Game 4 Running Diary

(Author's note: These diaries are long blogs. You may find them entertaining, scratch that you WILL find them entertaining. Do yourself a favor and print it out for the next bathroom trip. Good reading.)


So here we are on the day of arguably the most important Flyers game in my 26 years and 11 months (to the day, only 12 shopping days left folks!!!!) Our beloved Orange and Black have the chance to go up 3-1 on the hated Montreal Canadiens. I used to hate the Rangers and Devils and dislike all other teams. In the last two years, the list has grown to include The Penguins, Capitals and now Montreal. With all of the talk about a conspiracy theory against the Flyers, Philly fans have taken to scrutinizing every shaky call (there are more than a few) and non-call. I talked to a buddy of mine at work today, “Gordie” aka Mr. Hockey who knows quite a bit about hockey. When I asked him if the Flyers would win the series if they win today and go up 3 games to 1, his response was, “I think they win the series either way”. You have to understand, this man is what you would call a hockey geek (and I mean that in a 100% complimentary way). He and my buddy Shrek talked about the 3rd string goalie for the Capitals at a game that we all attended and I thought my head would spin off of my body. He is not prone to “homerism” as much as I am, if at all and these are his thoughts. Good things.
After the rousing response to my game 3 running diary ( two emails, one in-person compliment and 4 flaming bags of dog crap at the front door of The Power estate), we are back for Game 4. The Rook has already agreed to attend tonight’s game so let’s review: Flyers record when the Rook and I drink and watch the game:4-0 Flyers record when I do a running diary:1-0. As The Great LoveTron4000 would say, this is “double plus good”. Combine this with the fact that Montreal has a legitimate goalie controversy now, and there backup is Jaroslav Halak, who has in appeared in all of 6 regular season games, logged 18 minutes of postseason action and faced only 2 SOG ( he was playing the Flyers after all), and this is a recipe for success for the orange and black. If they start this kid, they are in trouble, he doesn’t look old enough to buy cigarettes. At least Carey Price has a healthy GAA of 3.86 against the Flyers…..oh wait, I guess the Price is WRONG *****!!!!!! On the other hand, we have Marty who’s got a 92.3% SV, has faced 35 SOG a game and turned away all but 8 (and none of them were bad goals). Price’s save percentages over the last two games have been 75 % ( 3 goals on just 12 SOG) and 82.3%. Granted, the Flyers need to get more SOG and I think they need a two goal game out of Briere so they go back to Montreal with him having some confidence for when those morons start to boo him. The pick for tonight: Flyers 4 Montreal 2





6:17 PM: The Rook walks through the door. Ready to rock.


6:18 PM-7:00 PM: We discuss the game and I am happy to hear that I have earned a top 3 seed in a beer pong tournament for this weekend.


7:01 PM: I receive the following news of a good nature: The game is on Comcast, not Versus, Knuble is playing and Halak is starting for the Habs. The Rook cracks a joke about the Flyers playing against two teams. When I finish the joke, he acts surprised. Crazy young people.


7:04 PM: I receive the following bad news: we only have 8 beers. Looks like a 1st intermission beer run is in order.


7:11 PM: Refs announced. No Koharski, no French A Holes. Nice.


7:12 Pm:Early save by Marty. Knuble nails someone to announce he's back.


7:14 PM: first beer is cracked. MMMMMM cold beer. I also receive a call from Lovetron. He's a good egg.


7:19 PM: As I struglle to fix a basement light, Richards gets called for Borading (B.S.) Carter still gets a nice breakaway and just barely misses.


7:20 PM":Marty bangs out a few nice saves in a row. Flyers kill PP as the Rook calls Biron " The Wizard". He is magic in net.


7:24 PM: Coatesy and Clement discuss the conspiracy theory against the Flyers, they nicely say it's true. I love those guys, well Clement anyway. LoveTron texts me that he is feeling a big gamefrom Carter.


7:27 PM: we go to commercial and the Rook gives me a bunch of lip about not putting the Phillies game on. Strike 1 young man......


7:29 PM: Still trying to fix this light....Lupul gets a shot on goal and Jim Jackson creams himself. Lovetron informs me Briere sucks.....a little scrum after the whistle...Dirty playing Hab SOBs. ROUGHING ON KUKKONEN?!?!?! ! WTF?!?!?!?!?! The rook lets a stream of profanity fly that would make a sailor proud.


