I’m feeling better about my Flyers now that the other skate has finally dropped regarding the indecisive Peter Forsberg. And guess what? They easily beat the NY Rangers without him. I can only hope, futilely, the clowns on FSN will finally shut up over how badly the team does when he’s not in the lineup. On the downside, Mike Knuble broke his face with an accidental collision into Shanahan. I was grateful it wasn’t intentional on either players’ part because there had been some serious fighting between Sean Avery and Todd Fedoruk earlier. I like my team to be tough but I want them to have good sportsmanship. The Flyers were and can be a great team without having to resort to goon moves or malicious hits. Now they’ve gone on to lose against Buffalo, the best team in the East, and Boston, still rebuilding ever since Ray Borque left. I’m excited over Sami staying on for another two years because he’s my first pick to currently wear the C. I don’t know what will remain of the team come next week when the trade deadline hits. Fingers crossed on Holmgren not trading away the younger guys: Umberger, Richards and Carter to get more aging has-beens: Hatcher, Rathje, York and Zhitnik.
Short of an Edmonton-esque miracle from last season, I think Phoenix has run out of gas to make a playoff spot. They’re 17 points out, in 12th place and only 22 games remain (44 possible points). Trading away Nagy really smarted along with some serious spankings they’ve taken. They need to win practically every game, especially if it’s against anyone in the West other than Detroit, Anaheim, San Jose or Nashville. Everybody else are cream puffs. How much faith the Great One and GM Mike Barnett have will be demonstrated by the trade deadline too. Allegedly Nagy got pushed out to make room for the salary cap next year. What other underperforming or clutch talent they release will determine their chances.
The NHL needs to make the trade deadline on a date before the All-Star Game, it is still too close and Frei makes a great point against rental players. Wow ESPN.com has something constructive instead of talking smack about my guy JR.
Which brings me again to my annual plug celebrating The Miracle on Ice at Lake Placid. Twenty-seven years ago, the US beat the Soviet Union in the semi-finals at the 1980 Winter Olympics, paving the way for our first gold medal in Hockey in 20 years. It has been our last too since the closest we had was the silver at Salt Lake which remains better than the atrocious performance at Turin last year. I think I will watch Miracle tonight because the Flyers game against Carolina will be a snooze.