PREVIEW 10:30 AM ET
Coming off a dominant 5-2 win against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday, the Flyers (3-3-1) travel to Columbus to take on the Blue Jackets (4-3-0) before returning home to play the Sabres tomorrow night. Tonight's game will mark the only meeting of the season between Philly and Columbus and just the 10th game between the two franchises. To date, the Flyers have a 5-1 record with 3 ties before the adoption of the shootout. The teams played once last season (Jan. 19), with Jeff Carter scoring a pair of goals en route to a 5-3 Flyers victory.
On Saturday, Flyers captain Mike Richards had his best game of the young season, scoring his first goal of the campaign en route to taking first star honors. He needs to build off that game after playing uninspired hoceky in the first six games of the season. The shakeup of the first and third forward lines seemed to help on Saturday. Meanwhile, the second line combo of Danny Briere flanked by Scott Hartnell and Ville Leino had its second straight outstanding game.
The Flyers went just 1-for-6 on the powerplay on Saturday night (including an unsuccessful five-minute advantage in the third period) but showed greatly improved puck movement compared to any previous game this season. The powerplay, which still stands at a measly 9.1% success ratio, at least seems to be moving in the right direction. The penalty kill has been strong all season, erasing 89.7% of opposing opportunities. Considering the fact that the Flyers take so many minor penalties and their own powerplay hasn't been converting, the PK work has been crucial.
Philly is still looking to get Jeff Carter, James van Riemsdyk and Nikolay Zherdev going offensively and to get a few goal-scoring contributions from the defense to open things up for the forwards. Carter did not get on the board against Toronto but looked much more comfortable now that he's been moved back to center. In the Toronto game, JVR looked for the first time like he was starting to press a little. He needs to get back to his efforts of previous games. Zherdev was ineffective again on Saturday, but may be motivated to play against his original team.
On the Columbus side, the team has had an up-and-down ride over the last week. They got blown out, 6-2, on Friday by a Calgary Flames team that has had major trouble scoring goals so far this season. But the Jackets rebounded nicely the next night, battling back from a two-goal deficit to upend the defending Stanley Cup champion Chicago Backhawks.
Old friend R.J. Umberger has been the best player for Columbus on a game-in and game-out basis. Not only has he produced a team-best 4 goals and 7 points but he has easily been the most consistent two-way player at even strength. Umberger has been like a bulldog in board battles and plays around the net so far this season and had several impressive takeaways in both the Calgary and Chicago games. On the flip side, Rick Nash (3 G, 0 A, -4) could stand to pick up the pace a bit in the early going.
The Blue Jackets' powerplay has been almost as futile as Philly's so far. Columbus has connected at a 10% clip. Kristian Huselius (3 G, 2 PPG, 5 PTS) and Marc Methot (4 A) both came up limping in the Chicago game and will be evaluated today for their readiness to play in the game. Meanwhile, the Jackets have killed off 82.9% of their own penalties.
Columbus' third-year goaltender, Steve Mason (3.18 GAA, .900 SV%), has remained inconsistent so far this season after his highly disappointing sophomore NHL campaign of a year ago. It has been reported that backup Mathieu Garon will get his second start of the season tonight. He allowed two goals in a victory over Minnesota on Oct. 16. Garon started against the Flyers last season but was eventually pulled.
As usual, Flyers coach Peter Laviolette has declined to name a starting goalie for tonight's tilt ahead of time. It is believed to be Brian Boucher, but whether it will be Boosh or Sergei Bobrovsky will not be known for certain until after the morning skate.
Possible lineups (subject to change)
FLYERS
JVR - Carter - Zherdev
Hartnell - Briere- Leino
Powe - Richards - Giroux
Shelley - Betts -Carcillo
Pronger - Carle
Coburn - Timonen
Meszaros - O'Donnell
Boucher/Bobrovsky
BLUE JACKETS
Nash - Brassard - Voracek
Umberger - Vermette - Clark
Huselius - Pahlsson - Clark
Filatov - MacKenzie - Wilson
Hejda - Stralman
Tyutin - Holden
Methot - Klesla
Garon
[Mason]
******
The Phantoms put forth an improved effort last evening in Hershey but were unable to hold an early 2-0 lead and ended up going down to a 4-2 defeat to fall to 2-6-1 on the season. Patrick Maroon (1 G, 1 A) was named the game's second star, while Erik Gustafsson and Joonas Lehtivuori assisted on Maroon's early first period PPG. The goal was Maroon's team-best 5th of the season. Midway through the first period, Maroon and Mike Testwuide assisted on a Jon Kalinski goal to extend the lead to 2-1.
The two-goal lead held for a little over two minutes, but the Bears cashed in a powerplay to trim the deficit to one. Adirondack maintained a one-goal margin until there was just 1:04 left in the middle stanza when Andrew Joudrey tied the game. The forward line of David Laliberte, Eric Wellwood and Greg Moore and defensive pairing of Kevin Marshall and Oskars Bartulis was on the ice for the Phantoms at the time of the breakdown.
In the third period, Andrew Gordon put the Bears up for good on a powerplay goal with 6:11 remaining in regulation, converting a Zac Rinaldo penalty that came 32 seconds after the team had finished killing off a Mike Testwuide interference minor. Hershey added an backbreaking insurance goal by Ashton Rome. The same offensive line as the goal that made it 2-2 was out for the Phantoms, plus the defensive duo of Marshall and J.P. Testwuide.
Johan Backlund, who has been bombarded with rubber so far this season, had the night off with the club playing for the third consecutive day. Brian Stewart got the start, stopping 30 of 34 shots. The Phantoms generated 27 shots of their own.
*****
To a minority of fans, there are a few players on the home team who seemingly can do no wrong in their eyes and one or two who can do no right. Once these folks decide they don't like a player, it's almost as if they hold a personal grudge against him.
These folks dwell exclusively on the player's mistakes, almost taking a certain glee in his failure. This phenomenon started to become evident when sports talk radio boomed and has grown by leaps and bounds in the internet age. Nevertheless, it is still quite rare for a player to get booed by his home crowd even when he's playing well and the home side is winning a game.
That's what happened last night in New York, as a vocal minority of the crowd booed beleaguered defenseman Michal Rozsival (who has actually played pretty well this year) even when he scored the game's first goal and assisted on the second. Today's
Daily Drop at Versus.com looks at Rozsival's topsy turvy ride with the Rangers.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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