Flyers Sweep Home-and-Home, Win 4 Straight Heading Into Break

by Geoff Detweiler on Feb 13, 2010 10:05 PM EST in 09-10 Game Recaps

It wasn't long ago that the Olympic Break was looked at favorably. After sweeping two home-and-homes against New Jersey and Montreal, the Flyers probably wish they could play again tomorrow.

Danny Briere, a favorite in Montreal, led the way with a hat trick, while Jeff Carter, Mike Richards, and Blair Betts each added a goal. Michael Leighton again was solid, stopping 26 Montreal shots.

The Flyers have now given up 2 goals or less in their last 8 games, going 6-2 during that span. That's definitely something to be proud of.

A lot was made before the game about Darroll Powe's hit on Jaroslav Spacek last night, and more will likely come after he got called for a boarding minor tonight too. This time, the play wasn't nearly as bad, but it did make Mike Boone proclaim, "Darroll Powe ... again. God, they're dirty. In a 5-1 game." Well, agree to disagree. At least we can agree on this: "They’re just better. They have more good players. What are you gonna do?"

Not much to say here since the Flyers played a fantastic game. They scored goals at even-strength, on the power-play, on the penalty kill, and on a penalty shot. The only thing missing was an empty-net goal. That's some pretty good domination.

After the jump, Questions with Answers and Comment of the Night.

Questions with Answers:

Does the game live up to the hype, physically? Not really. Mainly just Laperriere's opening minute fight and Powe getting another boarding (minor) penalty. A few scrums, nothing major.
There were rumors that the Canadiens wanted Jeff Carter in a trade for Jaroslav Halak earlier this year. Can Carter prove, one-on-one against Halak, that the Flyers have made the right decision in not making that trade? This was a yes. Carter pounded home a rebound against him in the first, not really a one-on-one, but Carter scoring and Halak getting yanked gives the edge to Carter.
Any mention of Mike Boone's Hitler reference during the CSN broadcast tonight? Not that I heard. Anybody?
Hey, power play. Wanna come out and play tonight? Oh, they did. Two for four on the night.

Comment of the Night:

We are now changing the Philadelphia Flyers to the Philadelphia Luftwaffe.

LegionofDoom

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Comments

Well well well.

It’s almost as if the entire Flyers team turned to their captain and said in unison, “We’re awesome, Mike!”

The Flyers displayed excellent asswhoopmanship during that game. Hartnell had another solid outing. If he plays like that for the rest of the year I think all will be forgiven. Or at least a good chunk will be.

Do you see what happens when you find a stranger in the Alps?

by mikefive on Feb 13, 2010 10:16 PM EST reply actions

What a way to start off the Olympic break. Back to back sweeps and awesome effort on all sides of the ice.

Way to go Flyers. I mean Luftwaffe.

by LegionofDoom on Feb 13, 2010 10:38 PM EST via mobile reply actions

Anyone else think that 6th place is the perfect spot for the flyers? At least they will play a team that they can compete with.

"NO HONOR"

by JpH89 on Feb 13, 2010 10:48 PM EST reply actions

I’d rather be 6th than 5th if NJ wins the Division. I think we can beat the Pens, but not in the first round.

by You don't have to be sweet, to be good on Feb 13, 2010 11:07 PM EST up reply actions

Glad to end on such a good note

by Prometheus74 on Feb 13, 2010 11:09 PM EST reply actions

Combine the weird ramblings in Boone’s live blog with the Hitler remark I have to wonder whether or not the guy is always like this. Although I am tempted to call him a few things in Yiddish on the voicemail for the radio show, seems appropriate somehow.

The good news is we wanted to go into break on a good note, and we accomplished that. It was good to see Briere back on his game tonight, too. I expect to find some enjoyable rants by Habs fans insulting Briere if I go looking in the morning.

For the next two weeks, I don’t mind them getting a chance to recover; the only thing that scares me a bit is that some of them may take it too easy over the break. We know Lavvy had them work to get their stamina up over these last 2 months, if we come back from the break and look out of shape for the first two or three games I’ll be quite angry. I normally wouldn’t worry about such a thing, but since motivation isn’t exactly a constant with this group, it’s nagging me just a little bit.

(On an off-topic note, I guess since we routed the Canadiens somebody else had to get routed in turn; I just heard the Canadian Women’s team beat Slovakia 18-0 tonight… ouch!)

by DragonGirl0583 on Feb 13, 2010 11:40 PM EST reply actions

I’m guessing you won’t be restraining yourself to calling him a schlemiel?

"When you make your final stand
I'll be right there
I'll never leave
And all I ask of you is
Believe"

by The Dark on Feb 15, 2010 10:22 AM EST up reply actions

Hehe, the thing with Yiddish is there are almost no nice words in the language at all, so there’s plenty to choose from if I decide to actually do it.

by DragonGirl0583 on Feb 15, 2010 11:50 AM EST up reply actions

True, and even the nice words don’t always sound like it. I sometimes think you could recite a recipe in Yiddish and sound like you were cussing someone out.

"When you make your final stand
I'll be right there
I'll never leave
And all I ask of you is
Believe"

by The Dark on Feb 15, 2010 12:18 PM EST up reply actions

That makes sense considering Yiddish is derived from German and nothing in German sounds remotely nice or kind. I was on a flight to Vienna, Austria in December and felt like they were cursing at me the entire time they were giving safety instructions, haha.

by Mitchell Green on Feb 15, 2010 2:33 PM EST up reply actions

So…what did I miss? Anything good?

