure Darren McCarty is ready for another boxing match with "The Turtle"

I went to the Leafs - Bruins game at the ACC Wednesday night. Playing the first place Bruiins I was thinking that we'd be leaving by the end of the second period with how bad the Leafs had been at home as of late. (In their previous two home games they were shut out. First time in something like 41 years that the Buds had not scored a goal in two consecutive home games.

But instead the Leafs played very well - more like the early season Leafs. They still blew a 3-1 third period lead and ended up losing in a shootout. Fun game though and one more step towards a better shot at Tavares and the draft lottery.

And I posted these figures over in the NBA thread. It really isn't just my imagination we are having a tough winter here in Toronto. Both the Raps and Leafs are struggling and here's the proof of just how bad it is here.

We're No. 15!

Collective winning percentage of basketball and hockey teams in cities and areas that are home to both NBA and NHL clubs:

.758 Boston
.632 Detroit
.567 Denver
.539 New Jersey
.534 Phoenix
.517 Philadelphia
.506 Dallas
.494 Miami
.489 Chicago
.480 L.A.
.471 Atlanta
.438 Washington
.433 New York
.419 Minnesota
.363 Toronto

Sigh!

The Flyers come out of the All-Star break with a 1-2 road trip, capped off by a 4-0 loss at St. Louis, the worst team in the West. Are they headed for a swoon like they did last year? Their next 2 games are against Boston -- the Bruins already have 80 points.

Ottawa fires Craig Hartsburg after 48 games. The replacement is their AHL team's coach, Cory Clouston. That's 4 coaches in the last two seasons. They fired John Paddock during his first season as coach and GM Bryan Murray took over for the rest of the season. I'm wondering why Murray has a job. This team is clearly a mess.

Well, maybe not a total swoon. They've got some players (including Mike Richards, who missed both games) struggling with the flu. Bruins won on Wednesday 3-1 and took a 3-1 first-period lead today with 2 goals nine seconds apart late in the first period, but the Flyers came back and won 4-3 in overtime.

If you believe in the term "possible Stanley Cup finals preview" there's a game for you on Versus tonight: San Jose (36-7-7, 1st in the West) at Boston (39-8-7, 1st in the East).

Newsflash - Leafs get a coach fired - and it's not their own!

I was wondering if Michel Therrien's job was in jeopardy when I watched the Leafs run roughshod over the Pens right in Pittsburgh in late December 7-3. I thought for sure the Pens would get their revenge when they came to Toronto two weeks ago Saturday - but lo and behold - the Leafs outplayed the Pens again and won 5-4. So after the Leafs abysmal play last week in two embarrassing losses to Florida and Tampa Bay - I was certain we were in for a long night as I got ready to head to the ACC for the Pens second Saturday night visit in two weeks. And sure enough in the early going the Pens jumped out to a 2-0 lead. But then the second and third period were almost impossible to believe. The Leafs DOMINATED last year's Stanley Cup finalists. In fact there was not one single face-off in the Leafs' zone for the entire second period as the Leafs scored six unanswered goals to beat the Pens 6-2.

And as a result - the Pens fired their coach.

Next game I have tickets for should be quite the emotional one. Mats Sundin returns to the ACC this Saturday as the Canucks visit the Leafs. I'm sure the majority of fans will give him a warm welcome - but I know some Leaf fans have not forgiven him for not waiving his no-trade contract last year, and as a result the Leafs ended up with nothing for him. It should be interesting to see the reaction to his return

There are other teams that may resort to changing coaches. Anaheim is barely in 8th place in the West, and gave up 8 goals to Atlanta the other night. And the Rangers, who ran off to such a hot start, just lost again -- after getting throttled by the Flyers yesterday on NBC -- and are 1-6-2 in their last 9. The Rangers' question is what will happen first: will Tom Renney be fired or will Sean Avery be rehired?

In that game yesterday the Flyers' Mike Richards became the first player in NHL history to score three 5-on-3 shorthanded goals in his career.