Sadly, the Olympic hockey tournament has come to a conclusion. As everyone knows, Team Canada beat the Americans last night in overtime to win the gold medal. Local pariah, Sidney Crosby, scored the winning goal against tournament MVP, Ryan Miller. It was a great run for Team USA and a great experience for fans of hockey being played at its highest level.

In Flyers news that does not involve high-level players, tsn.ca is reporting that injured goaltender, Ray Emery, has been put on long-term injured reserve. That means the end of the Emery experiment, at least for this season.

The Flyers will take the ice tomorrow night at 7 in Tampa. They’ll be without useless goon, Riley Cote, as he’s been waived. Cote has only registered 1 goal in his last 153 games, which means the only thing the Flyers will lose is a player who can’t win meaningless fights.

The Flyers are currently in playoff position, sitting in the 6th spot in the Eastern Conference. The sixth through eleventh spots are separated by only 5 points, so a spirited effort will be required in order to keep the Flyers in the playoff mix. The NHL trading deadline is in two days; we’ll be curious to see whether the Flyers feel they need to make any moves for the final push.

As foretold by me multiple times following the offseason signing of Ray Emery, the unrealistic exuberance surrounding his potential contribution as a Flyers has gone limp. It’s being reported today that Emery’s hip will require surgery and he may well not play another game this season. As per usual for Philly sports fans, a sense of euphoria and unrealistic expectations attended Emery’s acquistion. In reality, he’s done little in a first season with the Flyers marked by inconsistent play and injury.

This is probably for the best as Michael Leighton has shown himself to be the better goalie. He’s gone 10-3 this season as a Flyer with a 2.21 GAA and a .925 save percentage. Those numbers are pretty damn solid and while Leighton is the farthest thing from a big name, his understated performance combined with Emery’s health makes a decision about who the number one goalie will be very easy for Peter Laviolette.

Insert any NHL team name in front of the words “Extinguish Flames” and I’ll bet that headline has been run more times than “John Daly Found Drunk Outside Local Hooters.” That’s probably because the Flames have been stomped out quite frequently as of late. They’re 1-7-2 in their last 10 games and prior to their 6-1 win against abyss-plain Province rival, Edmonton, on Saturday, they’d lost 8 in a row.

The Flyers haven’t lost in Calgary since 2001 and last night’s routine 3-0 shutout was no exception. Two goals by Mike Richards and one by Claude Giroux rounded-out the scoring for the orange and black. Ray Emery recorded a shutout on a piss-poor 18-shot perfomance by the Flames.

It’s probably no surprise the Flames stink. They had just traded all-world defenseman Dion Phaneuf and forward Fredrik Sjorstrom and were skating with a lame-duck Olie Jokinen who was rumored before the game to be all-but traded to New York. Sure enough, Jokinen is a Ranger as of today making the appearance of Calgary writing-off the season a reality. While Jokinen’s uncertain status may have contributed to the 2 points the Flyers gained last night, the trade has a long term downside for the Flyers: Jokinen is a bona fide offensive stud (though his numbers are down this year) and now he’s a blue shirt. With the Rangers and Flyers only separated by 2 points in the Atlantic, New York just got better which will make the final 2 games of the Flyers’ western road trip against Edmonton and Minnesota all the more important.

The Flyers are 3-11 in their last 14 games. At the risk of sounding ridiculous, part of that disgraceful record has to do with the fact they’ve played a brutal schedule. 7 of those losses came to teams that are either first or second in their divisions and 3 of the losses came to 3rd-place teams. In short, they haven’t exactly been playing a lot of patsies (though 2 of their 3 wins were against the Islanders).

None of this excuses a pathetic performance from a team that many thought would contend for the Cup this season. During this 14-game skid, the Flyers have been outscord 26-49. Neither the off-season addition of Ray Emery nor Chris Pronger has proven to make them any better than they were last year. And the Flyers nominally-powerful scorers have done little this year; the highest-ranked scorer on the Flyers is Mike Richards. His 26 points are good for 49th-place in the NHL.

Last night’s 6-1 drubbing at the hands of the Penguins was a good indication of how far removed from the League’s elite teams the Flyers are. And that game put the issue of the Flyers personnel into stark contrast with one of the NHL’s best rosters. Offensively, the Flyers don’t have anyone as good as Sidney Crosby or Evgeni Malkin. Defensively they don’t have anyone as good as Sergei Gonchar. And their goaltender (whoever that may be) isn’t as good as Marc-Andre Fleury. With the better part of the season remaining, the Flyers need to start looking at making some moves on their bench, not just behind it.

