Not So Different, Flyers and Leafs

As many of you who follow me on twitter know, I have a huge soft spot for the Toronto Maple Leafs. It's confusing to some since the teams have such a huge rivalry on the ice, but honestly, it's not really hard to explain. The Flyers and Leafs are in fact, very similar. Let's have a look, shall we.

Both teams have a history of great goal tenders: Parent/Hextall in Philly, Belfour/CuJo/Potvin in Toronto. This was contrasted by terrible goaltending post lockout with some hot streak exceptions (Leighton/Boucher/Esche in Philly, Toskala/Raycroft in Toronto.)

Both teams have an insane drought since their last Cup win, 1975, 1967.

Both teams have demanding fans that throw things when displeased (waffles? batteries?)

Both teams hate the Habs and Bruins.

Both teams finally (hopefully) found their goaltender (Bryzgalov and Reimer)

Both teams are currently captained by big body D-men who are known for hard hits and big slapshots (Pronger and Phaneuf)

Both teams have to deal with a division rival who's won cups more recently than them (Boston/MTL for Toronto, Pittsburgh and NJ for Philly)

Both teams get to destroy a weak but once "great" team (NYI for PHL and OTT for TOR)

Both teams have an overpaid goon who occasionally scores. (Colton Orr and Jody  Shelley)

Fans of both teams both hated a sniper for missing the net (Jeff Carter and Phil Kessel)

Both teams have very old school GMs who want physical teams (Homer and Burkie)

Both teams have NMC's driving them crazy (Muskoka 5 anyone?, what Pronger, Timonen and Briere will be in 2-3 years)

Both teams have exciting young defenseman (Gunnarson, Franson, Aulie in TOR, Carle, Gustafsson, Coburn in PHL)

Schenn and Kessel. Kessel and Schenn. Enough said.

Players with heart problems (Gustavsson in Toronto, Hartnell in Philadelphia)

GM's with close friends as coaches (John Stevens in PHL who got fired, Ron Wilson in TOR who almost got fired)

Each team picked up a hot goalie at the right time who gave their team a ton of hope moving forward (Michael Leighton in Dec 2009, James Reimer in Jan 2011)

Both teams traded multiple first round picks for an instant impact player (Pronger to PHL, Kessel to TOR)

Both teams employed a holey goalie (Leighton's 5-hole, Toskala's glove hand)



So, this is why, I always will be friends with fans of the Leafs. I know how they feel, because, Flyerdom, they are us.

DGS 101: Not only is it post 101, but I'm actually gonna show you who I am

Hi everybody!

DGS on guitar, his other hobby

My name is Down Goes Spezza Matt. That's right, I have the same first name as my blogging brother. If you don't know who that is, then you must be new here, welcome. My blogging brother is Don't Trade Vinny.


Also, you may be curious as to what I look like, well, I posted a pic of me on twitter about a week ago (ironically seeing a picture of me was more popular than my previous 3 posts, the conclusion I've drawn is that I'm incredibly good looking.)

So here we go, the official DGS bio


Name: Matt Bernot
Height: 5'9" (Claims 5'11")
Weight: 145lbs (Claims 170lbs)
Age: 21
DOB: October 11, 1988
Position: Defense/LW
Shoots: Right


You can follow the real me on twitter @MattBernot if you're interested, I rarely tweet on it though.

Random facts about me in no particular order

• I'm taller than the forwards on the Habs top line
  
• I'm going for a dual degree on Political Science and Psychology
  
• My career coal is work for the FBI as a Criminal Profiler in the BAU
  
• I'm the unofficial psychologist of the blogosphere
  
• My favorite players who are currently in the NHL are Simon Gagne, Kimmo Timonen, Mike Modano and Mikko Koivu
  
• My favorite players when I was younger were John LeClair, Eric Desjardins, Peter Forsberg, Joe Sakic, Adam Deadmarsh and Ron Hextall

So there you go, please don't sue me.

Don't Trade Simon, Trade Carter instead

I think the title's pretty simple. Today I'm gonna make the case that the Flyers should trade C Jeff Carter over LW Simon Gagne.

Cap Hit
Gagne: 5.25
Carter: 5.0

Essentially even

Carter's younger, yes, and an RFA next year who's gonna cost 5.5-6.5 to keep. Gagne's a UFA but his cap hit should drop to the 3.3-3.7 range, this leaves the Flyers with $2-3 million to make a move.


Carter will bring back more than Gagne in a trade, Carter can bring in a true #1 goalie. You know, the thing that the Flyers haven't had since Ron Hextall.

The Flyers are stacked at center, losing Carter isn't all bad. We would still have Richards, Briere, Giroux, Powe, Betts...and there's talk of moving JvR to center as well.



Trades the Flyers should make, you know, if I were the GM:


Calgary's Sutter seems like a moron, so let's try this out

Meszaros and Zherdev $6 million against the cap to Calgary for Curtis Glencross and Cory Sarich (4.8 combined cap hits)

then again, if Iginla wants out of town... Big Mesz and Zherdev for Iggy (Sutter WOULD do that deal)




Ok, now, into the almost real world.


Jeff Carter and Brian Boucher to Los Angeles for Jon Bernier, Jarret Stoll

It could be a stretch, but Carter long term would produce far more than Stoll and Bernier is stuck behind Jon Quick, Boucher could fill the AHL starter post, and fill in for short bursts in the NHL should Quick or Erik Ersberg get hurt. Now the Flyers would only save 1.4 in regards to the cap here, but that should be fine. I wouldn't mind losing Carcillo and his stupid penalties, but keep Powe.

Remember Carter's good at scoring, with his teammates wives...(don't tell other GMs that last part.)

If Hartnell didn't have that damn NTC, we could trade him to Edmonton, yes, I hate him THAT MUCH.


But alas, in words of Mick Jagger, "You can't always get what you want" and that means I'll be soon mourning the loss of Simon Gagne