Last night's 2-1 win in Long Island marked the Flyers' best 60-minute effort in several weeks. It is true that the Flyers tend to find ways to beat the Islanders no matter what else has been going on.
The win last night was Philly's 13th consecutive victory over the Islanders, which is the NHL's current longest active winning streak for any team against an opponent. Even so, the Flyers played a solid game in pretty much every facet, and finally looked like a club that's starting to head in the right direction.
Start with the Jeff Carter line. The trio of Carter, Daniel Briere and Scott Hartnell was outstanding last night, accounting for both Philly goals and producing a third goal that was waved off because it was ruled that Briere kicked the puck as he crashed the net. The call was iffy, although the puck clearly went in off Briere's skate. I will comment on that play a little later.
Beyond the Carter trio, the Flyers got solid shifts from the Mike Richards, Darroll Powe and Blair Betts lines. The defense held up fairly well, although Chris Pronger looked bad on the Islanders rush that ended up with ex-Flyer Jon Sim tallying the lone Islanders goal. Third-string goalie Michael Leighton turned in another commendable effort in goal. With the exception of Dan Carcillo taking a dumb even-up penalty, Philly also played a disciplined game.
With the Flyers struggling mightily on special teams of late, it was helpful that most of the game was played at even strength. Special teams was not a factor last night, as both teams faced only two penalty kills apiece and were not scored upon. That's an area where the Flyers will still need to show improvement in the games to come. In addition, it would be helpful to the offensive attack in even strength and power play situations if defensemen Pronger, Kimmo Timonen and/or Matt Carle start contributing to the offense again.
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Have you ever accidentally kicked an object as you've walked or run past it? We all have. Last night's waved-off Danny Briere goal revealed a flaw in the NHL's rule about pucks directed in off an attacking player's skate. The rule states that the goal should be allowed to stand unless there's "a distinct kicking motion" that directs the puck into the net.
The current rule primarily exists to prevent players from deliberately kicking loose pucks into the net if they can't get to it with their sticks. The goal stands if the puck simply deflects or rebounds off a skate and goes over the line.
Last night's goal, however, fell into the gray area. Briere definitely kicked the puck into the net as his momentum carried him by the left post but the kick was also clearly accidental. He had lost sight of the puck and was moving so fast that there was no way he was trying to direct the puck with his skate.
Under the strictest interpretation of the rule, however, I suppose it was the correct call.
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Click
here for webcasts of today's World Junior Championships games.
In the most dramatic game at the WJC so far, Finland erased a 3-0 deficit and rode a three-goal third period to a 4-3 win over the woeful Czech Republic team yesterday. Beyond the short-term implications of the Czechs' second straight regulation loss, it is really sad to see what has happened to the once-proud Czech hockey program.
The 10-1 loss the Czechs suffered at the hands of Sweden on Saturday is not all that far from being reflective of the ground the Czechs have lost in the last five to seven years. There's a lot of blame to go around, but the bottom line is that the prospect well has pretty much run dry in recent years.
The resources aren't there anymore to develop the steady flow of prospects from youth to hockey maturity, in part because the programs that develop these players rarely see any reward from the process. There are a lot of poorly run clubs in the Czech Republic nowadays and they are being hurt by some short-sighted decisions as well as the lingering effects of lost sponsorship money during the global economic crisis.
From a hockey standpoint, most of the half-decent young Czech players never play a game in the Extraliga during their formative years, at least not until their NHL dreams go bust. There has been a little bit of progress in this area, but not enough. Canadian junior teams deserve their fair share of the blame, too, by overdrafting mid-range Czech (and Slovak) players and leaving the cupboard almost bare.
The saddest part is that there is no evidence that playing Canadian junior hockey actually makes the imported junior players into better NHL players (or even AHL or ECHL players) than they would have been if they'd developed at home and signed a pro contract with an NHL team once they have matured as players. And when these players are hastily assembled onto the Czech U20 national team, they often play like strangers.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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