Talbot Providing Flyers With Much More than Expected

By David Strehle NHL Hot Stove Managing Editor When the Philadelphia Flyers inked forward Maxime Talbot to a five-year, $9 million free agent contract in July, it seemed that he got caught in the cross-fire of Pennsylvania’s ever-volatile hockey rivalry – it seemed that fans from neither side in the Keystone Klash had anything good to say about the 5′ 11″, 190-pound centerman. Fans from Pittsburgh - already smarting over what they deemed to be a huge diss from Jaromir Jagr in turning down the Penguins offer to instead sign with the Flyers earlier in the day - saw it as yet another act of betrayal by one of their own.  Like Jagr, Talbot had won a Stanley Cup in the Steel City, but now the pair would be donning the Orange-and-Black of their most-hated arch enemy.  Pittsburgh supporters voiced their displeasure on social websites such as Twitter and Facebook, and other hockey-based message boards. Instead of a joyous reception from the City of Brotherly Love, there was also an air of ...