And......we moved!

Just in case there are still some very loyal followers checking up on this blog, I wanted to announce that we've moved to the following site: http://craniumcarom.wordpress.com/

Like I mentioned in the last post, it's a site that includes writers for more than just the Flyers, although there will still be plenty of content for the Flyers. Really, it's going to be this site plus content for other teams. It should be good. Check it out.

We're Moving!!!!

I haven't done anything on this blog forever, but there's some good news. We're going to be moving the site and involve more general NHL content. We'll be getting a lot more writers involved to write about their own hometown teams. So there should be a lot of new and diverse content on the site. It is still in the early, however, and I can't give an exact time for when it will be up and running.

Phoenix Coyotes moving?

That's a good question. Really, they should have never been in Phoenix in the first place. Since when does hockey and the desert mix? But Gary Bettman had to do it and its now a mess. Surprise surprise, huh? It has been recently reported that the NHL has been paying some of the bills of the Coyotes despite Bettman telling us that all's well in Arizona. Well, secret movement of millions of dollars is never a good thing. And apparently, that's exactly what Gary Bettman did.

So, seeing that the situation wasn't going to get any better, the owner of the Coyotes, Jerry Moyes, filed for bankruptcy. Canadian billionaire Jim Balsillie then offered $212.5 million for the franchise as long as he could relocate it to southern Ontario, which would presumably end up being Hamilton. The NHL, not being told about the bankruptcy filing, fired back and removed Moyes from his duties. Apparently they have the right to do that. Bettman is in Arizona to discuss selling the team to Jerry Reinsdorf, the owner of the Chicago White Sox, who promises to keep the team in Phoenix. He's offering much less money than Balsillie, but it looks as if Bettman wants to hand the team over to Reinsdorf. This seems headed into the direction of a lawsuit from either the NHL or Jim Balsillie. It won't be ended cleanly and it seems that both parties, the NHL and Balsillie, haven't exactly been too clean themselves in how they've handled things.

I, for one, am in support of moving the Coyotes to Canada. I have one reason for it: they will sell tickets. No offense to the fans in Phoenix, and there are some good hockey fans out there, but there just aren't enough of them to support an NHL team. I'm going to assume that the city where Balsillie wants to move the Coyotes to is Hamilton, Ontario (because that's where he's tried to move teams before). There are plenty of fans there. Toronto and Buffalo are kind of nearby, but as long as they can afford it, everyone's going to want to go see a game up there. The tickets in Toronto are already pretty expensive, so I'm sure that Hamilton would attract fans who want to go to games, but just can't fork out the dough to see a game in Toronto.....or fans who can simply never get a ticket in Toronto. I have full confidence that it can work there.

The NHL is also trying to work out a deal with ESPN for next season. The NHL is trying to get interest in the game to attract new fans. No one's going to want to watch a Coyotes versus Predators game. There won't be anyone there and ESPN sure wouldn't want to televise it. Play a game in Hamilton, though, where there will be a building full of people every game, and that's a game ESPN will want to televise to a national audience.

Apparently there's a deal with the city of Glendale that if the Coyotes leave, the city will be owed $400 million. Well, I guess Balsillie can pay that. I hope he can.

It seems, however, that Gary Bettman will do his darndest to keep this from happening. He and Balsillie have this quasi-war going on between them and I'm sure that only the courts will decide what will happen. But Bettman's just got to swallow his pride and admit that his expansion to the south was a mistake. Using NHL money to keep the team afloat can only make things worse. He's holding the league back because he can't own up to his mistake.

This might not be a quick thing.

Kunitz crosschecks Varlamov

Near the start of Game 1 of the Flyers/Penguins series, Chris Kunitz hit Kimmo Timonen at the near boards. After seeing the replay, you can see that Kunitz appeared to stick his knee out and go knee to knee with Timonen. Many people (mostly Penguins fans) claimed that it wasn't intentional on Kunitz' part. Well, after watching Kunitz take a vicious crosscheck to the head of Simeon Varlamov at the end of the last night's game, I'm convinced that he was trying to injure Timonen.

But that's for another day. What I want to talk about was this hit that occurred last night. I have one word to describe it: filthy. Can anyone seriously say that Kunitz wasn't trying to decapitate Varlamov here? I mean, come on, this is as blatant as it gets. Kunitz extended his arms and followed through right into the neck/side of the head area. It was sneaky, so I'm not going to be too critical of the refs for missing it, but the league really needs to step in here.

And that's exactly where the problem lies. He's not going to be punished for the hit. Gary Bettman and Colin Campbell are about as bad at their jobs as anyone can be. They suspended Daniel Carcillo for giving Maxime Talbot a shot to the face, but they ignore Mike Cammalleri doing the same exact thing to Martin Havlat. Why? Its because Carcillo isn't a higher profile player and Cammalleri is. Both were dirty, but the NHL wants their players to know that the more skilled you are, the more you can get away with. Look at Chris Pronger. Chris Simon gets a huge suspension for stomping on Jaarko Ruutu's leg. And he deserved every bit of that suspension. A little while later, Chris Pronger stomps on Ryan Kesler's leg and only gets 8 games. Really, Gary Bettman? REALLY? Both have histories of dirty play and suspensions (and Pronger has just been voted the dirtiest player in the league by his peers) and both basically did the same thing, but Pronger only gets 8 games? But hey, he's a star in the league, so we'll let it go. That makes sense, right?

