Credit: US Presswire

Well, as most of us Flyers fans suspected, the National Hockey League made it official that all games through December 30th have been canceled.  The NHL made the announcement on Monday afternoon with no hint of the strike ending soon.

Although the NHL and NHLPA met last week in New York to “hammer out” a deal, the talks once again stalled.  Just four days after the sides departed New York, the cancellation of more games seemed inevitable.  The announcement brings the total number of Flyers game canceled to 35—18 home games and 17 away games.

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You could clothe a small village with that hair. Credit: Eric Hartline-US PRESSWIRE

“And on the 7th day, the big guy upstairs created BuzzBag.”

The heat is on for the NHL to get a deal done before the impending Lockout. One thing that the NHL and the Players Association both agree on? BuzzBag must continue, and I was happy to oblige.

First question…

@GoingHard_Inger: If you were on a desert island and had to pick 3 Fs, 2 Ds, and a G from the Flyers to take with u, who would you choose? Keep in mind that you’re picking both for survival skills and general personality/people you’d like to spend time with.

Okay so Andreas Lilja is so out.

For the three forwards, I’m bringing Wayne Simmonds, Brayden Schenn, and Scott Hartnell. Simmer is probably the biggest of the forward bunch here, and he’ll probably be good for chopping down some trees to create a makeshift home. He seems like an outdoorsy kind of guy, so he should have pretty good survival skills. For Hartnell, we’re shaving his hair and his beard and making blankets. All of those ginger locks are way to important to sit upon his head (and chin), and we’re gonna put him to good use. I’m a little nervous bring Scott, because I think he may be a bit of a liability. “Hey guys, found this blue frog with these black spots on it. Would make a really cool pet. C’mere buddy, jump in my-”. Hartnell down, eternally. Lastly, I’m bringing Brayden Schenn because he seems like the kind of guy you can just talk to for hours. Sure he’s not gonna go out and hunt food and he’s probably worried about messing up his hair, but I bet the guy can hold a conversation.

My two Defensemen would be Nicklas Grossmann and Kimmo Timonen. Grossmann absolutely terrifies me, which in this case is quite the good thing. My guess is he’d throw some war paint on his face, make his own spear, and run around hunting animals for dinner. I’d also be afraid that Grossmann would lose touch with reality and start speaking in a language only he can understand. But that’s not necessarily important. Kimmo Timo would be our emotional leader, basically like he is on the Flyers. I’m expecting him to console me as I spent several sleepless nights crying.

We’re not bringing Bryz. It’s not happening. I’ll be dead long before anyone comes to rescue me. So Michael Leighton will be joining us by default, but we won’t be talking to him. He’ll just sit in a corner the entire time and then hopefully leave us alone.

(Note: If you’re wondering why I didn’t bring Claude Giroux, it’s because he is way to valuable. I’m not chancing him catching some sort of rare tropical flesh eating disease. He is spared from this voyage gone awry, but it isn’t because I don’t love him.)

@Ekoeck:Would the NHL seriously be THAT stupid to lockout and lose a large portion of fan interest? Who do they think they are, NFL?

Not at all, in fact, and that’s exactly why they are going to lockout here. In my opinion, there’s no such thing as a casual hockey fan. You either love it or you don’t, simple as that. When the NBA locked out for three months last year, it did not benefit the NHL. The fans who like hockey continued to enjoy it, and the NBA fans continued to sulk until Christmas Day. Just because the league is locked out doesn’t mean they are going to lose their fans. A lockout is imminent here, and I think it’s something that needs to happen. I’m not gonna say I’m taking the side of the owners here, but yeah, I’m kind of on the owners side here. The 14 year $110 million deal that the Flyers gave to Shea Weber is essentially what is wrong with this league: the big boys stepping all over the  small kids. I still find it remarkable that the NHL has 30 teams. Teams like Anaheim, Columbus, Dallas, Nashville and especially Phoenix are barely treading water here. The NHL is especially lucky that they found an ownership group to inherit the mess in Phoenix, because it’s a disaster. As prices for players rise, small market teams are forced to watch their top players go to the big market teams like New York Rangers, Detroit, and of course, Philadelphia. The only way the NHL gets smaller teams to spend money is by enforcing a cap floor.

