The Legacy of Simon Gagne- My Favorite Flyer

Simon Gagne has been a fan favorite in Philadelphia since he first donned the orange and black. He is my favorite Flyer of all time. In fact, he is my favorite athlete of all time. For my generation, the number 12 has been and may always be synonymous with Simon Gagne. The Flyers of my childhood are familiar to all Flyers fans of the late 90s and early 2000s: Eric Lindros, John LeClair, Mark Recchi, Eric Desjardins, Keith Primeau. But none have had the lasting mark on our generation as Simon Gagne. He was the young guy during those early years, but as time went on, he was the consistent piece on a team that was changing. When all of those other guys went on to new teams or aged out of the league, Simon Gagne became the lone remaining piece of our childhood team. I think that if anyone looks back at the teams that they learned to love as a kid, one of the players that will always stick out is the player that was around the longest. The player that allowed you to hold onto your childhood and the team that you first knew. Maybe that is why I and so many others in my generation adore Simon Gagne. It is the kind of blind adoration and loyalty that people reserve for very few athletes. Think of the players that were once beloved, but because of a trade or a bad season, they become the enemy. For every Eric Lindros, Terrel Owens, Scott Rolen, or even Donovan McNabb that has ever passed through the hearts of Philly fans, there are very very few that never leave. The Brian Dawkins, Chase Utley and SImon Gagne’s of Philadelphia sports. These are the athletes that we put on pedestals; the players that, in our minds, can do no wrong; the players that we defend above the teams that they play for. It is very rare, and there are probably only a handful out of every generation, but for whatever reason, these players are the ones that we always find ourselves rooting for. Simon Gagne, for the decade that he played in Philadelphia, and the two and a half seasons that he spent away, and the part of the shortened season that he came back for (and was possibly the only good part about that shortened season), and for whatever comes next, he will always be the fan favorite.

I spent the summer wishing and hoping that the Flyers would bring back Simon Gagne. I remember the day that he was traded away after playing a key role in the Flyers’ magical Stanley Cup run in 2010. I remember being angry about it for the entire summer. He is the only player, before and since, that I have had such a strong reaction against my beloved Flyers, for trading away. It made it even worse that everyone knew that he really didn’t want to be traded. I had this whole plan to boycott the Flyers, and for a few months, I kind of did (it was the summer time, so it didn’t really last into the season). I rooted for the Lightning as my second favorite team while he was there, and for the Kings as my second favorite team when he signed with them. When the Flyers were ousted from the 2012 playoffs, nothing made me happier than seeing Simon Gagne lift the Stanley Cup over his head. It only hurt that he didn’t have that opportunity with the Flyers, which is where he always belonged. When I got a phone call from my friend last year informing me to check my computer, because Simon Gagne had been traded back to the Flyers, it was like Christmas morning. I jumped up and down in my dorm room screaming in excitement. Simon Gagne was back where he belonged. Last season didn’t go well for the Flyers. With the shortened season, they couldn’t make up enough ground to get into the playoffs, and for only the second time in my lifetime (that I have memory of), they were on the outside looking in. It wasn’t a fun time to be a Flyers fan, but having Simon Gagne back softened the blow. His presence had that ability, at least for me. Simon Gagne is, was and will always be a Flyer, no matter what other teams he may have briefly played for, or no matter where he ends up in the future. There will probably always be Simon Gagne jersey’s at Flyers games. 

I have had this tendency, every so often, to check twitter for updates on Simon Gagne. It surprised me that he didn’t have a team to play for. He isn’t that old, even by hockey standards, and his health problems seemed to have lessened over the last season. He isn’t the dynamic and dangerous player that he once was, but he was still able to contribute. So I waited and waited to see which team would become my new second favorite, but as more time passed, it seemed as though he might not sign anywhere. So yesterday, I saw on twitter that Simon Gagne had signed on as a hockey analyst for a television station in Quebec. This begs the question, is this the end for Simon Gagne? The further he gets from playing, and the more he gets into doing something else, the less likely it seems that he will play again. On one side, it would be nice to know that he got his Stanley Cup, and that he played his last NHL game as a Flyer. At the same time, a career like his never should have ended like this. Simon Gagne was a player that was really, really good, but never great, at least in the eyes of anyone other than Flyers fans. The sad thing is that if it weren’t for a career derailed by injuries, maybe he could have been. If Simon Gagne never plays another game in the NHL, we will be able to look back and be happy that at least we got one last season of him in a Flyers uniform. Simon Gagne may not be one of the greatest players in the NHL, and he might not even be on the list of greatest Flyers for many people, but he is very near the top of the list as fan favorites. And he will certainly always be at the top of that list for me. 

