Spoiler Alert: I'm not getting off the couch today unless it's to fulfill a bodily need. Meaningful Temple Football is on right now, seasoned up with some snowflakes falling on the field, and the Flyers have a Black Friday matinee game against the Sabres. I absolutely love that they schedule this game. I already feel like people who shop on Black Friday are more deranged than savvy, and the Flyers reward this thinking by incentivizing my not leaving the house. I'm left with the rare combination of being lazy, yet still self-congratulatory. Shortly, I'll be switching from coffee to Mad Elf and probably ordering a cheesesteak. There should be long lines forming out my front door at 4am—that's how great Orange & Black Friday is for me as opposed to trying to get $20 off of a Wii.
The Flyers, however, can't adopt my brilliant state of malaise today. They have what could be a tough matchup with the Sabres, who beat them in the teams' last meeting at a time when the Flyers were looking unbeatable.
Ray Emery will be back in net after some nice relief work from Brian Boucher. Boosh's play over the last game and a half was refreshing, because it's likely that Emery's sudden onset of lackluster play was due to overuse more than anything. If John Stevens can be more confident in Boosh, a rested Emery should be able to give the team better starts over the course of the long season.
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Ryan Miller will likely start for Buffalo, which usually isn't good news for opposing scorers. Miller leads the league in GAA, but he and the Sabres have been plenty beatable lately. They come to town losers of four straight, and Miller was the netminder for three of them.
Leading goal scorer Danny Two Games Briere will be sitting out the latter half of his suspension this afternoon, so the production will need to come from others. We're hoping for some Jeff Carter magic. After taking four games off from appearing on the score sheet, Carter has three points in his last two games, including the game-winning assist on Scott Hartnell's goal to beat the Isles. Still, he hasn't been the solid two-way player we saw last season, ending too many games in the minus column.
How are you spending your Orange & Black Friday?
::starts drinking::