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Jack McCaffery is the lead sports columnist for the Daily Times and delcotimes.com. He has spent several decades covering everything from the Phillies, Eagles, Flyers and Sixers, to college hoops, to high school sports in Delco.

Saturday, October 24, 2015

Hakstol: Not looking for measuring sticks

Dave Hakstol met with the press prior to the Flyers-Rangers game Saturday night.

This was the conversation:

On the 5-minute power play in last game?

“We didn't do a good job and we know that. We have to be better in that situation. We didn't win a lot of battles. And usually it starts with urgency on a five-minute power play. And a lot of times it goes drastically one way or another. It seems like if the PK gets a little bit of momentum, I've see it a lot of times where that's the direction where the five-minute power play goes. In that case, that's what happened. We got off to a poor start and we didn't recover. We didn't do little things to recover on.”

Luke Schenn out of lineup? Not happy with performance the other night?

“I thought he played a pretty solid game. Mostly, it's looking at our lineup tonight, I wanted to get Brandon Manning back in for some reasons going into tonight.”

Was the Rangers' speed one of those reasons?

“That's one of them. But I thought Luke did a good, solid job. And Brandon came out of the lineup for different reasons and he's going to go back in tonight.”

In college, was there as many cases of guys coming in and out of the lineup?

“There's much of that in any level of hockey, yes.”

More set lineups?

“No. Absolutely not. Absolutely not. You make game-day decisions based on a lot of things. And I guess every coach and every staff probably has their own criteria. We have our own process that we go through.”

Key to beating the Rangers?

“Well, there are so many things that they do well as a team. For us, the key is going to be to go out and play the way we need to play. We've got to go out and play a real good 60 minutes of hockey within the way we play the game. So I'm not going to rattle off things they do well. There's a lot of things they do well. There's a lot of things we do well too. So we're going to go out and do those things well tonight.”

Do you have a measuring point for this team, 10 games, 20 games?

“No, just to get better every day, work at it get, better. You only have one opportunity every night at the two points. So you've got to concentrate on doing the little things every night to get those points. And then in combination with that find little ways to improve what we're doing day in and day out.”

Do you notice a difference in how you play at home and on the road?

“I haven't seen a trend there yet. We played awful hard on the road and I think for the most part we've played awful hard here. So I haven't seen a trend yet. Maybe it's too early. I hope there's not a big difference. We want to play the way we play whether it's at home or on the road.”

You mentioned that Dallas and Tampa Bay were quality opponents, but yesterday said you didn't think Rangers were a measuring stick. But Rangers have basically owned the Flyers for a decade …


“I think I said the same thing, they're a quality opponent. But we're not looking for measuring sticks. There are two points on the line tonight and we have to do everything in our power to beat the team on the other side of the rink. It's the same approach when we went into Tampa. You can go down the list. We've got to worry about ourselves. We know we're playing a quality opponent. But we have to have the focus on the things we do and how we do them.”

Saturday, October 17, 2015

Interboro, Penn Wood football stats

Interboro 47, Penn Wood 28
Penn Wood 6   6  8  8 – 28
Interboro 7  14  20 6 – 47
SCORING SUMMARY
First Quarter
PW: Welton 7 run (kick failed), 8:40
I: Thomas 11 run (Pfaff kick), 1:46
Second Quarter
PW: Ruley 18 pass from Lindsey-Terrell (pass failed), 9:13
I: Hummel 25 run (Pfaff kick), 5:28
I: Mea 1 run (Pfaff kick), 0:14
Third Quarter
I: Hummel 27 run (pass failed), 9:57
PW: Dawkins 29 pass from Lindsey-Terrell (Ruley run), 8:03
I: Pattinson 14 fumble return (kick failed), 4:50
I: Thomas 3 run (Hummel pass from Mea), 2:53
Fourth Quarter
I: O’Chuida 7 run (kick failed), 3:04
PW: Ruley 32 pass from Lindsey-Terrell (Vaughn pass from Lindsey-Terrell), 1:55
TEAM STATISTICS
PW I
First downs 18 22
Rushes-Yards 30-119 45-379
Passing yards 298  74
Total yards 417  453
Passing 27-31-1, 298  4-4-0-74
Punts-Average 1-28.0 2-38.5
Fumbles-Lost 1-0  2-1
Penalties-Yards 6-40  9-70
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
Rushing: Penn Wood – Ruley 21-92, Welton 7-24, Fields 1-3, Rush 1-0. Interboro – Hummel 13-169, Thomas 16-89, O’Chuida 7-44, Chamberlin 2-31, Shaw 2-22, Pattinson 0-14, MacMullen 1-9, Byrd 2-0, Mea 1-2, Murtha 1-(minus-1).
Passing: Penn Wood – Lindsey-Terrell 27-37-1, 298. Interboro: Mea 4-4-0, 74.
Receiving: Penn Wood – Ruley 8-88, Bowens 8-81, Roles 4-61, Council 3-19, Fields 2-10, Dawkins 1-29, Welton 1-10. Interboro – Pattinson 1-32, O’Chuida 1-21, Adams 1-12, DiSands 1-9.
Interceptions – Penn Wood: None. Interboro: Beckwith.

