The Headband Duo

Jimmy Butler and Ben Simmons are both rocking headbands and playing great defense and growing chemistry. 76ers keep winning at home and have a big road trip ahead.

No Place Like Home

The 76ers after their slip up against Cleveland have still dominated at Wells Fargo Center. They are now 13-1 at home this season. The 76ers had an absolute beat down of the Knicks last Wednesday night and then another one to the Wizards last Friday night. Both these games saw the bench get plenty of playing time when the Sixers were up by 30 points on the Knicks and 25+ points on the Wizards. JJ Redick was the hot hand for the Sixers vs the Kicks by having a 71.4% field goal percentage and connecting on 4 of 6 three pointers. JJ and Embiid lead the Sixers to a big win ending in a final of 117 to 91. The Wizards game all around was a great team win everyone that got to play did work and played well. The shooting by both teams was pretty poor the Wizards had a 40.2% FG and the Sixers only had a 43.9%. Then to end the home stand the Sixers got to play Memphis who they lost to earlier in the season in a close OT game when the team was short-handed from getting Butler from Minnesota. So, Philly was looking for a little revenge with their new team. Four out of the five starters played for 30+ minutes and carried the team to a strong defensive win in the end. The Sixers over their last three games have been able to hold their opponents under 100 points and were able to break 100 points themselves. Jimmy Butler came up Mr. clutch again in the 4th quarter by picking up 13 of his 21 points and also having some crucial defensive moments in the 4th quarter. Joel Embiid also has been able to have a double-double in 24 of the 25 games he has played so far this season. He is also one of the leading candidates for league MVP this year.

Headband of Brothers

Butler and Simmons started to wear headbands together and are kind of using the look as a chemistry thing and having fun playing together. Since Butler has joined the Sixers Ben Simmons has been outstanding he has played such a great two-way game with Butler and Embiid and having confidence with his shooters around him. The flaw the Sixers have had this season so far is being able to close out games convincingly and these past three games at home have been pretty convincing behind great team defense which is what Brett Brown strives his system to be built on. A quote from Brett Brown about the relationship that has formed between Ben and Jimmy was “I’ve asked Jimmy to put Ben under his wing, and really help Ben be all he can be defensively.”

Short Road Trip Ahead

The Sixers now find themselves on the road against two strong teams this week in the Toronto Raptors on Wednesday and Blake Griffin and the Pistons on Friday, before they get to go back to Wells Fargo Center for another 3 game stretch. The Toronto Raptors are looking very dangerous this year with Kawhi and Lowry and will be a big test for this Sixers team that has been starting to gel together and getting the job done at home. This match up on Wednesday could very be a little preview to a potential Eastern Conference Final series this year in the Playoffs. The Sixers already lost to the Raptors earlier in the season at the end of October, but this was with the team they started the season with when Dario and Covington were still here. The team stats compared to each other this season are very close together with the Raptors holding a slight advantage in their field goal percentage and free throw percentage. This will be an exciting game to watch to see how this new starting five will look against this dangerous Raptors team. The next game will be at Detroit. The pistons are a surprise so far this season and it has come from the very strong play of Blake Griffin. The Sixers lost to the Pistons in Detroit earlier this season in OT by one point when Blake was able to drop 50 points on the Sixers. The Sixers did win their last game against the pistons at home though. This is a home and home series they will be playing as the Sixers play away then home against the Pistons.

The Wrap Up

Sixers will have a big task with these next two away games, but they should take the challenge and assert themselves as a top favorite in the East at this point in the season if they can win these games. The team is playing great defense and Jimmy Butler and Ben Simmons chemistry are growing everyday. They practice, work, and train together to become better players. The headband fashion is a nice little marketing promo right now for the Sixers. The Sixers are the NBA’s best 13-1 at home and just love the Wells Fargo Center and playing in front of the “Philly Faithful.” The process is in full effect right now and this Sixers team is fun to watch.

Jimmy G. Buckets You Are a 76er!

The 76ers made a blockbuster trade acquiring Jimmy Butler who has played 7 games and already has made an enormous impact for the Sixers. Will the 76ers be favorites now to represent the Eastern Conference in the NBA Playoffs? Also in other Philadelphia sports news Flyers relieved Ron Hextall of his duties as GM and Executive VP.

Butler For Three!

The Philadelphia 76ers on November 10th made a trade with the Minnesota Timberwolves by sending Robert Covington, a fan favorite Dario Saric, Jerryd Bayless, and a 2022 second round draft pick for Jimmy Butler and Justin Patton. Jimmy Butler is a 4 time all-star who is one of the top two-way players in the NBA. Butler is a piece the Sixers have been looking for to be able to pair up with Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid. Jimmy shoots threes which Robert Covington and Dario Saric have been very inconsistent at and only left JJ Redick to make threes consistently after they lost Belinelli and Ilyasova in free agency over the summer. Brett Brown also prides his team style to play strong defense and the scoring will come with it. So, Jimmy Butler a great defensive, perimeter shooter, and clutch player in the NBA will be able to team up with two of the best young players in the Eastern Conference of the NBA. Butler’s first game with the 76ers was against the Magic on November 14th. The 76ers lost that game 106-111 but the team has been struggling on the road so far this season. It was also Jimmy’s first game to start getting acclimated with the team. The 76ers so far with Butler in the lineup have been 5-2.

