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.

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.

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.

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.

 

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