http://www.yardbarker.com/users/Enriquefed Recent Yardbarker Articles: Enriquefed en-us The future looks bright for the Philadelphia Flyers. Not only do they have several young stars on their final four NHL team but they have a bunch of young prospects who will be joining the big club in the next few years. One of their top forward prospects, Claude Giroux, who you might remember from a brief stint with the Flyers earlier in the year, absolutely tore up the QMJHL (Quebec Major Junior Hockey League) this season. Giroux was just named the MVP of the QMJHL Playoffs after his Gatineau Olympiques team won the championship. Giroux dominated the league, setting an Olympiques franchise record with 51 points in 19 games. Click the link for more on Giroux. Sat, 17 May 2008 00:12:09 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/268000 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/268000 A little over a year ago myself and most of Philadelphia had a nickname for Jayson Werth: Werthless. After his effort Friday night in the Phils 10-3 win over the Blue Jays, I will never call him that name again. Werth had a record breaking night, hitting a home run in each of his first three at-bats in the game. He hit a 3-run homer in the 2nd, a grand slam in the 3rd and a solo shot in the 5th to give him 8 RBIs on the night, a number that ties the Phillie franchise record for RBI in a game. Werth missed a chance to add a fourth homer in the 7th inning when he fouled out. Click the link for much more, including highlights of Werth's historic night. Sat, 17 May 2008 00:10:49 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/267999 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/267999 All of the sudden, things are looking a whole lot better for the Flyers. Fresh off their Game Four win last night the Flyers announced that they might have their top two defensemen back in the line-up on Sunday for Game Five. Braydon Coburn, who missed the last two games after he took a puck to the face, was already likely to return once the swelling around his left eye subsided. As long as he continues to progress you can bet he will be back Sunday. The surprising news is that Kimmo Timonen might also be available to play in Game Five. Click the link for more on this situation. Fri, 16 May 2008 08:57:37 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/267573 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/267573 Cole Hamels showed Brett Myers how it's done. Hamels pitched his first career shutout to lead the Phillies to a 5-0 win over the Braves. King Cole went 9 innings, gave up only 4 hits and struck out 6 batters in a 120-pitch complete game shutout. He was simply dominant from the beginning, turning aside 15 straight batters at one point. At a time when Phillies fans are questioning their starting pitching, it's nice to have a guarantee like Hamels. We know that every time he goes out there, the Phillies will have an excellent chance of winning. Offensively, the Phillies relied on the homer, belting three in the game. Pedro Feliz, Ryan Howard and Shane Victorino each hit one out of the park. Howard has hit 3 homers in his last 5 games, can we finally say his slump is over? The batting average still sits at .185 but at least he is driving in some runs. Interleague play begins tomorrow as the Phils' World Series nemesis Toronto Blue Jays come to town for a three game set. Call me bitter but I still want revenge for what Joe Carter did! Click the link for more, including highlights. Thu, 15 May 2008 22:57:25 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/267506 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/267506 The Flyers of the first two rounds showed up tonight when they absolutely had to. Down 3-0 in the series and facing elimination at the hands of their cross-state rivals the Pittsburgh Penguins, the Flyers played inspired hockey and pulled out a 4-2 win to keep their slim Stanley Cup hopes alive. The Flyers jumped out in the first period and absolutely dominated the Penguins. Feeding off the booming home crowd, the Flyers scored three goals in the first period. Joffrey Lupul started off the scoring and Danny Briere and Jeff Carter both added power play goals as the Flyers offense showed more energy and intensity than it had all series. Philly looked like they were going to steamroll the Penguins as Pittsburgh could do little else but sit back and withstand the onslaught of the Flyers. Click the link for much more on the game, including highlights. Thu, 15 May 2008 21:41:19 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/267494 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/267494 The Flyers may be playing their last game of the season tonight. In an effort to shake things up and get a spark, Coach John Stevens has rearranged the Flyers forward lines to look like this: Richards - Briere - Hartnell Umberger - Prospal - Lupul Upshall - Carter - Knuble Thoresen - Dowd - Kapanen Braydon Coburn also will not play tonight. Click the link for more on these