The Flyers season is 5-games old and Ray Emery is showing himself to be everything we warned that he would be. Namely, Emery is wildly inconsistent. Following the lovefest surrounding Emery’s signing, fans in Philly were giddy about Emery’s addition and saw it as a sure ticket to the Cup. While the excitement surrounding Emery befuddled us, hordes of Flyers fans though the $1 million dollar man would somehow morph into Marty Brodeur or Roberto Luongo. Instead, what we see from Emery is a lot of what he’s always been: on when he’s on and eminently beatable when he’s not.

Emery has backstopped all 5 Flyers games this season and is 3-1-1. He got the shutout in the first contest against Carolina and followed it with a solid 2-goal game against New Jersey. But the next two contests against potent offensive teams (Washington and Pittsburgh) saw him allow in 6 and 5 goals in consecutive games. His last outing was this past Saturday where he was good against Anaheim but yielded the game-winner in a shootout loss.

This short sample size illustrates what you’re going to get from Emery. He’s capable of playing good hockey but sadly incapable of doing it consistently. His ultra-aggressive style means he’s good in his crease and strong against loose pucks but he gets beaten one-on-one so often because he relies less on positioning and more on the direct challenge.

On the season he has a 2.74 GAA and a save percentage of .905. Neither stat is bad, but neither disinguishes him either. His goals-against is good for 16th out of 41 qualifying goaltenders (the minimum for qualification is a projected 27-game season) and his save percentage is 18th in the league. These numbers along with his up-and-down performance so far should give previously intoxicated fans some pause. At the end of the season, Emery’s inconsistent play is going to have the Flyers in exactly the same goaltending position they were last year with Marty Biron.

Talk about over-playing your hand: former Flyer netminder, Martin Biron, has signed a one-year deal with the Washington Nationals New York Islanders worth $1 million and change. That’s a far cry from the $3-4 million, multi-year deal he was seeking from the Flyers when they called his bluff and signed Ray Emery. I guess Paul Holmgren got Biron’s market value right after all.

There really must have been absolutely no interest in Biron for him to have signed there. Not only did he get a fraction of the money he was looking for as well as a one-year deal but he’s now part of the worst team in hockey. To boot, it has to be assumed that Biron will be the backup since the Islanders already have Rick DiPietro. Not a good day for Biron.

Come to think of it, perhaps the Flyers should immediately contact Islanders GM Garth Snow and see whether an Emery-for-Biron swap is possible. They’re both on one-year deals, both making about the same money and I’m sure Emery would be much more comfortable amongst the dysfuncional mess that is Uniondale, New York.

NHL free agency began yesterday and it didn’t take long for Mike Knuble to land with the Washington Capitals. The Caps inked Knuble for 2 years at $6.5 million. If Knuble is anywhere as good as Flyers fans thought, this move makes Washington even scarier.

The Flyers did pick up gritty forward, Ian Laperriere, from Colorado and brought back goalie, Brian Boucher, to back-up Ray Emery. For all the whining and bitching this town did about Martin Biron’s inability to take this team to the Cup, I sure hope everyone’s happy with his replacements: the ketchup and mustard bottles from the bottom shelf of the fridge.

Aside for Holmgren’s Hobos in net, I don’t have a problem with the Flyers’ off-season moves. Obviously, Chris Pronger is a blue line presence who can eat-up minutes and crush opposing centers. Laperriere should add some toughness up front and the loss of Lupol and Knuble really does little to slow a potent offensive lineup. The only problem I see isn’t of the Flyers making; it’s the existence of a growing Pittsburgh dynasty and two uber-talented teams (Washington and Boston) that make the Flyers’ task (regardless of off-season acquisitions) a daunting one.

