Giroux Has Coming Out Party – Flyers Take Game 3

Claude Giroux put on a show Sunday as the young rising star totally redeemed himself after taking a bad penalty at the end of Game 2 which really cost the Flyguys Friday night.

Jeff Carter opened the scoring fest for the Flyers early Sunday with a beautiful sweeping backhand shot 3 minutes into the game, and Richards made it two goals on two shots for the Flyers two minutes later.

Pittsburgh battled back and tied the game up early in the 2nd period off the stick of Evgeni Malkin, who landed his second goal of the game.  The first came with 10 seconds left in the first period on a savvy play by Maxim Talbot to center to the puck to a streaking Malkin for the one timer.

With the crowd silenced after the equalizer, the Flyers roared back on the heels of the rookie Giroux.  Danny Briere stole a rebound off Marc-Andre Fleury’s pad and fed it across the ice to a streaking Giroux, who punched in the puck for a 3-2 lead. Playing short-handed midway though the second, Giroux controlled the puck behind the net. The Penguins defense swarmed him, but the former first-round pick was able to fend off Kris Letang and slip the puck to Gagne. Gagne scored the short-handed goal to make it 4-2 and the Flyers never looked back going on to win 6-3.

With the win the Flyers closed the gap making the series 2 games to 1 in favor of the Pens.  Game 4 is back at the Wach Tuesday night with the puck set to drop at 7:00 pm.

Briere Out 4-5 Weeks with Groin Strain

Flyers center Danny Briere will be out four to five weeks with a severe groin strain.

Flyers general manager Paul Holmgren said on Wednesday the injury was significant and was expected to miss at least a month. Briere left Tuesday night’s win over Tampa Bay after the second period after missing the previous nine games with a groin strain.

McNabb’s Last Season with the Eagles

As Justin Timberlake and ‘NSYNC once said, ” BYE BYE BYE, BYE BYE!”

Donovan McNabb was pulled from a game for the first time in his career after two awful quarters of football in Sunday’s 36-7 loss at Baltimore. The Birds only trailed 10-7 at the time, but Big Red thought second-year backup Kevin Kolb gave the team a better chance to win a game it desperately needed to maintain its slim playoff hopes.  And at the time, I did too.  And right now, I still think it was the right move.  Donovan doesnt understand how awful he really is playing lately and has always been let off the leash easy because of his inseperable bond with his coach, Andy Reid.  Andy made the right call on Sunday after two quarters of gut wrenching, sickening and downright pathetic football to watch from a fan’s standpoint.

Unless Donnie comes out guns a blazing over the course of the rest of the season, I think he is gone and here’s why.

McNabb isn’t getting any younger or faster and turns 32 on Tuesday.  He is signed through 2013 and is scheduled to earn $9.2 million next year (with I think a bonus of about 900k – 1 mil).  Eagle Brass is exceptionally frugal with the checkbook as we all have seen over there years and in my mind there is no chance they will pay him that kinda coin to be a backup.  Even as a starting QB, I cant justify that Donovan’s performances have been worth anything near that number.  Not to mention the fact that he’s only 22-21-1 as a starter since leading Philadelphia to four straight NFC championship games from 2001-04.

With that, we bid you adieu Donovan.  This is a business first and foremost and right now YOU my friend are killing our bottom line.

Knuble Leads Flyers to 5th Straight Win

Mike Knuble scored two goals, including the tiebreaker at 14:52 of the third period, and the Flyers beat the Dallas Stars 4-3 on Monday night en route to their fifth straight victory.

Philadelphia opened the season by dropping its first six games. Then, after winning four straight, the Flyers lost another three in a row.  Scottie Upshall and Jeff Carter also scored for the FlyGuys. Gagne extended his points streak to eight games with a pair of assists on Knuble’s goals.

Mike Modano scored twice and Landon Wilson had a goal for the Stars, who have lost three straight.

Up next for the Flyers are the Carolina Hurricanes on Wednesday night.

Flyers Move Saturday’s Gametime to Accomodate Phils Crowd

The Flyguys have changed the start time for their Oct. 25 game against the Devils to 4:00 pm to avoid a conflict with Game 3 of the World Series between the Phightins and the Rays.

The Philadelphia Phillies will play their home game of the series across the parking lot at Citizens Bank Park later that night.

The Flyers were originally scheduled to play New Jersey at 7 p.m.

Delonte West is Moody

Cleveland Cavaliers guard and St Joe’s alum Delonte West  says he left the team’s training camp earlier this month to seek help for depression and “a mood disorder” he has been battling his entire life.

West said Friday that he removed himself from the team to “get my thoughts back together.” He is taking medication for his illness and has been attending therapy sessions.

Flyers Lose Another One

The Flyguys lose another one.  Another rough start for this team with a long season ahead.  The Flyers had 12 penalties, twice as many as the Avs and gave up three goals on power plays.

The Avalanche outshot the Flyers 17-3 in the first period and got goals from Brett Clark and Marek Svatos against Marty Biron to take a 2-0 lead.

The Flyers scored twice in the second period but both times the Avalanche quickly responded with goals and took a 4-2 lead into the final frame.

ALCS Game 5 Preview

Well, after an amazing night in the 215 last night, the local sports scene takes a breather, as the Flyers are the only local team in action at Colorado.  We can shift some focus to scouting our Phillies potential World Series opponent (it feels so great to write that) as Game 5 of the ALCS is tonight in Boston.

The magical Rays try to move into the World Series tonight as they face Dice-K Matsuzaka and the Boston Red Sox in Fenway Park at 8pm.  The Red Sox find themselves in the similar position, down 3-1 in an ALCS, and the last two times they’ve completed the comeback en route to both of their World Series wins this decade.

Scott Kazmir takes the mound for the Rays.

In terms of effects on your Phightins, a Boston Red Sox comeback to a 7th game would be a dream scenario, letting these two teams beat each other up over seven games is really all any 215 fan should root for.  Look for AL Cy-Young candidate Matsuzaka to pitch well and live up to the moment tonight and force the series back to Tampa Bay for Game 6.

Final: Boston 4    Tampa 0

Flyers Remain Winless

Pascal Dupuis scored on a slap shot from along the edge of the left circle with 10.8 seconds left in overtime as the Penguins kept the Philadelphia Flyers winless after beating them 3-2 on Tuesday night.

The Flyers tied it at 2 with goals from Jeff Carter and Simon Gagne in the final minute of the second period only to fall short in OT.  The FlyGuys have dropped their first three games for the first time since the labor dispute-shortened 1995 season.

Golden State Gets OTHER Williams

The New Jersey Nets have traded point guard Marcus Williams to the Golden State Warriors for a future first-round draft pick, sources told ESPN.com on Tuesday.

Hopefully this acquisition of a young and talented PG will nix the interest the Golden State Warriors are said to have in Lou Williams, the 76ers backup point guard.  In my opinion the 76ers NEED to re-sign Lou Will and Andre Iguodala in order to keep their contention hopes alive in the East.