latest moves. Thu, 15 May 2008 14:03:15 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/267339 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/267339 Brett Myers dug the Phillies a hole they couldn't quite find their way out of. Myers pitched one of his worst games in recent memory, allowing 8 runs in just 4 and 1/3 innings. Things started off terrible for Myers, who gave up a lead-off home run to Yunel Escobar and then let up another homer to Chipper Jones two batters later. In all, the Braves tagged Myers for 9 hits and 3 home runs en route to an 8-6 win over the Phillies. Once Myers left the game, the Phillies bullpen did what it does best: shut the opposition down. Ryan Madsen, Clay Condrey and Rudy Seanez combined to shut out the Braves the rest of the way and opened the door to a Phillies comeback. Click the link for much more on the game. Thu, 15 May 2008 00:52:33 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/267148 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/267148 Braydon Coburn returned to practice today for the Flyers in hopes of taking the ice for Game 4 tomorrow night. Coburn missed Game 3 because his eye was swollen shut following the puck to the face he took in Game 2. Coburn will wear a visor to protect his eye, which, as you can see above, looks better but still has a ways to go to fully open back up. While it would be a great story and a true test of toughness if Coburn returns for Game 4, there is really no point in rushing him back to the ice. With the Flyers on the brink of elimination, if his vision is impaired in any way and there is any chance he could hurt himself worse, he should sit out. Even if he plays well and the Flyers win the game, they have a huge uphill battle ahead of them if they are going to win the series. It is likely there is a greater chance of Braydon Coburn getting injured worse than the Flyers have of winning four straight against the Penguins. Wed, 14 May 2008 13:43:23 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/266884 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/266884 The Eagles signed three more free agent rookies to contracts today and, no, Adarius Bowman was not one of them. The Eagles added a quarterback, Casey Hansen from Norfolk State, and two linebackers, Gary Butler from California (Pa) and Mark Staffieri from BYU. All three are longshots to make the team. Hansen is an interesting prospect given his 6 foot 5 size and his decent passing numbers at Norfolk State. Hansen was a two year starter who led the entire MEAC in passing in 2006, throwing for 2166 yards and amassing a QB rating of 116.9. In 2007, Hansen saw a slight dip in those numbers, passing for 2111 yards and finishing with a QB rating of 114.5. Despite those numbers, I see little chance of him overtaking A.J. Feeley for the third string role, although he could be a practice squad player. Butler put up big numbers at California (Pa) last season, notching 12 sacks and forcing four fumbles. He was also named the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference West Defensive Player of the Year. Staffieri finished his college career with 2 total sacks and 132 tackles. Wed, 14 May 2008 10:52:21 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/266816 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/266816 I spent most of the night watching the Flyers, but there were some interesting things to come out of the Phillies 5-4 win over the Braves: *Jayson Werth leads the offense: Werth had been struggling for the last few weeks, but he busted out tonight with a 3 hit, 4 RBI night. All 3 of his hits were singles with runners in scoring position. Werth should continue to have a big role in this series with Atlanta as the Braves are starting lefties in each of the remaining games. *Brad Lidge is human: Brad Lidge finally gave up an earned run this season, sending his ERA soaring all the way to 0.50. *Ryan Howard slump watch: Ryan Howard had a so-so effort tonight, going 2 for 4 with an RBI, 2 runs scored and 2 strikeouts. The Phillies will take the strikeouts if he can get on base more often. Howard's batting average has now soared up to .181. Click the link for much more, including highlights of the game. Tue, 13 May 2008 22:33:04 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/266695 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/266695 The Keystone Clash crossed the state to Philadelphia on Tuesday night, but the game looked very similar to the previous two. The Penguins looked better in nearly every facet of the game, dominating the Flyers 4-1 in Game 3 to take a commanding 3-0 series lead. The Flyers were over-matched from the beginning when the Penguins got two quick goals in the first 8 minutes. The goals were a bit fluky with the first going in off a Jason Smith's foot and the second coming when Martin Biron was screened, but the Penguins managed to take the Flyers right out of the game. Philly responded with a goal by R.J. Umberger, but from there on they barely challenged Marc-Andre