Helpful tip: If you see a post on Facebook searching for people who committed a crime, don't respond saying you did it.
This concept sounds so obvious and so simple. If you actually did do it and you confess, then you are an idiot. If you didn't do it, but instead just trying to be "funny," then you are an idiot. Under no circumstances do you come out looking good. Either you just gave yourself up on the internet for everyone to see and will be fined and do some time, or you are going to be highly inconvenienced by the police and have your false confession show up every time someone Googles your name. And possibly get fined in the process. This is simple. Don't admit to doing something that is a crime on the internet. I just wasted a paragraph on something a concept a 3rd grader would understand. You know this. I know this.
Edward Neary has spoken to the police. He has since denied all involvement. Someone who went to high school with Edward Neary tweeted to me that this is something he would do because he finds it "funny." In case you have not yet figured out, at best, Edward Neary is guilty of being one of Philadelphia's dumbest people. At worst, he is one of Philadelphia's dumbest criminals. Because innocent and just trying to be "funny," or not, this has been on the internet and the top hits when you Google "Edward Neary". Employers know what Google is. His future employment may or may not have a few roadblocks in the future.
NBC is trying something new this Sunday with its Hockey Day In America. Obviously, there will be visible parallels to CBC's Hockey Night In Canada, which probably is not the best of things. But NBC is making an attempt to pay hockey more attention and give it the type of coverage on a national network it has not seen in quite some time in the USA. And this is a good thing. I will have a live blog for the festivities on Sunday (which will include the Heritage Classic later that night on Versus), but for now, here is your schedule of games, with the first window being regional coverage. (all times ET; regional game I get is in bold)
Washington Capitals vs. Buffalo Sabres 12:35 (NBC - Jim Jackson, ItG: Ray Ferraro) Philadelphia Flyers vs. New York Rangers 12:40 (NBC - Ken Daniels, ItG: Joe Micheletti)
Detroit Red Wings vs. Minnesota Wild 12:45 (NBC - Pat Foley, ItG: Darren Pang)
NBC National TV game
Pittsburgh Penguins vs. Chicago Blackhawks 3:30 (NBC - Mike Emrick and Eddie Olczyk, ItG: Pierre McGuire)
Heritage Classic
Montreal Canadiens vs. Calgary Flames 6:00 (Versus - Dave Strader and Andy Brickley, ItG: Brian Engblom)
I don't listen to Philadelphia radio up here so I might have some of the details on how this got started a little fuzzy, so bare with me here. Apparently Flyers play-by-play announcer Jim Jackson was on Preston and Steve's morning show on 93.3 WMMR before Thursday night's Rangers-Flyers game. How something like this got brought up I have no diea, but Preston and Steve asked Jim Jackson if he could throw in the word "jabroni" during the Rangers-Flyers game. Jim Jackson duly obliged with the following awesomeness.
He took the dare and used it to call Sean Avery a jabroni. Now that's hilarious. Well done, Jim, well done. I am sure he will be receiving a call from Vince McMahon in no time.
I can't figure out what is a bigger crime. A shootout determined a playoff team or the Flyers nearly lost in regulation because of a goal from a guy with 2 girls names.
But it does not matter to me right now BECAUSE THE FLYERS ARE GOING TO THE PLAYOFFS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
They may not have much of a future, but they have snowball's chance at glory in the present. Backs against the wall, they came through. Jody Shelley (still pissed off that he has the cruelest parents in the world) took out his anger, frustration, and years of being picked on out on the Flyers by once again scoring on us in the first period.
It was 1-0 Rangers then, but from that moment on, the Flyers flat-out outplayed them. Lundqvist was huge for the Rangers, but if you did not know better, the rest of the Ranger team was invisible because the Flyers proceeded to outplay the Rangers in every facet of the game.
They dominated every stat through 2 except the only one that mattered: the scoreboard. This was not a day for moral victories. This was win or go home. And the Flyers were not winning.
But then an amazing thing happened with about 10 seconds left in the period. The only Ranger forward that bothered to show up today (and coincidentally, the only Ranger forward wearing a tutu underneath his jersey) got hammered (no, I don't mean it like that, though that probably will happen as early as tonight in bed) into the boards by Jody Shelley. It was at that point where I would normally say "fuck you, Jody Shelley" but seeing as numerous straight guys who have seen his name online have already tried, it would have been a pointless exercise for me to say so.