7:32 PM: Great penalty kill so far....couple of non calls that could have helped the Flyers. Conspiracy. C-O-N-spiracy. Great glove save by Biron.


7:37 PM: Finally got the light working. 3 minutes left in a wild first period. Still not enough SOG for the Flyers. The Kapinen shot was the first since the Carter breakaway.


7:41 PM: They show a guy in a black LeClair jersey and fake Flyers helmet who looks remarkably like Dwight Schrute from the Office. You have to love a guy who doesn;t care how he looks and wants to support his team. ( note: I type this as I throw on my Peter "Turncoat Bastard" Forsberg Flyers jersey to make my beer run.)


7:44 PM: Save by Marty with 6 seconds left.



7:57 PM: The Rook and I return home from the beer run. I wanted Hop Devil but alas, my townie beer store does not carry it. We settle on the old standby, Coors Light, the official beer sponsor of Maxxx Power. Because we are responsible ( well sorta) we have each only had one beer up until this point. That number will increase dramatically and quickly over the next few hours.

7:59 PM: The Phils are on, down 3-2 to the Padres. I check the Phillies site and see that Utley has hit a 2 run home run. I inform the Rook of this fact and we agree that Utley is hot. By "hot" we mean he is hitting very well, not attractive. As I type this Utley hits a 576 foot foul ball with a beautiful compact swing. Flyers are back now.

8:05 PM: We franticly flip backand forth between the Phillies on CN8's horrible standard definition feed to catch Chase's AB and Comcast's gorgeous HD feed. CN8 is horrible by standard definition standards let alone HD. I have a plasma HD TV and no PIP. WTF. Too many abbreviations AHHHHH!!! Utley called out on a horrible call on a checked swing. I'm Maxxx Power, meet my alter ego, Homer Philsson.

8:08 PM: Carter gets a SOG and Jackson creams himself again, causing me to nearly spill my beer on my laptop. I like Jim Jackson, his goal calls are great but he gets WAAAAYYYY to excited when someone gets a SOG.

8:10 PM: Marty's good. Comcast decides to flash a graphic with the Flyers' lead time through the series thus far, it's good. This does not bode well for our boys in orange and black.

8:11 PM: A flurry of activity on Biron including the Kotitsyns ( SP?) each getting a shot off.

8:13 PM: We're both angry and increasing our drinking, this bodes VERY well for our boys.

8:15 PM: It's time for the PEEEEECCCOOOOOO Power Play!!!!!! Off of Knuble's skate, blown chance, he gets a pass for being awesome ( this postseason he has earned the right to wear #22, that of my favorite....uuuuuhhhhh) RJ SHOOT HE SCOOOOOOOORRRREEEESSSSS!!!!! I jump up and slap hands with the Rook and shout " that's my boy!!!". It's at this moment I realize that my neighbor is outside right by my door. Crap. Oh well. I call my boy Shrek and BS a bit. Marty stops another flurry of shots including a great glove save where he looks it all the way in to his glove AGAIN. Umberger loses his stick and Marty makes a save.Puck cleared. One timer is batted down by Marty. Power play over now. 27-11 SOG Montreal. Here we go again.

8:23 PM: Phils are back and we wonder what Howard has done. 0 for 1 with a walk and a lineout. No Strikeout?!?!?!?! Still batting a sizzling .175 though. JAckson creams himself after a SOG. Someone get the man some new boxers.

8:29 PM: There's a scrum after a SOG by the Flyers. Jim Dowd skates up to it to intervene by telling the combatants a story about the War of 1812.

8:30 Pm: Phils are back on, why are they wearing green hats?!?!?! Is it Earth Day?

8:32 PM: A brief thoughts runs through my head: Biron has been especially good with the glove these playoffs...what if after every great glove save and play stoppage the PA system at the Wachovia Center played " Whole Lotta Love" by Led Zeppelin and instead of love the crowd shouted GLOVE? It would be great, although sacreligious with respect to Zeppelin and the fact that it would jinx Marty...what if I applied my thoughts to good use? I need more beer.

8:36 PM: " You need cool saves, baby Marty's got cool saves...he's gonna send you down, back to AHL baby. "( John Bonham is rolling over in his grave right now.)

8:39 PM: Period over, 1-0 good guys.

