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He’s being listed as being day-to-day but I’m sure the Flyers are a little anxious considering the fact that he missed a whopping 53 games last season due to groin and abdominal injuries.  Hopefully, this will heal quickly but he really should have sat out as soon as he started feeling the twinges.  I know you’ve got to be tough as a player but after missing so many games last season, you’d figure he’d want to err on the side of caution when it comes to groin pains.

The Philadelphia Flyers are also without Simon Gagne.  GM Paul Holmgren said: “it’s a tough break for Danny.  He was playing well. We thought we’d give him one day off and it would get better, and it’s kind of gone from there.”

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The netminder, who has been out of the NHL and playing in the Russian league because of his own bad behavior, managed to stop all 28 shots that he faced and helped the Philadelphia Flyers secure a 2-0 victory over the Carolina Hurricanes.

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Emery definitely sent a message in his debut with the Flyers by posting his ninth career shutout.  Looks like history repeated itself since the last three times that Emery has faced the Canes, he’s been able to completely shut them down.

Between the solid goaltending and newly acquired Flyers defenceman, Chris Pronger, Carolina really didn’t stand a chance.  Eric Staal did score a goal in the first but it was disallowed after it was ruled that Andrew Alberts had used a hand pass.  Tough break.

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Daniel Briere was limited to just 29 games in 2008-2009 due to injury so I’m sure he’s hoping to have a big season and I think it’s entirely possible.  Plus, if he ends up on a line with Claude Giroux and Simon Gagné they could be pretty effective. 

The first thing that concerns me is that two of their 25-goal scorers from last season are gone (Joffrey Lupul and Mike Knuble) but the Giroux/Briere/Gagné could help fill that hole (that is, of course, as long as the injury that sent Gagné home early from the Olympic orientation camp isn’t too serious).

The other thing that has me worried is the fact that they’ve taken on Ray Emery.  Before you get all pissy, hear me out.  I think Emery is a great goaltender and has shown a huge amount of potential but he’s also acted bat-shit crazy in the past so this is really one of those toss ups.

Emery has either learned his lesson and is ready to work hard or he’s just faking it long enough to get back into the NHL.  He will be backed up by Brian Boucher, who did a decent job in the number two spot for the San Jose Sharks last year.

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Emery was a real rising star when he seemed to just lose his mind.  He helped the Ottawa Senators make it all the way to the Stanley Cup finals and then it all went to hell.  He was late for practices, had violent outbursts on the ice and was apparently no better out on the road.  I wasn’t surprised at all when the Sens gave him the boot and no one else seemed to want to touch him.  It’s sad when Sean Avery can get picked up quicker and he’s a complete a-hole.

When talking about his past with the Senators, Emery said:  ”Little distractions take away from the team and there were definitely little distractions around.  I realize that now, so hopefully that’s in the past. I (just) have to make sure I’m a good teammate and keep my nose clean and stay out of trouble.  I didn’t realize how much I liked the game.  It’s not that exciting not being at the highest level I can play at.”

Ummm?  “I didn’t realize how much I liked the game”????  Seriously?  Okay, first of all, why the heck did he start playing if he didn’t know how much he liked hockey and second of all, why isn’t he saying that he LOVES the game?  I don’t want to hear “I like hockey” out of an NHL player’s mouth.  I want to hear that they breathe, bleed and sweat hockey. I want to find out that their kids, or their future kids, all have jerseys and are born with a hockey stick in their hands and that the basement of their home is painted in their team’s colors.  I don’t want to hear “I didn’t realize how much I liked the game.”

Okay, maybe I’m overanalyzing his comment.  I just want to see a completely different attitude on the ice because, seriously, the Flyers aren’t the Senators.  There are some Philly players who won’t hesitate to kick his ass in the locker room if he gets out of line and I’m happy about that.  I’m also glad to hear that Emery hasn’t lost his passion.  He said:  ”I’m a fiery guy. ‘That’s not going to change and I don’t want it to.”

Let’s hope he can direct that energy into something positive this time.

