Flyers lose to the Senators 3-2 in Ottawa last night.
Therien time was in full affect with the Flyers being out played and out shot 14-7 in the first period.
Nineteen seconds into the second period the Flyers were down 3-0. Soon after the Flyers decided to show up and play. Simon Gagne picked up his 37 goal of the season making it 3-1 at 13:46. Donald Brashear scored on a redirection, his second goal in two games at 16:52 of the second period to make it 3-2. That was it for scoring. All goals were at even strength, both teams went 0-3 on the power play.

Robert Esche started the game which was a surprise to me since he played 3 straight along with the game the night before. After giving up two goals on 13 shots Esche was pulled at 14:07 in the first period.

Hitchcock on the goalie change. “It was a wakeup call. We needed to get something changed because we were on our heels. It certainly wasn’t a reflection on (Esche), he played fine.”

So that’s the line. Personally I think his play was a little weak. The Flyers did need a wakeup call, unfortunately it didn’t happen until midway thru the second period.

Antoine Vermette, Antero Niittymaki and Chris Kelly were the three stars.

The negatives to the game were the Flyers lose again, three straight road losses. The first period was bad, again. And the Flyers were scored on first, again.
The positives were that no one got injured, they did not give up a power play goal and they mounted some sort of come back unlike the recent Tampa Bay and Montreal games.

After the game Ottawa recognized all Olympics athletes that played in the game. Not only the Canadians, but also the Americans, Swedes, Finns, etc. It was a nice little ceremony, a class act by the Ottawa organization.

Jon Sim picked up another goal with the Florida Panthers. I believe that’s 6 now since he has been traded for a late round draft pick.