Taking Flyers to the top

[Terva]

Joni Pitkänen, Simon Gagne and Peter Forsberg were selected to represent the Flyers.

This far we have played 54 games and are topping the league. Peter Forsberg was injured four games during the beginning of the season and I hade a 1st line of Gagne - Carter - Ryan who played really well. When Forsberg was fit to fight again he claimed his spot in the 1st line but his performance is dropping at the age of 35. He still has great attributes but isn´t dominating the game in the same way as before so after a couple of games I settled with the new 1st line.

Gagne - Carter - Ryan
Fisher - Forsberg - Knuble

Foppa still plays in the 1st PP as a RW.

Carter is at the moment leading the league with 103 (33+70) points in 54 games and Gagne is topping the league with 48 goals. Bobby Ryan who´s second overall in scoring with 91 (34+57) points was not selected to the All-Star team and neither Niittymäki who´s by far the best goalie this season with SVS% 0.930 and GAA 2.01

[Terva]

Flyers won their 3rd consecutive Presidents Trophy.

For the 3rd year in a row Flyers 1st line ended up in all three top spots in scoring. Jeff Carter had a hugde season scoring 158 (49+109) points becoming the 3rd player in history to record that kind of numbers (behind Gretzky and Lemieux).

Simon Gagne scored 74 goals and made it to the top 10 all time for scoring during one regular season.

Carters and Ryans +92 is quite impressive too.

Niittymäki had a marvelous regular season leading the league on SVS%, GAA, shutouts and average rating for goalies.









Off to the playoffs

[Terva]

Eastern
Flyers (1) - Lightning (8) 4-0
Sabres (2) - Devils (7) 0-4
Capitals (3) - Maple Leafs (6) 4-3
Rangers (4) - Thrashers (5) 4-1

Western
Kings (1) - Avalanche (8) 4-1
Canucks (2) - Sharks (7) 4-0
Blue Jackets (3) - Coyotes (6) 0-4
Flames (4) - Ducks (5) 4-3

Game 1
Lightning - Flyers 2-4 (1-2, 0-1, 1-1)
Shots: 28-38
Comfortable win, Bolts scored their last goal 44 seconds from the ending.

Game 2
Lightning - Flyers 3-4 OT (1-1, 1-2, 1-0, 0-1)
Shots: 40-48
A much better game from the Bolts but we came on top. Gagne with the OT-winner.

Game 3
Flyers - Lightning 5-0 (2-0, 1-0, 2-0)
Shots: 37-38
Niittymäki shoved class and saved 27/27 shots until he got injured ten minutes from the end. The score was 4-0 at the time and backup Martin Toma saved all eleven shots at the end. Gagne had a great game with 1+3.

Game 4
Flyers - Lightning 6-4 (2-0, 2-3, 2-1)
Shots: 51-23
Toma played 17 minutes and then ge got injured so my 3rd goalie, Martin Houle, had to guard the net. He didn´t have the best of games letting in 4 of 18 but that didn´t make such a big difference as the rest of the team showed class, got 51 shots and scored six goals.

[Terva]

Eastern
Flyers - Devils 4-3
Capitals - Rangers 0-4

Western
Kings - Coyotes 4-0
Canucks - Ducks 4-3

Game 1
Devils - Flyers 4-2 (0-0, 2-1, 2-1)
Shots: 35-36
The whole series turned out to be, more or less, Flyers vs Brodeur as he faced +36 shots every single game. He stopped us in game one saving 34 of 36 shots while Niittymäki still played a good game stopping 31 of 34. Devils last goal in the empty net.

Game 2
Devils - Flyers 2-3 (1-1, 0-1, 1-1)
Shots: 21-41
Brodeur causing us trouble again but we played simply one heck of a game and didn´t give the Devils so much to work on. Mike Fisher scored two goals including the game winner.

Game 3
Flyers - Devils 4-3 OT
Shots: 48-34
48 shots but still a tie game after 60 minutes. Marc Staal the OT-hero with a slapper from the blue line.

Game 4
Flyers - Devils 5-1 (2-0, 2-1, 1-0)
Shots: 47-31
Great perfomance from offence to defence and goalkeeper. PP was a big key as we scored 3/8.

