Since when has rooting for the Russians been a good thing? - especially since the Russian is in your nation's capital. It didn't work in Rocky IV, Rambo III, The Hunt for Red October, or Miracle. It maybe the Cold War-kid in me, but this talk of the Capitals as a 'Cinderella' team is making me ill.

Last night on TSN's playoff preview (shown on the NHL Network in The States), the show's host, James Duthie called the Captials/Flyers first round match-up "old fashioned good versus evil." Here's the clip in which his comments take place at the 4:00 mark. The rest of the panel (Darren Pang, Mike Milbury, and Bob McKenzie) unamiously picked the Caps to win the series.

For the "league's hatred of the Flyers," he cited the Flyer suspensions of early in the season. Really? That's all you got? Nothing like living in the past. How about being the league's worst team last season to a 6th seed in the playoffs? Or is that too far in the past to look?

The Caps are on a roll and many have compared them to the Colorado Rockies of last season's MLB playoffs. I beg to differ, the long layoff from the Caps last game (Saturday) until the Friday opener is a long time to believe your own hype and lose any momentum you've established. The layoff has help a banged-up Flyer team looking to get back Danny Briere, Jason Smith and Derian Hatcher.

Ovechkin is the best player in the league, better than The Wimp from steel-less town, and the Washington Capitals had to pull themselves out of the basement from Thanksgiving. That was a tremendous feat and they deserve credit for that - they beat who was on their schedule. But to compare the schedules of the Flyers and Caps as equals is doing a disservice to the Orange&Black.

In March and April, the Washington Capitals played playoff caliber teams only 5 times and faced non-playoff teams, 13 times. The Flyers are even at 9-games with playoff and non-playoff caliber teams (2 of was a home-and-home with a red hot Toronto Leafs team). The Caps play in a terrible Southwest Division (with only one team in the Second Season) while the Flyers play in the tough Atlantic Division which has 4 playoff teams.

The national media is picking their darlings to win the series - citing Huet's performance will trump Marty Biron's. Both guys have never played this late in the season before, but Canada is anointing Huet the next Broduer.

There is hope Flyer fans. Thanks to FanHouse, "EA Sports predicts who will win each round of the upcoming NHL playoffs, using NHL 08 to simulate the action." The Flyers beat the Caps in 7 games but lose to the Habs in 6.

Notes: Per philly.com, Danny Briere will be ready for Game 1 on Friday.

They almost blew it in the end, again, but Antero Niittymaki made a season saving save with seconds left in the third to give the Orange&Alive a 3-2 win over the Atlanta Thrashers. The Flyers already gave up a goal with 30 seconds left to Atlanta's Ilya Kovalchuck, his 50th.

This installment of Thrasher domination, along with Washington's 4-2 win in Nashville separates the Flyers by 3-points from Buffalo, but only 2-points from the Caps.

Mike Richards, Jeff Carter, and Vinny Prospal scored for Philly. Can Richards and Carter save this season by themselves? It's starting to look that way but I was surprised by Prospal's goal in the third. It came from a turnover caused by d-man Ryan Parent to a outlet pass to Danny Briere. Prospal and Briere exchanged passes before Prospal scored glove side of Kari Lehtonen who had 44 saves.

If Prospal, who already has 31 goals, and Joffery Lupal (2 assists vs Atlanta) start to score consistently, it might just mask the flaws of the defense. The energy tonight was good, as they were finishing their checks and moving without the puck. I think that Atlanta is so bad that they made the Flyers look good.

I'm not going to set up my lawn chair on Broad Street just yet, and with the Flyers playing the Rangers, 2 out of the next 3 games - this thing is far from over.

Ironically, after the Flyers 7-1 embarrassment in front of the whole country (thank God NHL viewers are down), HBO debuted their newest mini-series - John Adams. It's a story of a lawyer from Boston who is selected to represent Massachusetts in the Continental Congress by his cousin Sam Adams.

He must learn the ropes of politics from his mentor, Ben Franklin in order to get full support for a separation from Great Britain. This unlikely hero knows what his strengths are but is also aware of his limitations. Realizing he wasn't as eloquent of a writer, Adams delegated the responsibility to write the Declaration of Independence to Thomas Jefferson.

