Today's open discussion thread, complete with your daily dose of Philadelphia Flyers-related news and notes...

• Former Phantoms coach Joe Paterson talked about his firing: [PostStar.com]
• The article built around the above conversation: [PostStar.com]
• Evaluating where Justin Schultz could end up, with Philadelphia a dark horse: [Angus Certified]
• Former Flyer Luke Richardson was named head coach of the Binghamton Senators: [SBNation.com]
• Then and now with Marcus Ragnarsson: [Flyers Faithful]
• A nice look at how the narratives surrounding Jeff Carter, Mike Richards, and Dustin Penner changed over the last year. Oh, and the inclusion of something I wrote a while ago doesn't hurt: [Puck Daddy]
• Jonathan Quick is a huge part of the Kings success, but they are beating teams on top of that too: [SBNation.com]
• And they are beating everyone the same way: [SBNation.com]
• Praising the Coyotes for a great season despite continued drama off the ice: [SBNation.com]
• Game 5 was the highest rated game of the series, higher than last year's Western Conference Final Game 5: [SBNation.com]
• A good look at what players from non-elite hockey countries have to go through, using Anze Kopitar as an example: [Backhand Shelf]
• Hey look, an Inquirer sports writer reacts horribly to Kevin Garnett implying Sixers fans are fair weather: [Deadspin]
• The CBC has a new show called "While the Men Watch Hockey Night". More than a few people expressed displeasure at this: [Puck Daddy] [Deadspin]

Thursday night in Europe (and 3pm on the East Coast), the second semifinal will be contested and the final 10 qualifiers to the final of Eurovision 2012 will be determined. The show doesn't actually start until midnight in Baku due to the massive time difference between Azerbaijan and the majority of Europe, so everybody will look decidedly sleepy by the time it ends.

After the jump, some quick pre-thoughts and predictions on the second semifinal and the next 10 entries our catalog of Eurovision WTFs.

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In early February, I was playing around with Hockey Reference and stumbled upon just how rare it was to have a 25 year old rookie perform as Matt Read had up to that point. I won't tell you how rare, because I would deprive you of my fantastic Charlie and the Chocolate Factory references littered throughout the post.

But I am here to update that post and see how rare his full season was. Matt Read was a 25 year old rookie who scored 24 goals and 47 points in 79 games. So we use Hockey Reference's fantastic Play Index and run (1) rookie (2) skater (3) age 25 or older* (4) with at least 60 games played (5) 24 goals scored and (6) 45 points.

First, though, some background. Since 1917, there have been 1,046 players to debut at age 25 or older. Of those, only 595 players scored even a single goal in that rookie season. That's already pretty uncommon, but just how rare is Matt Read?

• Only 14 players since 1917 did what Matt Read did this year.
• Of those 14, one occurred in the Original Six era and four occurred in the first year after the NHL and WHA merged (with three of the four on former WHA teams).
• Matt Read is the only player to do this since the lockout. The lockout of 1994.
• The last player to do this was German Titov, who at age 28 scored 27 goals and 18 assists in 76 games for the 1993-93 Flames. He went on to have a pretty solid career considering.

So good job, Matt. You are in the 98.7th percentile of NHL players over the last 95 years. A truly remarkable accomplishment

* Hockey Reference judges age as of February 1st of that year.

Today's open discussion thread, complete with your daily dose of Philadelphia Flyers-related news and notes...

• Flyers assistant coach Craig Berube said he would be interested in the Capitals head coaching job if approached: [CSNWashington]
• Point/Counterpoint: Matt Carle or Ryan Suter? [Flyers Faithful]
• Brendan Ranford is waiting for a contract: [Kamloops Daily News]
• Reviewing Game 3 of the 1987 Stanley Cup Finals: [Flyers Faithful]
• In case you missed it yesterday, Claude Giroux played beer pong, corn-hole, and more while imbibing: [Deadspin] (More on Claude's weekend after the jump).
  