In just 7 games so far with the 76ers Butler has made two game winning threes against the Hornets and the Nets. Butler has looked strong and eager to start playing with a new team after rumors of him being a toxic teammate and causing problems in the locker room. Jimmy’s comments, attitude, and play have shown the opposite of the rumors. The night in Charlotte, North Carolina Butler didn’t do too much scoring but he definitely made up for it by hitting the game winning step back three with .3 seconds left in OT. Jimmy’s heroics spoiled Kemba Walker’s 60 point performance, Kemba also scored more than half of his teams points which came out to be 59. Then 8 days later Jimmy Butler and Joel Embiid took over in an improbable comeback vs the Brooklyn Nets when they were down by 20 at one point in the game. Jimmy Butler scored 34 points and had 12 rebounds. Butler again like he did in Charlotte hit the game winning step back three with .4 seconds on the clock this time from the same exact spot on the court to end a comeback victory of 127-125. Jimmy Butler is definitely a 76er and the city loves it.

The Beasts of the East?

The 76ers with Jimmy Butler have looked like a really strong team that can win close games and have clutch players step up. The Sixers, Raptors, and Celtics were the clear-cut strongest teams that were predicted to be contenders this season after Lebron James left Cleveland to go to LA and join the Lakers. So far this season Toronto has looked very good with Kawhi Leonard and are in first place in the Eastern Conference. The story though for the Raptors is will this team be able to end its horrors of never being able to produce in the playoffs because Lebron was always there to stop them. One of the teams people overlooked were the Milwaukee Bucks. Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Bucks have looked impeccable so far this season and they are a really good team at home. The Bucks right now sit in 2nd behind Toronto. The Sixers are in third and have looked like a better team with Jimmy Butler than what they did with Saric and Covington because of the inconsistencies. Sixers are a powerhouse at home and finally lost a game to the lowly Cavs back on Black Friday. The Celtics started off hot between Kyrie, Tatum, and Gordon Hayward coming back from his season ending injury, but have found themselves in a little slump right now. It’s still early in the season and I’m sure the standings will change often, but right now the Sixers have to be pleased with how they are playing and think it’s a possibility of being the Eastern Conference Champs and play for the trophy and rings come June of 2019. I still give the edge to the Raptors of making it out of the East because the Sixers haven’t been too good on the road which is a must when the playoffs start and they are struggling to keep big leads and making games more difficult than they should be.

The Flyers Shake Up

The Philadelphia Flyers on Monday, November 26th announced they have relieved Ron Hextall of his duties as GM and Executive VP. This was kind of shocker that Hextall was the first to go instead of the head coach Dave Hakstol who has been so inconsistent and bad for the last couple of seasons that the fans are fed up and angered at what this team puts out on the ice. The Flyers hockey universe has been making speculations that Hextall might have been fired because he wouldn’t fire Hakstol himself and this is the hill he decided to die on. I liked Hextall, he did a lot of good things for this franchise by getting us out of the salary cap debt we were in and building a very strong prospect pool. This doesn’t give him a scape goat though to not shake things up when it is needed. You can be only patient so much but something has got to give. Hextall kept stating that this team needed to start producing quickly or somethings going to happen, but Hextall never pulled the trigger when it came down to it. Now the Flyers wait for whoever their next GM will be which has been stated that they would have full control over the coaching staff when they come in to start their duties. So the clock is ticking on what might be the last couple of days Dave Hakstol is the head coach of the Philadelphia Flyers.

Conclusion

The 76ers made a great deal on acquiring Jimmy Butler who has shown his worth already in the first 7 games of being on this team. The team needs to make sure they can resign him though when his contract expires in the summer after the season. The 76ers are looking dangerous right now and if they can figure out how to start winning most of the time on the road and closing out games and not blowing leads they might very well find themselves playing in the NBA Finals come June of 2019. Then the Flyers finally made some noise by firing Ron Hextall and have began their search for a new GM that will have full control of the coaching staff of this team and hopefully will fire Hakstol when they get here. Philly fans rejoice we might start seeing results again from our sports teams instead of the stagnant inconsistencies that have plagued our city’s sports for years.

Oh Captain My Captain

The Philadelphia Flyers seem to have caught some sort of mojo as they have been 5-0-1 in their last six games. Claude Giroux has been stuffing the score sheet with 8 points in the last 3 games. The team also finally found ways to start getting results at home.

Introduction

This week I will be focusing on the emergence of Claude Giroux’s offense and looking at why he was named one of the three NHL stars of the week. The team has started to find success at home. Then I will look at what’s next for the Flyers as to where they stand in the Metro division, status update on JVR, and their next opponent.

A Star of the Week

Claude Giroux was just named one of the NHL’s star of the week after posting 8 points (3 goals – 5 assists) in the Flyers last 3 games. Giroux’s strong play has helped ignite the offense for the Flyers who were desperate for wins at home after coming back from a very successful road trip. Claude has had 2 or 3 points in each of his last three games. Giroux’s best game of the season so far was probably the 4-0 shutout of the Chicago Blackhawks. Giroux opened up the scoring in the 1st period with a nifty backhand goal after receiving a gift of a turnover from Duncan Keith below his goal line. Giroux then received 2 assists on the next two goals by Sean Couturier. Giroux ended up finishing the game this past Saturday with 3 points and a +4 rating.

