If you were to tell me before the start of the season that the Flyers would go from having the worst record in the NHL to being in first place in the Atlantic Division at the All-Star break, I'd have said you were being overly optimistic. I'd have just been satisfied with contending for a playoff spot.

That was then and this is now. There are several teams that are capable of being the one to come out of the East in the spring, and the Flyers are right in the mix. There is still work to be done in some areas -- especially defensive consistency and consistency of five-on-five play against teams that don't allow the Flyers much skating room. But this team is in the hunt and they aren't going away.

Last night's game against the Penguins was a bit frustrating for the Flyers at times because they often seemed on the brink of pulling away with the lead only to see Pittsburgh repeatedly come back to tie the score. In the past, this was the type of game that sometimes slipped away from Philly.

"I think we did a good job of staying patient. We didn't get rattled," said Mike Knuble. "We have a lot of guys who don't care what went on the past. You have to live in the present. One thing about the character of this team is that we've been pretty resilient."

For the most part, the Flyers controlled the play and were hungry for the puck. Last night was one of the few times the Flyers have outshot an opponent in all three periods, and it was a night where the shot totals were an accurate reflection of the flow of play (which isn't always the case).

I thought Philly's top three forward lines were all strong in five-on-five play. The Flyers forechecked well last night against a Penguins team that will turn over some pucks-- that's been a big factor in the Flyers 4-0 record against Pittsburgh this year.

The Jeff Carter line in particular played a whale of a game, and Carter did a tremendous checking job on Evgeni Malkin in the final minute of the game.

Defensively, I thought Kimmo Timonen was absolutely stellar. He saved the Flyers a lot of trouble on several counterattacks where the team was outnumbered and he made some terrific passes all night. His final stat line (no points, minus-one) was deceptive.

R.J. Umberger came up clutch once again against his hometown club, and was deserving of the first-star selection he received.

On the Randy Jones goal, Scott Hartnell showed tremendous patience and Jones made a great pinch into the slot with all eyes focused on Hartnell.

I also think Riley Cote deserves credit for going toe-to-toe with Georges Laraque, even though Laraque won the fight. And Steve Downie has some moxie to fight in the third period after that hit/push from behind he took from Laraque late in the second period. (More on that in the next section).

But by no means did the Flyers play a perfect game last night.

The Malkin goal in the first period came at the end of a shift where the Pens forechecked the hell out of the Flyers, and saw the Flyers guilty of several failed clears and a coverage breakdown at the end. The injury-ravaged Penguins generated a couple shifts like that each period where they suddenly started to outwork the Flyers and flurried around Martin Biron.

Flyers were also a bit loose with the puck on the powerplay, and were very lucky they only gave up one shorthanded goal (which should have been waved off on the ice).

I'm not one who often complains about officiating, but I thought last night's game was horribly officiated by Dan O'Halloran and Greg Kimmerly.

Both teams were victimized by some poor calls, although I'm strongly of the belief that officials don't determine the final outcome of a game. Even the most questionable call is set up by the actions of the players. That said, some key calls last night were botched.

On the Flyers side, Daniel Briere was careless in skating through the crease on the goaltender interference call that led to Petr Sykora's goal that tied the game 2-2. Briere is at fault for even putting himself in that position.

But Briere's contact with Ty Conklin was so light and incidental to the play that no one on the Pittsburgh side would've even batted an eye if it were let go. Nineteen times out of 20, there's no call and play just carries on. Sykora's deflection goal came on a nicely executed powerplay sequence capped by Sergei Gonchar putting a perfect shot at the net.

Whitney's shorthander that tied the game 3-3 in the closing seconds of Laraque's major penalty never should have been allowed in the first place.

Jordan Staal was not pushed into the crease as he crashed the net, the puck came back out the other side and was put in by Whitney as Staal was pushing the net off its peg.

The goal should have instantly been waved off immediately for interference. It was as clear-cut as it gets. This wasn't a toe in the crease or anything incidental to the goal being scored. Staal sliding into the crease and still being there when the puck was a couple feet in front of the net directly contributed to the goal.

Unfortunately, because the ruling on the ice was a goal (i.e., no interference), the only thing that was reviewable was whether the net was pushed off before Whitney shot the puck in, which it wasn't by a fraction of a second. But the play never should have gone to a review in the first place. How did the on-ice officials NOT see the interference?

Of course, the Flyers only have themselves to blame for allowing the scoring chance in the first place. Jim Vandermeer directly contributed the counterattack opportunity.

Meanwhile, the Penguins were victimized by a weak hooking penalty on Ryan Malone in the last minute of play as Mike Richards was trying to clear the puck. In the last minute of a one-goal game, that's just a brutal call on a borderline play.

