In early April, Philadelphia Flyers forward Eric Wellwood suffered a severe skate laceration to his ankle during an AHL game, one that sliced tendons and cut an artery in his calf, resulting in a "skate filled with blood," according to the Glen Falls Post Star.
So, wanna see what the aftermath looks like?
Flyers TV caught up with Wellwood, who recently got the cast off his ankle.
Skateboarders all over Philadelphia were finally given a home this week with the opening of Paine’s Park on the south side of the Philadelphia Museum of Art along the Schuylkill Banks. In 2002 Paine’s Park was a concept, last summer Franklin’s Paine was finally able to break ground, and yesterday the park was officially opened. The 75,000-square-foot park sits next to a popular exercise path along the Schuylkill River, just below the Philadelphia Art Museum. It offers amenities for boarders and pedestrians. The park is built with railings, flat and banked walls for skating, plus seating areas and other attractions for non-skaters.
A little over a decade ago, John Street banned skateboarders from LOVE park, saying that they were destroying the stonework in the park and causing trouble with pedestrians. Since then skateboarders have been out of luck, with nowhere official to practice their pastime. Street offered boarders a plot of land to build their own park, but no money to build it. The development of a seperate skate park dragged on with little to no funding, making it seem like an unlikely vision. Franklin’s Paine Skatepark Fund (FPSF) began capital fundraising in 2007 to complete their main project, then known as the Schuylkill River Skatepark Project, raising an amazing $4.5 million in capital support.
Philadelphia has a deep skateboarding history with LOVE Park playing an integral part. LOVE Park’s granite ledges, benches and steps made it a popular spot for skaters and a fixture in skateboarding culture being partially credited with bringing the X-Games to Philadelphia in 2001 and 2002 and even being featured as a level in the game Tony Hawk’s proving ground.
Besides the obvious use and intention of Paine’s Park, this park isn’t just for skating. Mark Focht, first deputy commissioner of the city’s parks and recreation department called it “a new public urban plaza that happens to be skateable,” with seating areas designed to deter skaters, making them for pedestrians only and events such as concerts planned for the “urban plaza” to make the park more inviting and integrated for non-skating pedestrians.
The completion of Paine’s park marks a big step in the mission of FPSF to make Philadelphia a more skateboarder compatible city. With more skate parks planned and a few minor parks like Whitehall park in Frankford already completed FPSF is trying to even the skateboarder to skatepark ratio in Philadelphia which is lacking compared to cities like Houston, San Diego and Los Angeles.
Here’s a story that kind of scared me. I had been hearing from a couple different people rumors that Donovan McNabb would be returning to the Philadelphia Eagles. The Eagles already have a Ferris wheel of FIVE quarterbacks with Nick Foles, Michael Vick, Dennis Dixon, GJ Kinne, and Matt Barkley, so adding McNabb seems unnecessary, The McNabb era is over and it would be best not to try and revive it. With his popularity record in Philadelphia and the list of QB’s he’d be competing against to start McNabb wouldn’t even be worth the money.
I think it should be noted that I was one that was easily swayed by criticizm against McNabb mostly because of my younger, naieve mind, but now that i’m older and actually have the sense to do research and take a look at the bigger picture of his career, it’s pretty obvious that there were plenty of positive aspects to the McNabb era. McNabb helped start a revival of the Eagles franchise and he holds every significant passing record for the Eagles including most passing yards (32,873), touchdown passes (216), completions (2801) and attempts (4746). In 11 seasons McNabb had a record of 92-49-1 and lead the team to 6 division titles.
All my worry, however, was ill advised. The real news is that Donovan McNabb is retiring from the game and he wants to end where he started. The plan is for McNabb to sign a 1 day contract early in September and then make his retirement official. McNabb said that it is likely that he’ll make it official in the third week of the season, when the Kansas Chiefs come to Philadelphia along with Eagles long time head coach Andy Reid, according to Paul Domowitch of the Philadelphia Daily News.
The Eagles haven’t confirmed this news and apparently won’t comment on it either, but it’s a pretty safe bet that McNabb will be following other former Eagles like safety Brian Dawkins, offensive tackle Tra Thomas and running back Brian Westbrook who also came back to Philadelphia to end their careers.
Here is the trailer, it is roughly 2 minutes long and it covers everything mentioned in the blog.
As for the blog, go to: http://www.easports.com/nhl/news/article/nhl14-developer-diary-one-touch-dekes-t-p-s
My favorite part of the blog is the defensive strafing, I think this can be a valuable asset to the game. We'll see how it works though.
Gesterling: The Bruins had a huge momentum lift at the end of the Toronto series when they came back from a 4-1 third period deficit to come out with a 5-4 overtime win. So now the question is, can they keep it up? Well let me be honest when I say I think the Bruins got the better match up of all the possibilities that could have presented itself.
All of us, as fans, have that little nagging in the back of our heads. During the season we tend to ignore it that is, until playoff time comes around. Then that voice gets louder, it makes us nervous it gets us anxious and makes us question the safety of our team’s championship run.