Winning at Home

The Philadelphia Flyers opened up a home stand last Thursday Night against the Arizona Coyotes and then had a game against the Blackhawks on Saturday afternoon. I ended going to the game on Thursday night vs Arizona and the Flyers were able to get out to a quick start. The Flyers scored twice within the first six minutes of the game with a a slick backhander by Travis Konecny and then Scott Laughton was able to put home a quick turnaround shot in front of the goalies crease. Then the same old tendencies started to show with the Flyers blowing leads and momentum that they established early in the game. The Flyers found themselves down 4-2 after two periods because the Flyers powerplay unit gave up two short-handed goals in the same two minute main advantage. The Flyers were booed off the ice going into the second intermission. The Flyers though came out ready to go for the third period. Scott Laughton in the game was all over the place he was always skating hard and giving tons of effort to make plays and he was rewarded with another goal in the third. Dale Weise with about two minutes left in the game was able to score a nice top shelf wrist shot on a break away. The Flyers finally showed some fight and perseverance to get the game into overtime. The Flyers had more great fore checking and hustle by veterans to be able to set up Shayne Gostisbehere for the OT winner. Game two of the home stand was the Flyers best team performance all season so far. They were able to shutout the Blackhawks 4-0 and have a strong day from all aspects of the team. Brian Elliot was very good with a 33 save shutout, Claude Giroux had 3 points as well as Sean Couturier.

What’s next?

The Flyers are expecting JVR to be back soon from his injury. JVR was a great player last year for Toronto and added depth and goal scoring for the Flyers, so losing JVR for about six weeks was pretty bad. He was cleared to start practicing again and cleared for contact on Monday to start working himself back into game ready shape. The Flyers will look to continue their success on Tuesday night at home when they host the Florida Panthers. Then finally after the horrendous and inconsistent start to the season the Flyers find themselves 3 points from 1st place in the Metro division even though the standings are quite crowded.

Flying High Away from Home

The Philadelphia Flyers just had a West Coast trip end with a win in Arizona last night and are heading back home for a 5 game home stand. The Flyers have been terrible at home but have had winning ways away from the Wells Fargo Center. From this road trip Nolan Patrick and Oskar Lindblom have shown their talent coming into fruition.

Introduction

I’m going to be focusing on the success the Flyers have had on this west coast road trip, My expectations for the team going back home where they desperately need to start winning and giving what Philly fans want to see, the impact from Nolan Patrick and Oskar Lindblom, and the injury prone Flyers goalies.

West Coast Success

So, the Flyers just wrapped up their west coast road trip with 3 wins and a loss in overtime which honestly should’ve been a win, but they have had their problems with being able to close out close games this season. The road trip started out in Anaheim where the Flyers won the game 3-2 with a late bounce back goal from Nolan Patrick 21 seconds after the Ducks tied it on the power play. Claude Giroux had two assists in the game and Patrick started his hot streak with a helper as well. The next game was against the LA Kings on November 1st. Giroux, Patrick, and Lindblom all added to their point streaks. Wayne Simmonds also continued his scoring ways in his old stomping grounds at the Staples Center. The Flyers ended up winning the game convincingly against a struggling Kings team 5-2. The third game in the road trip was played in San Jose where the Flyers had their final meeting with the Sharks this season. The Flyers were looking for revenge after being completely embarrassed in a 8-2 loss in their home opener against the Sharks in early October. The Flyers got off to a quick start with getting a goal in the first minute of the game. They ended up being ahead or tied for majority of the game. The Flyers couldn’t close out a one goal game in the third where the Sharks scored and then only 10 seconds into OT won the game. Flyers drop the game 4-3 and the Flyers favorite moto “at least we got a point” rang true after a game they were in control of. The final game of the trip ended out in the dessert against a red hot Coyotes team who were on a five game win streak. The Flyers won the game 5-2 after a outstanding night by the captain Claude Giroux who tallied 2 goals and an assist. Lindblom and Patrick also continued their point streaks to four games.

Heading Back Home

The Flyers are going back home for a 5 game home stand and have 7 out of 9 at home the rest of November. The team needs to start winning at home and give the fans some entertainment. I think the rest of this month is going to be a big moment for the Flyers and some of the personnel. If the Flyers sink at home coming up then Dave Hakstol should lose his job even though he should’ve lost it a while ago to be honest. The team can’t freeze up and they need to play a full 60 minutes because this season so far at home has been the team falling behind and only waking up and start playing after they dig themselves into a multi goal deficit. My expectations for this team in the rest of November is to win 5 out of the 7 home games and win one of the away games to close out the month of November with a record of 8-3-1 or 8-2-2.

The Young Guns

At the start of this road trip the Flyers were in desperate need of offense. Nolan Patrick, Oscar Lindblom, and Claude Giroux stepped up to the challenge and started producing. Patrick and Lindblom have had one point or multi point games during the west coast road trip. Giroux ended the trip with a bang having 3 points on Monday night in Arizona. Oskar Lindblom tallied up 6 points in the last 4 games. He had two multi point games and had 2 goals and 4 assists. Nolan Patrick found himself on the score sheet with 6 points with 2 multi point games and had 2 goals and 4 assists. So, Patrick and Lindblom produced the same stat line in the last four games and have sparked this teams energy and motivation to play hockey. If this duo can keep hot this will make the Flyers an exciting and interesting bunch after JVR comes back from IR.

More Injured Goalies…

The never ending torture of watching the Flyers carousel of goalies go in and out of the lineup will never end. Monday the team released a statement that Michael Neuvirth was placed on IR again after just coming off it and playing one game which was an awful performance by him. Also on Monday Hextall announced that Brian Elliot would be going back to Philadelphia and be checked out by team doctors after being ran into in practice on Sunday by Travis Konecny and reporting concussion like symptoms. So, the Flyers tandem for the time being is Cal Pickard who picked up a win in Arizona Monday night and Alex Lyon who was called up from the Phantoms. This is a painful time just sitting waiting for Carter Hart to develop who is being sought as the Flyers savior in net, but it’s the right thing to do instead of risking his development when the teams defense has not been great up until the recent games.

Philadelphia Flyers and the Embarrassing Front Office

The Philadelphia Flyers are awful right now injuries, penalty kill, coaching, goal tending, and even offense. Hextall needs to wipe this coaching core and start fresh because the people in Philly are tired of the same mediocrity year after year.