8:44 PM: Werth with the stolen base. What a job by Jason and (gulp) even Bruntlett lately replacing J Rol and Shane. Brunty strikes out. What a wang gobbler.

8:46 PM: Morganti compliments Umberger and Bundy compliments Briere. The Rook and I argue about who is better. We settle on the following: Danny in round 1, RJ in Round 2 and we'd want Briere overall ( pain in my heart.) Apparently the green hats for the Phils have something to do with the environment. There is some hippie tree hugger talking about renewable energy with T Mac. Go get a haircut hippie. St. Patrick's Day is the only time that the Phillies should wear green. How many trees died making the stickers for the hats and the boxes they were shipped in? Wheels is babbling on about politics. I haope Harry busts an empty bottle of Jack on the table tonight and shanks him in the 8th inning.

8:51 PM: The wife has fallen asleep early. The Rook yells loudly and apologizes. His pennace is getting me a beer.

8:52 PM: The Rook has not taken a seat since 7:00 PM with the exception of maybe 2:00 worth of car time to and from the beer store. His reasoning is that the Flyers and Phillies play better when he stands and gets into the games. Good for him. Good for Philly fans.

8:53 PM: T.O. sucks. I am pretty sure that he deserves to get sued more than anybody in the history of the world has ever deserved it. At work today, I recounted the story of a Dallas fan getting stomped out in front of me at a Monday Night game in Philly circa 1997. The Birds had just lost and the guy was running his mouth in a #22 jersey. It was ripped off of him and tossed over the railing at the Vet. I am not saying it's right for 6 guys to beat up one guy, but I understand. Go Birds.

8:57 PM: No "orange out" today. Quite disappointing. It's called an " Orange Crush" per my buddy Gordie, but this is Maxxx's blog.

8:59 PM: Kukkonen gets checked into the boards by some fairy. It's the weakest looking check I have ever seen. I am built like Todd PInkston and I can check harder than that. He's probably French. They like cigarettes or "fags" as they call them. Seems about right.

9:00 PM: RJ gets calls for slashing. HORSE****!!!!!!!!!!! C-O-N- spiracy. ( A tap on the hands as stated by Bill Clement. We love Bill.) Lovetron texts about the ineptitude of the officials. He's been sent back in time to change the hockey future for one lucky team. Power play killed. I'd like an insurance goal.

9:04 PM: I shat you not.....I typed the previous sentene and looked up just before Hartnell scored. Lovetron texts me lewd things about Hartnell.

9:06 PM: I call Shrek's wife Fiona since Shrek sometimes doesn't answer during games. We talk about the goal and she informs me that Shrek ( the biggest Flyers fan I know along with Gordie, has left for his own hockey game because he is expecting a Flyers loss. His marriage is a front if you catch my drift.)

9:08 PM: Some queer on Montreal gets hurt. You hate to see that, only the official don't whistle the play and the Habs take offense to the fact that the Flyers keep playing, even though that is what they were supposed to do. C-O-N-spiracy.

9:17 PM: Somebody get Jim Jackson some help. He gets all fired up for a simple routine shot on goal. 7:26 left and Jim mentions that there are a lot of topics left to discuss on the postgame show. Someone is getting ahead of themself methinks.

9:19 PM: GOAL MONTREAL. It goes off of Hatcher. Five hole. Not Marty's fau;t. 3 Montreal fans are shown in the crowd. They are all about 60 years old. I hope they get dealt with after the game. GOAL MONTREAL. 37 seconds apart. Koivu catches the rebound, waits and gets a decent goal on Biron. Hard to read.

9:24 pm: Delayed call against Montreal. The Rook thinks the whistle was late. I yell at him. He yells back and gets me a beer. All is forgiven. PEEEECCCCCCCOOOOOO POWER PLAY!!!!!!

9:27 PM: Danny Briere scores. The Rook and I slap hands and do a fruity dance. I am not ashamed of this. Danny is the man.

9:29 PM: Extra man is on and Biron gets the save. Play is stopped allowing me to type. WOOOOOOO!!!!!

9:31 PM: More stats. NOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!

9:32 PM: Stevens gets the timeout. I hate Canadian people, unless they have ever played for the Flyers. In that case, you get a Molson XXX, eh.

9:34 PM: My boyfriend RJ Umberger puts away the game with an empty netter. Carter with the assist. Slap hands.