Miller makes 29 saves in Canucks' 4-0 win over Flyers posted by Canucks Fan

By keeping things simple, Ryan Miler has had success while playing sick. Miller returned from a two-game illness absence and made 29 saves, and Henrik Sedin had a goal and an assist to lead the Vancouver Canucks to a 4-0 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers on Thursday night.

"If you're thinking too much out there, you're overcommitting, you're overplaying," Miller said. "When you're not feeling great, you settle it down.

"I think my dad has seen me play really good hockey when I'm sick ever since I was a kid."

It was Miller's fourth shutout this season and 33rd of his NHL career. He returned to the net after missing two games due to illness. Miller improved to 5-2-1 with a 1.63 goals-against average in his last eight games.

"I kept everything really simple, and when they did get loose I was able to get a good read on the shots," Miller said.

The Canucks scored two goals within 24 seconds of the second period.

Miller made several outstanding saves in the period, snaring Luke Schenn's wrist shot from point-blank range with 13 1/2 minutes left and reaching out to rob Pierre-Edouard Bellemare 1 1/2 minutes later with another strong glove save. He extended a pad to deny Nick Schultz's slap shot with 10:35 left.

"He made a couple of unbelievable saves," Canucks coach Willie Desjardins said. "If those go in, it's a different hockey game."

Miller had been winless in his last five trips to Philadelphia, but he improved to 4-7 in 12 games at the Wells Fargo Center since the 2010-11 season.

Penguins recall enforcer Bobby Farnham ahead of Flyers game posted by Penguins Fan

Pittsburgh Penguins farmhand Bobby Farnham might be arriving a little late to the party. The age of the designated fighter in the NHL is drawing to its close. Unfortunately for Farnham, he just got here.

Though he won't play a regular role with the Penguins anytime soon, the team can bring him up in a pinch to do what he does: punch people. As the team prepares to take on rival Philadelphia Flyers, Farnham has been recalled. It hasn't been confirmed that he'll play, but the timing suggests the team felt his services were required.

This is just the second meeting between the Penguins and Flyers this season, but Philadelphia has enjoyed some success against their fellow Pennsylvanians over the last few years. The Flyers have six straight wins over the Penguins heading into Tuesday night's tilt on national TV. Anyone that's watched these two teams square off knows how these games can go.

The Penguins are reeling a bit with six losses in their last 10 games. The New York Islanders are putting some distance between themselves and the rest of the Metropolitan Division field. Squaring off against a team near the bottom of the division means that the Penguins should be viewing this game as one it can't let slip away.

They're obviously not bringing Farnham in for his scoring ability, though, so if he does in fact get inserted into the lineup, his role will be pretty well defined. He knows it well, too.

Farnham has three fighting majors in his 10 games with the big club this season. He has already racked up 117 penalty minutes in 27 games with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton in the AHL this year as well.

Flyers outlast Penguins; Letang injured posted by Flyers Fan

The Philadelphia Flyers never have had a problem ramping up their effort against the Pittsburgh Penguins. It's finding that same level against the rest of the NHL that has been an issue.

"I think we need to find some motivation to play like that every game, every night," Giroux said. "It's not an easy thing to do but we need to find a way to do that."

The Flyers skated most of overtime on the power play after a cross-checking penalty on Zach Still at the buzzer to end the third period and a bench minor on the Penguins for too many men on the ice at 2:04 of OT.

Philadelphia, which has the best home power play in the NHL, finally scored on its sixth man-advantage of the game.

It was a level the Flyers have lacked for most of the season, and one reason they're 11 points behind the Boston Bruins for the final Eastern Conference wild-card spot into the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

"It's hard to play this way for every game for 82 games," Voracek said. "It was a very emotional game. It was a battle for 60, 64 minutes. Obviously. if that's the way we're going to win the games, we have to play like that every game. ... Sometimes you have teams where they don't fight or don't hit as much as [the Penguins]. Sometimes you have to find a different way to win the games. I don't know why it's like that against the Penguins every time."

After a rough start to the season, the Flyers were happy to head into the All-Star break with some good feelings.

"Everyone is excited to go on a high note into the break," Schenn said. "After a game like that you need a couple days off to regroup. Obviously a lot of frustration and anger had built up over the way we've been paying. Good to see that we've gone through a lot lately and the guys have stuck together."

Islanders flog Flyers to end first half on top of Metropolitan Division posted by Islanders Fan

No one expected the New York Islanders to head into their All-Star break on top of the Eastern Conference, not even coach Jack Capuano.

He knows his club has played surprisingly well, though he claims he doesn't know just how well.