Introduction

I am going to talk about the absolute train wreck the Philadelphia Flyers are right now this season and what changes I think that need to happen. The Flyers are repeatedly losing badly there are no close games, they just get blown out by score lines of 4-1 to 6-1. The team has no passion, no effort, and just embarrassing themselves on home ice. This team is going nowhere and is just stuck in the same ways it has been for the past 4 seasons.

Hextall it is Time to Stop

The Flyers this season have a better team than they did a year ago and they made the playoffs. This season they are embarrassing and Philly fans are about done with this patient tactic from Hextall. The Flyers have been mediocre for the past couple of years and have not try to initiate a full rebuild it’s always been a rebuild on the fly where we make the playoffs to just get blown out in the first round. The number one thing Hextall needs to do for this organization is fire everyone in our coaching staff or at least Hakstol and Laperriere. This team has constantly looked lost and have had no energy and motivation to play for Hakstol anymore and that is a telling sign that Hakstol and his stone face need to get out of Philly. Hakstol’s decision as well on who to play on a nightly basis is just bizarre and destroys all development of young players that deserve a shot to get NHL experience. He literally benches very good young players for old veterans who have done nothing but hurt this team season after season. Ron Hextall a couple of days ago in an interview said “I’m a patient guy, but things around here need to get going fast.” Well obviously not fast enough because this team after that quote was shutout in Boston last Thursday night 3-0 and then absolutely destroyed against a joke of an Islanders team at home on Saturday 6-1. So what are we waiting for? We are all sick and tired of seeing the same product on the ice provided to us by the players and the coaching staff and having no backing to encourage our players. We get blown out 6-1 and Dave Hakstol just sits behind the bench silent doing nothing standing there looking like a lost puppy. Then our penalty kill is always ranked in the bottom of the NHL the past four seasons and haven’t improved the slightest this season with Ian Laperriere being the coach for the PK the past four years. So please we beg you to start a new chapter for this franchise and cut the dead weight and bring in fresh faces to energize this team. We fire Laviolette when he goes 0-3 to start a season but when we are 4-7 and have conceded the most goals in the NHL with 46 in 11 games Hakstol is okay and can stay.

The Philadelphia Injury Plague

Name a better duo Philadelphia sports teams and injured players. I’ll wait. You can’t that’s why because this Flyers team is having the fate as the other major sports teams in this city. Nobody can stay healthy and it has been hurting us constantly. The Flyers lose JVR second game of the season there goes scoring depth, Michael Raffl is out 4-6 weeks, McDonald gets hurt and is out for a period of time. It just keeps going. There is no consistency or chemistry with this team right now and it’s painfully obvious when you watch them play each night and lose horribly. The constant swapping of players each night also just erases any chemistry and development the younger players have in the NHL with their teammates because they are forced to watch a terrible team play from the press box each night. Thanks Hakstol your bad decisions once again making this team worse than it already is.

Goal Tending Curse

The Flyers can’t get a single goalie to perform well between the pipes consistently, the tandem of the Flyers is just a mess Elliot is good one night then the next three games he is awful. Neuvirth can never stay healthy then he comes back and is inconsistent. The Calvin Pickard who we got before the season because Neuvirth was injured can’t play well either. So every night we have a liability in net and then the defense doesn’t help either. People want to see Carter Hart play, but this is one of the worst decisions you can make right now by putting a rookie goalie into net and destroy his confidence and moral in the NHL because they won’t be able to feel comfortable and play.

Conclusion

So the Flyers need to go by one piece at a time and start changing this franchise around and that starts with new faces behind the bench coaching. Hit the restart button and hopefully bring life into this team with new leadership because right now we are a laughing-stock in the NHL of being always patient and settling for mediocrity. The PK needs a new coach and system to maybe perform better because its hard to win games when your PK can barely kill penalties and you are always playing from behind. Then finally it’s unfortunate, but the Flyers can’t risk hurting the development of Hart by putting him in net for this train wreck because it will ruin him. I see Hart playing only when we fix our defensive problems and when our offense can consistently produce and support our goal tending.

Sources

https://www.nhl.com/flyers/roster

https://www.nhl.com/standings/2018/league

Flyers Hit Jackpot in Vegas, Crash and Burn in Colorado

NHL hockey and Flyers hockey is back as they opened their 2018-2019 season off in Vegas and Colorado where they split games.

Introduction

This post will focus on the first two games of the Philadelphia Flyers 2018-2019 season. I will give the positives and negatives from the first and second games of the season where the Flyers split 1-1. Then I will give my thoughts on what is to come when the Flyers return home for their home opener on Tuesday, October 9th.

Striking Gold in Vegas

The Philadelphia Flyers seem like they always get stuck opening the season on the road in the West. The Flyers last Thursday night were going into T-Mobile Arena in Sin City to open their season against the Golden Knights who came off their miracle run to the Stanley Cup Finals in their inaugural season. So, the Flyers were going into a place that would be rocking and will have a lot of energy to start the season. The Flyers did well being able to contain the pressure and weather the first five minutes of the game, until Andrew McDonald got lost on the ice and let a speedy John Marchessault take the puck into our zone on a busted line change and snap a quick wrist shot into the top right corner past Brian Elliot. After the goal the Flyers settled into the game and controlled the rest of the game by scoring two goals in the first period with Oskar Lindblom opening the scoring for the Flyers and a healthy Wayne Simmonds cashing in on a rebound at the net. The Flyers then tallied on three goals in the second period with goals from Wayne Simmonds, Robert Hagg, and Scott Laughton. The Flyers didn’t score in the third and rounded out their season opener with a 5-2 win against the Stanley Cup runner ups.