Essentially what the NHL wants to accomplish here is to be able to maintain all of their teams by leveling the playing field. They want to cut down on decade long contracts and put them at a max of five years, and completely change the revenue sharing, among other things. Quite frankly, it’s hard to blame them here. Granted, they seem eager to lockout the players before the players even make a counter proposal, and Gary Bettmann has not been the best of peacemakers here, but a work stoppage will happen either way. Obviously, it’s going to be the players who cave before their billionaire owners, and they’ll play a shortened season, but is the league stupid here? No, not at all.

@SchwabbFTM: what realistic move can the Flyers make to improve the team? Not a homerun but an upgrade (defense?!) 

First off let me say I don’t believe the Flyers will look for Defensive help here. I think they’re very comfortable with digging in to Adirondack and pulling out Brandon Manning, Marc-Andre Bourdon, or even longshot Oliver Lauridsen. Erik Gustafsson was going to compete for a roster spot straight out of Training Camp, but he certainly seems like a lock for the 6th Defenseman spot. Although I’ve suggested that the Flyers might as well go after P.K. Subban of the Montreal Canadiens, it’s highly likely they would match. So that leaves Free Agent Carlo Colaiacovo as the best guy on the market. His stats aren’t overwhelming (2 goals and 16 assists), but he’d certainly fill the hole as your 6th D-man. I really don’t think he’d be worth a one year deal, however. You have to put a little faith in your young guns, and you always have to give them a chance to show you what they got, and now is perfect.

@AtomicRuckus: Your comment on the Flyers’ practice of almost always having an Anglophone Canadian captain? In other words: Are the Flyers only somewhat prejudiced or extremely prejudiced?

Seeing as the Flyers have only had one Captain from a country in which their primary language isn’t English (Peter Forsberg, Sweeden) and he held it for just one year, let’s go with extremely prejudiced. This is America, and you better believe Paul Holmgren is as American as they come. Kicking back beers, watching NASCAR, and eating chocolate covered Slim Jim’s , because why the hell not. So in other words, you better believe that the Flyers Captain is going to be predominately English speaking. We’re talking Philadelphia here, where this whole U S of A thing began. It would be a disservice to our fore fathers before us and our countrymen to have a Russian speaking Captain that frequently needed translation. We earned that right in the Cold War! What? The Cold War wasn’t actually a war? Well we aren’t backing down here. So yes, we here Flyers fans as well as the front office are quite prejudiced when it comes to English speaking captains.

@DisplacedPhan: Can the Flyers win the Stanley Cup by playing with all forwards this season? Maybe 4 forwards and 2 goalies?

Why not, right? We can just win every game 8-7. Plus our Defense is depleted, why not go 4 forwards? If you’re saying four forwards and two goalies, I’m assuming that they’ll be on the ice at the same time. So I’m going to institute the Ron Hextall plan. What’s going to happen here is you’ll have your four forwards, Bryzgalov in net, and then Michael Leighton playing the role of Hextall here. In his full pads and mask, Leighton will be skating the ice, and quietly SLASH PEOPLE IN THE BACK OF THE LEGS. It will cause fear in our opponents, but more importantly, it’ll morph Leighton into a complete monster. The next time somebody five holes him, watch out.

@MBrad1316: With Lilja out til Dec, does this open a door for Manning to get a few more looks to solidify our depth?

According to Paul Holmgren, Lilja will be out only a month, rather than December. Manning will certainly get some chances to impress this year. He only played four games with the Flyers last year, but may be given more of a chance to impress this year. The Flyers can’t seem to avoid injuries, especially on the Defensive end, and Manning could certainly get the call up. However, he’s only 22, and didn’t even play a full season in the AHL last year. He spent the 2010 season playing in the WHL, and last year was his first in the Flyers organization. Gustafsson and Marc-Andre Bourdon will probably be on the top of the pecking order, but Manning will still be there.

@AmeriKev: If you could pick one Philadelphia Eagle to put on skates, who would it be and what would they play?

Well, let’s start of with who is definitely not lacing up. I’m afraid if anyone even touched Michael Vick, he’d probably spontaneously combust. LeSean McCoy can only move left to right, so watching him skate would be quite uneventful. If I only had to choose one member of the Eagles, I’m taking Evan Mathis. Nothing says graceful like a 6’5”, 302 lb. Offensive Lineman. Also, I wouldn’t be surprised if Mathis killed it on the ice. He seems like a multitalented guy, and I mean doesn’t everyone from Birmingham Alabama own a pair of skates? No? Okay, moving on. Plus, I’d give Paul Holmgren a call before I put Mathis on the ice. If he can move well enough, he certainly has the size to be a top Defenseman.

