#primer

hello and welcome to the 2025 version of the MotoGP Primer! last years can be found here and includes a couple of other links

clips of the rossi and marquez clashes can be found here (2015) and here (2018)

there’s a compilation of free to watch races here.

any questions or corrections, feel free to shoot me a message or leave a question in the comment! i'll get back to you asap!

if anyone needs a version in plain text format I’m happy to make it into a doc as well!

RICHECARTS!!! this is micheal "richie/rich/mike" richards (born 1985, ontario, canada) 24th overall draft pick in 2003 by the philadelphia flyers and jeffrey j. "carts/cartsy/jeff" carter (born 1985, ontario canada) 11th overall draft pick in 2003 by the philadelphia flyers.

now, as u can already see, two ontario boys both drafted by the flyers in the same round, what a beautiful start to the story. they both got their debut for the flyers in october 2005 and also both played for the panthoms in 04/05. but, the story starts earlier then their debuts, it starts in 2004, during the wjc in finland, where they won silver.

this is the first known meeting on ice, they have talked about knowing eachother since they were 16.

the thing about them is that they kinda, just, got along, like ive read a bunch of articles about them from their time in philly, in general there's not a lot to read or find about those early days but they were kinda always just, mentioned together, it was richie and carts.

now, the flyers r the flyers right, kinda always a little shit n messy. when they came to the flyers had four captains from 2001 to 2007, n this is the way richie and cartsy grew into the flyers right, at this time danny briere and claude giroux and a bunch of other notable flyers were on the team and they got pretty good eventually.

in 2008 richie got the c and, as expected bc its richie, carts got the a the season after, they were pretty solid these seasons but that litteraly doesnt matter for their lore what does matter is the shit they did off the ice because my GOD these two.

basically, they were notorious party animals during their time w the flyers, there are, SO many stories and articles about their partying and deff reccomend reading some if u like fun stories, when one of the bars closed that the team frequented they wore black bands in honor of it like thats how serious it was.

but important lore for the hrpf is that, well. there are stories out there that they were known to have threesomes, which is like, wonderful information for me and like SOOOO typically richiecarts. there are so many richiecarts party pics but here are two of my favs

anyway this is what they were known to do and the thing is during thsi time u can find a good few articles about reporters complaining abt it but there were no stories at all about problems in the room or w teammates they seemed to be good leadership and show upto practice and games ready to go no matter how much they partied in their free time.

it is important to know that richie is a bitch and hated the media, he issued a verbal boycot against the media in 2009 after he was asked about a trade. like thats the bitchy captain. its wonderful, pls watch old richie media he hated the philly media so much, he thought the media fucked w the players by constantly criticizing them and wasn't afraid to say it.

however, they seemed to really connect w the fans and the city, so much so that they signed matching decade long contracts. richie signed a 12 year in '08 and cartsy an 11 year in '10, they were going to play for the flyers for their whole career, thats what these contracts showed to everyone.

then in 2010 they somehow made it to the cup finals, like, this wasnt supposed to happen, they had tow diff coaches this season, they finished third in the atlantic and 7th in the eastern like they were mid but they made it to the finals w pure grid and party boy yaoi. they got three shutouts in the eastern conference final like, they somehow were good as fuck.

they lost, to chicago in the final after they hadnt made a final since 1997 like thats crazy, thats what gay men in love in your leadership do to a team. anyway, they lost, in 6 games which isnt bad but like, this is the 2010's era chicago team, they were crazy good so even getting so far was really good.

and the thing was, like the energy was there but there were rumors of this fucking sobrierty plegde in the lockerroom, where reportedly, everyone wrote their names down and 'two names were missing' holgrem (gm at the time) said that this was bullshit but then, even though they captained the team to a fucking stanley cup final and had 10 year contracts, that bitchass traded BOTH cartsy and richie on june 23rd 2011 (richie to LA and cartsy to comlubus) for like one supposed miracle goalie but also shenn, couturier and simmonds, which to ME is very important to the story like, okay the goalie like, choked but shenner, simmer AND couts all came into the team for the two of them. like, those guys became the heart of the team w claude after.

