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Uniondale, L.I - This is the place Al Arbour and Bill Torrey built. Nassau Coliseum, the third oldest arena left in the NHL.

I don't usually put overriding significance on specific games, but today in this awful, old and ugly rink, plus tomorrow in historic Madison Square Garden, the Flyers will play two HUGE games against the Islanders and Rangers.

9-10-1.

That's the only figure you need to know, the only one to fathom for the weekend. You see, that's the Flyers record against Atlantic Division opponents. You wanna know why this club was unable to gain separation from everyone else in the division, even when it was winning last month?

It's because the Flyers have played brutal hockey against within their own division. If John Stevens' club is going to make the playoffs this season - I'm not ready to say they're over the hump and in, yet _ they need to sweep these two divisional games this weekend, then defeat the Islanders again next weekend in Philly.

Only 2 points separate the Flyers and Isles. Sixteen of the Flyers' remaining 18 games are against teams with .500 or better records. Twelve are against Atlantic Division foes. The Flyers need to do better than merely win half of those games. They need to get points in nine, if you ask me.

It starts today.

Uniondale, L.I - This is the place Al Arbour and Bill Torrey built. Nassau Coliseum, the third oldest arena left in the NHL.

I don't usually put overriding significance on specific games, but today in this awful, old and ugly rink, plus tomorrow in historic Madison Square Garden, the Flyers will play two HUGE games against the Islanders and Rangers.

9-10-1.

That's the only figure you need to know, the only one to fathom for the weekend. You see, that's the Flyers record against Atlantic Division opponents. You wanna know why this club was unable to gain separation from everyone else in the division, even when it was winning last month?

It's because the Flyers have played brutal hockey against within their own division. If John Stevens' club is going to make the playoffs this season - I'm not ready to say they're over the hump and in, yet _ they need to sweep these two divisional games this weekend, then defeat the Islanders again next weekend in Philly.

Only 2 points separate the Flyers and Isles. Sixteen of the Flyers' remaining 18 games are against teams with .500 or better records. Twelve are against Atlantic Division foes. The Flyers need to do better than merely win half of those games. They need to get points in nine, if you ask me.

It starts today.

If the Flyers are going to make the playoffs, it seems to be it will be most likely occur by accident or with some help from other clubs. This is a very difficult team to get a handle on. Every night, one aspect or more within their game seems to implode. The 5-2 loss to Buffalo was particularly hard to understand given how quickly the Flyers went out the door in the third period.

Everyone made a big deal about the illegal 5-on-4 goal. Yeah, that was bad because the officials missed the call but what about the next 2 goals that followed, one 18 seconds apart and the other a few minutes thereafter?

This team is running out of excuses. Everyone understands they are banged up and hurting - every year this team seems to get a disproportionate number of injuries - but they had bodies to compete.

Fourteen games remain and 10 are against the Atlantic Division. I feel this team has to win 7 of thos games to get into the playoffs and I don't see it happening unless they get a lift from their goaltending and that could have happened against Buffalo and didn't. I don't blame 4 of the goals Marty Biron gave up to the Sabres on him but ... at some point, the goalie has to make a difference.

Tampa Bay tonight and the Islanders - one of the few divsional opponents the Flyers can beat - stop by the Wac this weekend. The Flyers need to sweep these next two games.

We're at the Penn State, Delaware County, campus, awaiting the arrival of Bill Clinton in what qualifies as the first big event of the Pennsylvania primary campaign. The former president is on his way from Center City, where he met with the Philadelphia ward leaders behind close doors. The ward leaders, whose endorsement probably isn't worth a whole heck of a lot in a race like this, aren't expected to endorse either Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama. Or so Mayor Nutter said on his way in. And you'd figure he should know.
There are several thousand people in the gymnasium here, awaiting the arrival of the main man. Most people are standing, not because there are so many of them but because very few of the risers have been pulled down. They're amusing themselves by chanting We Are...Penn State.

Accompanied by Congressman Joe Sestak, who represents this area, Bill Clinton has taken the stage to the usual screams of pleasure. Sestak says he's here to introduce "the next spouse of the next president of the United States." A retired admiral, Sestak worked in the White House for President Clinton and is telling the crowd why he supports Hillary Clinton. He says that it comes down to this: She cares, she has vision, she understands the political process.

