The Flyers have now five games in a row and grabbed 15 of a possible 18 points so far in December to elevate the club to its best start through 34 games (22-7-5) since the Mike Keenan era. What makes the current run so impressive is that the Flyers accomplished it against a gauntlet of top teams in the Eastern Conference, and all but the win against the Bruins were accomplished in regulation.
Yesterday afternoon, the Flyers did exactly what they needed to do against a New York Rangers club that was playing for the third time in four days. Philly brought a lot of energy early, gradually wore down the Rangers and then won going away in the third period.
In the meantime, Nikolay Zherdev showed for the third straight game what he can do when he feels motivated to compete. He's scored five goals in his last five games, but just as import, has been a good fit on a line with James van Riemsdyk and Jeff Carter. He's shown an increased effort level when the puck isn't on his stick. It's going to very interesting to see what he does when the team embarks on its upcoming road trip after Christmas. That will be a very good test for the player as well as for the team.
Tomorrow's game against Florida has "trap" written all over it. Everything is going so smoothly for the Flyers right now -- with the key exception of having lost Chris Pronger to the broken bone in his foot -- and Florida (14-16-0, last place in the Southeast Division) is the first lower-tier club the Flyers have faced since Dec. 9. in Toronto. With an eight-day break coming up after tomorrow, it would be very easy for the Flyers to take an early vacation mentally and then have to scramble to try to get one or two points against Florida.
You can be sure the message that Peter Laviolette is stressing to his club today and tomorrow is to jump on Florida early and not even give the Panthers a sniff of an upset. The longer Florida hangs around, the more dangerous they become -- and chasing the game against the Panthers is most certainly not the position the Flyers want to put themselves in.
*****
During Craig Ramsay's brief tenure as the Flyers head coach, I feel like he got something of a raw deal. The club was dealing with constant drama surrounding Eric Lindros, Roger Nielson's illness and John LeClair's back injury. On top of it all, young goaltender Brian Boucher struggled miserably his second season after starring as a rookie. That would have made life almost impossible on any coach. Ramsay, who also had a 21-game interim stint with Buffalo, took the fall in Philadelphia for a lot of problems that he had no role in creating and little chance of fixing.
Flyers fans didn't particularly like Rammer, because he was stepping in for the popular Neilson (the already awkward situation was handled poorly from a PR standpoint), because the club had blown a 3-1 series lead in the Eastern Conference Finals against New Jersey and because Ramsay lacks a fiery personality. But, around the hockey world, Ramsay is one of the game's most well-respected teachers and has been a prolific assistant coach. Finally, the Atlanta Thrashers took a chance on hiring Ramsay as their head coach this season, and he has the club in first place in the Southeast Division.
Today's
Daily Drop Versus.com looks at Ramsay at the Thrashers.
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