Flyers & Penguins; Firewagon Hockey


The Philadelphia Flyers and Pittsburgh Penguins have scored 45 goals over the first four games of their first round series. The record for most goals in one NHL playoff series is 69 by Edmonton and Chicago in the 1985 Campbell Conference Semi-finals. Through four games of that series the Oilers and Hawks combined for only 44 goals.

Amazingly, goalies in the Pens/Flyers series have a WORSE Save Percentage than the barn burner of 27 years ago. Bryzgalov, Bobrovsky, Fleury and Johnson have bumbled their way to a Roller Hockey-like Save Pct. of .818. Back in 1985 Grant Fuhr, Andy Moog, Murray Bannerman and Warren Skorodenski combined for a far more impressive .825 Save Pct. Yikes. In fact after only the first four matches of the 1985 series the teams had a Pct. of .835, the last two games were even worse for poor Murray Bannerman. In Game 5 he allowed 10 goals on 51 shots and in Game 6, 8 of only 27 shots got past him. He would finish the six game series with a .812 Save Pct. Marc-Andre Fleury's is currently at .817.

On the individual scoring front, Flyers Claude Giroux's 10 points is only 1 behind Wayne Gretzky's first four games of the '85 Semis. Sidney Crosby has 8 points so far, Evgeni Malkin and Jordan Staal have 7 each and four others have 6 points which is comparable to the leaders through four games of that '85 series. Glenn Anderson had 8, Denis Savard 7, Paul Coffey, Jari Kurri and Darryl Sutter all had 6 points each.

Who's going to bet against the Flyers and Pens not putting 15 goals on the board in Game 5 as happened on May 14, 1985 when Edmonton beat Chicago 10-5.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Team Canada 1972, What Might have Been

Image
Guy Lafleur, if he had played in the 72 Summit Series "No way. Can you imagine what our fans would say if we allowed Bobby Orr and Phil Esposito to play for Canada in that series and either...suffered an injury that might prevent them from playing with us for a year or more?" This was the concern of Weston Adams Jr, president of the Boston Bruins as quoted on April 20, 1972. After being speculated and discussed since February 1972 at the Olympics in Sapporo Japan, the series was set to go. Early on however, controversy stirred as to who exactly would be representing Canada. Bruins GM, Milt Schmidt agreed with his boss saying, "My only interest would be to see the Russians play the Bruins for the world championship...or whatever team wins the Stanley Cup." In the Vancouver Sun a few days later, the legendary Jim Coleman responds to the American naysayers suggesting that Team Canada should be made up strictly of players from Toronto Maple Leafs and Montreal
Read more

WHA Ottawa Civics, The Two Week Franchise

Image
Tom Earl, Daryl Maggs, Mark Lomenda, Gary MacGregor, Garry Swain "Please let the fans make up their own minds," Henry Feller told a press gathering. "Let them decide if they want pro hockey here. We have to average 7,000 or 8,000 in the remaining 19 home games for a break-even point." Feller was a director of the Founders Club who had interest in buying the WHA's Denver Spurs club. Ivan Mullinex, owner of the Spurs had brought his team to Ottawa in an attempt to drum up interest and save his investment. The date was January 2, 1976 and Mullinex was in debt to a Denver bank to the tune of $1 million dollars. This same day, the newly christened Civics lost their first game under the new moniker by a score of 2-1 at Cincinnati. Star of the team, Ralph Backstrom said after the game, "Our first official notice of the move hit us when we entered the Cincinnati rink and the names on the big scoreboard read: Stingers and Civics. Until that moment we were un
Read more

Denman Arena, Vancouver - "The Pile"

Image
Situated at the corner of Denman and Georgia Streets in Vancouver, sitting on the shore of Coal Harbour, the Denman Arena was once the largest in the world. Built in 1911 by Frank and Lester Patrick at a cost of $300,000 it was the main venue for their newly formed Pacific Coast Hockey Association. Until the Montreal Forum was built in 1926, it was the largest artificial ice arena in the world seating 10,500. Constructed of wood and brick, the large brick facing led Vancouverites to refer to it as The Pile. The Patrick brothers simultaneously built the 3,500 seat Patrick Arena in Victoria to help house their three team league which also included New Westminster. They would proceed to raid the established National Hockey Association of much of it’s top talent to stock their teams. The Pile would host the Vancouver Millionaires Stanley Cup championship in March, 1915, boxing matches featuring Max Baer and “Cinderella Man” James Braddock, movie star Rudolph Valentino as well as bicycle r
Read more