Out of Bounds has moved

Check out our new site - www.eyeonphillysports.com

Flyers take series!

Turns out the Flyers goalie roulette was better than Sabres goalie Ryan Miller.

In a do-or-die game seven, Miller found himself in a similar situation all of the Flyers have been this series - being pulled in the middle of a game.

Brian Boucher was sharp for the Flyers, allowing two meaningless goals in a 5-2 dominating win (side note - that is the exact score I predicted).

Miller looked every bit as good as he did when he posted shut outs in games one and four for much of the first period.  The Flyers peppered him with chance after chance.  But it was not until a Braydon Coburn shot he flicked at the net squeeked by Miller with 19 seconds remaining in the period that the flood gates opened.

Goals by Danny Briere and James Van Riemsdyk in the second period quickly put the game well in favor of the Flyers.

Ville Leino ripped a shot over the shoulder of Miller early in the third to send the Sabres goalie to the bench.

See ya Ryan Miller.  And take your trash talk and whining with you.

After game six, Miller said that Flyers captain Mike Richards "got away with mass murder" on a check he received a two minute minor penalty.

The only mass murdering done this game was on whichever goal Miller was guarding.  Or should I say, trying to guard.

Backup goalie Jhonas Enroth did not fare much better.

Flyers agitator Dan Carcillo scored a goal on him.

Even though Miller had two shut outs in the series, turns out the Flyers actually ended up with better goaltending. 

Most importantly, Boucher had four wins to Miller's three.

And with that, goodbye Buffalo.  Time to move on Philadelphia.

Here we go - game 7 upon us

It's here.  Game 7, Sabres and Flyers. 

Winner moves on, loser goes home.

I am pretty much experiencing every possible wave of motions already, and the game has not even started. 

I'm excited.  There is nothing more thrilling than a game 7 in the Stanley Cup playoffs.

I'm nervous.  There is nothing more nervewracking than a game 7 in the Stanley Cup playoffs.

I'm hopeful for a Flyers win.

I'm fearful that they will lose.

One minute I have a bad feeling about this game.  The next I have a good feeling about the game.

I cannot wait to scream SCORE!  I can't wait to chant Booooooosh!

If you were not already pumped enough, we onlt have to go back to last year to remember what a game 7 is like.

Let's go Flyers!  Clap, clap, clap, clap, clap!

Flyers show heart to force game 7

Relax Flyer fans. You can grow your playoff beard for at least another two days.

The Flyers erased two goal deficits twice and Ville Leino scored on a rebound in overtime Sunday, forcing a deciding game seven on Tuesday in Philadelphia.

Goalie roulette continued as Michael Leighton started, but was later replaced by Brian Boucher.

In case you are counting at home, that's three times a Flyers goalie has been pulled in six games.

But here we are - game seven, one of the most exciting things in all of sports.

The Flyers showed a ton of heart on Sunday. They looked dead in the water multiple times and with their season on the brink, Scott Hartnell tied the game with 9:17 left in the third period.

Danny Briere scored twice, giving him five goals in the series.

And now, it all comes down to one game. If you thought today was nerve wracking, wait until game seven starts.

It will be exciting, excruciating, and I can't wait!

Howard makes most of key situation

It's not about what you do over the course of a game.  What matters most is what you do in key situations.

All night, Ryan Howard was terrible, striking out in his first four at bats.

But in the top of the 11th inning, Howard hit a rocket to left field, scoring two on a double, and giving the Phillies a 4-2 lead over the San Diego Padres.

The win is the Phillies tenth in a row in Petco Park.

The Padres actually intentionally walked Jimmy Rollins to get to Howard. 

It backfired.

Ryan Madson came on to record his second consecutive save in as many nights.

The Phillies had a few bright spots on the mound tonight.  Joe Blanton pitched seven solid innings, only allowing two runs.  Denny Baez, Antonio Bastardo, and Kyle Kendrick all pitched scoreless innings. 

Yes, you heard that correctly - Baez and Kendrick pitched scoreless innings.  I know - amazing.

New baseball playoff format will add excitement

Major League baseball is on the verge of making a tremendous change.

