Say what you will about the Flyers' tendency to make winnable games difficult for themselves. The club also deserves credit for the resiliency it developed last season during the stretch drive and playoffs, which has carried over to this season. Last night's game is one that I think the Flyers would have lost in previous seasons.
The club dug itself an early 2-0 hole against Ryan Miller, who had been brilliant in his previous two starts. There was nothing wrong with the way Miller played last night. Philly simply rendered him a non-factor, as I blog about in today's
Daily Drop at Versus.com.
Sergei Bobrovsky got off to shaky start in last night's game, and survived some hairy moments in the latter stages of the first period where he got himself out of position but either recovered to make saves, benefited from a blocked shot by a teammate or the Sabres missed the net with room to shoot. As the game progressed, though, he got locked in. Over the final 40 minutes of the game, the Russian rookie was a brick wall. Hopefully, his 38-save performance got him back on track for whenever his next start will be.
Danny Briere made a farce out of his snub for the All-Star Game with a four-point game against his former team. Meanwhile, Scott Hartnell registered a Gordie Howe Hat Trick (2 G, 1 A, fight with Paul Gaustad). Ville Leino got the game-winning goal in a classic case of hard work creating a lucky bounce for his club.
Miscellaneous notes and stats:
* The Flyers now have a record of 9-8-3 when allowing the first goal of the game. The Capital are the only other team in the NHL with an above-.500 record (12-11-2) when trailing first.
* Someone posted an interesting stat on the message board of yesterday's blog that I have not had a chance to double-check for accuracy but wanted to pass along: The Flyers are undefeated this season in games where Nikolay Zherdev has been out of the lineup. While that's obviously just a coincidence if true, it does speak to the fact that Zherdev's goal-scoring prowess is just a luxury item for this Flyers club.
* Leino's game winning goal made him the eighth Flyers player to hit double-digit goals with the season one game past the midway point. With his plus-two on the night, Leino moved into third place in the NHL in that category (he's now at plus-22). I'm still not sure why Leino was not credited with an assist on Hartnell's empty net goal, as the Finn was the one who cleared the defensive zone and sent to puck directly ahead to Briere.
* The Sabres outshot the Flyers by a 12-3 mark through the first 10 minutes of the opening stanza. Although Buffalo had the better of play early and significantly outshot Philly in the second period (15-6), the Flyers ended up outshooting the Sabres (30-28) over the final 50 minutes of the game.
* Andrej Meszaros (plus-two) is now plus-29 on the season, and continues to lead the NHL in the category. My profile of Meszaros for
the Flyers official Web site was completed over a week ago and should be posted to the site today or over the next couple days. When it runs, I'll post notice on the message board, Twitter, and Facebook.
*****
There was a big scare in Sweden shortly before New Years when it was learned that former NHL player Nils Ekman suffered a stroke on Dec. 28. The 34-year-old was hospitalized after complaining of a migraine headache, numbness on one side of his body and blurred vision.
Thankfully, the long-term prognosis for the Djurgarden winger is promising, although he'll miss the rest of the current season. This week's
Across the Pond updates Ekman's condition and takes a look at his uneven, and sometimes controversial career.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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