Flyers Weekly Week 21

welcome to philadelphia flyers weekly your home for philadelphia flyers podcast

each week we'll run down player news and franchise news for the philadelphia flyers

national hockey league club we'll also feature news from around the nhl and much more flyers

weekly starts right now with your host chris smith it's gonna have you here for week 21 of

flyers weekly almost said philly's weekly it's almost that time of year again well it's flyers

weekly right now and flyers weekly at gmail.com is our email address and philadelphia flyers

weekly.blogspot.com is our home page make sure you check those out this week flyers on a roll

this week winning a couple games three games this week three of three they are they uh did a great

job looked very good against all three opponents this week and gained some key matchups we talked

about last week against uh of course new jersey the rain

and boy what a game they played against ottawa one saturday night uh getting right into it here

the point um here's what hitch had to say after the ottawa senators game he said it was a great

start all four lines contributed we are getting we are getting better every day now you can see

it in the practices and you can see it in the game we are getting healthier and we have some

continuity on the lines uh speaking about the lines what a great job uh donald brashear

mike richards sammy captain what a great line and we're going to have a great game

line that has been this week those guys have just been kind of studs really for checking

has been great with that line you saw that line uh well i i really felt that that line played well

in the rangers game and the devil's game every time that line was out in the ice it seemed like

they just controlled the puck and the flyers offensive zone very well great for checking by

those by that line right there uh in my opinion they played such a such a big role this week and

they played such a key part uh they they were really one of the big reasons why the flyers had

three of these games this week uh because of that line they did such a great job late in the game

keeping the puck uh for checking keeping the puck in the flyers offensive zone great thing to see

donald brashear has really stepped up actually offensively uh you know brashear still going to

be the bruiser he's still going to be the fire but boy has he really stepped up offensively

and has really been making uh some pretty smart plays and you know doing what he can doing what

he can to help the team out and he even had a goal in the audible game uh so that line has been

looking very good um a big positive for the flyers and i think it's going to be a big positive for

the flyers here down the stretch um keeping the puck in their own zone and uh trying to set up

chances uh nico dimitrakos jeff carter rj umberger another line what can you say about them uh they

have just been excellent uh jeff carter for example five goals in his last six games a couple wrist

shot goals this week against the rangers and he had one against ottawa uh what a player he is

becoming jeff carter for this team uh here's what hitch had to say on the rookies and we talked

this team has been really based around a lot of youth they've had their ups they've had their

downs they've made their mistakes things are starting to come together now here's what hitch

has to say about the rookies here on the team he says they are put in critical situations and answer

the bell every game the uniqueness of our first year players is that they are all championship

players in big games you do not have to come to the rink and worry whether they are going to

compete or not that's a given so definitely a good uh a good sign there from hitch he's trusting the

youngsters on the team and the youngsters on the rink and the rookies on the rink and the rookies

are getting it done uh especially you know demi track who's had a goal on saturday night against

ottawa uh of course you're talking about jeff carter and carter's goals have actually been key

he had that insurance goal against the rangers on wednesday in the third period uh that gave the

flyers a two goal lead i believe at the time and he had the third goal against ottawa on saturday

which kind of really buried ottawa you know you get up by two goals and the other team still you

know kind of hanging on there by dear life you get that third goal you're going to bury him it's

exactly what happened on saturday

early early and uh jeff carter once again a big part of that uh uh flyers romp over the uh over

the senators on saturday uh here's what carter has to say here's what jeff has to say he says

i'm feeling very comfortable out there uh he says i have a lot of confidence right now our line has

been going really great since nico got here we've been together the whole time so that has really

been a bonus so obviously uh demi track goes we talked about him and how he's kind of been an

underrated player um i think a lot of people see a lot of potential and demi track goes and i think

he's going to come out he's a fast player he's got speed he can definitely contribute in that

aspect um flyers lacking in the speed uh area you know you got sammy cabin in which to skate

uh yoni's not too bad but kim yonson's out um so demi track is definitely bringing some speed to

the uh to the lineup here and uh definitely doing a great job in that line those guys those three

carter umberger and demi trackers really gelling well out there right now um and kind of playing

an opposite role they're playing much more of an offensive role uh than the brashear richards

captain line and i think he's going to be a great player and i think he's going to be a great player

who was just keeping the puck in the flyers offensive zone but doing a great job for checking

uh they're getting their shots yes but uh they're they're really helping to seal these games late

in the third period uh flyers have a lead those three uh brashear richards and captains seem to

really really do a great job for checking keeping the puck in the flyers offensive zone whereas

richards carter demitrakos and umberger just just being just have been an offensive weapon

shooting scoring goals um just doing a great job on that aspect too

so you see the youngsters stepping up again you know nothing taking away from uh you know simone