Game 5
Devils - Flyers 5-3 (3-0, 0-1, 2-2)
Shots: 37-42
After winning three in a row and the last one with 5-1 away I thought we had broken the Devils backs but no. Two goals by Holmström and 1+2 from Cory Emmerton whiöe our D-men didn´t have the best of nights secured the Devils victory.

Game 6
Flyers - Devils 3-4 (0-3, 2-1, 1-0)
Shots: 40-33
Are we showing signs of choking this one? 0-3 in the first period and a secure victory for the Devils though we got away 40 shots.

Game 7
Devils - Flyers 5-6 OT (2-3, 1-1, 2-1 0-1)
Shots: 35-49
What a crazy game! We had 3-1 in the first period after two goals by Kapanen but Gionta scored a late but important goal to 3-2 right before the intermission. Then at the beginning of the third period Devils both tied to 4-4 and got 5-4 before Eric Brewer made a huge goal tying with six minute left.

Bobby Ryan with the OT-winner after that Gagne first had missed a breakaway but Ryan pounced on the rebound.

[Terva]

Eastern
Flyers - Rangers 3-4

Western
Kings - Canucks 2-4

Game 1
Rangers - Flyers 4-2 (4-0, 0-2, 0-0)
Shots: 41-30
A nightmare start where Rangers scored 4-0 in 18 minutes and the game was of course more or less lost there.

Game 2
Rangers - Flyers 4-3 OT (2-0, 1-1, 0-2, 1-0)
Shots: 60-45
Same thing again where Rangers took a 3-0 lead before we got awake. Strong come back to 3-3 but Rangers came on top in the 2nd OT-period.

Game 3
Flyers - Rangers 3-1 (0-0, 1-1, 2-0)
Shots: 30-35
Outshot for the third game in a row but great game from Niittymäki and two goals från Gagne secured the victory.
Unfortunately Niittymäki got injured late in the game missing the rest of the series.

Game 4
Flyers - Rangers 2-3 OT (0-1, 0-0, 2-1, 0-1)
Shots: 37-48
We´re in big trouble. Outshot in all games so far and down 3-1 in the series. Rangers have topped their form at the right moment. Backup goalie Martin Toma not to blame for the loss as he saved 45 of 48.

Game 5
Rangers - Flyers 2-4 (1-2, 1-1, 0-1)
Shots: 39-35
Big win as we were facing elimination. Another great game from Toma and all four lines scoring. Proud of the boys!

Game 6
Flyers - Rangers 4-1 (2-1, 2-0, 0-0)
Shots: 29-31
Momentum shift! Going to Madison Square Garden facing elimination and winning the game 4-1 is in a way typical for this Flyers team. It´s all in our hands now.

Game 7
Rangers - Flyers 5-0 (0-0, 3-0, 2-0)
Shots: 34-35
Man, talk about backclash. 0-5 at home in game seven is embarrasing but the better team won at the end.

[Terva]

[Terva]

Art Ross
1. Simon Gagne - Flyers
2. Simon Gagne - Flyers
3. Bobby Ryan - Flyers

Bill Masterton
1. Simon Gagne - Flyers
2. Jozef Stumpel - Stars
3. Jason Allison - Red Wings

Calder
1. Richard Adams - Blues
2. Michael Frolik - Panthers
3. Igor Mirnov - Islanders

Conn Smythe
1. Dany Heatley - Rangers
2. Henrik Lundqvist - Rangers
3. Roberto Luongo - Canucks

Selke
1. Dave Scatchard - Coyotes
2. Rob Niedermayer - Ducks
3. Martin Lapointe - Rangers

Jack Adams
1. Tom Renney - Rangers
2. Andy Murray - Flyers
3. Alain Vigneault - Canucks

Norris
1. Tony Lydman - Blue Jackets
2. Michael Rozsival - Canucks
3. Chris Pronger - Panthers

Hart
1. Simon Gagne - Flyers
2. Jeff Carter - Flyers
3. Vincent Lecavallier - Lightning

King Clancy
1. Joe Sakic - Avalanche
2. Mike Modano - Stars
3. Mats Sundin - Maple Leafs

Lady Byng
1. Michael Nylander - Capitals
2. Simon Gagne - Flyers
3. Alex Tanguay - Flames

Lester B. Pearson
1. Jeff Carter - Flyers
2. Patrick Marleau - Sharks
3. Olli Jokinen - Panthers