Monday, October 12, 2015

Transcript of Dave Hakstol's pregame chat with hockey writers

Flyers coach Dave Hakstol met with hockey writers prior to the home opener tonight against the Florida Panthers.

Here is the conversation:

What does Michal Neuvirth bring?

“He's a good goaltender. I mean, he's proven that over many years. He's had a good camp. He's given us some good outings in the preseason and he came in in a tough situation a couple nights ago and did a good job.”

Vinny Lecavalier?

“Not in the lineup tonight.”

Without getting into specifics, do you think Steve Mason was troubled by his personal matter Saturday?

“No. I won't make any comments towards what he is going through right now. And that's connected. That question is connected. So I am not making any comments, other than the statement, just out of respect to Mase. I think it's important.”

Update on when he may be back?

“No.”

Big moment, with defending champs coming in, a six-day break … so do you need a win tonight?

“Really, no, not looking forward and not looking back. Just looking at tonight. Tonight is an opportunity at home to go out and play and get two points. That's enough importance in itself.”

What are you looking to establish in first few shifts?

“It's usually simple things early. We've got to win some puck battles. That includes faceoffs. I think we've got to play north-south hockey. In other words, we have to get some pucks deep, put some pucks behind their defensemen and generate, if we can, a little bit of offensive zone time, a little bit of cycling. Those are probably the keys you look for to build a little momentum in front of a home crowd.”

Radko Gudas, Sam Ganger in, reason?

“Gudie has had a good camp. He brings an element, a little bit of snarl. And he's practiced real well. So we want to get him in. Sam, with R.J. (Umberger) being out, is a good fit to go in on the right side there, add a little bit of offensive punch. He'll have a role in the power play. And those are the things he does well. So we'll hope he can bring those things to the table.”

Will he go to third line? Will Wayne Simmonds stay where he was?

“No. No. He'll stay where he was this morning, on the right side with Coots (Sean Couturier).”

How is Radko different from Luke Schenn, both right-handed shots? Are they interchangeable?

“No, they're not. They are a little different. Radko probably brings a little more energy to the game, I think. Maybe that's one element that he brings. But when I look at Luke's play, Luke has brought good stability, has brought good presence, good, simple puck-moving ability. So his efficiency has been pretty good. We need those same elements out of Radko as well. From there, the two are a little bit different.”

Challenges of home opener?

“No, it's, 'Let's take advantage of the energy, take advantage of the energy that I think will be in the building and go out and use that to our advantage. So you can look at it a lot of different ways. That's the way I view it. Let's take advantage of that energy.”

A positive …

“Absolutely.”

On poor starts to seasons in years past … is that talk coming up after only two games?

“I don't know why you're looking forward. I don't know why you're looking three years back. We're looking at right now. We played real well in our opener in Tampa. We honestly, in our second game, I think we were ready to play. We just didn't react well to a couple … when you look at three of the first goals and some of the bounces that were involved with them, honestly, I put that one on me. I don't think I changed the momentum enough in that first three, four, five, six minutes when maybe there was an opportunity to. So I wouldn't make it any more. We got a real good hard-nosed performance in Tamp and got a point out of there. And then some things didn't go well in Game No. 2. It's Game 3 right now. So we are going to evaluate this for what it is after tonight.”

Think twice about the timeout because of coach's challenge?

“No, I didn't. That didn't hamper it. But I look back at the end of the night, we finished the night with a timeout in the bank and didn't alter any momentum in that first couple of minutes. Also, I wanted to see how we are going to fight through things and maybe how we are going to change things in-game without that timeout.”



Sunday, October 11, 2015

Prediction on Eagles-Saints game

Drew Brees spends the whole day under assault but keeps the Saints close then makes a big turnover at the end, Eagles celebrate like they just won 11 consecutive Super Bowls, Chip Kelly says he won't know anything until he looks at the film.

Eagles 28, Saints 21.