gagne of course peter forrestberg mike knubel those guys have been there all year uh even

knubel had a couple power play goals uh this week we'll talk about that in a minute but the

youngsters really doing a good job here for the flyers right now goaltending situation getting

kind of interesting in philly you know ever since the olympic break or even before that

people were starting to kind of bring up the issue of a possible goaltender uh controversy

don't think it's ever going to be a goaltending controversy it's just a

who hitch is going to start night after night right now until the playoffs start

uh nidamaki playing well so was ash ash played on wednesday played a pretty good game against the

rangers uh nidamaki played great against the devils and against ottawa on saturday so right

now here's what hitch has to say on uh on the goaltending situation he says it's he said we

have a very unique situation we have two guys that the players trust and the coaches trust

he says we have no problem playing either guy right now at some point in time

i will make a decision and run with it for the playoffs we'll have to see the next couple weeks

how it plays out and of course you're going to see this kind of um jockeying around i think with

goaltenders you know you're probably going to see ash start one night nidamaki start the other

ash start one nitty the next it's probably going to be back and forth back and forth

um and until a decision is made for the playoffs and then run i mean maybe maybe a solid decision

won't be made you know maybe it's going to be that i can't imagine hitch going back and forth

in the playoffs but whatever works you never know you know uh goaltender by committee i don't know

i mean you hear about baseball uh but you don't know and hockey i i don't know if i've ever really

heard of that so uh definitely uh something to keep an eye on here flyers have 11 games left

and uh goaltending situation uh kind of heating up there in philly another big thing with flyers

this week i thought the power play was was very good this week uh we talked a couple weeks ago

about how the special teams were struggling and uh kind of that losing streak the team went through

a couple weeks ago uh the special teams were horrible uh flyers really

been turning out around the last two weeks uh power play five for 13 this week great sign

great sign five for 13 when the in uh in the power play uh hanzo's forsberg and knubel have

really contributing uh to the power play units uh knubel with a couple power play goals against

new york on wednesday really good thing to see of course peter forsberg uh always there for the team

and and out there in the power play unit uh so hanzo's also with the goal uh the other night

power play goal and what what a uh what an asset he's been

he's returned and we talked about the face-off situation he's been taking more face-offs

uh he's been doing a good job especially on special teams for michael hanzo's uh penalty

kill pk unit getting better also i'd have to say flyers kill off three of 11 penalties this week

um i'd probably have to go out on a limb here and say probably more importantly was the flyers

ability to not take stupid penalties of course they're running ned vet had one late in the game

uh one time this week which kind of got a little scary but um for the most part um

flyers not taking a whole lot of dumb penalties like we've seen in the past

uh you remember seeing games with like seven eight penalties in one game the flyers took

well the whole week they only had they only took 11 penalties this week so uh definitely a good

sign to see um going down the stretch here we talked about all these teams in front of the

flyers who have great uh power play units uh the flyers pk unit uh has struggled at times

sometimes the best way to combat that is just not to cause the penalties just make sure the

flyers definitely did that this week only uh only committing 11 penalties

and uh they killed off uh they killed off eight of them uh opposition only scored on three so

a good thing a good good definitely a good sign there for the flyers special team is going to be

very important going down the stretch uh some of these teams that the flyers are going to face in

the playoffs uh the power play units of the opposition are just sometimes a lot better

than the flyers pk unit and we've seen that throughout the year

so

wednesday night uh

yarmir yager with a hat trick of course he is your uh goal uh goal leader in the nhl right now

and the flyers were able to overcome that another good sign there um especially playing away in the

garden uh so you know a good sign where we've seen the team kind of get down and out especially

uh when the opposition gets any sort of momentum going um flyers kind of were able to look over the

the yager hat trick there on uh on wednesday and come out on top

here's what mike knubel said after the uh rangers game he said uh of late things have been clicking a

lot more in the power play uh it was a that was a big momentum swinger for the game we finished the

period with that extremely late goal and kind of held it from there of course uh knubel they're

talking about the uh the power play unit there uh that he was a big part of on wednesday scoring two

goals two power play goals uh here's what sammy captain has to say when it uh determined the

determination now is stronger than it was earlier

he says we're playing more desperate right now and uh definitely a good sign is it you know a good

sign to see some of these players kind of talking out and kind of you know talking about uh what the

how the flyers are playing right now and how as a team they're handling things remember hitch a

couple weeks ago said you know uh i believe that was after one of the games that the team had played

a solid 60 minutes a good 60 minute hockey game how many games so far this year where the team

came out and played good a good 40 minutes worth of hockey it's not going to cut it that the team

has been playing good 60 minutes worth of hockey they did it all this week again and it's a good

sign here before the playoffs like we mentioned flyers 11 games left six or five of them are home