The Philadelphia Flyers, though, not as important to American history, find themselves in that grey territory like the colonials in-between Lexington and Concord and July 4th, 1776Holiday-Art-Books Dec-07 . Standing in the 8th playoff spot in the Eastern Conference, just one point above Buffalo and only two points above the surging Capitals and Panthers, the Flyers have to make a decision - stay the course of demise or fight.

This past weekend showed, again, that the Flyers lack 'intensity' or 'urgency.' How many times have we heard that in a post-game conference this year? And where would these catch phrases stem from? - is it from the coaches, players, staff, fans? I don't know. I don't know what is the pulse of the locker room, but from the out side looking in, it seems as if they've stopped playing.

With Derian Hatcher out for the year and R.J. Umberger out for two weeks, along with the other walking wounded, the Orange&Black keep on leaving points of the table. This will determine their playoff hopes. Will there be a leader to rise up and save the season, or will the Flyers limp into the offseason with dreams of bulking up the blueline?

The begining of the rest of the season starts on Tuesday versus Atlanta.

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As I sat in horror, starring at the television, I couldn't hear a thing except for the blood rushing to my feet. The pizza with everything on it was about to evacuate my esophagus. With my hair cut too short, and Adrock laughing at me and Jeffe correctly predicting the final outcome, I witnessed the Flyers give up a 3-goal lead in the third, on the road, to a non-playoff team.

The Flyers lost their hearts to the Toronto Maple Leafs 4-3 in OT. Granted, this isn't as bad as blowing a 3-1 serieslead in the Conference Finals to the Devils in 2000, but this could end a season just as well. When Vinny Prospal set up Danny Briere for the third goal, I believed it was over, and so did the Flyers.

Carter as 7 goals in his last 4 games helping the Flyers secure a playoff spot. His first goal, an unassisted backhander, was the #3 play of the night on the NHL Network.

Carter's play has made Section 104 very happy. The night was looking like every-other home loss - an early goal by Tampa Bay, bad cheesesteak, and some dirty yuppies sitting next to me. When the home team is fighting for a playoff spot, I don't want to have to hear about your Super Bowl analysis or about how the guy in work is unathletic.

…but it's getting there. ~ Bob Dylan.

With fifteen games remaining in this 2007-08 version of the NHL season, the Orange&Infirmer-ated are holding steady with the 8th seed - one point ahead of the Sabres, and 3 behind the Broadway Babies.

By 'holding steady' I mean by the skin of their gaped teeth. Now is the time of the year where the second-guessing of that swan dive a few weeks ago. If the Flyers would've won just 2 games in that stretch, they would be the 5th seed in the Eastern Conference - getting ready to be swept by the Devils in the first round.

What I've gotten out of these last hours is that I should've learned to skate at the tender age of 5, and I should've been a left-handed middle reliever.

Here are some other observations:

As I was searching the internet for any recent Foppa videos, I came across this one one - it was supposedly taken on February 11, 2008 (yesterday). The fourteen second clip shows Forsberg receiving the puck on his blueline, accelerating in the neutral zone and top-shelving a backhand shot short-side.

Yesterday afternoon as I sat on my couch, listening to my stomach digest a western omelette with a side of scrapple, I received a couple of texts from El Jeffe which read:

As you probably already know, tonight before the Flyers take on the Caps, former goalie Ron Hextall will be inducted into the Flyers Hall of Fame. Hextall took over the net-minding duties in the 1986-87 season after the tragic death of Flyers phenom, Pelle Lindbergh the year before. From that season on, Hexy was the face of the Flyers.

Hextall, Rick Tocchet, Peter Zezel, Brian Propp, Dave Poulin, Mark Howe, Tim Kerr and the rest of the 1986-87 team are the reasons why I'm a Philadelphia Flyers fan. That spring when they made their run to game 7 of Stanley Cup finals will forever be etched in my mind. Next to my bed, I thumb-tacked a copy of the team photo on my wall and it was the last thing I'd see before I went to sleep.

Today, former Flyer, Peter Forsberg did not sign with Sweden's Modo which can be an obvious sign of his return to the US, and especially Philadelphia.

The Philadelphia Daily News' Ed Barkowitz reported here.

And TSN reported here.

Also, see what lines Clarke's Boys believe would be a great fit for Foppa.

One of my favorite Canadians, Bob McKenzie has his take of this sweepstakes.