But as with the ones that went against the Flyers, the Penguins can only look at themselves. They were the ones chasing the game much of the night, and even if that play is let go, they still had to find a way to come up with yet another equalizer. That the Pens came up a goal short was not the fault of the officials.

******

Georges Laraque fully deserves to be suspended by the NHL for his dangerous, deliberate push from behind on Steve Downie near the boards. The league tends to hand out suspensions based on results of the play, so I figure it will only be a game or two.

The Penguins claimed, both immediately after the hit and after the game, that Downie took a dive into the boards and embellished the impact.

First of all, all you have to do is look at the way Downie's neck snapped upon impact to know he wasn't in control of his body as he went into the boards -- unless you think Downie is crazy enough to nearly break his own neck looking for a penalty.

As John Stevens said after the game, Laraque knew full well what he was doing. It wasn't a case of trying to finish a check.

Laraque said afterwards that if he really threw his weight into Downie, there's no way Downie would've come back into the game. He's right, of course. But a push from behind is still plenty dangerous -- and unnecessary -- in that instance.

Downie is not a player who generates much sympathy, because of the way he plays. But to his credit, he's also not a player who whines when he's on the receiving end. Love him or hate him, he's not a hypocrite.

After the game, Downie resisted taking any verbal shots at Laraque and said that he shouldn't have put himself in a vulnerable spot in that situation. He said that he felt a "stinger" in his neck afterwards but was otherwise OK.

Downie's game misconduct after fighting Ryan Stone in the third period was for not having his fight-strap tied down. Downie said that he always ties it down and had it tied down earlier in the game. He said he may have forgotten to re-do it after being examined by the training staff in between the second and third periods.

***

Now that we've reached the All-Star break, it's a good time to check in again on the recent play of the Flyers' defensemen and defense pairings.

The defense has been under a lot of scrutiny as a potential trouble spot of the team come playoff time. In reality, the Flyers have seven bonafide NHL defensemen on the roster for the first time in many years. Any one of the Flyers' defensemen is capable of cranking out solid play. But the mix of players still seems a little bit less than ideal.

Unless the Flyers make a trade, I would like to see the Flyers either dress all seven defensemen or else do one of the following:

A) Go back to Timonen-Smith, Coburn-Hatcher, and Kukkonen-Jones as the pairings, and make Vandermeer the 7th D. Those were the combos at the start of the season until Hatcher went down, and they all worked out fairly well, or

B) Rotate Smith, Hatcher, Vandermeer and Kukkonen as the one to sit, depending on the opponent and whether the Flyers are playing on back-to-back nights. It's not hard to sell this idea with a mantra of "We have seven capable defensemen, and we want to rest our veterans."

Do I think John Stevens will do that? No, I think he'll keep starting the same six he starts now every night unless someone gets hurt. I think I understand the rationale for the current pairings, but I still don't agree with them.


Kimmo Timonen: Last night's game showed once again why Timonen is a deserving All-Star defenseman, regardless of what his plus-minus numbers (now -2) look like. He is so good at both ends of the ice, so intelligent with and without the puck and so smooth and decisive that it's easy to take him for granted sometimes.

The real issue is finding a good partner for him. That isn't easy.

Because Timonen lacks size, he ideally needs to play with a big, physical defenseman. But the player also needs to be mobile, good with the puck and positionally sound. The Flyers are more vulnerable on switch-offs and plays that develop on the other side of the ice. Timonen prefers to play left defense, and as such, needs a partner who can accomodate that.

There have been nights where Jim Vandermeer has foot the bill better than Randy Jones (too turnover prone against top lines, not particularly physical) or Jason Smith (not mobile enough or good enough with the puck) did earlier in the season. But Vandermeer has also had some awful games, and is prone to blowing coverages. Lasse Kukkonen has played a little bit with Timonen as well. He's very strong on coverages and rarely turns the puck over, but he's too small and weak physically to make a good regular partner for Timonen.

Among players on the current roster, that leave Braydon Coburn and Derian Hatcher.

Coburn has many of the needed attributes to play with Timonen (size, speed, etc) but himself is more comfortable and effective on left defense. Besides, he is still fairly inexperienced at the NHL level, and the second pairing is probably his best fit.

That leaves Hatcher. But Hatcher works best in the trenches, behind the net and clearing the porch. Hatcher gets in trouble when the pace of play picks up. He also plays better when his ice time is not routinely overextended. His bad knees, lack of mobility and problems recovering after turnovers start to come into play when he gets too many minutes.

Jim Vandermeer: For the most part, I thought Vandermeer had a good game against the Penguins (even apart from his goal), after a mediocre game against Ottawa and a truly horrendous outing against the Devils. I understand the rationale for starting him and playing him with Timonen.