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“We have internal discussions about many players and their potential availability, including Ray Emery,” Holmgren said. “I have spoken to his agent a few times about Ray as well. Any further speculation about this would be very premature.”

Still, this is potentially HUGE news.  I really had all but written off the former Ottawa Senators netminder – not because he wasn’t good enough but because he couldn’t seem to get control over his personal problems (for which he did take some responsibility).  It was sad to me because he really has a lot of potential and even backstopped the Sens all the way to the 2007 Stanley Cup Final.

Unfortunately, things really started to fall apart after that (and, yes, his ego seemed to play a huge role in that) and he ended up playing for Moscow’s Mytishchi Atlanta in Russia’s Kontinental Hockey League this season (though he did accuse the team of taking money from him).

Emery is 71-40-14 with a 2.71 goals-against average and eight shutouts in 134 NHL games and could fit in nicely with the Flyers (if he could behave) since both of their goaltender, Martin Biron and Antero Niittymaki, will become free agents this summer.

I would be happy to see Emery make a return to the NHL as long as he’s ready.  As is the case with Sean Avery, I feel that a player’s personal issues can really ruin an otherwise excellent career so I hope that Emery gets himself back on track because the jury is still out on Avery.

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Just when it looked like the game was lost, Sergei Gonchar and Sidney Crosby rallied for their team – Crosby scored the game tying goal in the second (as well as an empty-netter in the final minute) while Gonchar put one in the back of the net in the third to secure a 5-3 victory in Game 6.

This was the second season in a row that the Penguins have eliminated the Flyers in the playoffs.  They will have to wait to find out who they will play in the semi-finals but I get the feeling that the Penguins are hungry for the Stanley Cup.  I would love to see them go up against the Boston Bruins in the conference final but there’s still a lot of time before that happens.

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The Flyers beat the Penguins 3-0 last night and sent the message that they are far from being completely out of this series.  The only goal that the Pens scored was disallowed after it was determined that Evgeni Malkin kicked it into the back of the net.

Flyers goaltender, Martin Biron, stopped all 28 shots that he faced while Penguins netminder, Marc-Andre Fleury, only managed to turn away 23 of the 26 shots on goal.

No doubt, the Penguins are frustrated and possibly embarrassed by their performance.  I’m surprised with Malkin and Sidney Crosby being healthy that they allowed themselves to get shut out.  Especially since this was Game 5 and all they had to do was win this one to capture the series.

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There was no scoring in the first period of Game 4 but during the second, Pens captain, Sidney Crosby, slid feet-first into the Philly net and, fortunately, took the puck right along with him.  The play was reviewed, of course, but it ended up counting.  Tyler Kennedy scored about four minutes later and then Maxime Talbot put one into an empty net late in the game to seal the deal.

Only Daniel Carcillo was able to score for the Flyers because Pens goaltender, Marc-André Fleury was incredible last night.  He turned away 45 shots on net and kept Pittsburgh in the game.  You can’t say that Philly didn’t try.

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Jeff Carter and Mike Richards flexed their playoff muscles by scoring their first goals of the series early in the game which seems to be all the team needed to really gain momentum.  “It was a huge game. We didn’t want to go down 3-0 because that’s a tough task,” Flyers centre Danny Briere said. “We have to enjoy it for a few minutes here.”

It shows just how important it is for all of the team’s players to be contributing on the ice.  While Evgeni Malkin scored twice for the Pens, captain Sidney Crosby has just one goal in three games (he did post three assists in Game 3, though).  I’m sure Pittsburgh is hoping he will catch fire before it’s too late.

Pittsburgh leads the quarterfinal series 2-1.  Game 4 is Tuesday night in Philadelphia.

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The game was crazy enough through the regular 60 minutes but then it went into overtime.  To make it even more insane, Mike Knuble and Claude Giroux were both assessed 2 minute penalties (cross checking and slashing) which gave the Pens a two-man advantage.  The team’s oldest player, 38-year-old Bill Guerin, took a pass from teammate Sergei Gonchar and beat Flyers goalie, Martin Biron.  It was Guerin’s first-ever game-winning playoff goal.  What a night!

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