Have I told you lately that I love Laviolette?

Lavi smash.

Because I do.

I never had anything against Stevens, but it sorta felt like we were waiting for a real coach to show up. And now we have one! And he calls times out to yell at the guys! And he looks pissed off when the Flyers play like shit. He doesn't just pop another mint into his mouth after a goal against. His head looks like it's going to explode.

I love him. And he blows blue bubbles!

I hate watching Pens games.

ghey.

Seriously, this game gave me about 3 heart attacks and a stroke. I can't take it.

Is Giroux ever going to score again? I can count on my fingers and toes the number of wide open nets he's seen over the last 4 games, and he never gets it in. Very frustrating. I'm thinking maybe his girlfriend feels the same way.

Flyers fans are on cloud nine, Pens fans are suicidal. No need for either. Did you see the game? Yeah, Flyers won, but Pens seemed to have better sustained offensive pressure. Or is that just my hockey pessimist talking? The Pens are good...really good, even in the midst of their losing streak, and we were lucky to come away with a win.

Leighton continues to come up big when he needs to, even though he still makes us all very nervous.

That's all I've got.

Oh, also: Jaro Jaro Jaro!

Kovalove karma is a bitch

The fact that I was sitting there thinking about what a prima donna he is probably didn't help either.

Yeah. I'll take the blame for yesterday's drubbing. At the end of the first period, I went upstairs to get ready for work. As I removed layer after layer of pajamas (it's cold here!) I sadly realized that my base layer was a Kovalev t-shirt. Oops. Normally, wearing a Kovalev shirt would have no effect on him, and in fact might make him have a sucky game. Apparently though, an unbeknownst Kovalev shirt paired with a beknownst Leighton jersey equals trouble for the Flyers.

Sorry!

Also, I forgot about this...

This picture doesn't really do the card justice. A magnificent specimen. One of my Christmas presents.....

Oh Leights!

As the owner of not one, but two Michael Leighton jerseys I guess you could say I'm happy to see him back in orange and black, even though I imagine his stint this time around will be just as short as the last time around. And before you get too excited about him winning his first two starts, let me remind you that he won his first two starts the last time around. The thing with Leighton is that when he is good, he's good. But then he falls apart and can't get himself back together again.

It's nice to see the boys get two much needed wins, and start to see some of their confidence come back. They've got a rough week ahead, and I hope they can keep it up. For a moment last night, the Flyers looked like a good team, but then I remembered they were playing Carolina!

In other news:
* Rod will be going to the Winter Classic. I'm staying home to watch it from the warm comfort of my couch. Anyone else going?

* I got a Pronger jersey for Christmas. I did not ask for it, so hopefully my jinxing powers won't be in effect.

* Since Leighton is back, I have a legit excuse to wear my Leighton jersey. I have worn it the past two games, and they have won the past two games. I won't be wearing it tonight, since I didn't realize there was a game and scheduled myself to work.

* Jaro! Jaro! Jaro!

That is all. Hope you had a great holiday!

What can I say?

I mean really, what can I say? We're not in last place (yet). Uh, other than that, I got nothing. Maybe I'll just start recycling posts from the 06-07 season!

An email from Rod

subject: ewwwwwww

yea, don't even bother watching the game. You're better off taking a dump.

Brodeur breaks shutout record versus Flyers!!!

Cmon, you know it's gonna be tonight.

Habs vs. Flyers, what's a girl to do?

Should I wear my Habs jersey and a Flyers hat? Maybe no team stuff at all? Hope for a shootout? Ideally, anything that resulted in a Jaro post on FHF would make my day.

I'm so glad my seats were comped.

"Are you fucking kidding me?"

Wow. Just wow. That's all I can say. I had to get a drink after that 7th goal. I don't know what to say, other than it's nice to see Lavi is using his mean face already. Poor guy.

I guess we can take solace in the fact that when the Habs fired Carbo last year, the team didn't respond quickly either, but look at them now! Uh, whoops. Bad example.

So....any Flyers news today?

I hope he makes this face a lot when the Flyers are stinking up the joint...

Sorry to see a guy get the axe, but excited to see what Laviolette can bring to the team. They needed a change, and hopefully this will get things headed in the right direction.

Also, I can't stop watching that video of The Pronger. His arm has some sort of spell over me....

"That's not good enough"

Even though I was hypnotized by The Pronger's arm throughout this interview, I heard his message loud and clear. Let's hope others heard it too.

It's all about Lappy

While scouring the internet for Len Redkoles' pictures of Lappy's gaping maw, I stumbled upon this little gem. I am almost certain Fran and Ryan have pimped this site before (if in fact, they are not actually the ones running it), but it only seems appropriate to highlight it again.

I wonder how many Laperriere jerseys NHL.com sold yesterday.

crap crap crappity crap

I keep forgetting to post! The Flyers are starting to play with increased frequency, and I'm still thinking they have a game every 6 days. What's a girl to do?

Return of the Mack

Don't I look stupid in this jersey? And what on earth is wrong with my hair?!?

Yes indeed, I'm going to the game tonight. And Kovalev will be there. That's all we need to know.

Questions for tonight's game:
*How many times will Kovalev lose his helmet?
*How many margaritas will I have?
*Who do I love more, Kovalev or The Pronger?
*Will JVR and Tiny Briere return to the lineup, only to be re-injured moments later?
*What happened to Clockwork Flyers? Where did the blog go?!?!

I made it through an entire game!

This cat should have been in the chair. Then he would have stayed awake.

Wow! I was off on a Saturday! I actually thought about going to the game in person, but cmon, it's just the Blues. Or as Rod says, "Who?"

The secret to making it through an entire game is closing the laptop and sitting in the chair, not on the couch. Pay attention and sit up straight!

