Flyers vital stats of evening during a 5-1 rout of the defending Stanley Cup champion (playing like chumps) Carolina Hurricanes: 22 blocked shots, 20 hits and 13 takeaways.

“I thought the effort was terrific,” said coach John Stevens. “…We’re looking for the type of competitiveness that comes with blocked shots and the energy and urgency which we played with tonight.”

I expected a much better effort from the Canes, despite a back-to-back where they looked dreadful on Center Ice last night in a 6-1 drubbing in Toronto.

Roddy, you're team is just 2 points out of the eighth playoff seed and yet the Flyers outplayed your club all over the ice. The last place Flyers.

You'll noticed the Flyers handle teams with speed a lot better now than they did in October. That's because they have some speed of their own.

“They’re a good skating team,” said Mike Knuble. “We can play against good skating teams as long as we’re responsible. When they start skating, they have high-end guys who can score goals. We can skate with teams as long as don’t give up defensive responsibilities.”

With Edmonton out of the playoff hunt, if Carolina doesn't make it, this would be the first time since the NHL took over the Stanley Cup in 1927 that the 2 finalists from the previous season didn't make the cut the following year.

Hard to believe Harry, the Flyers as spoilers, eh?

“We’ve talked about a lot of things the last month whatever and we don’t want to just roll over and let teams win,” said Derian Hatcher. “We have six, seven games left, we want to win them. If it happens we’re spoilers, that’s the way it is.”

BTW: I asked Lasse Kukkoken about that penalty shot called on him because of a closed hand on the puck. He was swiping it out of the crease, another bad call in the game.

Kukkonen told me, “It hit me on the goal line. I was trying to get it out [of the way], not covering it. I didn’t have a stick. It was broken.”



***

Anthony loved to argue in the press box for the sake of arguing. If I said the sky was Carolina Blue, Ant would argue it was Purple Haze.

Rob Parent has picked up the torch for Ant. He is the only person in the box tonight defending the "non-call" to Deni Gauthier. He says Gauthier turned and saw the check. I say Adams left his feet, charged from more than two strides, and began his check with Gauthier's head bent down and vulnerable.

BTW: Hatcher just scored his third goal of the season. 2-0 Flyers


***

Did anyone catch Ryan Miller's reaction to Marty Biron's contract signing with the Flyers?

Here's what he said in the Buffalo News:

"I’m glad that he’s found a situation that they appreciate what he does and he’s going to have a chance to play,” Miller told the paper. “We certainly appreciated him here, and we loved every second of having Marty on the team. He was one of my closest friends on the team, and I’m excited for him.

"We’re going to get to see a lot of him, and we’re going to have to watch out for him. We’ve got one game against him as a teaser kind of this year because they’re out of the playoff race right now and they’re a young team, but it’s going to be fun to get out there and face him. Next year, he’s going to make it tough, as we would expect.

“I hope it starts to become a fun rivalry because Marty loves to talk, and I’m sure there will be a lot of fun things going on.”


***


What a horrendous call. Not so much the double minor on Randy Jones for attacking Craig Adams, but the fact that officials don't whistle charging or boarding on Adams for taking Denis Gauthier out on the back boards with a dangerous check in which Gauthier's head was down.

Flyers lead the Canes 1-0 on Jeff Carter's rebound goal.

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