Bill says he's a little tired after coming back from three stops in Wyoming yesterday. And he sounds it. He's off to a fish-fry in Mississippi tonight. So he says he's just going to talk, not give a "big whoop-dee-doo." Once he gets started, though, the man has a hard time stopping.
He begins by saying, as he's said before, that he'd be campaigning for Hillary even if he weren't married to her. Then he talks about one of his favorite subjects -- how the country has gone into the toilet economically in the last seven years. Electing her, he says, will lead to "more jobs, higher income and more broadly shared prosperity" than in the good old days of the 1990s when, you may recall, he was president.

The man just loves to get into the nitty-gritty of the issues. First, he gives a long explanation of Hillary's plans to make America more energy-independent, saying that she knows that doing so is the "heart and soul of our responsibility," both to increase prosperity and reduce global-warming. Next, he turns to health care, and the reason why her plan, which would cover all Americans one way or another, is superior to Barack Obama's, which doesn't mandate coverage for all people. "Here's the fact," he says. "You can't control the cost of health care, which is doubling, unless you cover everyone." People aren't cheering ecstatically -- some of this stuff is pretty dry -- but they do seem to be listening.

Bill just finished an extended dissertation on the details of her education plan. Now, he's talking about her qualifications of be commander-in-chief. And he says there's one issue on which Hillary is "more conservative than President Bush. She believes in balanced budgets. She believes that mortgaging our children's future is morally strong and economically stupid." He compliments the crowd for hanging with him as he talks about all the details. Finally, a broader point. He says that she's a change-maker, and takes an implied slap at Obama: "The substance of change is even more important than the symbolism of change. The fact of change is even more important then the feeling of change."

He's done. For someone who admitted to being tired, this was quite a performance, 45 minutes long. He finished by saying, "I have nothing bad to say about anybody else. But she'd be the best president, and Pennsylvania can make her the next president."

Pat Wall wants to give Hillary Rodham Clinton a lump of coal.

They used to hang out together on Lake Winola, north of Scranton, when Hillary summered there in her family cottage, and Wall is waiting in a long line snaking into Scranton High School for the opening rally of Clinton's Pennsylvania primary campaign.

"Her nose was always in a book," said Wall, 53, who looked up to Hillary, seven years her senior. "We used to go swimming togehter down in the lake and play under the porch."

Wall bought a pen set for Hillary at the Anthracite Museum - it has a polished chunk of coal on its base - and she hopes to be able to see her old friend and give it to her.

Tony Rodham, two weeks after hip-replacement operation, brought his 14-month-old daughter to see her aunt's presidential campaign rally in the family's sentimental home of Scranton. She toddled around the high school wearing a t-shirt that said "I Can Be President."

Fiona, a Virginia resident like her father, was baptised last year at Court Street United Methodist Church, "in the same baptismal gown my father wore" -- as did Hillary Rodham Clinton. "We have another due in July, and we'll be back here again."

Tony Rodham said Scranton is as much Clinton's home as any other. The family still has a cottage on Lake Winola, 20 miles north of Scranton. "She wasn't literally born here, but she has been here all her life," Rodham, 53, said. "These are the hardest-working, kindest, momst deserving people in the world," he said. "People in Scranton have the biggest hearts I have ever seen."

Scranton High School's gym is rocking -- 2,500 people inside, and tons more outside unable to fit. People just gave an ovation to the guy who put the bottle of water on the chair on which Clinton will sit. It's almost like...an Obama rally.

Hillary is here,with Gov. Rendell, and the ovation has continued for a good five minutes.

Hillary Rodham Clinton was telling the crowd about her father, Hugh, who graduated high school in Scranton in 1931 and went to play football at Penn State. "Joe Pa!" someone yelled from the cheap seats, referring to coach-for-life Joe Paterno.

Clinton laughed. "I think Joe was interning at the time," she said. "I think Joe will always be there." That got a cheer.

Waiting for Hillary - they are using the Rocky theme to fire up the crowd in the Forum downtown. There ought to be a law against that. Cliche Violation in the 1st Degree.

Debbie Scudder of Cumberland County came to the Forum with her two sons, surrounded by Hillary signs and AFSCME government workers in green t-shirts. She was curious to hear the former first lady but is locked in for Obama.

"He just has so much passion and excitement," she told Angela Couloumbis, my colleague. "And he projects in a way that's presidential." She has been for him from the start.