At one point I was actually yelling at the TV, so that's a good sign too. A few points:

* Yes, Carcillo did embellish a teensy little bit, but not enough to warrant a diving call.

* Happy to see the orange jerseys. Whenever I see the black jerseys now, I think I'm watching footage from last season.

* Am I crazy, or has Emery not really been tested much this season? Or does he just make it look easy?

* How sick was Giroux's shootout goal?

* How sick was Giroux's shootout goal?

* How sick was Giroux's shootout goal?

Next up for the Flyers, Kovalev and the Sens on Thursday. You know I'll be there.

Uh, game? What game?

Um, yeah so I forgot there was a game and I had to work last night so I have no idea what happened other than the fact that the Flyers won and Laliberte now has more goals this season than Gagne. Anything else I need to know?

Poor Michael Leighton

Did the Canes forget about how the Flyers like to make him look silly? I think this was his first start of the season, because they wanted to play Wardo tonight against the Sharks, so I'm not sure we can get all excited about this win.

A 6-1 win over a rusty backup goalie? Not a reason to get excited.

Sure, I'll take the points, but no need to get too excited yet. Especially now that we have to worry about Briere and Parent along with Gagne.

Watching the games at home is much more difficult than watching them in person. I'm so easily distracted by other things! Sadly, I miss the next two games, because I somehow scheduled myself to work at night on Monday and Friday. I'm really rusty now that I don't have my season tix!

In other news, Rod got Hartnell's sweat towel after the game. He and his friend acted like two girls fighting over the bride's bouquet, but in the end, Rod got it. Gross, or cool?

Well alrighty then. Flyers lose.

Okay, the sky is falling, everyone wants John Stevens head on a post, we suck, etc etc. It's easy to get caught up in the negativity after a game like that. It's just hard to watch the same thing happen over and over again. Instead of the new guys elevating the core guys play, the core guys are dragging the new guys down to the same mediocre/inconsistent level. I'm not ready to press the panic button yet. A few wins or better efforts and we'll all be praising Homer and Stevens again, right?

Anyhow, on to the questions:

How many Caps goals will Coburn be a direct factor in? I didn't have to use my #iblamecoburnforeverything hashtag on twitter, so I guess he must not have been as bad as usual. Poor Kimmo on the other hand....

Will Mike Richards play nice with the media after the game? Not sure, as I have not seen or heard any post game rumblings other than Stevens saying the boys will practice tomorrow instead of having the day off.

Will I watch the entire game, or lose interest halfway through the second? I stuck with it most of the way through the third. After the Caps took the lead, I knew it was over. Now that my laptop is fixed and I can use it in front of the TV, I am more easily distracted...

Will Steve have to hang his head in shame on the walk out of the Verizon Center? I'm guessing that there may have been some head hanging or maybe even some leaving early....

Another game? Sheesh.

This dude is hungry for more. I mean, uh, relentless.

It's almost like it's hockey season or something. Now that the Flyers seem to be on some sort of a regular schedule, I guess I'll have to pay more attention.

After Sunday's lackluster performance, let's hope these guys can bounce back with a win, or at least a non crappy performance. NHL.com is cranking up the hype machine, using headlines with the word "barnburner" and sentences like " This is an early season rematch most NHL fans have been waiting for." Hmmm. Let's hope it can live up to the hype and not become a snoozefest like the San Jose game. I know Jeff Marek will be watching, since he called the first matchup of the season a "game of the year candidate." Remember that warm fuzzy feeling we all had after that game? Ah, good times.

Questions to be answered:
How many Caps goals will Coburn be a direct factor in?

Will Mike Richards play nice with the media after the game?

Will I watch the entire game, or lose interest halfway through the second?

Will Steve have to hang his head in shame on the walk out of the Verizon Center?


PS Halak! Halak! Halak!

No suspension for Richards?

Early word on the street is that Captain Crankypants "has been cleared" after his hit on David Booth Saturday night. I'm a little surprised, since my prediction was 3 games. I know the argument is "it's Mike Richards, and he's not dirty" but usually "he's a Flyer" carries more weight in a situation like this.

What do you think of the hit?

Suspendable or not? Dirty or not?

Oh Richie...

I love this post and all the brouhaha going on over Richards' refusing to talk to the media.

I'm still not over Richards' whining last year about how "it's just one loss...sheesh" so I love seeing him dig himself into a deeper hole! Keep it up Richie, and see how fast people will turn on you....

Oh crap!

I haven't posted since the 11th?!?! What on earth is wrong with me?

If last night's game was a preview of what we can expect from the Winter Classic, I'm more than happy to stay home and sleep through it on the couch like I normally do.

Balanced scoring is good, but it'd be nice to see some action from the top line too.

Is it just me, or is this team still figuring each other out? Hopefully three games in four days will help the chemistry get going a bit.

Oh, the Habs won too, but it was against the Isles with Biron in goal. Does that still count as a win?

Okay, that's more like it!

There's the team we know and love! Get out to an early lead, take foot off gas in third and blow it. Thank goodness they're back, I was starting to worry!

And seriously, what's with our shootout strategy? All three shooters go low? Uh, what?

You can't win em all.

(Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)
I'm not gonna lie, The Pronger's water ritual during warmups is the highlight of the game.

The honeymoon is over.

Ryan Parent is this year's Randy Jones.

What the hell was wrong with Coburn?

What the hell was wrong with the D?

The Pronger hulking out on Kunitz was my favorite part of the game.

Can someone really bite you through a hockey glove?

Thank god I don't have season tickets this year...clunkers like this game make me really appreciate that!

Zippy is home and recovering. He has a Gator smile now!

When is the next time we play the Pens? I will have to make sure I schedule myself to work!

That's more like it! I'm familiar with this feeling. Looking forward to the Hartnell suspension!