Tonight the Flyers make the short trip to New Jersey to play the Devils. A win by the Devils would tie them with the Flyers for 5th in the conference. Even with 4 games left the Flyers could end up anywhere from 3rd thru 7th in the conference.
The season series is tied at 3 each between the two teams. Devils won the last meeting in Philly 4-1 on April 1st.
The Flyers are coming off a 4-3 win over the Penguins at home on Tuesday. The Devils are coming off a 4-3 OT win against Carolina on Tuesday.
Injuries for the Flyers include Keith Primeau,. Kim Johnsson and Chris Therien all out with concussions. Peter Forsberg recovering from a lower body injury will be a game time decision. Denis Gauthier will server his 2nd game of a 2 game suspension tonight. Randy Jones will be filling in for him.
Injuries for the Devils include Richard Matvichuk and Darren Langdon.
Robert Esche will get the start in goal tonight.
Keith Primeau continues to practice with the team. He still feels some lightheaded sensations but that apparently isn’t keeping him away from practice.
Last night’s game made me physically ill. Using injuries as an excuse is extremely LAME. There is no hunger – look no further than their penalty killing. Killing penalties is all effort – nothing more, nothing less. These clowns could go out in the first round. Is it me, or is Derian Hatcher stealing money?
Yeah, the energy between the Devils and the Flyers on the penalty kill was very obvious. Although it doesn’t show up on the scoreboard, with each team giving up a power play goal, one can easily say that the work ethic that the Devils had was far better than the Flyers.
Just wait, Esche is going to get lit up. He is the worst team player I’ve personally ever seen. Look at the stupidity that he expresses though the media. When he gave up 3 goals, and was pulled last week, he throws his hands up and throws a fit like a child. It’s not up to the team to “get going” as he says, do your job and stop the puck. He gives up way to many rebounds, doesn’t remain square to the shooter, and is not nearly as calm or solid as Niittymaki. We will have no chance with Esche’s in net. too many issues, not a starting goaltender. Niittymaki is experienced enough, Hitchcock may profess the ice surface was “bigger over there” (in Torino), but his MVP and three shutouts were no fluke. Neither were the 8 of 11 games in the NHL’s longest road trip (on NHL sized surface) that Niitty was the MVP of while Esche sap home and nursed his groin. Esche was never “hot”, he beat the Islanders twice, with no more than 25 saves in each contest. That’s no test to bank on by any means. He’s in the coach’s pocket, hopefully Clarke will deal him in the offseason, if for no more than his utter bad vibes alone. Sad day for any true Flyer fan.
Looking at Esche’s stats last season his playoff run was pretty similar to his regular season stats, although his GAA was .38 higher in the playoffs. If this season’s stats carry over to the playoffs for him I don’t think it will go well unless they can continually score 4 goals a game.
I do think he will be as good as the Flyers that play in front of him.
Similar to what happen with Nikolai Khabibulin. In Tampa Bay he had a strong defensive team in front of him. In Chicago they obviously don’t which is why he looks so average.