• Great article from yesterday’s Inky by Bob Ford about what a bad signing Ray Emery is. It also correctly mentions the exculpatory and myopic issue of blaming Martin Biron for the Flyers’ late season collapse.
• The Phillies look to win one at home tonight for a change, assuming the weather holds up. In case you were wondering, their non-Nationals home record has fallen to 8-16 and they are now 3-4 against the American League this season.
• Raul Ibanez leads the team in batting average, home runs, RBI, OPS, runs scored, slugging percentage, hits and is tied with Shane Victorino and Pedro Feliz for most doubles.
• Harry Kalas has been posthumously inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame. This after his 2002 induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame as the Ford C. Frick winner.
• On the Dan Patrick show, Bud Selig looked to deflect some of the effects of the steroids era away from baseball and onto football. Choose from any of the fish above and your choice will appear as the picture in the dictionary next to Bud Selig’s name. With that said, it’s always fascinated me that steroids is a much bigger deal in baseball than any other of the big three sports. Wouldn’t it stand to reason that PEDs would have bigger effect on the performance of those athletes versus hitters and pitchers?

Yes, that is a 12-year old J.S. Giguere next to Patrick Roy, which may be why so many people are talking about Giguere as a replacement for Martin Biron. With the Flyers disappointing showing in the playoffs comes the inevitable criticism of the goaltender. In looking at goalies who might be traded or signed by other teams, Giguere’s name comes up frequently since he’s now backing up Jonas Hiller in Anaheim. Let’s just take a quick peek at how he compares with Biron:

• During the regular season Giguere was 19-18-6 with a .900 save percentage, a 3.1 GAA and 2 shutouts. Compare that to Biron’s year: 29-19-5, .915, 2.76 GAA and 2 SOs. Advantage Biron.

• For their regular season careers, Biron and Giguere are virtually the same statistical person: Giguere has won 48% of the 435 games he’s played with a .914 save percentage and a 2.49 GAA. Biron has won 49% of the 406 games he’s played with a .915 SP and a 2.59 GAA. Giguere has posted 31 shutouts and Biron has 25. Advantage neither.

• The area where Giguere has been way better is in the playoffs. Giguere is first among active goaltenders in wins with a 33-17 record. He’s second among active goalies in save percentage at .925 career and owns a very solid 2.08 GAA. He has a whopping 12-1 OT record in the playoffs and is first all-time in playoff OT winning percentage. His goals against in playoff overtime is .25. Couple these gaudy stats with his Conn Smythe trophy from the 2003 Cup Finals loss and his 2007 Cup win and you’re looking at some of the best playoff goaltending of all-time. And for the record, Biron is 11-12 with a .908 save percentage and a 2.87 GAA. Advatage Giguere.

While Giguere’s playoff history is terrific, there’s just one problem: he’s not been good enough this year to keep his job. Giguere has been on the bench all playoffs, backing-up Jonas Hiller. While Hiller has been terrific, clearly the Anaheim coaching staff didn’t think Giguere’s playoff successes of past years would be as valuable to their team’s chances this year as they would by going with Hiller.

And then there’s the issue of Giguere’s contract. He’s in the second year of a 4-year, $24 million deal, making almost twice as much as Biron who has one year left on his contract. Given the mousehole-sized wiggle room Paul Holmgren has to work with in terms of salary cap, it’s hard to image the Flyers making a move that clears up $6 next year for a backup goalie. With such pressing needs on defense to address and a very solid statistical year for the incumbent, going after Giguere would be the wrong move.

Don’t look now, Flyers fans, but Jonas Hiller is showing how a goaltender can have a monstrous impact on a (multiple) playoff series. Aside from relegating former Cup champion and Conn Smythe winner, J.S. Giguere, to pine duty as Anaheim’s number 2 goaltender, Jonas Hiller has provide the spark for the Ducks to knock off the top-seeded Sharks in the first round. Oh, and they have now the 2-1 lead on the original 2-seed also, the Detroit Red Wings.

Despite having defensemen like Francois Beauchemin, Scott Niedermayer and Chris Pronger in front of him, the powerful offenses of San Jose and Detroit have averaged 42 shots per game on Hiller. He’s been up to the task: he’s 3rd among playoff goalies with a 1.74 GAA and first with a mind-blowing .955 save percentage. Just for good measure he’s also first in the NHL with 2 shutouts and 6 wins.

Now’s the time when Flyers fans should call in to WIP and whine about what an idiot Paul Holmgren is for now getting this guy. I mean, geez, if you can’t get Hiller maybe Simeon Varlamov is available. If only we had one of these guys we’d be good for like 6 Cups in a row.