The Hillary Rodham Clinton campaign signaled that she may criticize Obama as all-words-no-action in today's speech, centering on Iraq withdrawal and alternative energy issues. This would be a marked contrast to yesterday's tiptoe through the nostalgia in Scranton, PA, her dad's ancestral home (well, besides Wales.)

Stay tuned.

Steven Reed, Harrisburg's long-serving mayor, is speaking at the rally now. He has a beautiful, orotund voice and sounds like one of those old time ringside boxing announcers.

"Hello America, from Harrisburg," he said, drawing out the town's syllables. To the audience: "You honor America and our democracy by your presence."

Now he seems to be giving Hillary Clinton's stump speech for her, about the importance of experience. And is going on....
"Give her the mike!" shouted a woman from the floor. Obviously an experienced Harrisb urg voter.

9 minutes 45 seconds. a long introduction...of Ed Rendell.
Did Live From imagine this or was Hillary Cliniton edging closer to Mayor Reed.

Gov Rendell "The Clinton hcampaign runs on a tight schedule - and it says the mayor and governor have a total of 5 minutes..." The crowd laughed. Then Rendell softened the gibe. "I want to ask Sen Clinton a quesiton: have we ever had a mayor on the ticket as vice president?"

The crowd cheered.

“I think you heard everything you needed to hear from Mayor Reed," Clinton said, bringing down the house.

"I am so grateful for the mayor’s endorsement and the way he laid it out because obviously he has been working so hard on behalf of this city. And I appreciate what he had to say about experience, because I imagine he feels he has a little bit more grasp what he’s supposed to do now than when he started. That’s the way it’s supposed to work in life."

Hillary Clinton looked at the beautiful ceiling of the Forum, an art deco era auditorium here in Harrisburg, and found a metaphor for the campaign.

The ceiling is a map of the ancients' view of the constellations..

"For millennia men and women have looked skyward to find vision," Clinton said. "But it’s also important to keep your feet firmly on the ground, in the here and now. There’s no contradiction in those things…." It was a reference of course to Barack Obama, the candidate of hope and vision.

Hillary has not ripped Obama yet, she's just giving her standard stump speech so far, a well-received populist-tinged speech about ending tax breaks for the special interests, "taking back that money to put it to work for you." She got a huge cheers for promises to end No Child Left Behind and to invest in rebuilding infrastructure.

She said that Obama is a hypocrite for vistiging a company in Fairless Hills to talk about energy independence because he voted in 2005 for the Bush energy bill, which gave tax breaks to oil companies.

"When he had a chance to say no to Dick Cheney and the oil companies, he voted yes," Clinton said. "We're going to have to fight to make the changes against the special interests...I said no. He said yes."

Hillary just landed another punch, saying that Obama apparently does not really mean his promise to get the troops out of Iraq.

"My opponent said he'll have them (troops) all out in 16 months, and then one of his foreign policy advisers says to the foreign press, 'Don't pay attention. That's just talk for the campaign.'"

It was a reference to a recent days' flap in which Samantha Powers, an Obama adviser, telling the Scottsman newspaper that candidates would not be bound by their campaign rhetoric in dealing with the Iraq war as president.
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Hillary just landed another punch, saying that Obama apparently does not really mean his promise to get the troops out of Iraq.

"My opponent said he'll have them (troops) all out in 16 months, and then one of his foreign policy advisers says to the foreign press, 'Don't pay attention. That's just talk for the campaign.'"

It was a reference to a recent days' flap in which Samantha Powers, an Obama adviser, telling the Scottsman newspaper that candidates would not be bound by their campaign rhetoric in dealing with the Iraq war as president.
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Hillary also mentioned the Obama adviser who was caught out telling the Canadian government that his anti-NAFTA rhetoric in Ohio was no big deal.

"I've got to tell you: there's a big difference between talk and action. But I tell you if you are going ton talk you ought to mean what you say."

Gov. Rendell warmed up a crowd at a Hillary Clinton rally at Temple just now, saying the 1990s were pretty good to Philadelphia. He mentioned Clinton administration help that enabled Philadelphia to build buildings, redevelop the navy yard, ,build the Constitution Center and put 1,000 new police on the streets.

"There has been a lot of 1990s bashing in this campaign," Rendell said. "Well, the 1990s was a good time for Philadelphia thanks to Bill and Hillary Clinton."

He introduced Mayor Nutter as the man who "has the chance to become the second best mayor in Philadelphia history.