Earlier in the playoffs, Milan Lucic got suspended for crosschecking a player in the head. But the difference between his hit and Kunitz's hit was that the other player was going after him and Lucic simply put his hands up to protect himself. He got him with his stick, so he deserved some punishment, but to turn around and not suspend Kunitz for crosschecking a defenseless and unsuspecting player is a travesty. Every suspension or nonsuspension that the NHL hands out leaves everyone scratching their heads. They just never make sense.

Kunitz needed to be suspended for this hit. There's no question in my mind. It was filthy. But Gary Bettman and Colin Campbell will just give us some lame excuse about intention and situation and we'll all have to swallow it because there's nothing we can do about it. Its embarrassing that such a great sport like hockey has such morons in charge. Words cannot describe the absolute disdain for Gary Bettman and Colin Campbell. They are so unbelievably horrible at their jobs. Just plain awful.

Say it ain't so!

I read today that Darren Dreger (TSN) is reporting that the Flyers are talking to Ray Emery's agent about a deal that would bring Emery to the Flyers. Do I need to say why this is a bad idea?

Hopefully this is just the type of "I'm bored, let me write about something" fodder that we see writers post when the trade deadline and free agency are approaching. And I'm not saying that Darren Dreger is bad, because he's one of the better guys in the business, but remember all of the talk about Mats Sundin becoming a Flyer? That's all we read about for a month was how the Flyers were one of the top destinations for Sundin and I worried sick about it because I didn't want the guy on the Flyers. Well, it turns out, this "great interest" the Flyers had in him was simply Paul Holmgren just asking about his availability, because if there's a player like Sundin looking to sign, you're just going to ask about it. Its like if you're going to buy a car, you ask the salesman a question or two about the $60,000 car sitting in the showroom. Its not that you can't buy it, you just see how needless the purchase is but you still want to ask anyway. By the way, Sundin was a $10,000,000 car.

So as I was saying, I'm hoping that this is just reporting just for the sake of reporting and nothing's really up. Anyway, I also read that Paul Holmgren's going to be talking to Marty Biron this month to try to work out a deal. Biron was a longterm deal but the Flyers are probably looking for something around two years at the most. Biron would be a much better option than Ray Emery, for a few reasons. First of all, you know exactly what you're getting with Biron. He's a top 15 goalie in the NHL, and while the Flyers look for a franchise prospect, I'm perfectly happy with Biron in the meantime. Emery's capable of being pretty good, but the whole "I wonder when he's going to go beserk" thing just doesn't appeal to me. Second of all, Biron doesn't forget to show up for practice. Thirdly, Biron isn't a locker room cancer. And oh yeah, I prefer my goalie to not be involved in hard core drugs. But maybe that's me.

If the Flyers don't resign Biron and when they hopefully don't sign Emery, I'd like to see them go after Josh Harding. He's young and pretty good so far. And the Wild have given Niklas Backstrom a nice deal, pretty much guaranteeing that Harding won't be the guy for a long time, if ever. He doesn't make much money right now, and he's a restricted free agent, but I'm sure the Wild wouldn't be opposed to letting him go.

If not Harding, I'd like to see the Flyers go after Craig Anderson or even Jaroslav Halak. Both should be relatively cheap and would make good bandaids until the Flyers land a franchise prospect. That's what they eventually need to get. With their solid young core of forwards and defensemen, I don't see why the Flyers can't draft a goalie with their first pick. They might even be able to afford to trade down in the draft to get the guy they want. If they don't want to work the draft, there are a few high quality prospects on teams like Buffalo and Nashville they might be able to make a deal for.

Quick note about the Flyers/Penguins Series

I've been insanely busy recently, and the blog has suffered as a result.

But I had to say something about the series. In order for the Flyers to have success, they have to play a simple game on defense and just play within themselves. Don't try to do too much and make smart, high percentage players. On offense, the Flyers need to crash the net. They'll be able to get to Fleury that way. And they need to do that early.

Here's some good conversation about the series. Check it out.

Flyers at Islanders Quick Preview

The Flyers will head up to New York to take on the Islanders tonight at 7. The Islanders are coming off a shutout against the Red Wings in Detroit and the Flyers will try to avoid a losing streak after being beaten by the Panthers. Although the Flyers didn't play badly against the Panthers, their powerplay was 0-3 and there were a few costly turnovers that resulted in goals. There are a brutal non-call on a two-handed slash when Jeff Carter had a wide open net after a pass from Kimmo Timonen, but due to the slash, he couldn't connect with the puck. Still, the Flyers had other chances.

The Flyers are 5-0 against the Islanders so far this season and there's no reason why they wouldn't be able to complete the sweep tonight. The Islanders have been playing some spirited hockey with some energetic young players, but let's face it: the Islanders are a team the Flyers should beat every time. The Flyers just have to play a basic road game tonight and they should be able to win. Stay out of the box, kill any penalties they do get, have an effective powerplay, and get and take the lead into the third period. Those are the keys to the game.

Marty Biron will be starting in net for the Flyers and he will likely be opposed by Yann Danis, although that could change. I'm not sure what the Islanders' philosophy is about starting goalies in back to back games especially considering Joey MacDonald earned the shutout last night.

Mike Richards has been relatively quiet on the scoresheet as of late, so he's a player I would watch. I have a feeling that Jeff Carter could pot a goal or two tonight as well. Scott Hartnell might also thrive in a game like this.

The Flyers need this win tonight. Their schedule won't be easy to finish out the season and with a game against the Bruins tomorrow, a win tonight is crucial.