The great thing about being in touch with the sports scene in this town is getting to bear witness to the doomsday hysteria that spreads like a pack of hemhorroids once something goes wrong. If it’s the Eagles who lose a game, you can bet your shore house that Donovan McNabb will get the blame and it seems now that the Flyers are out, Marty Biron is the scapegoat.

Philly.com is currently tickling the ivories of the great Marty debate. Suggestions that the series would still be going on if Biron were a “shut down” goalie are running wild and despite scant mention of the fact that Paul Holmgren handcuffed himself by overspending on scoring, the real problem this team has is they’re dreadfully outmanned on the blue line. Timmonen and Coburn are the only legitimate pairing this team fields. Say what you like about the person manning the nets but when the shot totals are consistently in the mid-30s, there are only a few guys capable of “shutting down” opponents.

Like Eagles fans who blame McNabb for every loss and suggest it’s time to turn the page, Flyers fans seem to think management is going to snap its fingers and Ken Dryden or Roberto Luongo will instantly materialize in the orange and black. Sorry, Eagles fans, John Elway and Peyton Manning aren’t available and to Flyers fans: Marty Biron is not the best goaltender in the League but even Luongo or Brodeur will break down when constantly peppered by Malkin and Crosby.

It’s easy to put the blame on the most high-profile guys, as if sports always unfold as the great individual leader taking control of games and willing his team to victory. Playoff success, in any sport, is a result of each unit on the team playing to its highest level. When it doesn’t work out, scrutinizing the reasons why becomes more difficult that simply blaming the one guy you think “underperformed.”

In the Flyers’ case, where were Jeff Carter’s 46 regular season goals in this series? Where was the scoring push from Gagne and Richards? Where was the sense of professionalism in maintaining a 2nd period, 3-goal lead in Game 6? Where was Daniel Carcillo’s good sense to walk away from Maxime Talbot right before he tried to get his team fired-up with a fight? Lots of questions to answer, but I’ll tell you for sure the simple response is not to blame Biron.

So the talk, of course, is not the pondering of why the Jay Bouwmeester trade didn’t work out or which defensemen are on the market this offseason (or why Luca Sbisa didn’t show his promising face). Talking about defensemen isn’t sexy, much in the same way offensive lineman don’t elicit a Pavlovian response like receiver talk does. So now the chat is about goalie replacements: Craig Anderson, Scott Clemmensen (two young, part-time goalies), Manny Fernandez and Nikolai Khabbibulin (seriously?). The talk should be about getting the defensive house in order and finding out where the real leadership is going to come from on this team.

Watching a be-mulletted Rob Ray pummel a deranged Nordiques fan should get everyone in the mood. The mood for what, you ask? The mood, my friends, for a little Daniel Carcillo chat! I was inspired to write this post for three reasons: one, I was amused by the fact that D. Carcillo’s name is pretty puffy in the tag cloud on the home page. Two, Rob Ray’s mullett looks just like one I saw at the ballpark yesterday and three, Daniel Carcillo is on fire.

It’s amusing to me that 2 of the last 4 goals (including the only Flyers’ goal in Game 4) scored by the Flyers in this series have come from Carcillo, a guy who hadn’t put the puck in the net since coming to Philly from Phoenix. There’s really no sense in complaining when scoring comes from unexpected places but as more games are played, this reliance on 4th line scoring (Arron Asham lit the lamp last night too) may be indicative of a bigger problem.

The Flyers are going to need to have their big names on the stat sheet if they’re going to win the next two. Simple as that. You’re not going to win a 7 game series against Pittsburgh by relying on Carcillo for goals. Carter, Briere, Gagne, Richards–these guys need to be bigger presences as the games get weightier.

The good news is that Martin Biron’s confidence has to be sky-high. He outperformed Marc-Andre Fleury last night (two of the Flyer goals were open nets but Fleury’s failures in both instances to prevent rebounds put him at fault). He’s coming home after a dominating performance and it looks like the Flyers will have a rock between the pipes tomorrow afternoon. Let’s hope Marty can keep it up and his front line scoring decides to send this one back to Pittsburgh.