• Bethlehem Township commissioners rejected an offer to settle their lawsuit against the Phantoms on Monday: [mcall.com]
• Hanover Township followed Bethlehem and rejected the settlement offer on Tuesday night: [mcall.com]
• Recap from Greg Brownell on the Phantoms Allentown situation: [Post Star]
• Drew Doughty was angry last night: [Backhand Shelf]
• Dustin Brown hit Michal Rozsival just after a whistle for off sides in what some are calling a knee-on-knee collision. Others disagree: [Backhand Shelf]
• Two people who disagree about it - Mike Milbury and Jeremy Roenick: [Puck Daddy]
• Not surprisingly, the Kings and Coyotes disagree: [NHL.com]
• This led to a contentious handshake line where Martin Hanzal (suspended for boarding) and Shane Doan (game misconduct for boarding) told Dustin Brown how unhappy they were: [Puck Daddy]
• Mike Smith had a reasonable reaction to the hit, saying Brown should be "done forever": [Puck Daddy]
• The Kings gave Rainn Wilson (Dwight Schrute) free playoff tickets on the condition they could deliver them in Jell-O: [Puck Daddy]
• The Kings also published a fantastic infographic so people stop confusing them with the Sacramento Kings: [Jewels From The Crown] [Deadspin]
• Analyzing the Devils second goal frame by frame: [Backhand Shelf]
• Another reminder of what sort of point production is fair to expect from your second line center, using Sam Gagner as an example: [The Copper & Blue]
• How much do zone starts impact a player's point production? [NHLNumbers.com]
• Is Mike Smith a good goalie or did he just have a good season? [Brodeur is a Fraud]
• Comparing Martin Brodeur and Henrik Lundqvist: [Down Goes Brown]

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After the jump, a quick recap of Tuesday's first semifinal and the next installment of our walk down ESC WTF ST. So, so much. Next time you feel sad, I hope you remember how lucky you were in this moment.

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The Flyers have fired Adirondack Phantoms head coach Joe Paterson after about a year and a half on the job, news announced by Paul Holmgren Tuesday afternoon. Paterson was hired as coach in December 2010 and had just completed his first full season with the organization.

"As an organization, we feel the Phantoms need a new voice moving forward," Holmgren said in a press release. "We would like to thank Joe for his hard work and service to the Phantoms over the past season and a half, but we feel a new direction is needed at this time."

This is kind of a shock, honestly, and it feels like Paterson's a bit of a scapegoat here.

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This week, SB Nation will unveil its winners for seven different NHL awards. Bloggers from across our hockey network have voted on the awards, and today we continue with the Norris Trophy, handed out each year to the NHL's top defenseman. Andreas Lilja was snubbed, so please contain your disappointment.

Over at SBNation.com today, you can find the our network selection for the 2012 James Norris Memorial Trophy. Chris Pronger's a perennial candidate for this award, but that's obviously not the case this year. [sad face]

While some undeserving candidates may have picked up votes in SB Nation's voting (seriously, go over there and see some of those guys who got votes), the ultimate winner of the award is quite deserving. Shea Weber won the award in our voting, with Zdeno Chara ranking second and Erik Karlsson ranking third. Below the jump, we'll unveil our ballots.

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The Penn State Nittany Lions will ice a Division 1 hockey program for the first time since the 1940s this fall, and they unveiled their schedule for the 2012-13 season on Tuesday. With that schedule, we learned that the team will play games at both the Wells Fargo Center in South Philadelphia and CONSOL Energy Center in Pittsburgh.

The Nittany Lions come to Philadelphia for a game against Hockey East opponent Vermont on Saturday, January 19. The full schedule can be viewed at GoPSUSports.com.

In their inaugural season, PSU will compete as an independent program. College hockey is in the midst of conference realignment chaos much like other Div. 1 sports around the country, and the Nittany Lions are expected to join a new Big Ten hockey conference in 2013-14.

The University's brand new, 6,000-seat Pegula Ice Arena will be completed in time for the program's second season. For now, they'll play games at the Greenburg Ice Pavilion on the State College campus.

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