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The PK Has Been The Flyers’ Silent Killer

JoyOnBroad - October 23, 2018

Photo Credit: Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports

Coming into Monday night’s game against the Colorado Avalanche, the Flyers ranked 29th out of 31 NHL teams in the penalty kill at 70%. The only teams with a worse rating were the Florida Panthers and Carolina Hurricanes at 66.7% and 65.4%, respectively. Oddly enough, Carolina led the Metropolitan division – due in part to having played the most games (T-8 with the Flyers) – while the Panthers held a record of 1-2-3 for a total of 5 points in six games played.

This isn’t new. The Flyers finished the 2017-18 season 29th in the NHL in PK% at 75.8, behind only the Montreal Canadiens (74.1%) and New York Islanders (73.2%). During the 2016-17 season, the team was 21st in the league with a 79.8% on the PK and 20th in 2015-16 at 80.5%. To round out the last five seasons, the Flyers were an abysmal 27th in PK% in 2014-15 at 77.1%.

In the 2015-16 season, his first year as head coach, Dave Hakstol oversaw a 3.4% increase in PK% from Craig Berube’s final season. However, if one were to extrapolate the current data from 2014-15 through 2018-19, the Flyers’ regression on the PK would be alarming to say the least. With that in mind, if you take the raw PK% numbers put up by each NHL team over the past five seasons and order them from one to 152, here’s where each Flyers season would rank:

  • 2014-15: 125th
  • 2015-16: 85th
  • 2016-17: 99th
  • 2017-18: 136th
  • 2018-19: 150th

Let that last one sink in. I know it’s only been 9 games, but if the calls for Assistant Coach Ian Laperriere’s job were loud after a woeful performance in 2017-18, they’ll become deafening if the trend continues.

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Your Tuesday Morning Roundup

Chris Jastrzembski - October 23, 2018

Photo credit: Eric Hartline-USA TODAY Sports

Slow starts, a typical Flyers thing.

It happened again last night as the Avalanche got off to a quick start on the power play en route to a 4-1 win. Colorado’s top line scored three goals in the game with two of them coming from Mikko Rantanen.

Nolan Patrick scored the lone goal for the Flyers off a deflection from Travis Sanheim. Brian Elliott stopped 29 of 32 shots.

But hey, at least the Flyers have Gritty, right?!

I have a conspiracy theory: The Flyers introduced Gritty this year as a way to get all the negative attention off of the actual team. Having Gritty do things like crashing into people wearing inflatable sumo suits grabs attention more than a team that has slow starts. Gritty is more popular than the Flyers.

Those Flyers won’t have Gritty on Thursday, as they travel up to Boston to take on the Bruins.

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Sports Betting Updates

Best Sports Betting Sites

NJ Online Sports Betting

How To Bet on Sports

DraftKings Sportsbook Review

FanDuel Sportsbook Review

SugarHouse Sportsbook Review

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DraftKings Sportsbook Review

October 15, 2018

DraftKings Sportsbook has been live in New Jersey for over two full months now and a lot has changed since launch. While they were the first out of the gate for legal US sports betting, they now face competition from many sites, including FanDuel Sportsbook, SugarHouse Sportsbook, BetStars and others. How do they stack up and what promos does DraftKings Sportsbook offer? Let’s take a closer look. Bonus: First bet matched up to $200 Minimum

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BetStars NJ Review and $500 in Free Bets Promo

October 22, 2018

BetStars NJ launched their sports betting app which is now available for both iOS and Android, and they offering a pretty outrageous promo code and deposit bonus. Owned by The Stars Group, a Canadian-based company that powers the popular PokerStars app, BetStars is targeting DraftKings and FanDuel directly, bringing its mobile-focused product to New Jersey with an AGGRESSIVE promo and deposit bonus. Bonus: $500 in free bets and 100-1 odds on any team to win the

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Need To Know Betting Trends For The Eagles and Panthers

October 21, 2018

After seemingly getting back on track last Thursday night at MetLife Stadium, the Eagles will look to climb over the .500 mark when they host the Carolina Panthers on Sunday afternoon at Lincoln Financial Field. The Panthers, who are 1-4 all-time in regular season games played in Philadelphia, are looking for their first road victory of the season, and they will have their work cut out for them if they hope to get it. The

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WWE’s Roman Reigns Says His Leukemia Returned

Coggin Toboggan - October 23, 2018

Courtesy of Twitter @WWE

WWE’s Roman Reigns, real-name Leati Joseph Anoaʻi, opened Monday Night Raw with poor news. Reigns, who was diagnosed with leukemia 11 years ago, announced the cancer had returned and he would step away from the company to fight the disease.

Reigns is the current WWE Universal Champion (the WWE has two main championship belts, the Universal Champion and the WWE World Champion) and announced he would relinquish the belt while he focuses on his health.

Reigns, who has very much been groomed to be the face of the company as John Cena winds down his lengthy career, said this was “not a retirement announcement” and that he would beat the cancer yet again.

