Avoidance

Dear Gentle Readers,

It's time to practice my superstition of avoiding anything related to the Flyers on game night if I'm not there in person.

I'm sure everyone at the Wachovia Center will have a great time and I'm bummed not to be there with the fun and funny Habs fans that trek in for the games. But I just don't do well listening to the games, so I'm skipping the stress.

Although, if you're online and have Skype, head on over and find me.

Waivers and Trades

Good-bye, Metro. Oh, hello again. Hope you have fun in the visitor's dressing room tonight.

Adios, Ossi. Good luck with the Orcas! I'll miss having a Vantaa boy on the roster and in the harem. *sigh*

Further Reflections

After continuing to assess ScarletCaps.com, I have to say that HLOG sister and Caps rep CapsChick has summed up my feelings in the best fashion.

So, Flyers website peeps, review her critique in detail and pay extra special attention to it if you plan to do something similar. Take the time to scope out the opinions of long-term female hockey fans to ensure that you hit the mark. Join the "good NHL merchandisers" category. (After all, we already like the team. We'll go easy on you.)

Oh, and don't make the thing look like a bordello, brothel, or an emo boudoir.

Decompressing on a Friday night,
Flyers.Femme
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WttH: Two Inductions

Slick Addition

Simon Gagne, you rock!

Sure, last year was not your friend what with the multiple installments of the most feared diagnosis known to the Flyers organization: concussion. Most recently, we've seen you battling the flu and the dehydration that goes with it.

With last night's game winner, you've scored your 2008-09 Flyers.Femme Hockey Harem entrance.

Goalie Addition

Now for some harem controversy. Goalies seem to be take 'em or leave 'em for Philadelphia. Everyone has an opinion on the Biron & Niittymäki Show, myself included.

However, for his play during the Whalercanes game on Saturday, Antero Niittymäki also earned his harem induction for the season.

Waiting in the Wings

Ossi Vaananen, you won me over Saturday night. You have added yourself to my ranks of favored Finnish players from Vantaa and Finnish Flyers.

I admit I was straddling the fence about you. It's not that I doubted your ability to contribute to the club, so much as I couldn't be sure there was truly room in this fangirl's heart for another player from dear Sami's hometown. And while you will never, ever eclipse Sami Kapanen in my hockey universe, you are THIS close to causing me to add a third d-man to the harem.

So, put that body in front of a few more shots. Stifle a few more attempts by jazzy forwards from opposing teams. Hell, get booed for doing an ice-side, Coatsie interview that you - fairly tactfully - end in order to save Coatsie from imminent death for delaying Mites on Ice.

Dear Guys

Best of luck for tomorrow's Dollar Dog night game versus the Caniac Nation. Hope that old schooler Whalers sweater guy is at the game.

Now, I must finish anchoring the light strands for my hockey open house on Friday night.

Plotting a hockey outing with the guys from work,
Flyers.Femme
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What the...?

When Track Records Bite, er, Hurt

Last season we had a bunch of repeat offender injuries: self-inflicted tears to major leg muscles by The Mikes, any number of groin pulls, several non-specific upper and lower body injuries, and quite a few concussions (yes, more than Simon's three). Then there is the granddaddy of them all as far as yours truly is concerned...the puck to the face.

Last season, two of my faves ended up with 25 and 50+ stitches in the face after being blasted. Last night, Ossi Vaananen and Luca Sbisa took 'em in the face. Granted, their outcomes were nothing like dear Sami nor anything remotely approximating Coburn in the FPoW final.

All I can say is thank God, but please make it stop! Do you have any idea how hard it is to be at the game and try to avoid all the screens showing the replay in a building with "Welcome to Comcast Country" emblazoned on the walls? *Shudder*

12/04 v. NJD at Home

Really, it was not as thrilling as I would have liked it to be. I'm sure the Devils fans love the outcome.

My (new) favorite Finn scored the first goal on an unassisted slapshot in the second. It was a thing of beauty.

Not so beautiful? Upshall checking himself into the boards to start the third. He made up for it by slipping a wrister in with about 4:30 left in the game. That's when the nail biting started...y'know, if I bit my nails.

I feel as if, sometimes, the Flyers are...hesitant...to win a game outright. Like they really have to go into OT for it to count, which is so not the case because the other team gets at least a point and there's a 50-50 shot that we don't win.

That's what happened last night. Next time, try not to give them all freakin' day to set up, 'kay?

Kudo to my second favorite Finn: Kukkie, I love when you put your body on the line like that! And was that you being a teensy, little bit lippy on the way to the box? :)

In Other Hockey-Centric News

• A six game suspension. (Oh, and therapy. Don't forget therapy!) Here's hoping the Stars level even more punishment to the tally (games out, pay, whatever...just so it's more).
• A six game suspension for that (plus the other total crap spewed this season so far)? When the average suspension for a head shot is either three or four games? I'll repeat my comment to a post on HLOG now:

In all seriousness, I'm for the NHL growing a pair, using their collective brain power, sorting their shite out, and getting some real process for suspensions. This arbitrary crap is tweaking my last nerve, so maybe I'll suspend them for the cumulative bother. :p

End of rant.

So, I'll just be hanging in my humble abode (it really is), prepping for my open house next Friday, and chillin' to a game tomorrow night on a local TV station that is not a proprietary sports channel for The (New) Evil Empire.

Making merry one driving punk song at a time,
Flyers.Femme
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