The 3rd period started and I'm not going to lie. I did not think we had a chance. Henrik Lundqvist was standing on his head all game long. The last goalie to do that against us was Jaroslav Halak and that game resulted in a shutout win for the Habs. This looked like that game. The Flyers were just not going to be good enough tonight.
But then something amazing happened. Jeff Carter stole a pass on the power play. He gave it to Hartnell who attempted his 4354th cross-ice pass of the year. But unlike the other 4353, this one connected. Before you knew it, there was a puck in front of the net and Matt Carle was there to send it home and ultimately after a few more tense minutes of hockey, send the game to overtime.
A curious thing happened in overtime. The Rangers stalled. They did not want the game to end in overtime. They wanted what the rest of the hockey world dreaded: a shootout.
They had the advantage. After all, 10 times out of 10, who would you rather have in a shootout? One of the best regulation and shootout goalies in the league, or Brian "Don't Call Me Bobby" Boucher.
The Flyers took the early lead in the shootout, but in the bottom of the 2nd round, Parenteau tied it up. 1 round left. Tied at 1. We've seen this story before. This is where the Flyers choke. This story has played out before. The Flyers are not a good shootout team, the Rangers are. The Flyers last few weeks have been choking. The Rangers these last few weeks have been coming from behind and surging. This was merely a microcosm of that.
But then, something unprecedented happened. The Flyers broke the cycle.
More specifically, Claude Giroux and Brian Boucher broke the cycle.
First, Giroux skated in alone, deked, held up, fired, and sent it flying through a ginormous Lundqvist five-hole. Brian Boucher then stoned the last chance for the Rangers, represented by Olli Jokinen, and just like that it was over.
The Flyers are going to the playoffs.
I REPEAT, THE FLYERS ARE GOING TO THE PLAYOFFS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
After outplaying them for 65 minutes of hockey, the Flyers proceeded to beat the Rangers at their own game in the shootout and they are the #7 seed in the 2010 NHL Playoffs. As a result of that and the Devils beating the Sabres, the Flyers will play the Devils in the Eastern Conference quarterfinals of the 2010 Stanley Cup playoffs. They met in a playoff series 10 years ago. I think we all remember how that one ended.
Anyway, it is at this point that I would say Jody Shelley can suck it, but once again, he's already done so numerous times. I would be wasting yet another sentence. So instead, I will just tell you that the schedule of games will be announced later tonight and thus, I will hopefully have that up by the end of the night, if they release it too late, then you can expect it sometime late tomorrow morning. But for now, here are the highlights of tonight's thriller.
Well, 81 games have led to this. Game 82. The Flyers and the Rangers. Winner take all. If you are in the Philly market, you can see the game on CSN Philly. If you are in the New York market, you can see the game on MSG. If you are out of market but still in the U.S. or Canada, you can see the game on NHL Network. The game starts at 3 PM, however, I will probably start the live blog sometime before the Bruins-Caps game so I can spend 3 hours telling you how nervous I am for the Flyers game. For a look at my calculated Eastern Conference playoff scenarios given any combination of today's playoff important games, click here or here.
Tomorrow is the day when all questions will be answered. We all know that the Rangers-Flyers game is win or go home, but on days like this, there always seems to be massive confusion of who will get what seed and who will play who in the Eastern Conference with given results. Seeing as I am someone who compulsively must know this, I figured why not post it here tonight instead of trying to do math in the midst of the tension tomorrow. There are 2 playoff important games in the east tomorrow, the first one being the obvious Rangers-Flyers win or go home game, the 2nd being the Sabres-Devils game which will be a battle for the 2nd place seed. However there is a twist in that game and that is the Devils need only to force overtime in order to clinch the 2nd seed, whereas the Sabres must win in regulation to overtake the Devils for the 2-seed.
So without further ado, here is a breakdown of what the playoff matches will be with given any combination of results in those games tomorrow.
