Game# 65- Philadelphia Flyers

Philadelphia Flyers vs. New Jersey Devils March 15, 2013 Well Fargo Center As a gift to myself after a long work week in Gaithersburg and Baltimore, I drove up to Philly for a whirlwind tour of the city and to get in 3 games, all within 24 hours. I know, crazy but this was one of those perfect storm type of weekends with hockey, soccer and basketball. I have never been to the city of brotherly love and was excited to check it out. I know the sports culture is crazy there, but also the food and history was a draw as well. I will touch on the second two issues in my soccer/basketball reviews since they all happened on the same very long day. The Wells Fargo Center is in a triplex of sports stadiums. Basically the Phillies, Eagles, Sixers and Flyers all share several large parking lots and all the arenas are within a quarter mile of each other. In some ways this is an ingenious plan. Parking was a snap because there is so much room, but I can’t imagine what would happen if two games are going on at one time. It would be an absolute zoo. But tonight, the orange and black reigned supreme. The Flyers are a hockey team that I neither like nor dislike. Because they are in a division we Kings fans seldom see I am indifferent, so tonight I am cheering for the home team. Besides I like a bunch of players on the team. Wayne Simmons, Brayden Schen, Simon Gagne where all former Kings and then their stars Claude Giroux and Scott Hartnell make up a pretty good team that are unfortunately playing poorly this year. But the good thing about a bad team is that when you are in a hockey centric city, there is always electricity in the building. As soon as the puck dropped the Philly fans were way into the game. The Flyers back in the day were known as the Broad Street Bullies and to be honest nothing has really changed. Compared to west coast teams, I think the Eastern division players really try to lay each other out on the ice. They finish their checks harder, they make it a point to go after certain players, and rarely is there a stop in play where players aren’t jabbering at each other. The game was back an forth all night, not a lot of goals but that was mainly because of solid goaltending by Illya Bryzgalov and Johan Hedberg. Maxime Talbot got a goal for the Flyers in the first but that was nullified David Clarkson for the Devils in the second period. From there the game got real tight and defense was king. The game went into OT and then finally shoot outs. I could sense the crowd getting really anxious and to be honest, I didn’t want to see a Philly Flyers crowd after a shoot out loss so I was really pulling for the boys in orange. Matt Reed and Claude Giroux both scored for the Flyers and a final save by Bryzgalov sent the arena into a frenzy. Great game, good times, Flyers win 2-1 in OT. Quick note: Even though the Flyers and 76ers share this arena, it is far more of a hockey town. There were some great memorabilia showcases around the rink with pucks from the Stanley Cup championship games, ledgers from the first year in the league, a pair of Ron Hextals goalie pads, all stuff I was completely eating up. The Sixers only had a single case… Other than that, Flyers fans have no filter. Political correctness…Ha! I can’t even type the things I heard people saying in the crowd. Definitely an experience.