Flyers get win in Stanley Cup rematch
Daily News Flyers blog
Flyers get win in Stanley Cup rematch
CHICAGO -- Aside from an Amstel Light commercial, the Flyers found out on Sunday that it's impossible to head to the Windy City without hearing the Blackhawks' famed Chelsea Dagger goal song.
After hearing it blasted through the United Center s speakers a full 15 times during the Stanley Cup Finals last June alone, you could empathize with the Flyers for not wanting to hear it.
Besides, they were looking for their first shutout of the season on Sunday - and the first shutout of Sergei Bobrovsky's young career - in their Cup Finals grudge match with the Hawks in front of a national television audience.
They can thank Braydon Coburn for being re-introduced with their [least] favorite song.
Coburn covered up a puck with his hand in the Flyers' crease midway through the third period, awarding Chicago's Marian Hossa with a penalty shot - which he converted for the Blackhawks' first successful home penalty shot since 1987.
As such, the Flyers and Toronto remain the only teams in the NHL to not pitch a shutout this season.
No matter.
The Flyers threw the biggest dagger on Sunday afternoon, picking up a 4-1 win at the United Center in their only matchup with the Blackhawks this season, behind two goals from Jeff Carter.
Nik Zherdev, though, ended up with the game-winning goal after Hossa's penalty shot erased what would've been Bobrovsky's first shutout. That's the sixth time this season that Bobrovsky had a shutout killed in the final 20 minutes.
Scott Hartnell added an empty-netter to cap the scoring.
With the win, the Flyers regained the top spot in the NHL's points race and increased their lead on the Eastern Conference to 5 points over the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Sunday's win also put the Flyers over .500 against the Western Conference for the first time this season. The Flyers are 5-4-3 against the West this year and a phenomenal 27-8-2 against the East.
In fact, the Flyers are 39-13-2 against the Eastern Conference since last year s playoff run started.
But Sunday wasn't about the Flyers' sweet success against the East. It was about settling some unfinished business from last June - even if it was just another regular-season game.
SLAP SHOTS: Flyers forward James van Riemsdyk missed the game with a lower-body injury. He is day-to-day according to the Flyers ... That meant that Dan Carcillo returned to the lineup for the first time since Jan. 11. Carcillo was a healthy scratch in each of the last 6 games. In his first game back, Carcillo had a spirited scrap with Chicago tough guy Jake Dowell in the second period. Carcillo won the fight but needed to be stitched up after Dowell caught him early in the fight with a right hand. Carcillo returned later in the period.
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- Emerick is from northwestern Indiana. That should be a clue as to his childhood favorite hockey team. As for this article, you almost wouldn't know the Flyers handily beat the defending Cup champs in their own building. Who wrote this, Bob's publicist? You'd think Coburn cost them a win or something. Everyone knows shutouts are just a statistic that doesn't count for squat compared to the one in the W column. Brodeur shut out the Pens the other night. Did that move them out of the cellar? Big deal.
— icarus 
Could not agree more. I don't think I could stand listening to Emerick and Co. for another minute. "...Patrick Kane does a great job shooting the puck towards Bob" Outrageous how announcers can be so biased when calling a game.— John663- great win, and what i expected after yesterday's debacle ... the typical post flyers game comments, though. giroux is the annointed one. some combination of the announcers, the officials and/or the league is persecuting the team.— PhillyPhan4for4
- Good, solid win and all you folks can do is whine about a penalty shot, which was the correct call by the way. So typical. Now the announcers, no argument there.
Actually, Doc Emrick is fairly *unbiased*. If you want to see biased announcers get NHL Center Ice and watch a Flyers game from the Pittsburgh feed, or Ottawa, or Washington. Makes my blood boil to hear some of the cracks they make. I know they get paid to market the team that they work for, but some of the nonsense they spew is beyond the pale. Which reminds me, we RARELY get the Comcast Philadelphia feed of Flyers games (home or away) on Center Ice. And almost never in HD. Anybody know why?- Emrick is pretty good I agree. Comcast is on a roll for World Domination which is why we never get any Flyers games on Center Ice. I do hate Eddie O tho. Always works games with the Hawks involved, and always biased. I don't get it
- The reason comcast is rarely on center ice, not on directv, and not in the toronto war room is due to a complicated rule governing TV. Basically, a long time ago prism decided to use microwave instead of satellite to go from stadium to studio. Comcast bought them, and kept that setup because it allows them to use an FCC rule called the "Terrestrial exception" to treat CSN as a local access channel instead of a regional sports network. They have to share it with other local cable providers like FIOS and RCN, but they don't have to share with Directv or center ice. The reason you sometimes can watch on center ice is because sometimes they air Flyers games on off nights in other cities' CSNs, and then it's available as a satellite feed.
— Pelti - Thanks for the detailed explanation.
And I agree that Eddie O is biased against thwe Flyers. No paranoia here, just listen to the guy. When he does the analysis on other NHL network games he is nowhere near as negative as when doing a Flyers game. - Agree with Wildwood, the FSN Pittsburgh guys are THE ABSOLUTE WORST. I know some Pens fans, and even THEY hate their TV announcers. — n62
- bob was awesome in goal.. def he has shown alot more maturity since we first saw him and the flyers were def looking forward past the devils game to this one. awsome game all around carter and giroux def played great cant wait til the playoffs— bigmookalookie
Oh, yeah!! How sweet it is....:) The Chickenhawks don't look so tough now. My only regret is that it wasn't a shutout...:)
Chelsea Dagger goal song video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzHqNVgMkCg- Laviolette is a genius. I didn't like the non-forecheck mentality early on but it was obviously perfect. Great move adjusting to your competition. Excellent bounceback game after yesterday's non-effort..a game I unfortunately was at. And I agree with everyone else...Giroux is a beast!!
- Just guessing, but if your choice is to win the cup or the rematch, you want the cup. The Flyers are playing great, let's see them maintain it until June. Hopefully Bob, Briere and co. continue building toward an exciting Spring! As for the announcing, every city says the same thing when their team plays to national announcers. It's their job to keep it exciting. Given that the Flyers were winning, he needed to keep other people watching.— kmon
- Looked good today, but was nonexistent in the playoffs last year (unless you count every shot to the goalie's chest as having an impact). Hope he steps it up this May.
