Philly Front Office

Never forget that the NHL stole Patrick Kane from the Flyers and altered the course of history for two teams and hockey in general. The Chicago Blackhawks finished 5th worst in the 2007 season and had an 8.1% chance of winning the lottery. The Flyers had by far the worst team that year finishing with 56 points, good for 36 points behind 4th place in their division and 11 points clear of the Coyotes for worst record. We had a 25% chance of winning the lottery and could do no worse than 2nd. Well, shit. Patrick Kane would be a Blackhawk and James van Riemsdyk would be a Flyer.

Just 3 years later, the two would meet in the Stanley Cup Finals. Chicago ended up winning 4 games to 2. That season was JVR’s first in the league. He managed 15 goals and 20 assists plus another 6 points in the playoffs. After immediately winning the Calder Trophy for Rookie of the Year, Kane was by now in his 3rd season where he put up 88 points on his way to finishing 7th for MVP. In the playoffs he would finish with 10 goals and 18 assists. 3 years later he would win another Stanley Cup and be named MVP. 2 years after that he would raise the trophy again. In two stints with the Flyers, JVR would manage just 4 playoffs and 17 total points in 51 games. I’m still mad about this.

The current Blackhawks have the worst record in hockey and are without 2023 first overall pick Connor Bedard. Here’s hoping they get screwed out of the #1 selection this year.

Chicago Blackhawks: 13-16-6, 32 points

Pierre-Edouard Bellemare and Martin Jones, that’s it. That’s all the cross over these two teams have ever had. They did make a trade once, swapping AHL playersTucker Robertson for Jon-Randall Avon but neither have made it to their respective big clubs yet. Phenomenal content here from a guy on vacation!

What do Rogers Arena and XMA have in common? They were the cancelled bookends of the Guns N’ Roses North American Chinese Democracy Tour. Both non-concerts happened to cause small riots in both venues. What a small world.

On November 7th, 2002, the band was supposed to play its first night of its first NA tour in 9 years. In typical Axl Rose fashion, he didn’t show up. The fans were less than thrilled. Some minor injuries, car fires, and $100k in damages to the arena later, the tour continued.

Fortunately for folks in cities like Nampa, Idaho and Fargo, North Dakota, Axl did manage to make it with enough time to actually perform for 16 out of the next 17 cities. This included a December 5th show at MSG. The band was scheduled to play in Philadelphia the next night. How do I remember this? I had tickets.

We decided to bring a keg in the back of my Bronco for the 6 of us. A damn good time was had in the lots that afternoon and into night. Only 5 of us had tickets. The 6th, now local comedian Zack Garner, had abandoned his quest to scalp a ticket and decided he would be fine sitting in the back seat with the keg until we returned in 2-3 hours at the end of the show.

Inside, there was a guy already completely passed out in the row behind us, lulled to sleep by the opening act Mix Master Mike of Beastie Boys fame. He had to be almost done right, maybe a half hour left? We were wrong. 90 minutes later he was still going. The natives were getting restless. When he finally left, we figured it was now time to finally see Axl Rose with what was left of Guns N’ Roses a band I had waited my 19 years to see at that point. The houselights went low, then they went back up, then they went low again. Groans turned to yelling and you could feel a VERY aggressive mood in the air. Finally, the lights turned completely on and they announced the show was cancelled. The place erupted in anger. People started throwing things, kicking their seats, and breaking everything in sight. The PA pled with us: “Please do not take your aggression out on the First Union Center.” Sorry FU Center, you knew what this was. This was about the time the guy in the row behind us woke up in a fright to a full-scale riot going on.

For as bad as things looked inside, police were ready to control things on the outside. I don’t even remember seeing any fires like in Vancouver. I do, however, remember getting back to my car and seeing Zack with the tap hose over his shoulder passed out. He woke up and asked us “how was the show?” He missed a memorable time.