Fleury, finishing with a mere 18 shots. The Penguins sealed the victory with a goal halfway through the third period and an empty netter at the end of regulation. Click the link for much more on the game, including video highlights with reactions from John Stevens and Mike Richards. Tue, 13 May 2008 21:35:59 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/266677 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/266677 After another tough loss for the Flyers, the Live Blog will be back on tonight at 7:15 for Game Three in the Battle of Pennsylvania. Come and discuss the game as it happens with fellow Flyer fans as Philly looks to get back into the series. Click the link at 7:15 to participate in the Live Blog. Tue, 13 May 2008 16:08:10 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/266563 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/266563 It's mid-May, so obviously it's time for NFL Power Rankings! Both ESPN.com and SI.com have released their incredibly early preseason power rankings, and both of them have the Eagles just outside the top ten. Here are their rankings and their thoughts on the Eagles: ESPN: Rank: 13 Comments: Last season, they hit their stride when it was too late. With a fully healed Donovan McNabb and an improved secondary, the Eagles could be dangerous. Sports Illustrated: Rank: 11 Comments: The story's the same as ever in Reid-land: Donovan McNabb has to stay upright for 16 games for this team to have a chance to play deep into January. He's missed two, four and seven starts in the last three years. That's partly why the Eagles have fallen considerably short of their second Super Bowl appearance in the McNabb era. Two assists for him this year. Lorenzo Booker's a better alter-ego to Brian Westbrook than Correll Buckhalter has been. And DeSean Jackson, even at 170 pounds soaking wet, should be a bit more of a stretch-the-defense third or fourth receiver than McNabb has had. If Jackson does nothing else, at least he'll spice up the blah return game (8.1 yards per punt return and 21.7 on kickoffs is no way to win ball games). Oh, and it would be nice if McNabb's tackles could block the Giants. My thoughts: Those rankings seem about right for the Eagles, although I was very surprised to see the Minnesota Vikings ranked higher than the Eagles in both rankings, they don't even have a quarterback. Both ESPN and SI make the obvious statement that McNabb has to stay healthy if the Eagles want to make any noise this year. SI thinks McNabb has plenty of new weapons to keep him happy, although most Eagle fans would still prefer a true number one receiver. I am excited to see some offensive plays with both Booker and Westbrook in the backfield; they will make a dangerous combination. I like the make-up of this Eagles team, they should be very competitive in a difficult NFC East. It's way to early to tell, but a return to the playoffs looks likely. Their defense appears to be above average again so it may simply come down to how effective McNabb and the offense can be. Of course, we are still about 4 months away from the season, so no one really knows anything yet. Click the link to view the power rankings Tue, 13 May 2008 11:00:21 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/266436 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/266436 The Flyers playoff hopes continue to dim today. After losing to the Penguins yesterday to fall into a 2-0 hole in the series, the Flyers learned today that they will play Game 3 without defenseman Braydon Coburn. Coburn took a puck to the face in the first period of Game 2 and had to leave the game. He got 50 stitches on his face around his left eye and lost a lot of blood, making him feel lightheaded. The Flyers have already ruled him out for Game 3, although there is a chance he could return for Game 4 on Thursday. Ryan Parent will suit up in Coburn's place. Click the link for more, including "highlights" of Coburn's injury. Mon, 12 May 2008 14:21:32 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/266114 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/266114 The Flyers lost Game Two by the same score as they lost Game One, 4-2, but Sunday's contest was a completely different story in terms of effort. In Game One, the Flyers looked flat-footed and played most of the game back on their heels, while in Game Two they showed more of the effort and intensity that we have grown accustomed to seeing in this playoff run. The Flyers simply took too many penalties that allowed the Penguins to get their offense going and couldn't generate enough offense of their own. The night started off terrible for the Flyers when Braydon Coburn took a puck to the nose and collapsed to the ice. There were several questionable calls made by the refs throughout the game that went against both teams. Click the link for much more on the game, including highlights. Sun, 11 May 2008 22:06:32 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/265864 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/265864