Not Flying High in Mile High

The Flyers on Saturday were looking to go 2-0 in their first two games of a season since 2011-2012 season. The Flyers didn’t have a great start to the game and were caught chasing early when Colin Wilson scored 1:35 in. Sean Couturier answered back with his first of the season about 6 minutes later. The Avs were able to score again in the first and take the lead at the first intermission. Two minutes in the second the Flyers Rookie Mikhail Vorobyev got a gift for his first NHL goal after a member of the Avs defense ran into Varlamov and the puck sat right in front of an empty net. After this point the Flyers offense went quiet where they were not able to respond to the pressure of the Avs and ended up losing the game 2-5.

Positives

Brain Elliot looked very good in goal for the Flyers so far this season. He made a lot of big timely saves during both games to keep the Flyers in those games and gave them a chance to win. The Flyers have had an everlasting issue with consistency with goal tending, but if Elliot can play like he has and gets some support from our defense he should be in for a great year. Another positive was the Flyers penalty kill looked strong in the opening two games which is an area the Flyers must improve this year if they want to win games. The PK this season is 6 for 7 which leaves them at an 86% penalty kill ratio heading into their home opener. A healthy Wayne Simmonds is back, and the Wayne Train was rolling in Vegas where he picked up his first and second goals of the season. Another surprise was Mikhail Vorobyev, the rookie made the Flyers this season after having a very productive preseason in terms of scoring and showing his strength and hockey IQ. He was able to pick up his first point of the season with an assist in Vegas and his 1st career goal in Colorado.

Negatives

After the Flyers first two games of the season the glaring negatives on this team are the defensive side, Andrew McDonald looks lost as always and Gudas picked up right where he left off on trying to throw games like he did in last season’s playoffs against the Penguins. In Vegas the Flyers were able to survive all the miscues with these two because of great goal tending and an offensive burst, but in Colorado the defense was the ultimate downfall in Saturday night’s loss to the Avalanche. Radko Gudas turned the puck over too many times in Vegas and Hakstol didn’t like it so he brought up Christian Folin from Lehigh Valley for his first NHL start. Folin had a poor preseason and it showed on Saturday night. Folin turned the puck over numerous times in our own defensive zone and one of those turnovers lead to an Avalanche goal which kills any momentum the Flyers were trying to build. The Flyers over the off-season brought back long time Flyer James Van Riemsdyk who just had a career season in Toronto by scoring goals. His ability to score goals would help the Flyers who lacked scoring depth while even strength last season and seemed like the only production was from the top 2 lines. Well the hope of having him for scoring depth has gone away for 5-6 weeks after JVR was hit in the side of the right knee with a clearing attempt on Saturday night.

Flyers Hockey is Back on Broad Street

The Philadelphia Flyers are coming home to the Wells Fargo Center on Tuesday night to host the San Jose Sharks who might have the best defenseman pairing in the league with Brent Burns and Erik Karlsson. This the Flyers home opener so Wells Fargo is going to be cranked up on Tuesday night by anxious Flyers fans who have waited to see their team play again at home. The Flyers last season had a fairly even record at home and away, so the Flyers will look to make sure they take advantage of the fans and the noise this season to be able to produce more wins at home.

Conclusion

So far through the first two games of the season the Flyers looked decent even though they are 1-1, and they lost 5-2 on Saturday night which the score really doesn’t indicate how close the game really was. If the Flyers can dominate like they did against Vegas and play with an edge they should be good this season. The Flyers need to stay out of the penalty box and play disciplined hockey, fix the blue line miscues and turnovers, and get production from all four of their lines the Flyers should be looking at a decent run in the playoffs this year. My prediction for the Flyers this season will be making it to the Stanley Cup playoffs in 2nd place in the Metro and being able to win at least one round. Anything under that I think it will be a disappointment especially when our team last season was able to make the playoffs.

Sources

https://www.nhl.com/gamecenter/phi-vs-vgk/2018/10/04/2018020014#game=2018020014,game_state=live,game_tab=stats,lock_state=live

https://www.nhl.com/gamecenter/phi-vs-col/2018/10/06/2018020026#game=2018020026,game_state=live,game_tab=stats,lock_state=live

https://www.broadstreethockey.com/2018/10/8/17951228/james-van-riemsdyk-injury-flyers-nhl-philadelphia-knee-lower-body-replacement-analysis

https://www.nhl.com/flyers/standings/2017/wildcard

The Philly Blues Down in the Music City

The Philadelphia Eagles throw a game in awful fashion during OT vs. the Tennessee Titans in Nashville.

Introduction

In this post I will be focusing on the three key reasons why the Eagles threw away a win in overtime against the Titans this weekend. The Eagles had some bright spots in the offense with Alshon Jeffery coming back after his injury, Carson Wentz, and Zach Ertz. The glaring issues from the first three weeks with our secondary defense, shaky offensive line, and killer penalties have not been resolved still. These problems keep showing that the Eagles might be still in the Super Bowl hangover state, because they do not look like the team that just won a Super Bowl even though most of the roster has stayed intact. Eagles were up 17-3 at one point then lose 23-26 in OT.

