So the vacation is over. No more fun in the sun. No more playing a team like the Panthers. The Flyers lost to the Lightning 6-3. And like many games recently the Flyers lost on the Penalty Kill. Four of the 6 Lightning goals were on the Power Play.
Peter Forsberg scored a rare short handed goal for himself. Jeff Carter picked up a power play goal. Niko Dimitrakos picked up his first goal as a Flyer off a bad clearing attempt by John Grahame.
Even with giving up 5 goals Robert Esche still had a decent game. Deflections hurt him early but it did seem he didn’t look comfortable moving laterally.
That game was the worse officiated game I have seen in quite some time. Officiating is not the blame for the lost. Officiating was just bad. It was hard to tell whether the calls themselves were just bad or if some very soft calls were intentional to make up for previous bad calls.
Derian Hatcher gets a 5 minute boarding call which isn’t and leads to a 10 minute game misconduct. Pavel Kubina jumps him, hits him in the face with his stick and only gets 2 minutes roughing?
Denis Gauthier hits Vincent Lacavalier as he is scoring. Lecavalier retaliates and gets an Instigator, Game misconduct, Misconduct and Fighting major and Gauthier gets nothing? Did no one see Gauthier throwing punches?
The NHL will review the incident and decide if Lecavalier will get the not automatic, automatic suspension. But he won’t, since he isn’t a fighter. It is a bullshit rule anyway.
Michal Handzus returned to the lineup after missing 8 games with a shoulder injury. His return gave the Flyers a Czech-Slovack line Nedved-Handzus-Radivojevic.
The Flyers have a serious problem with Tampa Bay. The Lightning has swept the regular season series between the two teams 2 years in a row now. The last time a team has done that to the Flyers was Boston in 1970 and 71.
Sami Kapanen sat out the game with a sore shoulder. He fell on it during practice. The same shoulder Kapanen had surgery on earlier in the year. He is expected to play tonight in Atlanta, but is listed day to day.
Turner Stevenson was scratches for the fourth game in a row. He is continuing to have soreness in his hip.
Kim Johnsson has missed 17 games with post-concussion symptoms and Chris Therien has missed 14 games with a head injury. Both have being seeing improvements, but still not healthy enough to practice. On Wednesday they will travel to Pittsburgh to see a neurologist to be reevaluated.
When the Flyers play the Thrashers tonight, 11 of them will skate the warmup with pink sticks. The sticks will be dipped in pink paint, used in the warmups and signed by the player. The sticks then will be auctioned off on Ebay with the money raised going to breast cancer research.
Players participating include Mike Knuble, Simon Gagne, Mike Richards, Mike Rathje, Turner Stevenson, Joni Pitkanen, Donald Brashear, Freddy Meyer, Robert Esche and Antero Niittymaki.