So here’s to Simon Gagne- The fan favorite, classy, French-Canadian that will always be the last reminder of the Flyers of my childhood. The only number 12 in my book. Thanks for all of the great goals, and wonderful memories that you gave to Flyers fans. Whether you ever play another game in the NHL again, you will always be my favorite Flyer. 

By the Numbers: Claude Giroux and John Tavares

As of the writing of this post, Claude Giroux and John Tavares have near identical stat lines over the course of their careers. Since they both played their first full seasons in 2009-2010, Giroux has 306 points and Tavares has 305 points, with Girous having played in 2 less games. You can make your arguments about Tavares being younger and about Giroux having played with better linemates on a better team, but these two players are of equal caliber. Yet for some reason, Tavares is often looked at as the better player. Analysts and fantasy owners place Tavares above Giroux, and yet the numbers show that these two players have been on pretty much the exact same level for their careers.

Their near identical point totals allow us to look at them from other aspects of the game. Tavares has scored 133 goals in his career, while in that same span, Giroux has scored 95 goals. This shows Tavares as the better goal scorer of the two, but that in turn makes Giroux the better playmaker. Regardless of which of those two things people believe to be a better commodity to have, their levels of play are still close enough that they would be considered the same type of player by most. They both play about the same amount of time per game, and each one of them contributes significantly to their respective team’s power play. However, Giroux is also used on the Flyers penalty kill at times, averaging about 1 minute and 15 seconds per game on the penalty kill, while Tavares is not generally used on the Islanders penalty kill, averaging only 11 seconds per game. While this is not the biggest of discrepancies, it does seem to favor Giroux as the more complete and defensive minded player of the two. Adding to that are the players’ plus/minus numbers, which also seem to point to Giroux as the better defensive player. The plus/minus stat must be taken with a grain of salt, however, as we must also take into account the state of both the Islanders and the Flyers over that span of time. The Flyers were a playoff team for 3 out of the past 4 seasons, while the Islanders only reached the playoffs 1 out of the past 4 years. A better team is going to have players with better plus/minus ratings, and for that reason we cannot weight that quite as much as some of the other statistics. When it comes right down to it, John Tavares and Claude Giroux are both very great players. They are both young, super star, first line centers and captains of their respective teams. Their career numbers are shockingly similar, and yet for some reason, people seem to have a tendency to rate Tavares above Giroux. The question is, why?

It is really a matter of opinion. If you look at the numbers, there is no real, solid argument to be made for either player being better than the other. So instead, people look at the intangibles. Some may say that while Giroux was playing for a perennial playoff contending Flyers team, Tavares was leading a young and struggling Islanders team, which some would argue makes him the better player. However, while Tavares was starring for the Islanders from the beginning of his career, Giroux was stuck lower on the depth chart behind Mike Richards and Jeff Carter in his earlier seasons, which could help to build a bigger argument for him as the better player. Giroux and Tavares are both great players, but why is it that Tavares is so often looked at as the better of the two?

The answer to me is pretty simple: Tavares has a better pedigree. He was a number 1 overall draft pick in 2009. Giroux was the 22^nd overall pick in the 2006 draft, looked over because of his small size. Tavares is looked at as a better player because he is supposed to be a better player. Not because he actually is the better player. Tavares has 2 inches and about 40 pounds on Giroux. Back in the 2006 draft people had questions about Giroux’s ability to compete against the big guys in the NHL. He has since silenced the critics, but he still isn’t looked at as a former number 1 pick, because he wasn’t one. The top draft picks are the ones that are expected to lead the league. Giroux doesn’t fit in with the Tavares’, and Crosby’s, and Malkin’s, and Kane’s and Ovechkin’s of the league, because unlike them, he wasn’t expected to be the superstar. The player that Giroux has become puts him in a league all of his own. He silenced the critics that said that he was too small to play in the league and put himself in the conversation of top players in the game. Twenty-one other teams didn’t pass on John Tavares, but twenty-one teams did pass on Claude Giroux. Tavares is a great player, but so is Giroux, and he deserves to be recognized for what he has accomplished, which is as much, if not more than John Tavares.