Maurice Richard
1. Simon Gagne - Flyers
2. Vincent Lecavallier - Lightning
3. Alexander Ovechkin - Capitals

Vezina
1. Antero Niittymäki - Flyers
2. Henrik Lundqvist - Rangers
3. J-S Giguere - Ducks

William M. Jennings
Antero Niittymäki - Flyers

Plus-minus
1. Jeff Carter - Flyers
2. Bobby Ryan - Flyers
3. Simon Gagne - Flyers

Roger Crozier
1. Antero Niittymäki - Flyers
2. Martin Brodeur - Devils
3. J-S Giguere - Ducks

1st All-Star Team
A. Niittymäki - Flyers
J. Pitkänen - Flyers
E. Jovanosvki - Coyotes
S. Gagne - Flyers
J. Carter - Flyers
B. Ryan - Flyers

2nd All-Star Team
H- Lundqvist - Rangers
R Regehr - Flames
P. Kubina - Maple Leafs
I. Kovalchuck - Thrashers
V- Lecavallier - Lightning
J. Iginla - Flames

Rookie All-Star Team
A. Richmond - Avalanche
R. Adams - Blues
J. Hietanen - Islanders
P. Mueller - Coyotes
J. Morin - Avalanche
I. Mirnov - Islanders

[Terva]

Now there´s a lot of work to do and many hard decisions to make.

Flyers have a lot of older players with contracts expiring and maybe it is time to make a generation shift now.
Gagne, Carter, Ryan, Pitkänen, Stuart, Staal, Niitymäki is a great foundation. The big task is to find a number two center in a couple of years. Forsberg have one year left and will probably play two more years after that if needed.

Veterans with contracts expiring:
Shawn Bates (34)
Niko Dimitrakos (30)
Denis Gauthier (32)
Sami Kapanen (35)
Mike Knuble (36)
Petr Nedved (37)
Martin Toma (31)

Not a good draft year either. I have 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 6th and 7th round and there´s not that much talent in the 2009 drafts. But I´, setting my sights on 2010. There´s a young Czech goaile who´s interesting...

[Terva]

1 July, when the contracts expired, I had a roster of 14 players and a cap space of aprox 5.5 M $ wich meant there was a lot of work to do. Key players like Gagne, Pitkänen, Brewer, Carter and Niitymäki has all quite good salaries and at the same time Peter Forsberg, on his last year, has a cap hit of 6M. (The current salary cap is at 52 M). I also resigned Bobby Ryan for 3.990 wich didn´t leave so much space.

Here's the cap hit for the top players:

Forsberg - 6.025
Gagne - 5.250
Pitkänen - 5.140
Carter - 4.570
Ryan - 4.037
Brewer - 3.907
Rathje - 3.50
Niittymäki - 3.130
Stuart - 2,435

My main move was to trade away Mike Rathje and goalie prospect Jonathan Bernier (cap hit 0.800) to get som cap space and therefore build som depth in the team. Hey, I had 14 players!

I traded rathje with the Ducks in exhange for defenceman Francois Beauchemin and also added Darius Kasparaitis on a free agent. I signed Martin Rucinsky, Wayne Primeau, Matt Hallick and resigned goalie Matrin Toma. I also traded a 2nd round pick 2013 for Rangers Martin Lapointe.

The philosophy is still two scoring lines, a good checking line with experienced players and a fourth line with one star veteran player.

I have also continued bulking up for the future drafts.
I only have four picks in the upcoming draft, two 1st, one 2nd and one 5th but then it looks really good.
2011 - Two 1st, two 2nd and one fourth.
2012 - One 1st, two second, and one 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th pick.
2013 - Three 1st!, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 & 7.

[Terva]

GK
Antero Niittymäki
Martin Toma

Defence
Joni Pitkänen - Eric Brewer
Marc Staal - Brad Stuart
Darius Kasparaitis - Francois Beauchemin
John Walsh

Lines
Simon Gagne - Jeff Carter - Bobby Ryan
Mike Fisher - Peter Forsberg - Oleg Saprykin
Martin Lapointe - Wayne Primeau - Ian Laperriere
Martin Rucinsky - Matt Hallick - Steve Downie
R.J Umberger

In the system
Martin Houle - GK
Mike Murphy - GK
Benn Edwards - LD
Alex Grant - RD
Matt Schmermund - LW/C
Stefan Ruzicka - C/LW

[Terva]