You know you're a fan favorite when the organization puts two events on the promotions calendar celebrating something unique about you. Scott Hartnell has achieved that honor this season, first with the Phantoms mitten toss, and tonight with Scott Hartnell Wig Night. Digi and I will be in attendance, hopefully among the first wave of adult fans so that we don't have to resort to subterfuging children to obtain theirs.
Here's Harts on the likelihood of being an early favorite for 2009 Halloween costumes:
The Flyers are playing perhaps their best hockey of the season, coming off hard-fought wins against the hated Pens and Devils. Tonight's opponent, the Florida Panthers, are an Eastern Conference bubble team, just two points behind the Canadiens for the eighth seed. They're hungry for that spot (and we'd love to see them take it from the Habs), but the Panthers are the midst of an awful March, winning just one of their last eight games after starting the month winning three out of four. Good thing they hung on to J-Bo for that playoff run, eh?
The two previous games against the Panthers haven't been a cakewalk though, with Florida winning one and losing the other in a shootout. The two teams play again on April 7, also here in Philly.
The Flyers need to take tonight's game as seriously as they did the Devils and Pens; although they're riding high on a three-game winning streak, including a W at Buffalo, they did lose the two before that. Even as it becomes increasingly likely the Flyers will clinch, they need to maintain the 4 seed to hold onto home-ice advantage, but also keep up the pace so they don't enter the playoffs flat.
The Flyers' remaining schedule includes only three games against teams currently within the playoff bubble (one against Boston and two against the Rangers). However, they also play pesky Toronto twice, and just four points separate the Flyers from the seventh seeded Rangers, with the Pens and Hurricanes looming in between. There's a lot of meaningful hockey left in the next two and a half weeks.
But that's not to say it won't be fun.
Original Story:
http://www.the700level.com/2009/03/it...