NFL Divisional Round Playoff Picks

As a die-hard Eagles fan, I would much rather just put football completely out of my mind and focus solely on hockey, but America is a football country and that isn’t really possible. So instead I choose to embrace the football mindset and give my very unprofessional opinion on this weekends games.

NFC:

Saints at Seahawks- Lets just begin by getting this out of the way. I should pick the Saints and hope that the team that beat the Eagles keeps on winning so that it looks like we lost to the best, but I just don’t see it. The Seahawks are coming off a first round bye and they are playing at home. Up until week 16, Russel Wilson had been unbeaten at home. Drew Brees is a fantastic quarterback and will be sure to put up some numbers once again. Last week may have quieted the critics that  believe the Saints are a dome team that doesn’t play well in the cold, but it didn’t silence them completely. This week will be an uphill battle for the travelling Saints, and I think that while they will put up a fight, the Seahawks will be too much for them to handle.

Pick: Seahawks 

49ers at Panthers- I think this could be the best game of the weekend.  An early season match up between these teams saw Carolina come out on top in San Francisco. A defensive nail biter, this game could be more of the same, or it could be an offensive shoot out. The Panthers have the advantage, playing at home after a first round bye. Both teams are hot, with the Panthers winning 11 of their last 12 games, and the 49ers on a 7 game winning streak. There is no clear cut winner in this game, but I think that the 49ers will get their revenge on the road in a game for the ages.

Pick: 49ers

AFC

Colts at Patriots-  The Colts are coming off a comeback victory so great, that it might end up being the most memorable part of the entire playoffs. The game might not have been completely about the Colts offense it was exploding as it was the Chiefs severely imploding, but the outcome is not to be discounted. The Colts are coming into this game feeling pretty good about themselves, and there is nothing more dangerous than a team that is just getting hot. Meanwhile the Patriots are the same story as they’ve been for what seems like forever, quietly putting together a great season behind the consistent play of Tom Brady. The records of these two teams may seem similar, but the Colts went 6-0 in a bad AFC South, going 5-5 in other contests. The Patriots had a much more respectable out of division record. I just don’t think that the hot Colts will be able to match up with the consistent Patriots on the road. New England has what it takes to make it to another AFC Championship.

Pick: Patriots

Chargers at Broncos- I really, really wanted to pick the Chargers this week. Mostly because of that thing where apparently the Super Bowl champion over the last four years has been the team that the Eagles played in their home opener, which I find to be both amusing and frustrating. The Chargers happened to be that team this year, and I just think it would be crazy if they won the Super Bowl. That decision has absolutely nothing to do with football and absolutely everything to do with superstition and strange coincidence. As much as it would intrigue me to see that happen, I don’t think the Chargers have it in them this week. Do you pick the team at home after a bye week led by Peyton Manning, or the team that squeaked into the playoffs based on luck and a missed penalty call? If the Chargers come out of this game with a win, it will be the upset of the playoffs and would put them in great position for the rest of the playoffs, but it would take a lot for that to happen. The Broncos are the safe pick, but they are also the easiest pick to make.

Pick: Broncos

I think that all of these games have the potential to go either way, and there could be a lot of great football this weekend. It will be interesting to see how all of these games turn out, but as an Eagles fan, I will be following the divisional round with a heavy heart, not-so-secretly hoping and waiting for next season.

Olympic Hockey Outlook- A Flyers Fan Perspective

February will be a cold month as usual, but for fans of the NHL, it will be especially cold because of the 2 week absence of games on the schedule due to the 2014 winter Olympics. I am actually looking forward to the Olympics this year, mostly because it is the only way to get a hockey fix. Your view on the Olympics is all about perspective, and my perspective is that I will take hockey in any form I can get it in. 

