I just lost a lengthy blog about last night's game in cyberspace (the HB server doesn't save drafts and the Neptune Network server at the airport picked the worst possible time to refresh to the log-in screen when I clicked submit). Anyhow, enough of my technology gripes.

Here is the Reader's Digest version of the original blog:

* There's a huge difference in hockey between smart toughness and goonery. Last night, Sean O'Donnell's well-timed fight with Cody McCormick was a perfect example of the former. The team was coming off a terrible game and was off to rough start last night. O'Donnell stepped up and gave the team some emotion when they were trailing 1-0 and it was still early enough to do something about it.

*Ville Leino may not have gotten on the scoresheet last night but he played a whale of a game. Of course, Danny Briere continued his torrid start and Claude Giroux, Jeff Carter and Nikolay Zherdev made the highlights, but Leino was tremendous. Head coach Peter Laviolette has praised Leino's competitiveness as well as his skill, and both were on display last night.

* Today's Daily Drop at Versus.com looks at last night's game and the Flyers' "consistent inconsistency" over the last several regular seasons vs. the resolve they showed in reaching the Finals last year.

* In a twist of hockey fate, ex-Flyer Pavel Brendl is now playing for the Finnish team owned by Sami Kapanen, the man for whom Brendl and Bruno St. Jacques were traded from the Flyers to Carolina. This week's Across the Pond at NHL.com takes a look.

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