That's OK. He likes what he sees, and he wants it to continue when the Islanders get back on the ice next week.

"I don't even know our record," Capuano said after New York's 7-4 victory over the Philadelhpia Flyers on Monday. "We come to the rink and we get better every day. I know we've won some games and things are going well for our team right now, but we can't lose sight of how we need to play."

The Islanders, 15-2 against divisional foes, are off until they host the Rangers next Tuesday. New York is 16-4 overall at home.

"The thing about our hockey team is believability and trust. Accountability and leadership," Capuano said. "No one gave us a chance, and that is why you play the game. I am very pleased up until this point with our hockey club. We've done a lot of good things, not only winning hockey games but how we're winning games and how we're playing within the structure and the framework."

"We wanted to have a bounce-back game and go into the break on a high," Josh Bailey said. "It will be a much-deserved break, but we're going to want to pick up where we left off."

Last season's team went only 13-19-9 at home and missed the playoffs after making it the year before.

"It's no secret it was a big disappointment last year and one of the reasons why we didn't have much success," Tavares said.

Sabres know they aren't paying the price. posted by Sabres Fan

The Sabres faced a Minnesota Wild team on Thursday that had won two of 14 games. Buffalo proceeded to lose 7-0 for their worst loss ever in this building.

Philadelphia comes to town with three losses in four games and has not scored a goal in two games. Yes, in the last two games the Sabres have outscored the Flyers 1-0!

Overall the Flyers have 10 more points than Buffalo and scored 44 more goals.

Before the shutout string, captain Claude Giroux had five points in four games. Giroux has 48 points in 44 games.

Also before the streak, Mark Streit had assists in 15 out of 19 games.

Rob Zepp has been in goal the past three games going 1-1-0 with a 1.90 goals against and a .917 save percentage. Zepp is 33 years old and was a fourth round pick of Carolina Hurricanes in 2001. This is first stint in the NHL after stops in Lehigh Valley, Berlin, SaiPa Lappeenranta, the Florida Everblades and Lowell.

Buffalo had been doing very well at home, but have lost four straight here to fall to 10-12-2 overall.

Buffalo has just seven goals in eight games. Ted Nolan said on Friday that the players are wondering why they aren’t scoring goals. He said it’s because they don’t pay the price. Matt Ellis is a player that pays the price every shift and he said, “We 100 percent have to pay the price. One thing I’ve noticed is we do a lot on the outside. In order to score goals in this league you have to get to the gritty areas in front of the net and you do, you have to pay the price if you want to score goals.”

The Philadelphia Flyers Strengths and Weaknesses posted by Flyers Fan

The Philadelphia Flyers made it to the round one of the playoffs, where they lost to the Rangers and finished 13th overall in the league. The Flyers had a serious salary cap problem that put a limit to any activity that would have taken place in the offseason.

Salary Cap

Their salary cap limit was at just over $4 million. This meant that the manager Ron Hextall had to trade some players to resolve the salary cap issue. Thus, R.J. Umberger left the team and the manager signed in Michael Del Zotto who is on a $1.3million one year contract with the Flyers.

He seems to be playing well with the senators last season and he had a fairly decent save percentage. Unfortunately, he did not show a lot of promise in the first few games of the regular season. His time on ice has been declining for the first 3 games he has played in the 2014-2015 regular season. The Flyers have a number of challenging games at the beginning of the season and he will need to do better.

Goalies

One of the team’s greatest talent is the current team captain Claude Giroux. Giroux registered his career best last season when he finished the season with 28 goals and 86 points in 82 games. The team forward corps also includes promising talent like Matt Read and Jakub Voracek and Brayden Schenn. The main weakness for the team seems to be its goalie talent. Even though Steve Mason is good, there is no one else the team can refer to as a reliable backup. 

Conclusion

The teams forward corps is strong but they have a questionable defence corps. It is likely that the team will struggle to make it to the playoffs despite their performance last season.

NHL Suspends Torres 25 games posted by Richard Kagan

The NHL suspended Raffi Torres 25 games for vicious hit on Marian Hossa during the Coyotes-Blackhawks playoff game.  Hossa was knocked to the ice, appeared unconscious and was carried off the ice on a stretcher.  He was taken to a Hospital for further evalutation and left after several hours.  Hossa, suffered an apparent concussion and may be out for the rest of the Hawks post-season run.

The Hawjs have their hands fun with a Coyotes team that looks determined to reach the next round of the playoffs.  They have a stranglehold on the series, up three games to one.  Blackhawks' top scorers have been shut down in this series and unless they get untracked much like what Pittsburgh did the the Flyers in Game 4, their season will likely end in the Desert.