"Tortorella’s got it all wrong ... Gaborik shouldn’t be messing with our skilled player." -Peter Luuko

by doubleh on Feb 14, 2010 12:19 AM EST reply actions

This is why I love this organization. For all the shit it takes, it seems like these are the games they win more often than not.

by Ben Feldman on Feb 14, 2010 12:21 AM EST reply actions

This is why they say you shouldn’t poke the bear. Montreal poked the bear last night.

"Tortorella’s got it all wrong ... Gaborik shouldn’t be messing with our skilled player." -Peter Luuko

by doubleh on Feb 14, 2010 12:22 AM EST up reply actions

Timothy Treadwell, American bear enthusiast whose life among the 1500 lbs omnivores was the subject of Werner Herzog’s documentary Grizzly Man, sadly didn’t get the memo

Such is the the fate of those who think I value friendship over the half-eaten Snickers bar still in their pants pocket

by j reed on Feb 14, 2010 1:20 AM EST up reply actions

By the way, I find some personal satisfaction in the fact that Briere scored a hat trick on these f’ers. (I’m sure he does, too)

"Tortorella’s got it all wrong ... Gaborik shouldn’t be messing with our skilled player." -Peter Luuko

by doubleh on Feb 14, 2010 12:34 AM EST reply actions

You’re not the only one. I was jumping up and down and screaming and laughing when he scored it on that penalty shot.

Anything to spite the Habs and their fans.

Proudly supporting a Flyers team with "no honor".

by Justin F. on Feb 14, 2010 12:44 AM EST up reply actions

Now I see why they hate him so much up there. It’s not just that he spurned their contract offer and didn’t want to play for them; it’s that he chose to play for the Flyers (for less money than the Habs reportedly offered) over them. Since Philly represents all that’s bad about hockey, it must really burn their collective asses that he’d rather play for Philly than his “home team”. Eh, he was probably a Nordiques fan anyway.

"Tortorella’s got it all wrong ... Gaborik shouldn’t be messing with our skilled player." -Peter Luuko

by doubleh on Feb 14, 2010 12:52 AM EST up reply actions

+1

Eh, he was probably a Nordiques fan anyway.

NICE

by chrislanci on Feb 14, 2010 1:19 AM EST up reply actions

You got me curious, so I searched for it…

According to one article from two yers ago about how much Montreal hates him (by SanFilippo) our Danny was a Habs fan. Well, there was no team in Ottawa at the time, so they were geographically the closest at roughly 2 hours. Ottawa would have been all of 10 minutes (well, 25 or 30 to get to the middle of nowhere of ScotiaBank Place).

In light of tonight’s game, the article is extra hilarious

by DragonGirl0583 on Feb 14, 2010 1:26 AM EST up reply actions

Wasn’t Biron a Nordiques fan?…I’m sure they are fumming over that ’08 post season asskicking.

by j reed on Feb 14, 2010 1:43 AM EST up reply actions

They fume over the meager fact that there is a team that dares to play an ugly, hard-hitting, and aggressive hockey game, when they, the oh so beautiful and perfect Habs, prefer a much more prettier and finesse style of hockey.

Proudly supporting a Flyers team with "no honor".

by Justin F. on Feb 14, 2010 1:48 AM EST up reply actions

prefer a much more prettier and finesse style of hockey

how many teams do you think this applies to these days with the game changing to favor more offense? And are do these differences characterize the conferences?…[like how NFC football used to more defensive, in the trenches slug fest and the AFC was pass happy].

by j reed on Feb 14, 2010 2:06 AM EST up reply actions

Yeah, Biron was a Nordiques fan, so was Gagne. They’re both from the city, so it makes perfect sense (Lac-Ste-Charles and Ste-Foy were both amalgamated into Quebec city a few years ago, but they’re listed as the original towns in their bios). Lappy and Giroux were Habs fans, while we’re covering the French Canadians on the roster…

by DragonGirl0583 on Feb 14, 2010 2:02 AM EST up reply actions

Hartnell was out of his mind last night who knew switching wings could make such a big difference for that line. Briere despite disappearing sometimes does extremely well under pressure in the Canadian Forum, your home town on a penalty shot for a hat trick getting booed like crazy nothing but net.

Onto Powe I see that friggin play almost every night in the NHL it is not dirty it is hockey not our fault the your GM decided to go with mites on ice, can a team get any smaller up front every hit is going to seem high. MTL has 4 forwards over 6ft and 4 forwards over 200lbs, plus 3 guys under 5ft 10in who are also under 185lbs, for comparison we have 7 forwards over 6ft and 9 forwards playing at or above 200lbs. Good luck with that lineup.

by chrislanci on Feb 14, 2010 1:29 AM EST reply actions

I was impressed with their stamina, usually they tend to look a little slow on the draw during the second of back -to-back games

by j reed on Feb 14, 2010 1:47 AM EST reply actions

Quote from Briere last night referrring to their last four games:
"Looking back, I think we probably would have been happy with a split in both games," Briere said. "But coming out with four wins, this is huge for us and it’s a good way to set us up for after the break."

Would a Stanley Cup team be happy winning two out of four games ever?

by Flyers on Feb 14, 2010 8:24 AM EST reply actions

He was being realistic. Prior to these 4 games they did lose against EDMONTON and Minnesota. I don’t think any of them were thinking they were going to sweep the Devils and Canadiens going into the break..

by edbro on Feb 14, 2010 10:06 AM EST up reply actions