Hard to believe the Flyers have won three games in a row this season! They had their victory over the Lightning as I mentioned last week but they also clobbered the ‘Canes and defeated the Islanders, course they almost blew that as they went from a 3-0 shutout near the end and then gave up two goals in the last few minutes. The GM also claimed Dmitry Afanasenkov off waivers from Tampa. I couldn’t believe it, a forward who is under 30 for a change! This trio of consecutive victories still doesn’t change my opinion or prediction because the season is half over. Despite the string of recent successes, Forsberg was injured just like clockwork which then put the FSN clowns into autopilot about how the Flyers are “lost,” “helpless,” and “troubled” without the crybaby center. It seems that Fox’s hockey “experts” can’t remember anything before the recent lockout. Lastly, the recent victories have been with Robert Esche in goal since Niitymaki injured his hip again. Esche has proven why he should be the number one goalie again, I can only hope he keeps it up.
Meanwhile the Coyotes have pulled ahead of the Kings in the Pacific Division. They’re still behind the Stars by 16 points but that’s only eight victories, 16 OT losses or any combo of the two types of results. Over the weekend they had a victory over the Sharks that resulted in an 8-0 ass whoopin’. Once again my NHL Center Ice didn’t carry the game and there were no highlights on ESPN or the official NHL website. What made the lack of coverage even worse was that my favorite player (Jeremy Roenick) scored his TENTH career hat trick. I can only hope the three goals re-ignites his scoring ability and he overtakes Mike Modano on Joe Mullen’s scoring title. OK, fat chance since he’s retiring at the end of the season while Modano is relatively healthy. The victory also moved goalie Curtis Joseph to fifth place on the list of all-time winning goalies but he retains the ugly distinction of being the most victorious one without a Stanley Cup ring.
The rumors of the Penguins relocating have continued and this is when Barry Melrose proves to me he doesn’t know jack about hockey anymore. Besides being the only former NHL (and WHA) pro to remain with ESPN’s puny hockey department while the others (Clement and Pang for example) went to Versus or various FSN channels, Barry is out of his mind to think the Pens would move let alone survive in Kansas City, MO. Winnipeg I could see despite their small arena (15,000 capacity) or even the league taking a gamble on Las Vegas (no pun intended) but Kansas City is a has-been place. I think he also forgot about the short-lived franchise named the Scouts they had in the Seventies (they’re now the NJ Devils) and this was when the city’s economy was more viable. I’m shocked he didn’t mention Houston to complete my diagnosis of labelling him insane.