@UUBlog: SAT Prep – Michael Martinez:Phillies::???:Flyers

Andreas Lilja and Michael Martinez are awful professional athletes separated at birth. The signing of Lilja still puzzles me to this day. He signed a two year deal last Offseason, to be a veteran presence in the Flyers defense. If the Flyers wanted to keep a veteran, they could have re-signed Sean O’Donnell to a cheaper contract. Instead, he signed in Chicago and ended up playing 6 more game this past season than Lilja. There must be an ancient curse that states “All members of the Philadelphia Flyers named Andreas must be absolutely awful.” Between Andreas “No Goal” Nodl and now Andreas Lilja, the Flyers cannot win.

It seems as though he plays with half a brain.  He doesn’t react timely, forwards seem to blow right past him, and he also likes running into his own teammates. He is a lost cause, and both him and Martinez should be hurled into the sun. Then brought back, treated for third degree burns, and hurled into the sun again.

@JeffBaumann: Watch “Drive” starring Ryan Gosling, and use quotes and relate them to the Flyers. Use IMDB if needed.

You know, we’re here celebrating but it’s a shameful thing… what I did. And I have a lot of making up to do to everyone. But second chances are rare. Right? And that’s worth celebrating. 

This is Paul Holmgren after Shea Weber “signed” an offer sheet with the Flyers. His plan going into the offseason was to try and woo over Zach Parise and Ryan Suter with over $100 million each, in order to get both of them to wear Orange & Black in 2013. However, they both decided to head to Minnesota, leaving Philadelphia empty handed. Holmgren knew he needed to make a splash and give the fans something to look forward to, so he turned towards Shea Weber. It seems as though Weber and his agents were only using the Flyers to make Nashville pay up, but it brought a lot of excitement to a dismal offseason. The Flyers got a rare second chance to get it right by signing Weber. Although it may have been a bit of an early celebration, getting Shea Weber, even if for just a week was worth celebrating.

You paid three-hundred (expletive) grand for this piece of (expletive)? 

Ed Snider to Paul Holmgren, in reference of Andreas Lilja.

You know, he walked into my shop here about five or six years ago. Right out of the blue. Asking for a job. So I put him to the test to see what he could do. The kid’s amazing. 

This is a pretty good reference to Eric Wellwood. Drafted as one of the last picks in the 6th round of the 2009 NHL Draft, not much has been expected of him. He’s undersized at 5’11″, and wasn’t the greatest of goal scorers in the OHL. Yet the Flyers took a shot at drafting him, and it looks like it may pay dividends. After two seasons in the AHL, Wellwood was given a chance with the Flyers, and left management and fans alike very impressed. In 24 games Wellwood had 5 goals and 4 assists. Yet it was not those stats on the 4th line that people liked, but rather his work ethic. He flies all over the ice, throwing his body everywhere in order to make a play. His puck handling is phenomenal too. He keeps great control, but has such great quickness it’s hard for Defenseman to keep hold of him. He’s going to get a spot on the roster this year, and expect great things out of him.

You get out of here and you never (expletive) come back. You never come back. 

The world to Andreas Lilja.

Thanks for reading. If you’d like to participate in next week’s BuzzBag, make sure to follow me on Twitter @JakePavorsky.

But on to the questions…

@JimRob24: If the Flyers were to have a mascot, who would it be?

It seems as though the use of mascots is a lost art in sports. All mascots nowadays are these big. child friendly animals built with smiles on their faces, just wanting to come up to you and give you a high five or a hug. NHL Mascots aren’t as widely known as the Phillie Phanatic or Wally the Green Monster, and that is a good thing, because they’re awful. The Penguins mascot “Iceburg” looks like he was pulled off the set of Sesame Street, the Islanders mascot “Sparky The Dragon” looks like he was created under the influence of narcotics and the Canadiens mascot “Youppi” is literally a giant ball of fur. If the Flyers had a mascot, it would most like be a giant version of their logo.

But if I was in charge  of creating a mascot, it wouldn’t be some dancing machine that made a fool of itself, oh no. Our mascot would be used as a means of intimidation.