1. The secondary week after week is being exposed.

Another week the same old story of the Eagles secondary just being picked apart from the opposing teams QB. Seems like a regular occurrence, but Jalen Mills is still a really bad corner back. So there have been two consistencies this season so far for Jalen Mills and that is, one being beat by every single double move a wide receiver puts on him, and/or second he is committing a pass interference call that results in giving the opponent great field position or big chunks of yards because it was a 20+ yard penalty down field. So until the Eagles move Jalen Mills to a safety position from corner back and let Sidney Jones play on the outside in a corner role nothing is going to change. Next is the OT drive that the Eagles lost the game on. The Titans were able to convert on three 4th downs on their game winning drives. The first 4th down was surely the downfall of the game and looked like it pretty much sealed the Eagles fate in this game because it was a 4th and 15. The only thing our secondary needed to do was play contain defense make Marriota throw the ball short of the 1st down marker and tackle the wide receiver and the game would have been over, but of course it’s Philadelphia sports we liked to just throw games away like it’s nothing. The secondary just stood still and didn’t even react to a wide open receiver for the Titans who caught the ball and easily went out-of-bounds for the 1st down. The following 4th and 4 was just handed to the Titans because the secondary was flagged for a pass interference. Then finally a 4th and 2 was easily converted for a big gain from a screen pass to the Titans running back giving the Titans all of the momentum and setting up the game winning TD pass in the dying seconds of overtime.

2. Offensive line was non-existent along with questionable play calling from a usually aggressive Doug Pederson.

So, this was the 2nd game back for Carson Wentz after his ACL recovery and he looked sharp. Alshon Jeffery finally came back from his rotator cuff injury and some virus he had leading up to the game this past Sunday which kept him out of practice, but it didn’t even matter he became and instant impact in the offense and had great chemistry with Carson. Alshon made some fantastic catches throughout the game and had one TD along with his first game with 100+ yards receiving for the Eagles (Next Gen Stats, 2018). Zach Ertz also had a great game with 100+ yards receiving (Next Gen Stats, 2018). Unfortunately that’s pretty much all of the good from the offense this past Sunday because the offensive line was awful. The offensive line let so many free rushers come in and hit Carson Wentz and really not give him any help of holding onto the ball in the pocket. Having Carson hit that many times is not really ideal when our franchise QB comes back from a season ending injury. Doug Pederson is an aggressive play maker and decision maker, but it looked like that was flat-out missing on Sunday. The calls just seemed so safe and reserved instead of going for chances to put away a game that was being handed to us by the Titans blown opportunities and mistakes themselves. Right before halftime Marriota threw a really bad interception and gave the Eagles prime field position to get points on the board before half with all their timeouts left. The Eagles played so passively that they just ran the clock down and used a timeout to kick a field goal instead of taking chances to move the ball and get a fresh set of downs and taking shots at the end zone. The next passive moment that hurt them was kinda the same scenario right before half was in the dying moments of the 4th quarter where DeAndre Carter had a very good punt return to put us in the Titans half of the field with 2 timeouts and plenty of time to score a TD. Once again the Eagles just wasted two downs for shots into the end zone instead of utilizing timeouts and moving the chains and getting closer to try for a TD into the end zone. They settled on a field goal to bring it to OT and déjà vu the drive in OT ended the same way as the other two questionable drives did.

3. Let the yellow flags fly again!

The Eagles are now the 2nd highest penalized team in the NFL through the 2018 season. This past Sunday the Eagles had 8 penalties for 77 yards (Team Rankings, 2018). The Titans gained three first downs off of penalties yesterday and all were due to pass interference’s and holdings in the secondary (NFL.com, 2018). The first one was a killer with Jalen Mills getting a pass interference on a 3rd down incomplete pass that put the Titans in our red zone and allowed them to convert on a touchdown after that penalty. The next one was also a killer with the 4th and 4 pass interference in OT that kept the Titans alive to go down the field and win the game.

Sources

https://www.teamrankings.com/nfl/stat/penalties-per-game
https://www.teamrankings.com/nfl/stat/penalty-yards-per-game
http://www.nfl.com/gamecenter/2018093007/2018/REG4/eagles@titans#menu=gameinfo%7CcontentId%3A0ap3000000967783&tab=analyze
http://www.nfl.com/gamecenter/2018093007/2018/REG4/eagles@titans#menu=gameinfo%7CcontentId%3A0ap3000000967783&tab=ngs

Guess who’s back, back again, Wentz is back, tell a friend

Carson Wentz is back and gets a win vs the Colts, penalties are still a major issue, and the Flyers unveil their new mascot Gritty.

Introduction

I will be recapping the Eagles vs Colts game this past Sunday at Lincoln Financial Field, analyzing Carson Wentz’s return to the playing field, the penalty trouble the Eagles keep getting themselves into, and at the end I’m going to talk about the Philadelphia Flyer’s new mascot Gritty who has become an internet meme immediately.

Eagles vs Colts

The Eagles and Colts battled it out at the Linc on Sunday around 1:00PM est. The Eagles were looking for Carson to come back and have a good game and the defense was looking for some redemption from their lackluster game down in Tampa last weekend where they gave up a whopping 400+ yards passing. The Eagles had 2 touchdowns and 2 field goals on the day and the Colts had 1 touchdown and 3 field goals the Eagles ended up having a pretty balanced game between running the ball and passing even though they were missing Jay Ajayi and Darren Sproles. The Eagles had 26 total first downs compared to the Colts 14. One of the big things that influenced the game was the Eagles third down efficiency compared to the Colts. The Eagles had a 42% and the Colts had a measly 16%. The Eagles had the ball for most of the game with possession time of 40:20 which was a little more than doubled the time of the Colts who had 19:40. The biggest drive of the game was the Eagles 11 min touchdown drive in the 4th Quarter that put them ahead 20-16, which ended up as the final result after the Eagles defense came up and provided two stops. Eagles moved to 2-1 and are heading down to Tennessee next weekend for a game vs the Titans, and for the Colts and former Eagles offensive coordinator Frank Reich they move to 1-2 and have a game vs the struggling Houston Texans.