You can see his announcement here:

Sadly, this doesn’t seem to be a typical WWE “work” (and would be one of the lowest of the lows the company has ever sunk to if it is), as the company broke storyline at several points during the night to wish Reigns well. Paul Heyman, the “advocate” (manager) of Brock Lesnar, visibly fought back tears as he praised Reigns for his dedication to the company and his professionalism as an athlete.

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R.I.P. To Our New Norm

BWanksCB - October 22, 2018

VIA TWITTER

The Eagles blew a 17-point lead yesterday to the Carolina Panthers, they have dropped three of their past four games, and currently sit 1.5 games back of Washington in the NFC East. While all hope for this season is not yet lost, a 3-4 start riddled with excruciating losses is probably not what Doug Pederson had in mind when he dubbed last season’s Super Bowl run Our New Norm.

Enter Twitter user @sleepydogsruns1 who made this video to help us all remember the good times. Solid effort. I particularly liked the Pederson book signing clip and the first-class editing job on the bowling celebration. Enjoy.

Report: Eagles Offered a Second-Round Draft Pick Last Week For Amari Cooper

BWanksCB - October 22, 2018

PHOTO CREDIT: KIRBY LEE-USA TODAY SPORTS

We already know that the Raiders fleeced the Cowboys by sending wide receiver Amari Cooper to Dallas in exchange for a 2019 first-round draft pick. While no other team was apparently prepared to match that offer, the Cowboys reportedly weren’t the only NFC East team interested in acquiring Cooper:

Well then.

There has been varying reports in recent weeks regarding the Eagles’ level of interest in adding a wide receiver to the mix, so the obvious news here is that, if the report is true, the team was (IS???) prepared to make a significant investment in upgrading the position.

Certainly, nobody can fault the Eagles for refusing to part with a first-round pick, but in light of Silver’s report, it will be interesting to see if and how Howie Roseman counters as he tries to add some firepower to what has been an underwhelming offense through seven games. A second-round pick should, in theory, bring back a difference-maker. While he’s out shopping around, maybe he can also find a deal that helps an Eagles defense which has generated only six takeaways this season. Maybe an All-Pro talent who is disgruntled in his current situation. Maybe:

Back to Twitter I go. This app can’t refresh fast enough right now.

London Calling

Kevin Kinkead - October 22, 2018

Photo Credit: Reinhold Matay-USA TODAY Sports

The Cowboys get Amari Cooper and the Eagles get a dysfunctional Jaguars team in London this week:

Good news right there.

Bortles has thrown two touchdowns and five interceptions in his last three games, though the Eagles secondary could possibly make him look like the second coming of Joe Montana at Wembley Stadium.

London, you are in for a treat.

Reports: Raiders Fleece Cowboys

Kevin Kinkead - October 22, 2018

Photo Credit: Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports

Per Ian Rapoport and Adam Schefter:

Man, that is pretty steep, but they needed a receiver badly. Look at Jon Gruden stockpiling first-round picks for the Raiders like he’s Sam Hinkie or something.

Anyway, you’re up Howie Roseman. Time to make some phone calls.

 

Sixers Notes: Lower Back Tightness, Dario on His Slow Starts, and “Overrated” Back-to-Backs

Kevin Kinkead - October 22, 2018

Photo Credit: Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports

You want the good news or the bad news?

The bad news is that Ben Simmons is listed as questionable for tomorrow night’s game against the Pistons with the same lower back tightness that forced him out of Saturday’s win after just eight minutes of play.

“He’s progressing and he did not go through practice today,” said head coach Brett Brown on Monday afternoon. “I believe our club will put out some level of more information later, but he’s progressing.”

“Nobody said he’s definitely not playing, that’s as candid as I can be.”

I saw Simmons having some work done on his back after practice, with a pair of trainers having him do push downs on what looked like a straight lateral bar. One trainer had some kind of monitor on Simmons’ lower back while he slowly did fixed weight reps on the machine.

The good news is that Joel Embiid is on no restriction whatsoever for the Sixers’ first back-to-back of the season. Mike Muscala was also upgraded from “doubtful” to “questionable” after participating fully in Monday’s session, though Brown said he “personally does not think” he’ll have his backup power forward on Tuesday or Wednesday.

“He moved around okay today,” said Brown of Muscala. “I think one of the things we’re all aware of, concerned of, he felt like last year he was in rehab a lot, then would go play, then back to rehab and treatment and go play, and never really got ahead of it. My advice to him, our direction to him, is that ‘you come back when you feel like you’re not going to be chasing.’ I don’t want him chasing. When he comes back he’ll be good to go and we expect that to be good enough to sustain longevity.”

Wilson Chandler remains out with his hamstring strain and was a partial practice participant. He’ll be reevaluated prior to Saturday’s home game with Charlotte. Jerryd Bayless and Zhaire Smith are also on the injury report, out with a left knee sprain and Jones fracture, respectively.

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