If the Flyers win and the Devils at least force overtime:
#1 Washington Capitals vs. #8 Montreal Canadiens #2 New Jersey Devils vs. #7 Philadelphia Flyers #3 Buffalo Sabres vs. #6 Boston Bruins #4 Pittsburgh Penguins vs. #5 Ottawa Senators
If the Flyers win and the Sabres win in regulation:
#1 Washington Capitals vs. #8 Montreal Canadiens #2 Buffalo Sabres vs. #7 Philadelphia Flyers #3 New Jersey Devils vs. #6 Boston Bruins #4 Pittsburgh Penguins vs. #5 Ottawa Senators
If the Rangers win and the Devils at least force overtime:
#1 Washington Capitals vs. #8 New York Rangers #2 New Jersey Devils vs. #7 Montreal Canadiens #3 Buffalo Sabres vs. #6 Boston Bruins #4 Pittsburgh Penguins vs. #5 Ottawa Senators
If the Rangers win and the Sabres win in regulation:
#1 Washington Capitals vs. #8 New York Rangers #2 Buffalo Sabres vs. #7 Montreal Canadiens #3 New Jersey Devils vs. #6 Boston Bruins #4 Pittsburgh Penguins vs. #5 Ottawa Senators
I think I've got it all right here. If I have overlooked or forgotten something as I did earlier when I mistakenly thought the Devils had already clinched the 2-seed, then please let me know. Due to our owning the tiebreaker over Montreal, we have successfully avoided the Capitals, but all of that won't matter if we do not beat the Rangers tomorrow. Go Flyers!!!
(FYI, I will have a live blog up tomorrow and will likely be starting in time for the start of the 12:00 meaningless Bruins-Caps game. You say why live blog a meaningless hockey game? I say, why not live blog a meaningless hockey game?)
I am hopeful that I will run into 0 problems in finding a stream of this game as I do not get Versus.
As cliche as it has been over the past couple weeks, this is the biggest game of the year for the Eastern Conference. If the Flyers win in regulation, that's it, it's over. The Flyers will clinch. The Bruins will clinch. The Habs will clinch. And the only left to play for will be seeding. If not, then, well, all I will say then is to hang on to your seatbelts for it will be wild weekend that I really don't want to have to endure.
You can definitely file this one under the category of pure randomness. Seeing as we are all still reeling from the fallout of the Rangers and the Flyers debuting Thursday Night Fights to America last night, I figured why not show you their successors. Meet the Russian Penguins and the Northern Stars. Brace yourselves for a bench clearing brawl that ended up resulting in a total of 707 penalty minutes. But JFein, you ask, what is so special about a massive bench clearing brawl in Russia? I'll tell you what is so special about it: The fighters are 9-years old.
Bettman beware! If these kids have anything to say about it, fighting will be in hockey for a long time to come, whether Bettman likes it or not.
Aspeaking of fights in hockey, I elected not to post this in the Carcillo-Gaborik post because frankly, I wanted to make the point about the media and the distortions and the disillusionment of the Rangers, their media, and their fans. This, however, is just about an epic fight, so while we are at it, enjoy Scott Hartnell knocking the shit out of Sean Avery.
You know you've done a good thing as a Flyer when Penguins fans are cheering your accomplishments. Good stuff last night at the Wachovia Center.
Oh man, I love hockey. The Flyers played a picture perfect game which included Ray Emery getting a much needed shutout a shaky performance against Washington and only showing slight improvement against Columbus. But the part of the game that was most talked about had nothing to do with goals, but rather it was a fight between Carbomb Dan Carcillo and Marian Gaborik.
While the result of the fight was as one would figure, the start of the fight has already created quite a bit of controversy between Flyers fans and Rangers fans.
Normally I would run the video first, but at the risk of corrupting your minds of delusions as the only video of the fight online is that of the Rangers MSG broadcast, I will give you the facts of what happened first, let you spot those facts for yourself as you watch, and you can laugh at the delusions.
Here is what happened:
Ray Emery made a save with players in front of the net. Tollefson of the Flyers and Dubinsky of the Rangers pushed and shoved in front of the net.
Carcillo, gloves on, engaged Gaborik to the glass. Carcillo settles down as if to end it, knowing that it is not his purpose in the game to start a fight with a team's star player. Yes, he has a reputation, but Laviolette has coached him well and his discipline has grown enormously in the past few months. Well for Carbomb's standards at least, but I digress....Gaborik then starts pushing back and manages to get Carcillo up against the class. It is at this point, unprompted, Marion Gaborik starts dropping his gloves and lands a brief punch in while Carcillo responds to Gaborik's green light of his gloves dropping by dropping his own gloves.
So do you understand? Gaborik dropping gloves = green light for Carcillo to destroy shit.
And now, here is the video of the fight, complete with whiny Rangers announcers painting Dan Carcillo as evil incarnate. Watch with pleasure, listen at your own risk.
From the official Rangers Twitter right after the fight: "Carcillo jumps Gaborik, lands flurry of punches; Torts screaming at Laviolette; #Rangers furious; #NYR still down 1-0"
Did anyone see a jumping there?