The return of Carson Wentz

The moment Philadelphia Eagles fans have waited for 9 months, that itch we have had just wanting to see our franchise QB play again after his season ending ACL injury last December in LA. The king of the NFC East returned in fashion and opened his first drive of the game with a touchdown pass to Dallas Goedert. Carson’s first drive stat line was 5/7 completions, 55 yards, and the touchdown. After that it wasn’t all too smooth sailing as the Colts started to counter Wentz who favored his tight ends as his first 7 completions were all to his tight ends. The biggest thing most people were looking for in Wentz is to see if his mobility and elusiveness in the pocket was going to be affected after the ACL injury and having the brace on his leg. For the most part Wentz looked like the same old same old from last season using his feet and awareness to get out of tough situations in the pocket and turn zero into nothing. There was a couple of times where Wentz tried to do too much though with the ball and was sacked for holding on to the ball to long. Wentz was sacked 5 times which was definitely not ideal for someone coming back from such a bad injury and having to play on a wet and muddy field didn’t help calm the nerves of Philly fans. Carson did show some rust though which is understandable when you don’t play any game action for over 9 months, he had some throws that were not too accurate, he threw a pretty bad interception which came in a crucial spot during the game giving the Colts excellent field position to try to capitalize on the mistake with a touchdown and swing the momentum of the game. Carson also had a fumble giving the Colts again great field position. Carson Wentz is back though and Philly fans can rejoice because once he gets that rust off of him the NFL will be put on notice. Carson’s returning stat line was 25-37, 255 yards, 1 touchdown.

Laundry was flying everywhere

The Eagles once again had themselves in penalty trouble this past weekend with 10 penalties for 110 yards and most of the issues came from the defensive side of the ball. The Eagles defense bounced back this weekend with a good game especially the secondary… Well for the most part, but once again Jalen Mills hurt the Eagles a lot with pass interference calls on two under thrown passes from Andrew Luck. These PI calls were also poorly timed as well because the first one gave the Colts the ability to put a touchdown drive together in the first half to tie the Eagles at 7-7 when all the momentum was on the Eagles side. The following one was near the end of the game where the Colts were trying to march down the field in the 4th and put a game winning drive together by Andrew Luck. Luckily the Birds defense showed up and shutdown the Colts in the red zone. The Eagles held the Colts to a 1-5 red zone success rate on Sunday. The penalties though were a key reason why this game was even close because it was giving the Colts the ability to keep drives alive and giving them good field position through the day. The Colts though had penalty problems as well which in the end gave the Eagles ability to win the game, by keeping their 11 minute drive alive and it being capped off with a running touchdown by Smallwood. The most crucial play of that drive was a defensive holding call on a 4th and 5 by the Eagles which was incomplete but it gave the Eagles an automatic first down and lead the game into a 20-16 scoreline. Colts ended the game with 11 penalties for 77 yards.

Hello, Flyers marketing team are you okay?

So, on Monday morning the Flyers announced their new mascot Gritty. Gritty looks like the long-lost orange cousin of Oscar the Grouch. So this move was supposed to cater towards kids, but this mascot just looks creepy and will haunt children. Talk about clowns as a fear, looks like the Philadelphia Flyers decided to give the clown a run for their money in a creepy and uncomfortable looking figure. Gritty with his odd looks and characteristics made him an internet meme instantly. Personally I don’t think the Flyers need a mascot and this definitely doesn’t match with “Flyers.” So, looks like we are going to have more comedy relief and nightmares of Gritty for days to come. Welcome to Philly Gritty.

Dn3mx-bXUAInf87 — Photo credit: Philadelphia Flyers

Sources

https://www.nfl.com/gamecenter/2018092308/2018/REG3/colts@eagles

Eagles the Bad, Ugly, and Sloppy

Introduction

This post will be summarizing the Eagles vs. Buccaneers game that happened on September 16th at 1 PM est in Tampa, Florida, it will also give my own analysis of the game and what went wrong for the Eagles, and then give some of my own thoughts on whats next for the Eagles.

Summary

The Eagles and Bucs met this past Sunday in Tampa, Florida. The game started at 1 PM est where the temperature topped off at 102 degrees. So needless to say the heat was a big factor in how the game unfolded. The Bucs got the ball first and 11 seconds into the game took a 7-0 lead from a 75 yard TD pass to DeSean Jackson by Ryan Fitzpatrick who carved the Eagles very strong defense all day. The Eagles did not have a great start to the game where the injuries started to pile on which plagued the team through all of the first half. They ended up losing Jay Ajayi because of a back injury after the very first play on offense. Next was Jason Peters who seemed to be having problems with his leg and did not return to the game. Yes and only a couple plays later it looks like the Eagles lost yet another WR in Mike Wallace for the rest of the season due to a broken fibula. The Eagles are now very thin at WR and still have a while for Alshon Jeffery and Mack Hollins to return from the injuries. The Eagles offense was slow all day until the fourth quarter where they trailed at one point 27-7. Ryan Fitzpatrick was the better QB on the day with 402 yards and 4 TDs passing. He had two 75 yard TD passes on the day and continued to use DeSean Jackson to torch our secondary. The Eagles ended up putting in a good fight in the fourth quarter but it happened too late and ended the game as a 27-21 score line for the Bucs. Bucs go 2-0 for the season as the Super Bowl Champs are 1-1 going into week 3.

Analysis- What went wrong?

