The Flyers are in Carolina tonight to face the Hurricanes in a New Years Eve game. The Flyers try to win two in a row and pick up their second win of December. Going 2-10 would be better then 1-11, but not much. The Hurricanes lead the season series 1-0 beating the Flyers 2-1 on December 19.
The Flyers are coming off a 4-3 win in Tampa Bay against the Lightning on Thursday. The Hurricanes are coming off a 4-2 win against the Ducks on Friday.
Injuries for the Flyers include Denis Gauthier, Mike Rathje, Mike Richards and Geoff Sanderson. Antero Niittymaki is also suffering a hip injury that the cortisone shot he received the other day may or may not help. In either case Robert Esche should get the start in goal tonight with Scott Munroe as backup.
As far as Forsberg goes it seems that his head and his skates are fine, for now.
For the Hurricanes Niclas Wallin, Tim Gleason and Frantisek Kaberle are listed as injured.
Still no official release from the Flyers on their about the pickup of Dmitry Afanasenkov, he is not listed on the roster yet either but I do expect him to play tonight.
Quote from Paul Holmgren about the pickup from philly.com
“He’s got skills and we’re hoping there is more there. He’s never had the opportunity to play in an expanded role because of who was ahead of him. We think if we expand his role, there’s some more skill to be seen.”
Apparently this was another pickup from a team trying to work with their salary cap. The Lightning needed to call-up a defenseman and they had no room on the cap to do so.
I just happen to have the pleasure of being at this game – wearing my orange and black proudly in a sea of Caniac red and black. What a wonderful New Years gift from my team! Sure I got dirty looks all the way back to the car, but it was worth it. It was worth listening to Caniacs complain about the “bad calls” and how the refs “gave the game away” – but eventually I pointed to the shots on goal reminding them that after 42, they had still only scored twice. We owned them last night, thats right , the worst team in the NHL beat the Stanely Cup champs. The question is, can we keep it up or will this be another fluke game like Anaheim? I’ll tell you what they don’t need as players – more booing from the crowds in Philly. Even though the Canes didn’t play anywhere near as well as they can, no one booed them off the ice last night. Sure we’re all frustrated fans but how is putting down our team going to make anything better? Well, I’ll be there on Feb. 22 when Philly comes back to the RBC and who knows, maybe this is the start of some Christmas miracle and by the time they come back here they will have won twenty in a row? I know, I know – I’m dreaming – but hey, the Eagles just won the NFC East so maybe the fog is lifting on Philly. I won’t hold my breath, but I’m keeping my fingers crossed!
The game was good.
Even if Esche would have let in a few softies overall they played a good game. They didn’t play like a team that should have lost the last 10 games.
The refs didn’t give the game away, the inconsistent calls were business as usual with NHL officiating. Forsberg got whacked a couple times in the face and was missed. So yeah 42 shots also 3 more power plays then the Flyers had.
I think if the Flyers play like they did New Years Eve then they won’t be booed in Philly. The lackluster play is what is causing the losses and what causes the boos. If the Flyers come out and play 60 minutes with energy, grit, hustle, passion whatever you want to call it I don’t think the fans would boo, not nearly as much.
Looking at last year final standings the Lightning made the playoffs losing 33 games. Going by that the Flyers can only lose 9 out of the next 44 games. This means they have to play as hot as the Sabres and Ducks are now. A daunting task indeed.
it’s too late for that now, they lost to a pretty bad team.We NEED a miracle!oh, and uh….K.Keyser, ur Eagles dream’s gone.The refs basicly gave the saints the game.it sucks