But I still think the Flyers can do better, and when you weigh his assets and liabilities against those of Lasse Kukkonen, I'd rather have Kukkonen's predictable play over Vandermeer's unpredictability.

In watching Vandermeer since he's come back to Philly, it's tough to get any read on him.

Some games he's physical, some games he's oddly passive. Sometimes he's positionally aware, sometimes he's way out of position. Sometimes he's decisive, sometimes he's caught in no man's land because he's indecisive. And sometimes he shows a bit of an offensive game and other times it looks like he couldn't pass or shoot the puck into the ocean.

A defensive defenseman's primary responsibility, first and foremost, is to do no harm to his team. The score should be the same when he finishes his shift as when he started it.
In my opinion-- and you may disagree-- there are too many times when Vandermeer fails in that mission to feel comfortable proceeding with him as a starting six defenseman.

Stevens has confidence in Vandermeer so he's staying in the lineup, barring a trade for a higher caliber defenseman.

Derian Hatcher: Hatch had a brutal night against the Penguins last night. Of late, he's been caught in a stretch of games where he's been making at least one major mistake per game that ends up in the net. But the Pittsburgh game was really the first one in awhile where I didn't think he also contributed a lot of quality shifts in his own end of the ice. Last night, he struggled with and without the puck and was frequently out of position.

Every once in awhile, when the Flyers are moving up ice, Hatcher seems to think he's been possessed by the spirit of his now-retired brother, Kevin. He'll follow the rush all the way up the ice and look to get into shooting position. But whereas Kevin had a dynamite shot and could finish, Derian doesn't and can't. If Hatcher (Derian or Kevin) gets caught pinching, there's no prayer of him getting back. He did that twice last night.

Jason Smith: Smith, like Hatcher, is a warrior. I addressed his situation yesterday. In terms of ice time, he's become the Flyers' 6th defenseman in many games since his return to the lineup. Smith is a valuable shot-blocker and a great leader. His real value will be seen in the trench warfare that is the playoffs. There's no way the Flyers should -- or will -- think about trading their captain.

But Smith is a UFA after the season. I know there has been a lot of talk about the Flyers making a priority of re-signing him. But with Hatcher here providing many of the same elements to the club, committing big money to a player of Smith's age and skill set may not be the wisest move.

Ryan Parent is in the pipeline and probably could be playing in the NHL now. He's considerably more mobile than Smith. Also there's a younger, cheaper player on the curren NHL roster in Lasse Kukkonen. Lasse delivers essentially the same bottom line results(albeit with less of a physical edge) as Smith-- he helps keep pucks out of the Flyers' net.

Over the remainder of the regular season this year, I would like to see Hatcher and Smith rested on occassion. I'd also prefer to not see them partnered so much on the penalty kill and late in games, because of their collective lack of mobility.

Braydon Coburn: In the not-too-distant future, Coburn may emerge as a legitimate top-pairing defenseman. As it is now, he's already a very good second-pairing player and is getting better all the time.

Coburn is a better player now than he was in training camp and is markedly more confident and decisive than he was in the final months of last season. It's been gratifying to watch him expand his game. He can make difficult plays look routine at times because he's so fast for such a big man and has a high skill level.

I don't think Coburn will ever be a huge point producer, but he does chip in some offense. More importantly, his defensive play and all-around consistency should only continue to improve. Like any young defenseman, there are nights where you realize he still has some learning to do.

Randy Jones: As a third-pairing defenseman, Jones has been an asset to the team. As a first pairing defenseman getting 20-plus minutes, he got exposed.

After a great start, Jones endured a stretch of relatively poor play that spanned 16 games. But ever since he's been returned to the third pairing, Jones' game has rounded back into shape. Of late, he's been contributing points regularly and has played better all-around defense (with some notable exceptions, such as the blown coverage on Johhny Oduya in the Devils game).

Without a doubt, Jones' best chemistry this season has been with Kukkonen. As a defensive pairing, they are plus-10. The Jones-Smith pairing has been just OK, although they've exhibited better chemistry of late.

Last night, Jones made a very astute pinch on the play that led to his goal. In fact, he's been making some nice offensive plays in each of the last four or five games.

Lasse Kukkonen: I hate to keep repeating this same stat, but in his last 10 games (131 minutes), Kukkonen has been out for just one powerplay goal against and zero even strength goals against. He deserved to stay in the lineup, especially as his foot injury finally seemed to be healed. He moved around well in his last couple games, which he hadn't been doing the six previous weeks.

Kukkonen is not very big or strong, so he gets outmuscled at times. But he's very much a bend-but-don't-break defender. He usually finds a way to recover and either block the shot, take away the passing lane or force a shot from a bad angle. I'd liken him to a pitcher who lacks overpowering stuff but seems to find a way to get outs.

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