Eagles are regarded to having a premier defense in the NFL and looked to come into the game this week slowing down Ryan Fitzpatrick who absolutely demolished the Saints defense a week prior. The Eagles defense though had a lousy day in the secondary where they let up two 75 TD passes due to poor coverage and just downright awful tackling and effort from DBs. Jalen Mills might be the most overrated corner back on the Eagles team. He continuously played soft throughout the day and gave up ample first downs and big gains to DeSean Jackson and Mike Evans. The Eagles front line though was great throughout the day shutting down the run game for the Bucs, but you would of hoped the secondary would’ve been able to match the effort of the defensive line in the pass game. The Eagles first offensive drive was a complete disaster losing 3 players in one drive, but luckily got Jay Ajayi back after halftime. On top of all the injuries they committed some stupid penalties and ended up putting themselves into a 3rd and 41… Yes you read that right a 3rd and 41. That ended up being the longest third down the Eagles have had to play since 1998. The Eagles had trouble once again of putting any points on the board in the first quarter. That seem to be the theme though throughout the day until the fourth quarter hit. Jake Elliot is so inconsistent it’s not even funny. The kid can hit a 61 yard field goal to win a game with all the pressure on his back but can’t make a 42 yard field goal before halftime that would’ve made the game 20-10 instead of it being 20-7. The Eagles were aggressive once again on their 4th down attempts where it ended up hurting them in the third quarter where they couldn’t convert on a 4th and 4, but the spot the refs gave was very suspect, but anyway it gave Tampa who had been hot all day on offense with their pass game with great field position where they converted into a touchdown that put the game at 27-7 and making it look pretty much over. Next thing that was pretty bad was the refs not making a call and one bad call that ended up ending the game before the two-minute warning. The first call that did not even happen was a crucial 4th and 10 with the Eagles in the Bucs side of the field where they were trying to kick start their comeback and making the game 27-21 with 8-9 minutes left in the 4th quarter. Nick Foles ended up scrambling around in the pocket and throwing the ball to Corey Clement who was running down the left sideline and stretched out to make a catch and the Bucs DB comes out of no where and goes head first into Clement and hits him in the stomach which brings up the case why was there no penalty on the play? The whole point of emphasis this year in the NFL was to protect defenseless players from players leading with their helmet. It ended up sidelining Clement with an injury. The play could’ve been a lot worse if Clement was lower to the ground where a helmet to helmet situation could’ve ensued so where is the consistency. Next penalty was called on Jalen Mills with 2:20 left in the 4th quarter on a 3rd and 5. Jalen Mills was burnt all day and got robbed on this one. The pass was completed by Mike Evans but Jalen Mills got called for a holding call while Mike Evans grabbed Mills face mask and tugged down on it to throw him off balance. So the penalty was called on the wrong person where it should’ve been illegal hands to the face and made the play a 3rd and 10 and given an Eagles another shot of making a stop and getting the ball back to make a late game winning drive push. So the Eagles lost their first game of the season down in a very hot Tampa which could’ve factored in some of the injuries they had to deal with, but they ended up making a valiant effort into make a comeback after they just looked lost all day on both the offensive side of the ball and defensive side of the ball in the secondary.

What’s next?

So the Eagles are coming back to Philadelphia where they are getting ready to host the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday afternoon at Lincoln Financial Field. The Eagles have received great news that Carson Wentz is finally cleared for contact after his recovering from a ACL and MCL tear last December when they were in LA and will be starting on Sunday vs. the Colts. Carson though is going to need some help from offensive weapons so he doesn’t feel he needs to do everything himself and risk of exposing himself and getting injured again. The Eagles are almost out of WRs and should be looking on the hunt for either free agents or possibly through the trade market. The Eagles missed out on the troubled Josh Gordon on Monday when he was traded to the New England Patriots from the Cleveland Browns. The Eagles I think should look into maybe trading for Amari Cooper from the Oakland Raiders or maybe signing Jeremy Maclin from free agency to help give Wentz and option for a deep threat to open defenses up with the mix of the run game. All in all the Eagles just need to hit the reset button and not panic look for weapons to help Carson until Alshon and Mack get back. It’s better off the have a loss earlier in the season where they can work from it and learn and finish the season stronger and stronger. Just like last season the Philadelphia Eagles lost their week 2 game to the Chiefs and ended up going 13-3 the rest of the way and going to the Super Bowl and winning the first one ever in franchise history. #FlyEaglesFly

Carson Wentz — Photo credit: Keith Allison from Hanover, MD, USA

Introduction

About me

Hello I’m Austin Zeitter. I’m a 21 year old undergraduate Senior at Saint Joseph’s University and I’m double majoring in International Business and Sports Marketing. I love to travel and love all things Philadelphia sports. My favorite sport to watch is NHL ice hockey and favorite team is the Philadelphia Flyers. I hope to work in the realm of sports after college and my dream job is to be a higher up board member in FIFA or the Olympic Committee. I am also involved in the Esports industry and looking into how the traditional sports market and Esports market can close the gap to bring them together and bringing in bigger audiences in both industries as in bringing new people from traditional sports to Esports and vice versa.

My Blog

The point of this blog is to write and entertain readers who enjoy sports as much as I do and like to read analysis and thoughts on what happened on key moments or games from a fan standpoint. I will be providing my insight on key moments in the Philadelphia sports world each week. It might be moments in where I felt that stood out in defining a win or a loss or just plays that might help define that team for the year. I will also be highlighting some key players on Philadelphia teams and their comebacks from injury like Carson Wentz for the Philadelphia Eagles and Wayne Simmonds for the Philadelphia Flyers. Also I would like to give my opinions on trades and roster moves/acquisitions and how I personally feel on how they will make the teams better or worse. Another topic I may post about is how the relationship between the Philadelphia 76ers and Dignitas affect each other and how it helps both businesses grow in their respective fields.

Quality over quantity — Anonymous

soccer ball on grass field during daytime — Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com