4th of July Weekend Plans: Footlocker Open
This year, the Independence Day celebration is being hosted at Philadelphia’s Independence Hall. The excitement for this year’s festivities is already beginning to shape up. Philadelphia has been preparing and gearing up for the big day for quite some time. It looks like the festivities will be a huge success, and maybe even the Philadelphia Flyers will go far and beyond in the NBA Eastern Conference playoffs.
Philadelphia sports fans are getting all hyped up about the Independence Day game. Who doesn’t want to have their own piece of the NBA’s Independence Day celebration? Every year, sports fans from Philadelphia and surrounding areas go all out to support their team. So, when is it going to be the very first game of the NBA season if there is a Fourth of July game?
If you live in or around Philadelphia, you know that the very first game of the NBA season is going to be against the defending Eastern Conference champion Cleveland Cavaliers. How exciting! I mean, how could anyone not get excited about this match-up? A hometown hero versus a hated competitor?
It will be a great game, though many people (myself included) are wondering how the two-time defending Eastern Conference champion Cleveland Cavaliers will match up with the up-and-coming young star studded Philadelphia Flyers. Let me give you some insight into how this match-up is going to go down. As I alluded to earlier, the Eastern Conference is typically considered the stronger division. That means that the Cavs and Flyers are often considering title contenders. In addition, there are only a couple of teams that have a legitimate shot at taking the trophy home this year.
The Flyers are one of those teams that everybody has an opinion on. They’re big names, they play in the powerhouse city, and they play in the top spot in the Eastern Conference. The Flyers have been on the rise the last few years, but they haven’t shown much lately that they can put an end to the New York Rangers and the New York Islanders. The New Jersey Devils is also a threat, as well as the Ottawa Senators and the Boston Bruins. So, getting the right combination for this game is crucial!
One thing the Flyers need to get right is who to play against. There are simply too many quality players between the top teams in the league that the Flyers will likely have trouble matching up against. It’s best to stick with the usual suspects, of course, but you’d be foolish to do so without trying to expose a new, less heralded player to the NHL game. These types of players make up the core of the Flyers, and they rarely get a chance to shine in big situations. This game is meant for them, and when the Flyers can get these players in the lineup, the sky is usually the limit for this team.
