Closing the deal
It will be very interesting to see how well the Flyers do on Friday in Buffalo after going four days without a game. Teams often struggle the first game back after a long layoff, but the Flyers have been a better road team than home team so far this year.
Last night's 4-3 win over the Thrashers was the Flyers first regulation win on home ice this season. The club has only put together three consecutive good periods at home once this season -- the 3-2 overtime win over the Devils on October 25. To be fair, last night's nearly disastrous third period came at the tail end of a stretch of playing three games in four nights and four games in six nights.
Tired legs notwithstanding, this Flyers team has major problems protecting third period leads. Last night marked the fifth time this season the Flyers were unable lock down a game they led after two periods. The Flyers' blew third period leads against Montreal, San Jose, the Islanders, the Penguins and the Thrashers and went on to lose three of those five games.
Until that problem is corrected -- it stretches back to the post-All Star break period of last season right up until now -- this Flyers team is going to continue to hover around .500. Joffrey Lupul's tremendous goal last night may have saved the day and sent everyone home happy, but the big-picture concern hasn't changed.
The Flyers are also going to have to overcome fatigue, because every team has to deal with it. After their four-day layoff, the Flyers will play six games in nine days.
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Kovalev's elbow
There are numerous articles today about Alexei Kovalev's elbow to Simon Gagne's head on Saturday, including one here and at CSNPhilly.com by Tim. I think the ground has been pretty well covered, but I don't think it serves much practical purpose complaining about why such-and-such player was suspended and another one wasn't.
There will never be equal, consistent disciplinary action in the NHL, either by referees or the league. That's just the reality.
The fundamental problem is that players don't play with any sense of accountability or respect. It's an epidemic problem that touches every team at every level. I'm not advocating vigilante justice, but there needs to be a system of accountability somewhere, if the league won't do it and if players won't police themselves.
Not all that long ago, there were referees who allowed players to stay in games after cheap shots with full knowledge that said player would have to face the music for what he did. One time I can clearly remember was in 1995-96 after Marc Bureau's deliberate and vicious elbow that sent Petr Svoboda to the hospital. Don Van Massenhoven gave Bureau a major penalty but let him stay in the game, and the linesmen didn't exactly rush in when Craig MacTavish later thrashed Bureau in a fight.
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Waiting for Claude
Several posters have asked when the Flyers will bring up top prospect Claude Giroux from the Phantoms. The club does not want a situation where Giroux yo-yos back and forth between the NHL and AHL, and could potentially be a healthy scratch with the big club. After a slow start, Giroux has played better of late (16 games, 5 G, 8 A, 13 PTS, -8, 4 PPG).
However, he is not yet at the level of consistency with and without the puck that he needs to be to in order to be ready to make an impact on the club. In addition, offensive prowess isn't a problem with the Flyers right now. The Flyers want to win more of the little battles on a consistent basis, and the smallish Giroux really hasn't done that consistently either during training camp or during the early part of the regular season. He's making progress, but he's not there yet.
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Gagne joins exclusive club
When Simon Gagne scored two shorthanded goals in the second period of the Flyers' shootout loss in Pittsburgh last Thursday, he became the fourth Flyers player to score two shorthanded goals in the same period. The others:
* On
April 1, 1978, Bill Barber scored twice on the same penalty kill in the Flyers' 4-2 win over Los Angeles.
* On
January 13, 1985, Brian Propp tallied a hat trick in the Flyers' 7-1 romp over the Calgary Flames. In the second period of the game, he scored a pair of SHGs. Dave Poulin, who also scored a shortie of his own in this game, assisted on both of Propp's SHGs.
* In the Flyers'
series-clinching 6-3 win over Pittsburgh in the 1997 Eastern Conference Quarterfinals, Rod Brind'Amour scored twice on the same penalty kill late in the first period, turning a 2-1deficit into a 3-2 lead.
Bobby Clarke once had two SHGs in the same game (scoring a PPG and two SHGs in a 3-3 tie against the Atlanta Flames on March 24, 1974), but the goals were scored in different periods.
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Cabana released
The Flyers have pared down their NHL contracts to 48. The team
released minor leaguer Freddy Cabana.
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Aubin struggling
Right now, the two-way contract that the Flyers signed veteran goaltender J-S Aubin to when Antero Nittymäki went down in the preseason is looking like a bad move. While Aubin hasn't been helped by having an inexperienced team in front of him, the goaltender has also been allowing more than his share of stoppable pucks get by him.
His performance to date (3.66 GAA, .887 SV% in 541 minutes played) ranks 43rd among the 46 goaltenders who have suited up in the AHL this season.
Contact Bill at
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