19, 330 fans (99.1% capacity) showed up last night at the Wachovia Center to watch the Flyers, losers of their last 5, take on the 11th-place New York Islanders. And guess what? The faithful were rewarded with a 6-2 Flyers win. The Flyers won on the strength of their ability to shut down John Tavares outscore a team with limited scoring options. After going out to a 4-0 lead, they provided the stress-free environment necessary for Brian Boucher to glide through the rest of the game (2 Tavares goals notwithstanding).

The bad news for the Flyers is the announcement that Ray Emery will miss 6 weeks as he’s undergoing abdominal surgery. Despite the fact we think Emery is as effective as roadkill, he’s an NHL starting goaltender and it’s shuddering to think how this next month.5 will look with Boucher and spare parts between the pipes. If there every was a time for the team to be scoring 6 goals per game, it’s now.

The Flyers stink right now. There’s no other way to describe how a team with the talent they have is incapable of playing any better than they are. It should be remembered that every NHL team goes through slumps during an 82-game season but their performance in the past 3 weeks is inexcusable. Sure, the inevitable failure of Ray Emery is unfolding (told you so). But the bolstered defensive corps should be making life easier for Emery and his sidekick, Brian Boucher. As we all know, that isn’t the case as the Flyers allowed an absurdly-low 13 shots on goal last night and yet they surrendered 3 goals and lost the game.

The real problem on this team is goal scoring, which may actually provide a ray of hope. When good teams slump, they do so because they aren’t in synch offensively, something that happens to everyone and is easily enough remedied. Of course, there’s no reason to point out anything positive right now so let’s focus on some negatives:

• The Flyers are 0-19 on the power play in their last 5 games
• While their defense surrendered only 13 shots on goal last night (and 3 goals, by some Canadian miracle), the forwards managed just 15 shots. Let me say this in no uncertain terms: to lose a hockey game where you allow only 13 SOG is like losing a football game where you allow the other team 100 yards of total offense.
• The Flyers have lost 5 straight and 8 of their last nine. The 2 most recent loses fall under the new reign of Peter Laviolette. His team has been outscored 11-2 in his first two games.
• The Flyers are now the 13th place team in the Eastern Conference. Only two teams, the Maple Leafs and the Hurricanes, have fewer points. The good news? The Flyers have 2 games-in-hand on both Toronto and Carolina.
• Only 2 teams in the East have fewer road wins than the Flyers. They are Tampa Bay and Ottawa
• During their 9 game slide, the Flyers have been outscored 15-34. The managed just 2 goals in their lone win during that stretch against the 11th place Islanders. During their 5 game losing streak, they’ve been outscored 5-20 and have been shutout twice.

John Stevens was fired on Friday by the Flyers. In four seasons behind the Flyers bench, Stevens was 120-109-34 and his playoff record was 11-12. True, these numbers aren’t stellar but they aren’t terrible either. Stevens took over in ‘06 with a team that was historically awful, posting a record of 21-42-11. In his next two seasons he took the team to the playoffs, reaching the Conference Finals in ‘07-’08 and getting bounced last year in the first round by the eventual champion Pittsburgh Penguins.

His replacement is the fiery Peter Laviolette, most recently of Versus TV coverage fame. The upside to this hiring is that Laviolette has a Stanley Cup under his belt (2006 Carolina Hurricanes) and his career winning percentage is 21 points higher than Stevens’ (.562-.541). And maybe most importantly he’s known to be a hot-tempered coach with lots of personality, something Stevens lacked in the way Andy Reid lacks a clear throat.

While Laviolette has 7 years of coaching under his belt, the only season he won a playoff series was the year the ‘Canes went all the way. His teams missed the playoffs in 4 of his 7 years and he was bounced in the 1st round twice while with the Islanders.

The bottom line for the Flyers is that they’re not as good as 9 other Eastern Conference teams right now. Their scoring has cooled: they’ve scored 8 goals in their last 5 games and have been shutout twice during that stretch. And their goaltending is, once again, in flux: of the 9 teams ahead of the Flyers, 7 of them have starting goalies with lower GAAs than Ray Emery (the Islanders’ Dwayne Roloson and the Senators’ Pascal Leclaire are worse) and 7 of them have goaltenders with better save percentages than Emery (only Leclaire and Pittsburgh’s Marc-Andre Fleury are worse).