games and flyers really working hard trying to win the the division getting that home ice advantage

how important is it for the flyers this year well you know they've done well on the road

there's no issue there the flyers have done pretty well on the road uh but uh the home ice advantage

for everybody obviously and of course the wachovia center and the fans there uh there's no doubt the

flyers could definitely use that winning the atlantic division uh getting the home ice advantage

and uh right now the flyers i believe uh they they say they're in first place in the atlantic

division uh they are actually tied in points with the rangers um i think they have more goals

scored or more wins something like that but uh again home ice home ice advantage very important

i think uh flyers could definitely use that here down the down the stretch also this week

this gochie three-year contract extension flyers went right after him uh he would be an unrestricted

free agent after this season if the flyers would not have resigned him six point or over oh i was

over six million dollar contract here for the next three years for gochie uh i think it's a good

thing i think the flyers need somebody like this uh darian hatcher was kind of like uh so i say

similar to gochie but uh gochie definitely you know younger adding a lot more physical presence

there back on the blue line a defense a defensive defenseman

uh you know we talk about kim yonsan yoni picking and being offensive defenseman

well another defensive defense the defensive defenseman here for the flyers that very good

one gochie is definitely going to be i think he's going to be a fan favorite going uh going down

the stretch here next couple years i think already this season uh the fans i've appreciated what gochie

has done out there and uh he's been able to really put some hits on some of these guys and uh get get

the intimidator intimidation factor up there you know flyers really needed somebody back on the

blue line that was really going to be a big part of the game and i think that's going to be a big

after people uh so they talked about uh before the trade deadline went out and got him signed him

for to a three-year contract extension i think gochie denny gochie is going to be a key player

coming down the stretch here this year and of course the next three years i'm just going to

be exciting to see him play i think he's only 29 got plenty of years left uh and hopefully we're

looking uh looking to see uh gochie become one of those strong franchise players that people talk

about uh for a long time so hopefully uh with uh with a six million dollar contract extension

hopefully that will be a big part of the game and i think gochie is going to be a key player

uh a couple other things here uh interesting note here on on uh during the ottawa game of course

ray emery was cool was pulled i think about halfway through the game uh the ottawa goaltender

emery was actually nine and two since the olympic break he was hot the whole team was hot

uh the flyers again shutting down the ottawa senators i think the senators kind of realized

that yeah there's going to be somebody else there in the eastern conference obviously in the flyers

that are going to give them run for their money uh this season at the uh during the playoffs uh

ryan holwig if you remember the hit that he gave rj umberger uh on wednesday during the uh rangers

game it was not a pretty hit it was a very illegal hit as a matter of fact we got uh three game

suspension and uh umberger actually had had had his eye taped open to practice on friday if you

saw the hit it was nasty uh umberger got stitches uh got a cut above his uh i think left eye right

eye i'm not sure but uh anyway he got stitches actually returned to the game played a pretty

big role in the uh in the flyers victory over the rangers and uh i think he's going to be a

but uh holwig given a game misconduct there and uh of course later on the nhl did suspend him for

three games so uh dirty hit uh nhl again sending that message don't uh you know it was more than

uh you see a lot of these questionable hits where the players kind of go into the boards they turn

their back uh this was not that type of hit this is definitely a uh very illegal hit and um nhl

again sending that message don't bother because you will sit out for games without pay and uh

holwig the latest uh the latest victim there randy jones is also reassigned to the phantoms on

thursday uh right of boy which and stevenson uh rank right of boy which turn stevenson also

healthy scratches this week for all three games haven't heard anything on that situation there

um don't know if they're just resting them up or they had injuries or what's going on there

they say they were healthy scratches so i have to keep an eye on that and see how those two

players uh play here down the stretch um

no news either on kim johnson or chris terry and last i had heard that kim johnson was going to

skate uh they were also going to see a neurologist on wednesday this past wednesday i haven't heard

anything on that either uh so kind of keeping our fingers crossed especially for kim johnson

johnson again one of those guys uh offensive defenseman got one of those guys who can really

add a lot of uh a lot of scoring chances here down the stretch from blue line uh so we're

looking for him to get back hopefully soon uh this week flyers just two games this week a good chance

to rest up uh stay fresh though uh the toronto maple leafs on tuesday and the new jersey devils

on saturday afternoon both of those are home games uh so again key divisional matchup uh on

saturday against the devils uh and toronto kind of struggling right now flyers gonna get a chance

to see them on uh tuesday night at the wachovia center the islanders also the flyers play the

islanders on sunday next sunday that game is away well that's gonna do it for me in this edition of

flyers weekly thank you for joining me i'm chris smith flyers weekly at gmail.com is our email

address and philadelphia flyers weekly.blogspot.com is our home page we'll see you next time

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