Cartoon from Sid in the City

Theatre Exile presents a return engagement of The Philly Fan by Bruce Graham, starring Tom McCarthy, and directed by Joe Canuso. This one-man hit show is a hilarious romp through fifty years of Philly sports history as seen by a hard core fan used to watching sure-thing victories turn into “oh-my-God-they-blew-it” defeats. June 10-15 at The Playground at the Adrienne, 2030 Sansom Street. Tickets are $25 - $50; call (215)922-4462 or visit www.ThePhillyFan.net.

Philly Sports Net - It's the year for Philadelphia to trade its superstars. First it was Iverson. Then Webber. Now Forsberg. Is McNabb next?

The Flyers have traded Forsberg to the Predators in exchange for:

Scottie Upshaw - RW - #6 overall pick in the 2002 draft

Ryan Parent - D - #18 overall in 2005 draft

Draft picks are reportedly a 1st round pick and a 3rd round pick.

Another superstar is out of Philadelphia. I can’t say I blame the Flyers. Forsberg is on the downside of his career, he can’t seem to stay healthy (as if he ever could), and he’s a free agent after this season.

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I find it hard to believe, but New York Post hockey columnist Larry Brooks claims the Flyers will fire coach Ken Hitchcock, regardless if they win their first round playoff series in Buffalo on Thursday or lose tonight at home.

Read more about it in my Home Turf sports blog on phillyBurbs.com.

Philly Sports Net - Every game in the playoffs is a must win, and last night’s game was exactly that. The Flyers faced a 2-0 series deficit going into Wednesday’s game. The game didn’t start how the Flyers would have hoped when Ales Kotalik scored for the Sabres on a shot that Esche should have stopped. Down 1-0 later in the period, the Sabres went on the power play but the Flyers changed the momentum of the game when Brian Savage scored a shorthanded goal when he blasted a slapshot past the short side of goalie Ryan Miller.

And then Peter Forsberg seemingly took over the game. Forsberg skated down the left side of the ice and scored a goal when the puck strangely went towards the net and bounced off the skate of Sabres’ defenseman Jay McKee and over Miller’s shoulder for the 2-1 lead. Forsberg scored a 2nd goal in the period when the Flyers were on the power play. The puck was behind the net and Peter took a quick shot of the Miller’s back that deflected into the net to give the Flyers a 3-1 lead. The Sabres did score a 2nd goal when Tim Connolly had a great shot that got past Robert Esche. So late in the 3rd period with the game at 3-2, Forsberg added another stat to his scoresheet when he got the puck to Gagne who scored on an empty net. In front of the raucous Wachovia Center crowd, the Flyers skated off the ice with a 4-2 win, and a chance at the series.

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Philly Sports Net - The Flyers almost took in early lead in Game 1 when Peter Forsberg had an essentially open net 1 minute to the game but his shot was deflected by a Sabres’ stick. After that, the Flyers were on their heels and went down 1-0 when Peter Forsberg was stripped off the puck right in front of Esche. Tim Connolly stole the puck and deked left and shot to the far side under Esche to give the Sabres the lead. The Sabres put the Flyers down 2-0 in the 2nd period when Jay McKee shot from the point and it managed to get through alot of traffic and went right over Esche’s head without him even seeing it.

The Flyers countered when Mike Knuble got a rebound goal past Ryan Miller. Knuble has played very well as of late and has been a force in front of the net. And he has been capitalizing on most of his rebound opportunities (He even scored another goal last night but it was ruled as being hit with a high stick). With the game 1-1, the Flyers continued to put themselves at the disadvantage by taking careless penalties. In all, the Flyers took 14 penalties which is simply way too much against a very talented Sabres power play unit. Surprisingly, the Flyers PK was very good in killing off all those penalties but most of that credit goes to Robert Esche who was outstanding all night.

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