I can't even... Credit: Anthony Gruppuso-US PRESSWIRE

For example….

Narwhal- There is nothing scarier than walking around the Wells Fargo Center, feeling a tap on your back and turning around to see a massive beluga whale with a massive horn sticking out of its head. If that doesn’t make an 8 year old girl shriek, well, we’re not going back to the drawing board here. But we’ll be also using Mr. Narwhal here for strategic purposes. The opposing team steps off the bus in the garage behind WFC, the Narwhal is going to be right there. Waiting. Watching. Creepy? Absolutely. But that’s the point here. By the time the visitors step on the ice, they will have seen the Narwhal everywhere. In the hallways, walking through the locker room, standing behind the bench for warmups, the opposition will have seen our beloved mascot so much the Flyers will be gin to look like him. And that, my friend, is where he becomes useful. He will cause so much emotional and mental stress, the opponent will not be able to concentrate on anything but not being eaten by the Narwhal, and all of the Flyers holes disappear. Missing a defenseman?  They won’t get it past their own blue line. Need a pure scorer? Henrik Lundqvist certainly is not stopping a 13 foot, 3,500 lb. beast skating full force right at him. Ilya Bryzgalov is a concern? He could pull out a lawn chair and a nook if he wanted to.

As you can see, a narwhal is the only choice for Flyers mascot.

@Jason AAV: Think The Flyers Will/Should get a third jersey?

Will? No. Should? Yes. I would actually like to see the Flyers use their Winter Classic jerseys as an alternate like the Philadelphia Eagles use their black jerseys. After all the rumored Winter Classic jerseys and the $20 fakes from China (including the Tony The Tiger orange), Reebok absolutely killed it. They kept it pretty in line with the Flyers two current jerseys, and the white and black stripes across the bottom brought it all together pretty well. Plus, I absolutely loved the keystone patches for the Captain and the Alternate Captains. Most team jerseys do not have anything on it representative of their home state, and the patch was a great little touch for Pennsylvania. If all else fails, I would go back to the Flyers “so orange it’s red” jersey as a cool throwback.

@Atomicruckus: Find me a better trio of gingers than Giroux, Voracek and Gingers. 

As it is widely known, Gingers are a very rare people. Red hair is found on 1-2% of the human population, so to find three gingers that will likely on the same line together  is pretty cool, and has already called for a meme or two. The only way to find a great trio of gingers would be to go through each respective sport. There are no redheads in the NHL that can compete with the greatness of what the Flyers have, and the Sedin twins are automatically ejected from competition because they’re twin brothers. If you make your way over to the NBA, Bill Walton is not a bad start to lead your trio of gingers. However, it takes three to tango here, and Delonte West and Brian Scalabrine definitely aren’t cutting it. Former Sixer Todd MacCulloch is indeed a ginger, but Big Mac is making a living traveling the world playing pinball (in which he has to sit on a stool to play due to a chronic foot problem), and he doesn’t deserve the come within 100 feet of Claude Giroux. Make your way over to the NFL, and you find the “Red Rocket” Andy Dalton standing by his lonesome. Poor guy must spend most of his nights playing Celine Dion’s “All By Myself”.

But to find our perfect trio of gingers, we have to make our way across the pond, and then back, and then across the pond again, because our three best gingers come in the soccer (or football) world. Their names? Alexi Lalas, Paul Scholes, and Wayne Rooney. Now, I did debate with myself: “Is Wayne Rooney a true ginger?” After hours of research, this commercial from the 2010 World Cup shows him and a fully grown ginger beard (skip to 1:14 to see). His hair may look brown nowadays, but he can’t hide what’s inside of him. Rooney is arguably the best striker in the Premiership, and all you need to see is the stats to prove it. 129 goals in 251 appearances with Manchester United (one being a phenomenal bicycle kick against my Manchester City Blues) and 29 goals in 76 games with England. If there’s anyone who can put the ball in the back of the ol’ onion bag, it’s Rooney. Paul Scholes, Rooney’s teammate of 8 years at United is one of the greatest players in the clubs history. Scholes has played in almost 500 matches for United, and has been a lock at midfield since 1993. The man is an ageless wonder, scoring 4 goals last season, his most since the 06-07 campaign. Plus, when you’re known as “The Ginger Prince”, you’re a lock for the best trio of gingers. Lastly, we head home to America for our third ginger Alexi Lalas, probably the Jakub Voarcek of the group. Lalas had a good MLS career, bouncing around with the New England Revolution, the Kansas City Wizards, the MetroStars and the LA Galaxy. The Defenseman is probably best known for his contributions to Team USA, as he held down the fort on the back line from 91-98. Lalas, whose real first name is Panayotis, was quite the talented guy. Not only was he a good Defender, he was talented in the music department. In1998, he released an album called “Ginger”. Obviously it sold miserably and his music career never got off the ground, but his embracement of his red hair earns him a spot in this trio. So there you have it, Lalas, Scholes, and Rooney playing a 1-1-1 formation downs Voracek, Giroux and Hartnell as the best ginger trio.