There is a strong chance that one extra team from each league will make the playoffs beginning with the 2012 season.

"I would say we're moving to expanding the playoffs, but there's a myriad of details to work out," commissioner Bud Selig said on Thursday.  "Ten is a fair number."

You got this one right Mr. Commish.

Imagine the excitement this will create.

First off, this brings more validity to the regular season. 

Coming down the stretch last season, both the Yankees and Rays worked harder at being able to set up their playoff rotation rather than go all out to win the division, knowing both would be in the playoffs.

This would eliminate that as the reward for winning the division would be far greater than it has been.

Right now, the division winner is awarded home field advantage.  But that's it.  The team the are playing can set up their rotation the same as the higher seeded team.

In the new playoff format, both wild card teams would have to play each other just to get to the next round.  This would give a well deserved advantage to the non wild card teams.

Imagine this - the Giants are fighting the Rockies for the NL West title.  They are tied for first place on the last day of the regular season.  The loser of the division is guaranteed to be the wild card team.

The Phillies are lurking, waiting to play the loser of the NL West division race, with Roy Halladay ready to go.

As it is right now, the Giants could choose to rest Tim Lincecum with the thought of setting up their rotation to have him throw game 1 of the first round. 

The only advantage the division winning Phillies would have is home field advantage.  They would still have to face Lincecum in game 1.

Now, let's jump to the same scenario in the new playoff format.

Giants and Dodgers are tied for first place on the last day of the regular season.  The Giants, wanting to not have to play a one game playoff or best of three (more to come on that), have Lincecum take the mound.  The Rockies, with the same strategy, throw their ace, Ubaldo Jiminez.

The Giants end up losing the division and playing the Phillies in the first round.

However, they now have to pitch Matt Cain in game 1 vs Roy Halladay.

The division winner should have an advantage in the first round, and this gives it to them.

Now, on to the big decision that will be made.

Much of the talk has been around whether or not the play in game/series would be a one game tilt to advance into the divisional round or if it would be best of three.

This is a huge decision with a split on which is better.

A one game playoff would be wildly exciting.  All hands on deck, winner take all.  It would not get much better than that. 

At the same time, after playing 162 games, should it come down to one game?

A best of three series would set up the better team with a better chance.  Should a 90 win team only have to beat a 94 win team once to advance to the division round?  A best of three would be more realistic in the better team winning.  Then again, anything can always happen.

There is also the question of season length and not wanting to go into November.

Here are my thoughts.

Go with the one game playoff. 

If you don't want to play in that game, then go out and win your division.  It's that simple.  Think it's not fair?  Fine, play out the regular season and win your division.

The excitement for this game would be awesome, no matter who is playing.

Recent seasons that have had a 163rd playoff game have been awesome.  Now we would get this every year.

Let's look at what 2010 would have looked like.

American League:
Yankees vs Red Sox to get to the divisional round.  Winner plays Tampa Bay and loser goes home.  Minnesota and Texas play in the other game.

National League:
Braves vs Padres to get to the divisional round.  Winner plays Philadelphia and loser goes home.  Cincinnati and San Francisco play in the other game.

Who would not want to see the Yankees and Red Sox play one game with winner take all?  How awesome would that be!

This change is going to be a great thing for baseball and it will change a lot.

More teams will be involved in the race to make the playoffs.  This means more teams will be shopping for players to better their team at the trade deadline.  More fans will be into the end of the season.  The division winners get an advantage they deserve but have not had.

Baseball is just one year away from getting better than it already is, and I cannot wait.

Flyers in similar position

Here we are again - the Flyers are one game away from elimination from the Stanley Cup playoffs.

The difference is that the Flyers were expected to win this year, yet they are on the verge of losing their first round series against a team they were 10 points better than during the regular season.

Once again, the Flyers are playing goalie roulette.  This time, Brian Boucher was pulled in the first period.  Enter Michal Leighton, who had played only one game with the club this season.

The Flyers dramatically came back from a 3-0 deficit, but came up short as Tyle Ennis scored an overtime goal on a juicy rebound a little more than five minutes into overtime.

