Any coherent thoughts about the Flyers' easy 5-2 win over the Florida Panthers last night vanished when I heard the horrifying news about the death of ex-Flyers Luke Richardson's 14-year-old daughter, Daron. It's a cliche to say things like that give you perspective and make you realize how unimportant sports are in the grand scheme of life. I can't even fathom the degree of pain the family is going through, except to know that whatever happens for the rest of their lives, good or bad, there will always be a piece of the parents' hearts missing.

I join with the countless others sending out their thoughts and condolences to the Richardson family.

As for the game at the Wells Fargo Center last night, the game resembled the one in Raleigh on Thursday, at least for the first two periods. Play was more wide open than I expected, which obviously favored the Flyers against a team like Florida that lacks much in the way of scoring pop. Sergei Bobrovsky worked hard for many of the 34 saves he had to make, and he came up with some dandies. Meanwhile, Claude Giroux continued to dazzle and Ville Leino once again showed off some amazing playmaking ability (although he failed to finish three glorious chances at point-blank range).

In the press box last night, it was said when the Flyers had a 2-0 lead and a 5-on-3 powerplay at the 7:31 mark of the middle stanza that this was going to be the key juncture of the game, one way or the other. If Florida killed it off, they were still within shouting distance with half of regulation left. If the Flyers capitalized, however, the game was probably over. Sure enough, Philly collected goals both at 5-on-3 and 5-on-4, and the rest of the game was a formality at that point. The icing on the cake was Giroux somehow settling a bouncing puck on a breakaway just long enough to get Scott Clemmensen to commit first, pull the puck to the backhand and stash it home.

****

In Glens Falls, the Phantoms lost to the Abbotsford Heat by a 4-2 score. Erik Gustafsson was initially credited with both goals for Adirondack but there was a postgame scoring change on one tally after replays showed Denis Hamel deflected the puck. Hamel now leads the team with 6 goals (in just 5 games with the club) while Gustafsson's two points increased his team scoring lead to 12 points in 16 games.

Johan Backlund was pulled from the game after the second goal of the night. Afterwards, interim coach John Paddock said that the goalie has become too tentative in net, playing too far back in the crease. According to Paddock, the player has denied that his problems this season have anything to do with his protracted recovery from off-season hip surgery. However, players always say things like that so as not to seem to be making excuses.

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