The winter Olympics are extremely underrated. Most people just don’t find the games as appealing as the summer event. Skiing instead of swimming? Figure skating instead of gymnastics? And sports like curling and luge are seemingly laughable to most people. But the winter games are exciting to hockey fans. For those few weeks, the Olympics give us our only chance to watch the game that we love.  

Hockey has a special place in the Olympics, because it takes the fan base of the NHL and puts a divide among North America. During the NHL season, we split up by city and region, but for the Olympics, we split up by country, and there may be no greater Olympic rivalry than that of the United States and Canada for the sport of hockey. The NHL is a league in which there are teams in both the United States and Canada competing against one another on a regular basis, and the players don’t always represent teams in their own country. Then the Olympics come along, and your favorite players are playing for the enemy, and the guys that you never root for are suddenly the ones representing your country. It’s a battle of loyalty and pride like no other. Hockey is special because it captures that national pride in such a different way than other sports. It’s hard not to get excited about it.

As a Flyers fan, this year’s Olympics have brought up some serious debates. Are we happy or mad that our best player wasn’t chosen to represent his country, which also happens to be our enemy in all of this? What about the local player that was blasted by the US committee and left off the roster, does that even change anything? The debates created over the past few weeks in regards to hockey rosters for the Olympics have been interesting to say the least, but the best part is that at the end of the day, none of it matters.

Claude Giroux is a great player, and as fans of his, it is bothersome that he wasn’t chosen for the Canadian Olympic team. But at the same time, now we don’t have to root against him (barring an injury replacement). We can happily watch the US go up against Sidney Crosby and the Canadians and wholeheartedly root against them. We can look at Giroux and see him as what he is to us- the dynamic captain and leader of our favorite hockey team.

Bobby Ryan is from Cherry Hill. Bobby Ryan has never played for the Flyers, yet for some reason we look at him as one of us. The people that follow hockey enough to know about Bobby Ryan were rooting for him to be on the US Olympic team, because he would not only be representing the United States, but Philadelphia as well. Like Giroux, he was snubbed by his country, but unlike with Giroux there was a quite a stir created by this snub because of the in depth story that came out about the selection process and the harsh words spoken about Bobby Ryan as a player. Even though he never played for the Flyers, in a way, this seemed like slap in the face to many Flyers fans who are also big fans of Bobby Ryan.

We root for the players that play for our team, and sometimes we root for players that have never played for our team. But what the Olympics really shows us is that we really and truly do root for the name on the front of the jersey more than we root for the name on the back. It’s one of the biggest cliches in sports- but it is also one of the truest concepts. As players or as fans, our allegiances will always lie with our cities, or our countries long before they lie with the players. Because as much as we love our players, and as much as we look to them for the great sports moments, the players come and go, but a team is forever.

After the Olympics are over, Claude Giroux is going to be our star in Philadelphia. It doesn’t matter that he isn’t playing in the Olympics, just like it won’t matter if he ends up on the roster because of an injury replacement. We wouldn’t be rooting for him anyway. it doesn’t matter that Bobby Ryan isn’t playing for the United States, because we are still going to root for our country. All politics aside, the Olympics are what they are- a chance to cheer for your country. Hockey fans all over the country will put their differences aside and cheer for Jonathan Quick, Ryan Miller, Zach Parise, Patrick Kane and the rest of team USA. And when the Olympics are over we will go back to rooting for our NHL teams and the players that we love. We’ll go back to borderline-disliking many of the players that we cheered for just weeks earlier, and we’ll get into arguments over why our team is better. It’s one of the great things about sports. People can put their differences aside and unite over a common goal, and then people can go back to what they know. It’s what makes sports exciting, and it is exactly what is going to make these Olympics great. 

Time To Get Flyered Up

Welcome to Get Flyered Up! A blog about the Philadelphia Flyers, the sport of hockey, and all other sports related topics- including all Philadelphia sports and lots of baseball and football. Posts will include all kinds of in depth looks at sports topics as well as humorous pieces around certain concepts, and lists based around different aspects of sports and athletes. I will be trying to post a few times per week at first, and hopefully people will tune in.