Mini-preview 9 AM EST
The Flyers (38-14-5) will look to complete a three-game sweep of their southern road trip and a season-series sweep of the Carolina Hurricanes (27-23-8) tonight when the clubs face off in Raleigh on Rod Brind'Amour Night. If the regular season ended today, the Flyers would play Carolina in the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals.
Philly enters this game having won nine straight games against the Hurricanes. Overall, the Flyers are 15-0-3 in their last 18 meetings with Carolina. The Canes' last regulation win against the Flyers came on December 19, 2006, when they downed the Flyers, 2-1, in Philadelphia. Since that time, Carolina has prevailed twice in overtime and once by shootout. Of the 15 Flyers wins in the last 18 games, 11 have been in regulation, two came in OT and two by shootout.
The Flyers need to manage their energy intelligently tonight. They are playing for the fourth time in six nights and going up against a club that has all kinds of incentive and urgency, both to end their losing streak against Philly and to start solidifying their hold on a playoff spot (Buffalo is right on Carolina's heels and the Canes have won only 4 of their last 10 games).
When the Flyers and Hurricanes last played -- a 2-1 Flyers win at the Wells Fargo Center on Feb. 10 -- Philly turned in the required lunchpail performance. It would have been easy for the Flyers to get flustered. Philly dominated the first 15 minutes of the opening period but were unable to score a goal until Jeff Carter broke a scoreless deadlock in the opening minute of the third period.
Over the course of the game, All Star goalie Cam Ward made three or four phenomenal saves for the Canes to give them a chance to win. He had no chance of stopping Danny Briere's game-winner, who had time to cradle the puck and elevate under the cross bar from a severe angle. At the other end of the ice, Brian Boucher had a tremendous game in goal for the Flyers.
The Flyers did not practice. Ville Leino (groin strain) will skate this morning with his teammates and then make a decision about whether he's ready to go for tonight's game. I will try to post lineups later today.
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Today's
Daily Drop at Versus.com talks about Rod Brind'Amour's career, focusing primarily on his contributions to the Flyers and secondarily on Carolina, with whom he actually played longer.
Elsewhere on HockeyBuzz today, be sure to check out Matt Karash's take on Brind'Amour from a Canes point of view as well as Tim Panaccio's perspective as someone who covered Roddy on a day-in and day-out basis for eight years.
I think Flyers fans will never be able to come to agreement amongst themselves whether it was Philly or Carolina that got the better end of the deal that sent Brind'Amour to the Canes in exchange for Keith Primeau. Apart from Primeau's 2004 playoff run, I'm in the camp of those who think the Canes "won" the trade. They got a Stanley Cup with Brind'Amour playing a key role and, because of Primeau's concussion issues, also got five more years of service out of Brind'Amour than the Flyers were able to get from Primeau.
I also think Flyers fans will forever debate whether the club should have pulled the trigger in the summer of 1996 on a proposed deal with what was then the Hartford Whalers that would have sent Brendan Shanahan to Philadelphia in exchange for Brind'Amour. At the time, I defended the Flyers holding onto Brind'Amour, and I still maintain that position to this day. Acquiring Shanahan would have been a boon to the Flyers but it would also have opened a big hole. Given that aging Dale Hawerchuk was limping toward the end of his career, I don't think the Flyers would even have made it to the 1997 Final if you remove Brind'Amour from the equation.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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