UPDATE 4 PM EST

The Flyers lone move today was to acquire Tom Sestito from Columbus in exchange for prospect Michael Chaput (their 3rd round pick in the 2010 Entry Draft) and veteran minor league forward Greg Moore.

The younger brother of New Jersey's Tim Sestito, the 23-year-old is a big role-playing forward who can be plugged into the Flyers' NHL lineup and did not cost a roster player to acquire. Chaput, who will turn 19 next month, may also have a role-playing NHL future ahead of him in a few years, but Sestito can play now and adds size and muscle up front.

Sestito will assigned to Adirondack but is available in case of injury. He figures to be a spare player on the Flyers' playoff roster.


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If and when the Flyers make any trades today on deadline day, I will update today's blog with my commentary shortly after the deal is confirmed by the club. The name most commonly tied to the Flyers heading into today is Florida forward Marty Reasoner but it's just as likely that the club winds up standing pat.

Of course, despite the club's insistence that there is no interest in acquiring Tomas Vokoun and that the team is happy with Sergei Bobrovsky and Brian Boucher, it's not lack of interest but lack of cap flexibility that precludes such a deal. Acquiring Vokoun would likely require moving out at least one of the team's starting defensemen (probably Matt Carle or Braydon Coburn) as well as someone like James van Riemsdyk. It just isn't going to happen.

That being said, I know that it's been fashionable around the league ever since last year's Stanley Cup Final to say that you don't need much more than adequate goaltending to win the Cup if the other pieces are in place. My take: You can win without a big-name goalie but the guy had better play like one for the majority of the playoffs, especially in the final two rounds.

Last year's Final was an aberration in that neither Antti Niemi nor Michael Leighton played all that well in the last round. But Leighton had posted three shutouts in the Conference Final against Montreal and Niemi was a big part of the reason why the Blackhawks looked unbeatable in storming through the Western Conference playoffs. Add a soft goal per game into the mix (on either side) and it can turn the outcome of a series regardless of how the rest of the team is playing. The playoffs will always expose your biggest weaknesses.

I firmly believe that goaltending and both ends of special teams are still the biggest factors in playoff success. With this current Flyers club, I am more concerned by the club's three-month long struggle on the power play and their streakiness on the penalty kill than about the goaltending. But I'd be lying if I said that I felt fully confident that goaltending will not become an issue if the Flyers need either Boucher or Bobrovsky to steal a couple games in a series or if they run into an opposing goalie playing the way that Jaroslav Halak did last year in Montreal's comeback upsets of Washington and Pittsburgh.

The Flyers' plan for this season was to try to cover any deficiencies in goal with a deep defense and three scoring lines. For the most part it has worked very well, and there's no reason to suddenly deviate from that plan. But the club will absolutely need to correct its special teams and problems putting other teams away with multiple-goal leads if it is to deliver on the promise of this season. If the club has to rely on Boucher or Bobrovsky (individually or in tandem) to get them over the hump, the plan will have failed.

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After Saturday's 4-1 loss in Ottawa, the Flyers made the expected roster move to send rookie Erik Gustafsson back to the Phantoms and recall James van Riemsdyk from his emergency demotion in order to comply with the NHL roster limit.

The club benefits from not playing again until Thursday, which will give Chris Pronger (wrist/hand contusion) time to heal. He is slated to practice this week. If his hand is still bothering him too much to play against Toronto on Thursday, Nick Boynton will make his Flyers debut. Meanwhile, fourth line center and key penalty killer Blair Betts (lacerated finger) is doing much better and should definitely be ready to go by Thursday.


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One of the biggest flaws in Scott Hartnell's game has always been his tendency to take bad minor penalties. He has made a concerted effort over the last few months to cut down on his minors that leave the club shorthanded. Since the All-Star break, in fact, he has only taken 3 minor penalties, including his late-game penalty in Ottawa that resulted in the Sens' fourth goal of the already-decided game. Over the last 27 games, Hartnell has taken 7 minors, plus a pair of fighting majors.

The flip side of the coin: One could also argue that Hartnell is less effective when he's not pushing the envelope. His goal late in the first period of the Senators game broke a stretch of five games without a goal and one tally in 12 games.

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