@GoingHard_inger: Which Flyers besides G do you think gets the most poon if all else equal.

Well then….

There’s nobody that comes close to Claude Giroux. Maybe it’s the red hair or the Canadian accent, but the ladies absolutely love him. If I had to use my best guessing skills and my observations of how girls melt when they come within 1000 yards of them, I’m going with the young guns Brayden Schenn and Sean Couturier. For Couturier, it’s definitely the toothless smile that the ladies love. No other player in the NHL could pull it off; I mean who doesn’t love this. Plus, the fact that he’s only 19 and killing it in the NHL definitely must be big with the college gals. The same goes for Brayden Schenn. He’s only 20 and on August 21st he’ll be legal to go to American bars. Don’t think I need to explain that one any further. Schenn definitely seems like a pretty boy on the team, and although that isn’t really characteristic of an NHL player, it most likely bodes well for him. Lucky for Brayden he got the good looks in the gene pool, because Luke sort of looks like he got hit with a truck. Sorry, big guy. Honorable mention goes to Zac Rinaldo. Probably an unexpected choice, but Rinaldo seems like a guy with some serious game. He also seems like a guy with pretty low standards, but that’s a whole different story.

@Daniel11496: Does Giroux break 100 points this year?

Last year Giroux fell just 7 points short of 100, notching 28 goals to go with 65 assists. On this team without Jaromir Jagr, Claude Giroux will definitely be called upon more to score more goals, a task he can certainly live up to. He’ll be the go to guy on the Power Play, setting up shop on the wing, preparing for one-timers. Giroux had just 6 power play goals last season, but you can bank on him getting at least 10 this season. However, with him taking more shots and having to create more goal scoring chances for himself will cause for a decrease in assists. He’ll probably top out at around 30 goals and 65 assists, falling just short of 100 goals again. Next year, expect him to finally get there. With a whole lot of top forwards likely to test free agency, the Flyers will be all in and then some. Even if they have to overpay, (and they’ll have the cap room to do so) bringing a Ryan Getzlaf or a Jerome Iginla will certainly help Giroux’s play, as well as advance their own.

@uublog: What does Bryz think about tonight’s new space exploration developments?

“One small step for man, one humangous big step for mankind.”-Ilya Bryzgalov. Obviously he loved it, and he told me, as we speak on the reg. He’s been studying Mars from his newly built $60 million planetarium. What? The kids don’t have to eat. Anyway, he had been watching the recent developments on Mars, and he was rather concerned as to whether or not the rover would make it safely. He was quite relieved when learning of it’s safe landing, and downed some of that Russian alcohol with the rare endangered tiger on the front. Things got quite weird after that.

TrevSerenells: Anyone from Adirondack looking good enough to be called up to the NHL?

Three defenseman: Marc-Andre Bourdon, Erik Gustafsson and Brandon Manning will most likely be injury call ups. Bourdon played in 45 games last year before suffering a concussion, but could definitely use the time in the AHL. Manning was an emergency injury replacement, only playing in 4 games, and unless the Flyers Defense corps is destroyed, Manning won’t be with the Flyers this season. Gustafsson is the true stud in this group. He played in 30 Regular Season games and 7 playoff games, and really held his own. He’ll compete for the 6th D-man spot on the Flyers, but will probably start the year in the AHL. Forward Harry Zolnierczyk will see some action in Philadelphia as well. He only contributed 6 points in 37 contests, but has shown some flashes of what he can do.

Thanks for reading. If you’d like to participate in next week’s Buzzbag, make sure to follow me on Twitter: @JakePavorsky.