That nagging feeling is the superstition that all Philly fans know and that has been well established. We are right to be afraid of the Philly curse, otherwise known as the “Philly Choke” we have been justified in our nervousness around playoff time. Whenever a Philadelphia team has made a playoff run, doing amazing in the regular season, they somehow find a way to put on the shittiest performance possible to get themselves eliminated.
But what exactly is the Philly choke and why does it happen? Well the most well-known Philadelphia curse is the Curse of Billy Penn.
What, you say, is the Curse of Billy Penn? Well the blame for the curse goes to 1 Liberty Place. Back when City Hall was built there was a “gentleman’s agreement” which stated that the Philadelphia Art Commission would not approve a building in the city that was higher than the statue of William Penn, and all was well in Philly sports with the Phillies winning the 1980 World Series, the Flyers winning back-to-back Stanley cups in 74 and 75, the Eagles getting to the super bowl in1980 and the Sixers sweeping the finals in 83. Up until March of 1987 when just 3 blocks away 1 Liberty Place was built.
The highest point on Penn’s statue is 547ft tall, 1 Liberty trumps that by 397ft at 945ft tall. Obviously that makes 1 Liberty a bit taller than Penn, breaking the gentleman’s agreement and dooming our sports to failure. After 1 Liberty opened Philadelphia stared a string of championship failures. The Flyers lost the Stanley Cup Finals twice, in 1987 to the Edmonton Oilers in seven games, two months after One Liberty Place opened, and in1997, in a four-game sweep by the Detroit Red Wings which was considered a collapse as the Flyers had dominated the previous three playoff series. The Phillies lost the 1993 World Series in six games to the Toronto Blue Jays, with the Series ending on Joe Carter’s walk off 3-run home run. The 76ers lost the 2001 NBA Finals to the Los Angeles Lakers in five games. The Eagles lost three straight NFC Championship games from the 2001 through 2003 seasons, before reaching Super Bowl XXXIX after the 2004 season, only to lose to the New England Patriots by three points.
Philadelphia had broken an agreement and us fans were paying the price with our sanity, but in 2007 there seemed to be a solution to all our cursed problems. ironworkers from Local Union 401 raised the final beam in the construction of the Comcast Center at 17th Street and John F. Kennedy Boulevard and in an attempt to finally be rid of Billy Penn’s curse workers John Joyce and Dan Ginion attached a small figurine of William Penn to the beam, along with the traditional American flag and small evergreen tree. The first figure; unfortunately was stolen but replaced by a smaller 4inch figure.
This little Penn supposedly broke the curse on October 29th, 2008 when the Phillies won their first world series on almost 30 years.
But can we actually say that Philadelphia sports are finally free from paranormal bad luck? There are a number of different “curses” that plague our sports all of which are specific to a sport. With so many superstitions how can we be sure we’re curse free?
While it’s not exactly Philadelphia news, the Vezina trophy is attracting a lot of interest from Philadelphia fans.
Philadelphia’s increased investment in the award is because of Finalist Sergei Bobrovsky; a goalie that the whole city wishes we could have back.
The Vezina trophy is awarded annually to the National Hockey League’s goaltender who is “adjudged to be the best at this position”. The decision is made by the general managers at the end of the season. The trophy was named after goalie Georges Vezina who played for the Montreal Canadiens from 1910 up until 1925. Vezina’s career stopped when he collapsed during a game in 1925 and was diagnosed with tuberculosis. He died later in 1926.
In 1927 the award became official and the NHL accepted the trophy.
The Vezina race has been a popular NHL media point and this year is no exception.
The favorite candidate for the trophy this year seems to be Columbus goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky. After being a strong backup here in Philadelphia, Bob was traded over to Columbus where he is credited with an amazing season for the Blue Jackets that fell just short of a playoff run. Despite not making the playoffs this season it’s predicted that, behind Bobrovsky, the Blue Jackets will be a cup contending team.
This is Bobrovsky’s first time as a Vezina finalist. He finsihed his season with a 21-11-6 regular season record, with a 2.00 GAA which is 6th best GAA in the league. He was also second in save percentage with a .932
SanJose Sharks goalie Antti Niemi, another first time finalist, carried his team to the playoffs and straight through the first round. The Sharks swept the Canucks in the quarterfinals round with Niemi in net for all four games. Niemi saw more ice time than any other goalie (2,580 minutes, 46 seconds). He ranked third in shots faced (1,220) and saves (1,127) and ended the season with a 2.16 GAA and a .924 save percentage
Both Niemi and Bobrovsky have 4 shutouts.
The first time finalists are up against last year’s winner Henrik Lundqvist. Lundqvist tied for the NHL lead in wins with a regular season record of 24-16-3 and had a 2.05 goals-against average which was 7th best in league and a .926 save percentage 5th best during the regular season. This is Lundqvist’s 5th time as a Vezina finalist.
The winner has already been decided on and will be announced during the Stanley Cup Final.