John Tortorella kept exclaiming after the game how there was "no honor" in that, according to TSN's James Duthie on Twitter (EDIT: exact quotes from Tortorella: "I was frustrated because there’s simply no honor, I sit behind the bench with a suit and tie on. I’m not trying to run anybody down, I just think there’s a lack of honor." and "Well, there’s no honor in that, I don’t play the game, I don’t wear the uniform. I don’t want to say too much about it, but there’s simply no honor in that."). How was that not honorable? It's part of the game. Gaborik dropped his gloves first while tangled up with Carbomb. Fighting is part of the game of hockey like it or not, and when that happens and you do it against the other team's biggest fighter, guess what, Marion is going to get the crap beat out of him.
Now Rangers fans will try to tell you that Dan Carcillo was licking his chops all game to get at Marian Gaborik based off of a quote that Carcillo made. Well, they would be taking things out of context, here is the quote, full context, and while you will see how the Rangers will take the quote out of context to fit their delusional narrative of events, that is not what was said.
Here's the full quote: "“I wasn’t expecting him to drop his gloves and when he did, I was pretty much licking my chops."
And why would not Carcillo be licking his chops? Gaborik is a big time scorer on a hot streak. If you can get him out of the game for 5 minutes, by all means, take advantage of that opportunity. While Tortorella is on his delusion of dishonor, it really is a smart play by Carcillo that just so happens to allow him to do what he is best at: fighting.
Now there are some Rangers fans that are claiming that Gaborik was just defending himself when he dropped the gloves, which makes no sense on so many levels because Gaborik was on the aggressive side of the pushing at the time, not Carbomb, and secondly, why on earth would Gaborik defend himself by stripping himself of armor? If he was just trying to protect himself, wouldn't he want gloves? And
The good news though is that not all Ranger fans are like this. Consider this report on the game from, of all things, the Rangers correspondent at The Bleacher Report
At 5:43 into the second period, Daniel Carcillo pounded on Marion Gaborik. I know all about this and what Carcillo did was not wrong. If you watch the reviews , it was quite obvious that it was Gaborik trying to discard his gloves well before Carcillo did. Basically Gaborik had no idea what he was doing because that was just a stupid move on his part. Of Course Carcillo is going to drop the gloves and start swinging if he sees that a player is looking to do the same to him, and that is exactly what happen. Hey this is hockey, it is a tough sport and a fighting sport regardless who you are. Gaborik didn’t stand a chance but at the same time , his teammates should have jumped in before that beating could have ever taken place. No i didn't like the idea of Gabby getting a beating, He is not a fighter. but it was Gabby who really did drop the gloves first.
Logic! From a Rangers fan! At last!
Now I know what you are thinking, The Bleacher Report is normally a bunch of bullshit, so therefore, maybe those delusional Rangers are not so delusional after all.
Well, I will end with this one last screenshot of the video above.
As you can clearly see, there is only one glove on the ground. And if you look at the players, you can make out a bare fist. Trace the fist and see the jersey that the fist is coming from and whose fist does it end up being? The fist of the man who started the fight: Marian Gaborik.
Well, they are hilarious for me at least, a Flyers fan. Forget the NBA playoffs, last night featured perhaps one of, if not the, most exciting and unpredictable hour that I can eve recall. The New York Rangers were up 3 games to 1 on the Capitals. The Caps had completely blown out the Rangers the next 2 games and what happened next was me seeing a team that I hate pull a 2000 Flyers Eastern Conference Finals. Your first video of epicness of the day: Highlights from Game 7 Rangers @ Caps from the Verizon Center.
And if you thought the Flyers blowing a 3-goal lead to lose a must-win Game 6, wait until you see what the Devils did in Game 7. Cue video of epicness #2: Game 7: Carolina @ New Jersey from the Prudential Center.
THAT.........WAS.......AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And no, I am not content on just showing that once. NHLVideos decided to use the Doc Emrick call from MSG+. But, John Forslund was admitted into the hospital last night after calling the Hurricanes-Devils game. Here's why.....
This will never get old!!! Good luck to the Carolina Hurricanes. You guys officially have my support to win the Stanley Cup Playoffs. And it does not hurt my new-found love for them that they have ex-Flyer Rod Brind'amour.
Conference Semifinals start tomorrow with the Blackhawks vs. the Canucks at 9:00 tomorrow (schedule will be up in a bit). And thanks to the Hurricanes comeback, it's Ovechkin vs. Crosby!!!!! I've never been this pumped for a non-Flyers NHL playoff series in my life!