Philadelphia must now win the next two games.

With Ryan Miller standing on his head every other game, this is not going to be an easy task.

The Flyers will need to show the same fight they did in their comeback bid tonight.  However, they will need to display a killer instinct.  Game five is in Buffalo on Sunday.

Just get to game seven and anything can happen.

More reasons to hate the Sabres

As if I didn't already have enough reasons to hate the Buffalo Sabres.

Here are more...

Sabres coach Lindy Ruff made the following comments on Thursday.

"I just feel they're doing a lot of whining," he said.  "They're really doing a lot of whining.  I didn't hear any whining when they had 10 power plays in Philly, and I didn't hear any whining when the power plays in the first game were lopsided.  But all of the sudden there's all this whining about, 'We're getting away with murder.'"

He must be watching a different game, because the Sabres are getting away with murder.

Since when is throwing a player to the ice not a penalty?  Since when is cross checking a guy in the back multiple times when he is on all fours not a penalty?

The Sabres have constantly been drilling the Flyers after the whistle.

"Some things happen after the whistle and I usually don't get mad, but once things get out of control, hitting behind, hitting to the hands, hitting after the whistle to your calves, those are things I can't take," Flyers defenseman Kimmo Timonen said.

Added Ruff on what he sees as whining.  "That's a bunch of crap," added Ruff on what he sees as whining.  "That's for the media.  That's for the officials to read.  That's, 'here, let's get the next call.'  That's a bunch of crap.  Let's just play."

Anything else Mr. Ruff?

"We're just playing.  There hasn't been one word about the officiating out of us.  If they want to cry about the officiating or whine about different calls, go ahead.  Go ahead."

Well, let's just see is the Sabres are "just playing" or if they have been dirty.

Exhibit A: Patrick Kaleta opens the bench door so that Nik Zherdev would fall in.

Exhibit B: Dan Carcillo gets punched in the face by the glove of goalie Ryan Miller.  He then gets thrown to the ground by a Buffalo defender.  Carcillo gets up and skates towards Miller but does not get a hand on him.  Miller and Carcillo get penalties, but nothing on the defender.

And here is what the Flyers have an issue with - an absolutely terrible five minute major elbowing penalty.  What?!  Kaketa was taking a run at Richards.  Yes, he got an elbow up.  But five minutes?  He was protecting himself.  Absolutely ridiculous.  There was no intent to injure.

And I'll leave you with this.  This is getting to be a nasty series.

 

Refs out to get Flyers

I hate the Sabres.

This is what happens the further you get into an NHL playoff series.

I'm a homer, I know that.

But in these eyes, it is the world against the Flyers.

The Sabres got away with all kinds of stuff in tonight's 1-0 win that tied the series at two.

But the biggest controversy of the night rests in the hands of an unbelievable call in the second period.

With three seconds remaining in the period, Buffalo's Patrick Kaleta took a run at Mike Richards, who was against the boards.

Richards, trying to protect himself, got his elbow up a little high and hit Kaleta in the face.

A five minute major was called.

It was one of the most ridiculous calls I have ever seen.

Richards was standing still.  He was not taking a run at Kaleta.

Did he get his elbow up?  Yes. 

Fine, call two minutes.

But it was not a vicious hit.  Definitely not a five minute major.

Amazingly, the Flyers only allowed two shots on the ensuing power play and held the game at 1-0.

For the second time this series, they could not solve Buffalo goalie Ryan Miller.  He reminded me of Martin Brodeur in his prime - no matter what the Flyers did they could not solve him.

Frustrating to say the least.

Anything football is not as thrilling as normal

In a typical year, the day the NFL schedule is released is like a national holiday.

It has always been something I have counted down the days to, waiting to analyze each part of the season, where I thought the Eagles would win, where their tough stretches were.

But this year is different.

Currently in a lock out, everything NFL related is a little less exciting.

There is no guarantee any of this will even matter - there is still the possibility there will be no season.

Look, when the NFL comes back, I am going to be thrilled. I love football and always will. I love the Eagles and always will.

But until the day the lockout ends, I just cannot get as excited as I usually am at this point in the year.