Flyers Fall Into 2-0 Hole To Blackhawks

The Flyers couldn't muster much offense tonight against the Chicago Blackhawks as they drop Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Finals 2-1.

The 2nd period ended up ruining the Flyers chances at pulling this one out. Specifically a 28-second span in the 2nd where the Blackhawks scored two goals and never looked back.

The bad news is that the Flyers are now down 2-0 in the series and can only at best manage a split if they win both games at the Wachovia Center.

The good news is that the Flyers are finally coming home and will definitely be energized by being back on South Broad Street and in front of fans who have been waiting for Stanley Cup action since 1997.

The Flyers have to remember that they've seen much worse situations than this one. Just two rounds ago, they were on the brink of elimination four times and in Game 7 were down 3-0.

But the Chicago Blackhawks are a vastly superior team to the Boston Bruins.

Leighton definitely held his own tonight and performed much better than he did in Game 1 and was in far better control. He didn't let those fateful 28 seconds in the 2nd period destroy his confidence and played well after the two goals by Marian Hossa and Former Flyer Ben Eager. Leighton finished with 24 saves on the evening.

The Flyers were much better on defense tonight and responded in the 3rd period by scoring a goal and really controlling the ice in front of the Blackhawks net getting 14 shots on goal in the 3rd period. But Blackhawks goalie Antti Niemi was up to the challenge stopping 13 out of 14 attempts and making 32 saves on the night.

The Flyers aren't out of it yet, but a loss in Game 3 on Wednesday in Philadelphia would put the Flyers in yet another 3-0 deficit and I don't think the Flyers can shock the hockey world twice.

Leighton Will Be In Net For Game 2 Of The Stanley Cup Finals

Flyers coach Peter Laviolette announced that Michael Leighton will indeed be in net as the starter for Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Finals tonight.

Leighton was pulled after less than two periods of action after allowing 5 goals on 20 attempts in a questionable move.

The Flyers went on to lose 6-5 after Brian Boucher entered the game and allowed the game-winning goal to Tomas Kopecky, which was his 4th goal of the postseason.

The last time Leighton was pulled in this 2010 playoffs was in a 5-1 loss to Montreal in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Finals. Leighton followed that performance up with a 3-0 shutout. Leighton turned away all 17 shots he faced, but he will definitely be seeing more tonight.

The Blackhawks are a very aggressive team, a team that fired 15 shots in the 2nd period alone of Game 1 on Saturday night.

Leighton commented on his performance on Saturday night.

"I'm just going to try not to think about what happened," Leighton said.

It will be interesting to see where the Flyers energy level is tonight after being outplayed and controlled in the 3rd period of Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Finals.

Will the Flyers respond like they have this entire postseason or will they find themselves in another 2-0 series deficit remiscent of the Boston series?

Game 2 in less than two hours!

Philadelphia Falls Out Of First Place As They Lose To The Braves

The Phillies actually scored some runs today, but it still isn't enough as they fall to the Braves 9-3 and they relinquish first place in the NL East for only the 2nd time this season.

Joe Blanton was on the mound for the Phillies (28-22) and he struggled in the early going.

Blanton allowed 6 runs in the first 3 innings and didn't get much help from his defense either. Ross Gload and Ryan Howard committed crucial errors that extended innings and lead to runs for the Braves.

Blanton only gave up 3 earned runs out of the 6 allowed and settled down after the early fireworks, which included Charlie Manuel getting ejected in the 3rd inning.

Manuel was thrown out for arguing about an overturned call. It was originally ruled that Greg Dobbs was hit by a pitch in the top of the 3rd, but after Bobby Cox argued the decision, the ruling was switched after the umpires conferred.

The Braves now lead the division for the first time this season and the Phillies are in 2nd place for the first time since May 1st.

Atlanta (29-22) has now won 6 games in a row and are 16-4 since May 10th.

Manuel experimented with a almost completely reconfigured lineup today. A lineup that included Ross Gload leading off, Greg Dobbs in the 2 hole, Shane Victorino batting cleanup and Jason Werth was given another day off.

Werth broke his silence when he spoke to Philly.com about his slump.

"I've been here before," Werth said.

"It comes and goes," Werth said. "It was pretty good there for a while."

Lastly, Brad Lidge returned to the active roster today. Lidge missed 18 games with elbow infammation and pitched a perfect 8th inning.

The Phillies are looking for some more good news out of Cole Hamels tomorrow evening as he looks to continue his string of good starts for the Phils. Hamels was 5-1 in May with an ERA of 2.45.

Far From Perfect

For one night everything in the Phillies universe resembled that of a sweet dream. Time to wake up.

The Phillies (28-21) were shut-out for the 4th time on this road trip as they couldn't complete the sweep in Florida. The Phils lost by a score of 1-0 to the Marlins.

