The Flyers lose another one this time to the Lightning in Tampa last night 4-1.
Sami Kapanen scored the only Flyers goal short handed late in the third.
Derian Hatcher was worse on the team again in +/- with -3. Hatcher who is now last in the league in +/- with -10. 602 players in the league have a better rating, and yet the Flyers when deciding which defenseman to sit/waive decide on the only defenseman that was NOT minus with Baumgartner.
Antero Niittymaki got the start in goal again and was solid even with giving up 4 goals. While shots on goal where comparable the quality of shots favored the Lightning. The Flyers are not taking enough shots in the center of the ice. This is obvious on the odd man rushes, the majority of the shots where from the faceoff dot and out toward the boards at sharp angles.
The big injury news is Captain Peter Forsberg’s wrist injury in the first period. The injury came when his hand was jammed into the glass along the boards. He will have an MRI on the wrist today to rule out having a fracture. If there is no fracture then it is just a sprain which would hopefully keep him out less then a week. He wont be available for tonight’s game against the Panthers.
Coach Ken Hitchcock on the game
We have to start capitalizing on our scoring chances. There was a real good work ethic and a lot of determination from a lot of people. But we made a couple of mistakes in the second period down low and they capitalized on it.”
The three guys called up saw some action. Ruzicka finished even with 16:38 of ice time and 2 shots. Picard finished minus 1 with 17:48 of ice time with 1 shot. Ben Eager who was also minus 1 saw only 4:22 of ice time but did have a great fight with Dough Janik.
Mike Rathje also played last night returning from injury and was not that bad. I really wasn’t a fan of Rathje last year, his injury really affected his play. If he is playing healthy now I will be giving him a couple games before putting him in the doghouse with Hatcher.
Stars for the game were Denis, Fedotenko and Lecavalier.