Some of us were doing our best to get a little bookie action going in the dressing room.
"What's the over/under on how long these new lines last on the Flyers?"
The players were giving us the usual replies: 2 minutes, 2 shifts, one period, one game.
"So did [John] Stevens just toss a bunch of number in your helmet and come up with these lines?" I asked Scott Hartnell.
“I don’t know. It’s interesting, I guess,” Hartnell replied.
Moving about the dressing room, I came back to Hartnell again about the over/under. I gave him my pick which was 2-3 shifts on the under. Before I could give him the "over," he replied, "You make a line on this?"
Yeah, I know, the Italian guy gets to be the bookie.
Seriously, we all wonder about the 3 new lines at today's practice. Danny Boy (Briere) finally has someone to sing Irish tunes with - Jeff Carter and Hartnell.
Now Mike Richards, he's moving, too. Between Dan Carcillo and Lupe Garou (Joffrey Lupul).
My bigger concern, if I'm John Stevens, is not the lines, but the special teams. Their falling like shares in AIG.
The power play and penalty kill were in the top 5 back in February. The PP is 9th and the PK is 8th. March is a time about shoring up the PK because when the playoffs come, you better have good special teams because the number of power plays goes down and whichever team has the stronger units, it invariably results in key series' wins down the line.
I've said it before. No team in the modern history of the game, has won the Cup without having a PP and PK in the top 10 and in more recent times, the winner has one or both in the top 5.
The Flyers need to shore up special teams ... after they figure out the lines now that Briere is back.
For more reaction on the lines from the players themselves, see my story on CSNPhilly.com:
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