The Week in Sports 6/20/11- 6/26/11

• If I didn’t hate the Flyers and their fans so much I would feel bad for them.  I cannot understand what GM Paul Holmgren did this past week.  While it is true that mediocre goaltending did the Flyers in the past two playoffs I am not sure the Ilya Bryzgalov is the answer.  After all he has not played in a pressure cooker like Philly before.  The fans will turn faster than Miracle Whip on an August afternoon if he lets in a bad goal and who is to say how he will deal with that.  And even if he is the answer I am sure that you seriously changed the equation by sending away Jeff Carter and Mike Richards.

Carter led the league in goal scoring last year and the Flyers certainly got less back than they could have if they had been willing to deal within the conference.  I am sure that Voracek is a nice prospect, but Carter is a deadly sniper just entering the prime of his career. 

And Mike Richards is a flat-out stud.  I love everything about his game and now that he is not a Flyer I can finally admit it.  He plays all three phases of the game.  Word is that Richards and Chris Pronger did not get along.  Why would you choose a thirtysomething defenseman with an aged, wonky knee over a young stud like Richards. I think the deal is a steal for the Kings. Brayden Shenn may end up being a stud player.  Mike Richards already is.

The Flyers are putting an awful lot of faith in Daniel Briere.  He has been a stud the past few seasons in the playoffs, but his regular season totals have been uneven at best.  Factor in that after this trade he will no doubt be facing each teams number one defense pairing each night and I think that Holmgren could be on the hot seat come this time next year.

• The NFL Lockout has reached a new level of annoyance for me. The billionaires and millionaires are still duking it out over what share of the pie that they deserve and is always the case in such matters the small people are the only ones getting hurt.  First it was rank and file office employees of the teams that took the hit with furloughs and straight up pay cuts.  Now it is the communities that count on training camp for much-needed revenue getting in the crossfire.  My area, south central New York, got the bad news yesterday.

Cortland, NY has been the home of the New York Jets the past two Julys.  It has been a huge boon the region’s hospitality industries, and it is gone this year.  Who knows if they will come back?  In the new reality of the NFL teams may just stay home after learning that it can be done.  That will be a shame for all of the smaller communities that count on this annual ritual.  It was a call back to a prior era when the teams would like to have their team get away from all the distractions.  In a WiFi/Facebook/Twitter world that is likely a thing of the past.  Still I like the practice, if only for tradition’s sake.  It is just another reason to hate this lockout.

• And speaking of lockouts it looks like the NBA is headed that way.  Again I find myself on the player’s side. How can you back a group that created the market where Corey Magette makes 21 million over 2 years and J. J. Reddick 7.25 a season?  Magette is a one-dimensional player, a poor man’s Mark Aguirre. Reddick, well, he is a better pro than Adam Morrison.  We can leave it at that.  Each team has their own history of overpaying for marginal and/or young talent.  They made their bed, they should lie in it.

Coming off a huge year the NBA should know better than to mess around with skipping or delaying the upcoming 2011-2012 season.  They can build back into the league they were in the late 80s and early 90s if they don’t screw it up.  Something tells me with all the money and egos involved that they will.

Quick shots:

• Winnipeg Jets…I am a happy man.  I have to order my new sweater, eh.
• There are days that I miss being a Sabres fan.  Then there is this past Saturday when they re-acquire notorious sandbagger Ales Kotalik.  Did I mention “Go Jets”?
• What a kick in the balls that USA-Mexico game was.  It would have been better had they lost 4-0. That was cruel.
• Those new Buffalo Bills uniforms are sweet.  I am more worried than ever that they may only be around for a short while.  The Bills are destined for L.A., it seems inevitable as Ralph Wilson still refuses to have a plan of succession. 
• Wake me up when Interleague is over, if you are still up that is.  The Mariners vs the Marlins…it’s must see TV.