An Eagles Fans Guide to the Flyers

So once again, Andy Reid failed to patch up holes that every fan knew existed. A porous offensive line, an incredibly horrible red zone defense, and a defensive coordinator that hasn’t come close to filling the shoes of his mentor. Michael Vick and Desean Jackson gave us one hell of a season. But in the end, there’s no trip to the Super Bowl. There’s just pain and angry calls to sports talk radio. It’s been 3 days since Vick’spass to Sunshine was picked off in the endzone, ending football season in Philadelphia. It’s time for the city to fully turn it’s attention to the Flyers. Here is everything you need to know about this season so far, and how things are looking down the line.

Where’s Michael Leighton?

He signed a 2-year contract in the summer, then got hurt in training camp. He finally came back in late December, played one game, sucked, cleared waivers, and is now in the minors.

So who’s the goalie?

Up until mid-December, it was Sergei Bobrovsky.  He’s a rookie that came out of nowhere.  Everyone called him Bob, and he won a shit load of games. Then he started letting in a few weak goals, and Brian Boucher took over.  He’s been the guy ever since, and has played pretty awesome.

How’s the defense?

Pretty awesome almost every night.  Pronger got hurt a few weeks ago, but it hasn’t hurt us too bad. We’re one of the best teams in goals against, and middle of the pack in shots against. Part of that comes from us being shorthanded a lot though.

How’s the offense?

It’s one of the best in the league. As usual, we don’t have a dominant scorer, but a ton of balance.  We’ve got more guys with double digit goals than anyone else. we’ve had 2 dry spells this season, but when we’re on, we’re unstoppable.

What else do I need to know?

• We’re really, really freaking good.  We’ve been at or near the top of the league all season long. Right now, we’re 1st in the East and slowly pulling away, while chasing Detroit and Vancouver for top spot in the NHL.
• Claude Giroux is the only guy on the whole team going to the All-Star game.  Briere, who leads the team in scoring and is top-10 in the league, got snubbed.
• Mike Richards leads the team in points, and although his numbers aren’t staggering, he’s having a very good season. He’s scored a bunch of timely goals, and has become the leader we all thought he’d be.
• We don’t fight as much as we used to, but we haven’t had to. We used fights to wake the team up when they were playing bad.  Haven’t really needed that most of this season.
• Pronger will be coming back in the next few weeks.
• Zherdev has been a pretty good addition to the offense.  He doesn’t play much D, but when he gets the puck, he’s pretty creative with it.
• JVR played like shit, finally got benched, and has been one of our better players since coming back into the lineup.
• Our 3rd d-pair of Andrej Meszaros and Sean O’Donnellare a huuuuuuge improvement over last year. Honestly, we can trust all 6 of our defensemen in any and every situation.
• Jeff Carter plays on the wing, a bit inconsistently.  He still has a wicked hard shot, but just doesn’t score as much. He’s still good on faceoffs though.
• The Leino-Hartnell-Briere line from last season’s playoffs has mostly stayed together this season and is still very productive.
• Kimmo Timonen has been quiet, as usual, but is playing like he did two years ago. Coburn, and Carle are also under the radar, but both living up to their expectations( add some offense, play solid D, don’t mess anything up).

So, what’s next?

Honestly, we should be favored to win the Stanley Cup.  Our special teams aren’t amazing, but they’re adequate.  In the playoffs, when penalties are a bit more sparce, our 5-5 play is pretty dominant. Our scoring is very balanced, the team defense doesn’t give up many chances, and we’re fun to watch.

Next game is Thursday night against Boston. Do yourself a favor and tune in, this team is pretty special.

Thanks for reading!

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