PREVIEW (11:30 AM)

Winners of seven of their last eight games, the Philadelphia Flyers will face off tonight against a San Jose Sharks team that is 9-1-3 in its last 13 games. Last month, with backup goaltender Brian Boucher in net for the Flyers, the Sharks came into Philly and won convincingly. Tonight, Ray Emery will be back in goal, opposing Evgeni Nabokov.

The Flyers cannot afford to play the way they did for much of the game in the Los Angeles the other night. They will need to win more of the one-on-one battles and do better in the faceoff circle. They absolutely need to avoid giving up any soft goals, because the Sharks earn plenty in their own right. Philly has put in solid all-around efforts for most of this month, and it's important to bring their "A" game tonight because they won't beat San Jose playing as they did for about 25 of the 60 minutes in LA.

Side note: Today on NHL.com, Adam Kimelman rightfully pointed out that tonight's game will feature a host of players with excellent shots at playing in the Olympics, including rookie Flyers defenseman Oskars Bartulis for Team Latvia. One name that got left off, as it often has, is Matt Carle (who will be the subject of the lead item planned for Meltzer's Musings on Sunday).

FLYERS LINEUP (subject to change)

JVR - Carter - Briere
Hartnell - Richards - Pyorala
Carcillo - Betts - Laperriere
Powe - Giroux - Laliberte

Carle - Pronger
Coburn - Timonen
Parent - Bartulis

Emery
[Boucher]

*****

I'd like to extend a special thank you to Joe Fisher of the Flyers Fan Club for having me come speak at their monthly meeting at the SkateZone in Voorhees, to Daily News Live and Comcast Sportsnet for having me on the program yesterday and to Al Morganti for sharing his recollections of Pelle Lindbergh and for his kind words about the book.

It was a big thrill for me to give Al his copy of the book at the SkateZone last month, because I know it meant a lot to Pelle's family in Stockholm. Morganti was always a good friend to Lindbergh, and was a huge help and comfort to the family in the hours and days after Pelle's car accident.

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