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The Flyers had a dramatic last minute victory on Tuesday night, beating the Winnipeg Jets 5-4 for an Overtime victory.  Wayne Simmonds scored with 10 seconds left in regulation off a great pass from James van Riemsdyk to put the game into OT, and Jaromir Jagr scored with just 43.1 seconds left in the extra period to give the Fly Guys 2 points in the standings.

This came after a questionable fourth goal was let up by goalie Ilya Bryzgalov, who allowed four goals on just 26 shots.  “It was a stupid mistake,” Bryzgalov said. “I start catching the puck, but it was miscalculated between the puck and my glove. It hit the edge of the glove and go in. I’m kind of sick and tired of these mistakes.”

The Flyers had 50 shots on goal, converting five into the net after a great effort by Jets goalie Ondrej Pavelec.  “We were just resilient tonight,” said Simmonds, who scored his 22nd goal of the season, already a career-high.  The Flyers need to keep up their resilient play to stay in the Eastern Conference hunt, at least enough to have a chance home-ice advantage in the first round of the playoffs.

This has been a common picture for new Flyers goalie Ilya Brygalov so far this season. Picture Credit: AP

But, it all starts and ends with 51 million-dollar man Ilya Brygalov.  “If I can play at the level I can and we have success, nobody will care what was in the past,” Ilya said on Wednesday.  Danny Briere backed his goalie up, saying, “People are quick to report how Bryz has struggled, but they forget how he’s had good stretches.”

The Flyers season rests on Bryz’s shoulders, and let’s hope the goalie figures out what he has to do in order for the team to make another serious Stanley Cup run this season.

The Temple Owls came back from a 14 point deficit in the second half to beat George Washington at home Wednesday night, 79-72.  George Washington led 67-57 with 5:09 remaining before Temple went on an 18-2 run and never looked back.  The team was once again led by Ramone Moore and Khalif Wyatt, who scored 25 points and 22 points, respectively, as the Owls won their seventh game in a row, improving to 8-1 at home this season.

This continues the recent strong play from the Owls, who have recently found a groove after struggling with consistency following their upset win over 5th ranked Duke.

This is a team with balance on offense mainly in part because of their strong guard play, with seniors Ramone Moore and Juan Fernandez averaging 18.3 and 11.2 points per game, respectively, and junior guard Khalif Wyatt averaging 16.6 points.  Each player has had to pick up the scoring slack with the departure of Lavoy Allen, who is enjoying success with the Philadelphia 76ers.  Last season, Temple ranked 36th in the nation in defense, but right now stand at 210th in points allowed per game.

The three starting guards also each chip in two three-pointers a game, with Temple ranking 11th in the nation in three- point shooting percentage.  Moore and Wyatt are the top two scorers in the Atlantic 10 Conference.  Also starting on the team are senior center Micheal Eric, who just came back from a 13 game absence at the end of January, and junior forward Rahlir Hollis-Jefferson, who’s defense and rebounding has been instrumental in the team’s success.  Coming off the bench are guards Aaron Brown, T.J. DiLeo, and Will Cummings, and forward Anthony Lee, who played well in place of Eric.

Ramone Moore leads the A10 in scoring. Picture source AP

The Owls now lead the A10 by a half-game over three teams, and look to keep that lead going into the weekend.  One of those three teams is Xavier, who are coming to Philadelphia Saturday night for a 9:00 primetime game on EPSN2.  The game on Saturday will be a white out game, with the first 8,000 fans receiving a white “I BELIEVE” t-shirt.

Xavier is arguably Temple’s toughest opponent since that Duke upset at the Wells Fargo Center and are led by star guard Tu Holloway, a Third-Team All-American last season.  Holloway was considered one of the favorites for National Player of the Year this year, and Xavier ran off to an 8-0 start that put them at number 8 in the country.  But in their eighth win against Cincinnati, the two teams engaged in an on court brawl that resulted in four Xavier players getting suspended, including a one game suspension for Holloway.  Since the incident, Xavier is just 8-8 and has fallen out of the top 25.

Xavier still represents a tough test, however, as they’ve won 7 of 10 and stand in Temple’s way of winning the A10 regular season title.  With a win over Xavier, not only will Temple have a better grasp on the conference, but they will also most likely break the top 25 for the first time this season.  In Monday’s AP Poll Temple received 41 votes, which put them at 29th in the nation.

A strong finish in the Conference starting with a win over Xavier combined with Temple’s 19th ranking in the RPI will put Temple in a great position to go far in March.  This is a team to look out for the NCAA Tournament as they start three seniors and two juniors.  The team has experience and knows what it takes to win, with four tournaments berths the past four years, including a heartbreak loss last season against San Diego St. in double-overtime that would have put the team in the Sweet Sixteen.

It all starts with finishing the season strong, beginning with beating the Xavier Musketeers.  “The Xavier game is going to be a great atmosphere,” Moore said. “The crowd is going to be into it and it’s a TV game. We have to come out prepared.”

Let’s hope the win streak continues.

In the uneventful post of the week, Eagles Quarterback Michael Vick has been voted America’s most disliked Athlete, according to a poll released on Wednesday by Forbes.