Giroux Returning to Lineup posted by Jeff Ponder

Claude Giroux is proving that concussions do not have a set timetable for return.  For some players, problems with concussions have spanned throughout multiple seasons.

Sidney Crosby of the Pittsburgh Penguins has missed 68 games – and counting – with a concussion.  David Perron of the St. Louis Blues recently missed 97 games with a concussion issue.  It seems that Giroux will miss just four games.

Reports suggest that Giroux will be back in the lineup tonight in Dallas.

Giroux has been sidelined since December 10 after colliding with teammate Wayne Simmonds.  When Giroux missed his first game, he was the league’s leading scorer with 39 points.  Currently, he is tied for first with Evgeni Malkin (Pittsburgh), Phil Kessel (Toronto) and Henrik Sedin (Vancouver).

During practice Tuesday morning, Giroux rejoined his linemates, Jaromir Jagr and Scott Hartnell, while also spending time on the first power-play unit.  It was Giroux’s third straight day of practice.

In an interview with Philly.com, Giroux stated that he “felt good.”

The timing of Giroux’s return could not have come at a better time.  One week ago today, Flyers captain Chris Pronger was informed that he would be sidelined for the rest of the season with severe post-concussion syndrome.

Philadelphia Flyers Sign Jaromir Jagr posted by Jeff Ponder

It’s official; Jaromir Jagr is back in the NHL.

Just an hour after it was announced that the Pittsburgh Penguins pulled out of the Jagr-sweepstakes, their division rival swooped in and took him.

Jagr, who has taken a three-season leave of absence from the NHL to play with Avangard Omsk of the KHL, was one of the most-sought after free-agents this summer.  The native of Kladno, Czechoslovakia showed that he still could get it done in the Olympics in Vancouver last year and talks of him returning to the NHL began immediately after.

Jagr is ninth on the NHL all-time leading point-scorers with 646 goals, 953 assists and 1599 total-points. 

Philadelphia, who traded away marquee players Mike Richards and Jeff Carter last week, are getting a proven goal scorer to add to a young offense.  Jagr will likely play on the top line with forwards Claude Giroux and Danny Briere to at least start training camp. 

The deal is reportedly a one year contract worth $3.3 million.

Follow Jeff Ponder on Twitter (@jponder94) for all the latest updates on free-agent signings today.

Analysis of Today’s Moves by the Philadelphia Flyers posted by Jeff Ponder

With the trades made today, one would think that the Flyers are coming off a dreadful season.

This is not the case, as Flyers GM Paul Holmgren saw his team finish second in the Eastern Conference and third in the entire NHL with 106 points.  Yet today could be the biggest day for player movement in Flyers franchise history.

First, the Flyers announced that they had traded team captain Mike Richards to the Los Angeles Kings for center Brayden Schenn, right wing Wayne Simmonds and a 2012 second round draft selection.  But that was just the beginning of the whole shebang. 

Just minutes later, it was released that the Flyers had moved leading goal-scorer Jeff Carter from the roster as well.  Carter was dealt to the Columbus Blue Jackets for forward Jakub Voracek and a first and third round draft selection in the 2011 NHL draft. 

Wait… there’s more.

Ilya Bryzgalov, who’s rights were recently acquired from the Phoenix Coyotes for the rights to AHLer Matt Clackson and a 2012 third round draft selection, was signed to a 9-year, $51 million contract just after the two trades were approved by the NHL. 

Many questions are surfacing from fans and media alike; why trade so much offensive talent?

The answer can be summed up to one statement: the NHL, above all else, is a business.  Trading Richards and Carter freed up a ton of money and the extra dollars went straight into Bryzgalov’s pocket.  Richards will be entering the fourth year of his 12-year, $69 million contract.  Jeff Carter, who recently signed an 11-year, $58 million contract this past season, is just starting his new contract this season. 

Flyers avoid arbitration, sign Schenn to $20.5M, 4-year deal (Yahoo Sports)

[read full article]

From Yahoo Sports

Rangers trade Brassard to Senators for Zibanejad (Yahoo Sports)

[read full article]

From Yahoo Sports

Ducks acquire G Jonathan Bernier from Toronto for draft pick (Yahoo Sports)

[read full article]

From Yahoo Sports

Predators acquire P.K. Subban from Canadiens for Shea Weber (Yahoo Sports)

[read full article]

From Yahoo Sports

Lindros' wait over as he headlines Hockey Hall of Fame class (Yahoo Sports)

[read full article]

From Yahoo Sports