If the players continue playing below their collective ability, the Flyers won’t be any better off with Laviolette. Of course, merely the act of changing leadership often times is enough to turn it around. With rumors swirling that Mike Richards will lose his captaincy to Chris Pronger, there’s a lot more than simply the head coaching that needs to improve if this team is going to realize its potential.

The Vancouver Canucks are in town tonight to face the reeling Flyers. Losers of 5 of their last six, the Flyers will start Brian Boucher in goal tonight. Ray Emery had lost his previous 4 starts and allowed 16 goals in those contests. Despite the fact Boucher backstopped a loss to Atlanta on Saturday, he surrendered only one goal in the effort against the NHL’s most potent offense. Boucher has allowed 3 goals in his last three starts which is a good thing since Ray Emery is going through his Ray Emery stretch.

The Sedin twins, led by team points leader, Henrik, are coming off an impressive 5-2 win last night in New Jersey. If you’re a Flyers fan, you’re hoping the two-consecutive-road-games-in-two-days theory works in the Flyers favor tonight, which it certainly may. I don’t know that they’re such a great team (3rd in their division, 30 points) but they’ve won 3 of their last 4 and they’re going against a squad tonight that has smelled of vinegar lately.

Because I’m an expert in the boutique study of the quaint Canadian culture, people often ask me what a Canuck is. Well, there are competing explanations including one that ascribes the name to Hawaiian speakers mispronouncing what they perceived to be the French word for Canadian traders. Another theory goes to freezing soldiers trying to say “quelle canule” while laying siege to Quebec City in 1776. Either way, it should be thought of as an affectionate name for our neighbors to the north. Their nifty nicknames won’t help them tonight, however, as the Flyers get off the schnide with a 4-2 win.

The Flyers take their show on the road tonight to tangle with the 9-2-1 Buffalo Sabres. Having grown up in Buffalo, I can assure everyone that the mood there surrounding an early-season game is nothing like the mood of a town two days removed from a World Series and two days before a huge rivalry football game. Nope, there’s not much to do in Buffalo other than play hockey, ski, drink Labatt Blue and watch the Sabres. A Friday night at HSBC Arena in Buffalo is an event, kind of like going to the prom all over again except there are way more Canadians with mullets.

The Buffalo News has a great piece today about the different styles played by the Flyers and the Sabres. The 12 regular forwards for the Sabres have recorded 73 points this season and the 12 Flyers forwards expected to dress tonight have 72. The major difference is that the Sabres’ lines have much more balanced scoring distribution. In Buffalo’s case, their top line has accounted for 37% of scoring. The next 3 lines have scored 31.5%, 17.8% and 13.7%. In the Flyers’ case, their top two lines of Richards-Hartnell-Giroux and Carter-van Riemsdyk-Laliberte have accounted for 44.4% and 41.7% of their 72 points. The checking and energy lines of Pyorala-Powe-Asham and Betts-Carcillo-Laperriere have accounted for only 9.7% and 4.2% of forwards’ scoring.

What does this mean? In the Sabres case, it means that Lindy Ruff has put together line combinations that stress constant pressure as he has less top-heavy scorers with which to up the goals production. With Thomas Vanek in one game and out the next with injury, Buffalo doesn’t have guys like Richards and Carter who will tally 40 goals in a season. In the Flyers case, it means they come at opponents with very different styles depending on which line is on the ice. They’re comprised more like an early 80’s team: big guns up front and two genuine grit and energy lines down low.

Another thing to watch for tonight is the goaltending matchup of Ray Emery and Ryan Miller. Miller has started 10 games and is 9-1 with a 1.7 GAA, a .941 save percentage and 2 shutouts. He ranks 1st in the NHL in save percentage, 2nd in goals against average, 1st in shootout save percentage, 1st in shutouts and 1st in winning percentage. As good as Miller has been, Ray Emery has consistently played well throughout this season and has under his belt one of the great multi-player goalie fights in NHL history against Buffalo. Expect Emery to be fired-up for the game as his days in Ottawa produced an intense dislike between himself and the Buffalo fans.

To close, a spot of Buffalo Sabres trivia. Who is the only player in NHL history to win a playoff series on an overtime, shorthanded goal? And what goalie yielded it? A hint? Both players will be playing in tonight’s game. For the answer click here.

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.