Vick is still dealing with plenty of hatred after he served 19 months in prison for his dogfighting ring conviction.

If anything, it is a welcome hate to a team with too much press.

The previous offseason, Eagles had to deal with the press constantly asking them about a “Dream Team” because of something a should-have-been-little-used-back-up said.  Vince Young signed a one-year contract with the team and is not expected to re-sign.

Mike Vick will be key to the Birds' 2012 season. Picture Source AP

Maybe the underdog team that no one likes is a better route to take.  This Eagles team still has plenty of talent coming back next season, and most of the pressure lies on Mike Vick’s shoulders for the team to succeed.  Vick signed a six-year, $100 million dollar contract last August and will be surely tired of people calling his contract a bust.  Last season Vick struggled, missing three games and parts of a fourth as he battled injuries all year.

This is the same Eagles team that beat the Super Bowl-winning Giants with that backup QB Vince Young in the Meadowlands, but let’s hope that team management finally gets their stuff together.  If not, hopefully it will signal the end of the Jeffrey Lurie-Andy Reid marriage, as I’m sure plenty of fans were ready for that this offseason.

The Philadelphia Phillies signed right-hander Chad Qualls to a one-year, $1.15 million contract on Tuesday, five days after former closer and setup man Brad Lidge signed a one-year, $1 million contract with the Washington Nationals.  This came after the Phillies reportedly gave Lidge a lowball offer, according to Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com.  While Lidge has proven to be successful in Citizens Bank Park, Qualls had a 5.05 era away from Petco Park last season, and a 7.32 era in 59 innings in 2010.

The Qualls signing marks another stubborn, insignificant move made by General Manager Ruben Amaro, whose team did not make many moves to improve from their 2011 campaign.  The Phillies made their biggest move of the offseason signing Jonathan Papelbon, the former Red Sox closer who has made four all-star teams in six seasons with Boston.

Jonathan Papelbon signed a four year, $50 million contract on November 11, which came a few days after the highly documented talks with Ryan Madson failed.  Madson’s agent Scott Boras reported that the Phils and Madson had agreed to a four year, $44 million contract, but Amaro grew stubborn that the agent wanted this much money for his client and jumped to set the closer market with Papelbon.  Madson did not sign a contract until January 20, that is only paying him $6 million in 2012.  The deal includes a second year option with a $2.5 million buyout, essentially making it an $8.5 million contract.

The Phils made their biggest splash with Jonathan Papelbon, who signed a $50 million contract. Picture from Associated Press

Most of the moves the Phillies made besides signing Papelbon were re-signing players, most notable Jimmy Rollins, who signed a three year deal for $33 million.  Rollins was on the open market for over a month, but found few suitors and shortened his five year deal request.

Cole Hamels re-signed to avoid arbitration at $15 million.  Also avoiding arbitration were Hunter Pence and Kyle Kendrick, who were signed for $10.4 and $3.585 million, respectively.

The Phillies added for other free agents, utilityman Ty Wigginton, outfielder Laynce Nix, lefty Dontrelle Willis, and former-Phillie Jim Thome.  The player who will most likely make the most impact is Ty Wigginton, who can play both corner outfield spots, and third, second, and first base.

So after the Phillies were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs in 2011, where they scored zero runs in their final loss of the season, why have no moves been made to improve the offense?  Ruben Amaro and the Phillies brass are apparently satisfied with Placido Polanco at third base, who at one point in the season went 115 at bats without an extra base-hit, good for one-fourth of his at bats in the season.

There were rumors swirling that the Phillies would sign Aramis Ramirez at third base if they were unable to re-sign Rollins.  Amaro is apparently wasn’t willing to spend that kind of money on both players, but was willing to give Papelbon $50 million because he was impatient with Ryan Madson.  The second best closer on the free agent market, Heath Bell, signed for three years $27 million with the Marlins.

If the Phillies had not signed Papelbon, the money saved could have easily been enough to sign Ramirez, which would have made them instant favorites to win the World Series.  Now the question remains going into 2012, will the offense produce enough to win in the playoffs?  The past two seasons this has not been the case, as they have been ousted by the eventual World Series winning San Francisco Giants and St. Louis Cardinals.  Instead of addressing the obvious problems on offense, Amaro “upgrades” at closer for a steep price that will continue to cripple this team in the future.

Cole Hamels and Shane Victorino will both be free agents after the 2012 season, and Hunter Pence will be on the open market after 2013.  The team has Halladay, Howard, Utley, Rollins, Lee, and now Papelbon locked up for most of their team’s salary cap for the next five seasons.  With none of these players under 30, the window for the team to get that next World Series is closing.

The pressure will be on GM Amaro in 2012, as the Phils have had little playoff success under his reins. Picture from AP

The most likely scenario to happen will be the Phillies trying to make another big deal at the deadline to improve their offense, which they have the past two seasons with Roy Oswalt and Hunter Pence.  This year, however, they don’t have Ed Wade giftwrapping the other side of the deal.

Bottom line, the Phillies would much rather settle scores with players and agents then go out and be aggressive and make the moves necessary to ensure they are the best team.  Let’s hope the offense can magically come to life in 2011, or this team will again be in trouble come October.