Jamie Moyer had the unenviable task of following Roy Halladay's perfect game today, but Moyer responded admirably.

Moyer went 6 strong innings giving up only 4 hits and the game's only run.

Moyer was one out away from getting out of the 6th before he got into trouble giving up a critical walk on a 3-2 pitch to Dan Uggla that could have gone either way and then allowing a dribbling single to Ronny Paulino to score the Marlins' lone run.

The Phils were only able to muster 4 hits on the day, 2 of them by Shane Victorino.

Victorino doubled in the top of the 3rd and was stranded and singled in the top of the 8th and was stranded in that situation as well.

The Phils went 0-6 with runners in scoring position and left 8 men on base.

What can you say about this Phillies lineup that hasn't been said in the past week. They're hitting only .186 since May 22 and since winning 3-2 on Friday night, the team has managed just one unearned run in their last 20 innings.

What really hurt the Phils today was the play of Jayson Werth, who was rested the previous game because of shaky play, followed up the off day with a 0 for 4 performance with 4 strikeouts. Werth is 1 for his last 20 at the plate.

Philadelphia badly needs someone to step it up against the second-place Braves tomorrow night or else holding first place could be a thing of the past.

Perfection and Roy Halladay, One in the Same

There were whispers about Roy Halladay's impending demise, well those people can sit down now. Halladay just completed the 20th perfect game in MLB history and the 2nd this month.

The Phillies were a struggling bunch going into South Florida, after being shutout in 31 consecutive innings and coming off an abysmal 3 game sweep at the hands of the New York Mets. The Phils were outscored 16-0 in the series and the lineup couldn't spark any sort of offense and had lost five games in a row.

Big boppers Chase Utley and Ryan Howard were a combined 5 for their last 41.

Though, the one aspect of the Phillies team that wasn't in dire straits was their pitching rotation. Cole Hamels is pitching his best since the championship season of 2008 and Kendrick has pitched better of late including a much-needed quality start on Friday night against the Marlins.

Kendrick went 6 innings, giving up only 5 hits and surrendering no earned runs as the Kendrick lowered his ERA to 5.04 on the season.

But the story tonight is Roy Halladay, who went the distance for the 5th time this season and registered his 3rd shut-out on the season and picked up his 7th win on the year.

Halladay becomes the 2nd Phillie ever to throw a perfect game, the only to do it before him was Jim Bunning who threw his perfecto way back in 1964.

The Phils only scratched out only 1 run tonight as that run ended up being the game-winning run as the final score was 1-0. The run scored off a Cameron Maybin error in the top of the 3rd inning which scored Wilson Valdez. 

Halladay struck out 11 tonight and walked none as he proved once again why he is the Phils workhorse and why every five days is a Halladay.

New Kanye West Song- "Power"

Guess who's back and finally off autotune, that's right...Kanye West. One of the most polarizing figures in music is back in the game with what could be the first single off his "Good Ass Job" LP.

Kanye is still his same old combative self on "Power", calling out the entire Saturday Night Live cast. West is still as abrasive as ever and I think this track could have an Eminem-like impact on the charts.

For those that didn't know Eminem's "Not Afraid" debuted and immediately hit number 1 on the Billboard charts. Something only 16 other artists have done in the history of Billboard. Eminem has a new album dropping this summer too. "Recovery" is Eminem's 7th studio album and is the highly anticipated follow-up to the disappointing accent-filled Relapse.

But back, to the man of the day, Kanye. West is back with a bang and it won't be long until you hear this on the radio, and in some parts of the US it's probably already there.

Expect to hear alot more from Kanye as we get closer to his reported fall release.

Expect alot of music stuff here on What's Ill as this is gonna be a summer of hot releases from some big time names and as I said we still have Drake to review, so music will be on the menu for What's Ill this summer and this is the perfect time to roll out my rating system.

It's a scale of four categories: Not Ill, Kinda Ill, Ill and Very Ill. Pretty simple, right?

So for now enjoy Kanye Wests' Power, which gets a rating of Ill.

Kanye West- Power

Welcome to What's Ill

Hello and welcome to the best Phillies and music blog on the web.

My name is Brandon Radcliffe and I plan on giving you great recaps and previews of Phillies home games and other prominent Philadelphia sports stories as well as important sports news nationally.

Each story is gonna have a unique take, one that should be very different from what you read or see on television. And I plan on giving you in-depth music reviews as well from the world of hip-hop and R&B. Just to give you an example of posts to come:

- What it takes to be an ESPN analyst

- The Golden Years of the Philadelphia Phillies

- Drake's album: So Far Gone

- The forgotten franchise: The Philadelphia 76ers story

- From downtrodden to dominate, the Philadelphia turn-around

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