PREVIEW (7:15 AM)
The Flyers (14-13-1) finally got back on the winning side in their last game. While the club's effort against the Islanders wasn't perfect, it was good to see Mike Richards, Jeff Carter and Claude Giroux take turns scoring two goals apiece. The club still needs to shore up its penalty killing and avoid stretches of games where it gets outworked. But clearly the last game was a step in the right direction, and the two points were desperately needed.
Tonight, Philly takes on the Ottawa Senators (14-11-4), a club that it handled pretty easily last month before the bottom dropped out on the Flyers' west coast road trip. The Sens have had problems of their own of late, and have been publicly flogged by management for lacking grit and on-ice leadership.
For the most part, the Sens have been awful on the road but excellent at home. However, the team off an ugly 4-1 home loss to Montreal. Milan Michalek has been a good addition after coming over in the Dany Heatley trade, tallying 15 goals. Mike Fisher has 13 goals, including the lone Ottawa goal in the Montreal game.
STARTING LINEUP (subject to change)
Hartnell - Richards - Giroux
JVR - Carter - Briere
Laperriere - Pyorala - Asham
Nodl - Kalinski - Laliberte
Carle - Pronger
Coburn - Timonen
Bartulis - Parent
Boucher
[Backlund]
****
This week on the Philadelphia Flyers official Web site, I wrote an extensive
profile of Flyers' rookie defenseman Oskars Bartulis.
Today's
Daily Drop at Versus.com looks at Ryan Miller's shutout of the Capitals last night.
This week's Across the Pond at NHL.com takes a look at the
season to date in the Kontinental Hockey League. For those who are interested, ex-Flyers Robert Esche, Lasse Kukkonen and Patrick Thoresen have all performed very well for their respective clubs.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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