Aside from Marc-Andre Fleury’s stellar performance in Game 4 of the Flyers-Penguins series, this play has to be the most frustrating for Flyers’ fans to swallow. Or maybe the icing on the turd cake is that the Flyers’ only goal came from Daniel Carcillo. Either way, the frustration has to be mounting for the fans. The Flyers accomplished everything they wanted to in the stats department (out-shooting Pittsburgh by a whopping 46-26, taking fewer penalty minutes and out-hitting the Pens) except for the proverbial only stat that matters.

The Flyers aren’t out of it by any means and the team knows this. Mike Richards said after the game “I thought we did everything well except put the puck in the net.” In hockey, you just have to keep crashing, keep pushing and eventually it will go your way. That’s really been the story of Games 2-4; there’s no reason for the team to feel like they’ve been dominated and while the fans may be in despair, I’ll bet dinner that the Flyers know they’re still in it: a win in Pittsburgh in Game 5 puts the pressure solely on the Penguins’ shoulders as they’ll have to come back to Philly and try to prevent the nightmare of a forced Game 7. Excepting Game 1, the series has been incredibly tight so the Flyers don’t need to feel they’re being outplayed. A bounce here, a Jeff Carter goal there, a stellar Martin Biron performance; the Flyers just have to win Game 5 and they’ll see the coastline.

And just to put any stupid homer comments to rest, the Crosby goal was a good one. It hits his stick and trickles in off his arm though there’s no directing motion on the part of Crosby’s arm or glove and the puck is in the back of the net before the net comes off its moorings. Marty Biron said after the game “it’s a dangerous play when you’re sliding in both feet first toward the goalie. I don’t like that.” Well, like it or not there’s no rule against crashing the net. Here’s to hoping Biron has more to like after Game 5.

ANOTHER THING: If the NHL officials and broadcasters would stop saying “good goal” I would be much obliged. There is one kind of goal: a goal. There is also something known as “not a goal,” but there is no such thing is a “good” goal. Either it’s a goal or it isn’t.

What I like about this photo from last year’s playoff series between the Flyers and Pens is that this kid spelled “Fleury” wrong. If illiteracy were fostered by bees and cows then Western Pennsylvania would be the land of milk and honey. Unfortunately for the Flyers, it’s the land of offensive ineptitude, bad goaltending and absurd penalties.

Last night’s performance against Pittsuburgh showed one of two things (and both are quite likely the scenarios that will define this series): one, the Penguins are head-and-shoulders above the Flyers or two, the Flyers just don’t seem to have the mindset to get the most out of themselves. After fumbling away the chance for home ice against the Rangers, the Flyers played another game where they ceded control of the pace of it and played the entire game in chase mode.

As ususal, Martin Biron faced more than 30 shots (he’s not getting a pass from me on that count this time; the first three goals against were simply bad fundamental positioning on his part). He was outperformed by Marc-Andre Fleury who, in fairness, didn’t face much in the way of a spirited Flyers attack (27 shots against, two hit posts by Mike Richards) but still made the stops he needed to. The Flyers were almost doubled-up in faceoff wins, losing that contest 38-21, a stat that goes a long way in explaining their inability to set up in the offensive zone or control play defensively. But the stat that will haunt them the most if it continues is the penalties.

Of course we shouldn’t expect the team that led the NHL in penalty minutes to change its stripes completely, but the cost of constantly being in the box is that it nullifies the team’s ability to do anything but play from behind. While Pittsburgh only scored one power play goal (Crosby’s in the first), the Flyers’ 35 PIM kept them on their heels and ruined any opportunity for a sustained push. And in case you were wondering, Pittsburgh only sat for 15 minutes.

To make matters worse, John Stevens resorted to that Neanderthal Hockey League mentality late in the third when he reverted to “message sending” mode by turning an embarrassing performance into a show of pre-Cambrian thuggery. For the effort, Scott Hartnell’s only shots landed in the game were to Penguins’ faces. Not surprisingly, Daniel Carcillo will be meeting today with the NHL brass because of his actions against Maxime Talbot.

Perhaps there’s a brand of hockey fan that likes to see his team flub its way through a game and then attempt to lay the groundwork for the next game by turning it into an MMA match. Then there’s fans like me who like to see my team win by playing smart and utilizing their offensive skill. After watching last night’s Flyers performance, perhaps the description I gave of myself makes me a Penguins fan.