generally its important to say that litteraly to this DAY people discuss who won this trade, imo both the kings and flyers won this trade, the jackets fucking lost it tho.

so, june 23rd is like, a thing w the flyers, that day the team was cursed, n danny briere knows this bc he cured them by trading trevor zegras back on june 23rd of this season, still cant believe he did that like thats insane.

anyway, mike went to LA and like, in his stoic bitchy self he just, went, there's no stories about his reaction, he didnt play incredible at the start of the season, he was a bit stiff and as far as I know there arent any real stories about him getting really close w la players in the first bit of the season but he also wasnt known to be hated or anything like it.

cartsy however, cartsy was traded to the blue jackets and here it's hard for me to figure out what parts are like, fic and what is real BUT there are actual reports of cartsy just, not going to columbus and not talking to any manager. one article from that time literally says cartsy 'came out of hiding' like this is fucking hilarious he was SO mad

anyway, he fucking hated it, he hated ohio, he hated the trade he was pissy as fuck. during his time in ohio, he separated his shoulder and so was out for most of the games that season resulting in him NOT playing against LA. important that he still had 10 goals and 7 assists in 30 games like we need to remember that these two were GOOD.

so jeff was depressed in ohio and richie was anti social in la and then, came the january trade deadline. and.... LA needed a forward and columbes reaaally didnt want to keep cartsy. and so on february 23rd, exactly 8 months after he was traded away from philly and from richie he got traded to la, back to richie.

and richie loved it too because he tweeted this:

Reunited and it feels so good...... Excited to be back playing with carts #needaroommate

bc hes normal about jeff carter.

and I cant, express. how much this was a story, like, there are an INSANE amount of articles waxing poetic about this return, a few of my favorites:

and the thing is, richie got GOOD and cartsy ofcourse was elated to be back but richie had just started to play better and got better w cartsy there and jeff just, was instantly good and reporters litteraly said it was because richie was already there like it's insane how much the media was playing into them being weird about eachother

and then, and THEEEENNNN, they WON THE FUCKING CUP!!! JEFF GOT TRADED TO THE KINGS BACK WITH HIS RICHIE A YEAR AFTER THEY GOT RIPPED APART THEY WON THE FUCKING CUP!!!!!!

like, sometimes true love wins, even if its just for a little. anD THEN THEY WON IT AGAIN IN 2014!!!!!!! BECAUSE TRUE LOVE EXISTS AND ITS AT THE LA KINGS!!!!!!!!!!!!

and now, the story gets, sad. richie started to...play kinda ass at this time, he had problems w concissions but he was also inconsistent, he got send down and there isnt a lot of info about him atp but yk, u can speculate and then, in january 2015 bc richie was caught at the US-Canada border with a bunch of oxy without perscription, which, is a painkiller so we can only imagine the reasons he'd been playing bad and seemingly having a rought time.

after that incident the kings termenated his contract, richie contested the termination and eventually got a settlement in oct 2015. he was a free afent after that also drug charges where stayed in febuary.

in jan 2016 the caps and richie agreed to a one year contract. he played a few games that season but he was clearly not doing well he was kinda shit but this did result in the one time that richie and cartsy played against eachother in their entire career

and then, richie being his anti social self kinda just dissapeared and quietly retired into manitoba, he has a house on a lake w dogs and he seems to be doing really well, he was a woke wife and horses, in januray 2024, he returned to the flyers for an alumni game.

at the same time jeff carter, who had atp played with the kings from 2012-21 was in pittsburgh, after he signed with the pens in 2021.

and that to me, is like, the catalist to it, they started their career together in philly, at world juniors they won it all in LA and richie, after so much shit was able to forgive the flyers and feel like a part of their history and while he did that, cartsy, his right hand man was in pittsburgh. it says a lot about them imo.

cartsy retired in 2024 w the pens, never returning to philly. as far as I know there arent a lot of interviews of either cartsy or richie talking about philly or eachother after like 2015. there is a post saying that richie mentioned they dont talk anymore and like a few weeks ago richie randomly reposted a goal from them but thats all that we have from them during thsi time.