The Flyers lose their home opener 5-4 going to a shootout last night in Philly.

Peter Forsberg scores the first goal of the season for the Flyers on the power play. Simon Gagne scored twice with Geoff Sanderson also picked up a power play goal.

The Flyers came out a little flat in the first and gave up a quick goal in the first minute of the game. The first half of the first was all special teams with 8 penalties between the teams. Flyers picked up their play and took a 2 goal lead into intermission. The Flyers took a one goal lead into the third but could not hold on and eventually losing in the shootout.

Joni Pitkanen for the second game picked up the most icetime with 28:56.

There was a little controversy after the game in regards to Forsberg. Forsberg was the 6th shooter for the Flyers and the reason he didn’t shoot in an earlier round.

“I didn’t have any sticks left. They were either broken and all bad, I swear to God. There were a couple other guys who had better shots than me. I used kind of a broken stick.”
“I thought there were better shooters out there, and I have been lacking confidence going in, too. I’ve been struggling scoring.”

Personally I don’t know what the big deal is. He said there were better shooters, it’s not like he was the 12th or 13th shooter. Gagne, Richards, Sanderson, Nedved and Calder shot before him. He didn’t score so it didn’t make much of a difference. The other 12 shooters didn’t score either.

Although giving up the same amount of goals as Esche did in the first game minus the shootout, Antero Niittymaki played a solid game. Several of the goals were deflections or rebounds with poor defensive coverage.

If I had to pick on one D it would have to be Hatcher. He finished a -2, too slow to effectively to cover Nylander on the first Rangers goal, too slow to take the 3 strides out to cover Rozsival on the second Rangers goal and Jagr made him look like a pylon late in the game.
Hossa, Gagne, Nylander were the 3 stars.

Flyers have not given up a power play goal yet in the first two games.

Teams meet again on Tuesday in New York. The game will be on VS (Versus formerly OLN).

The Flyers try to get their first win of the season tonight in their home opener against the New York Rangers. The Flyers look to bounce back from the 4-0 loss to the Penguins in Pittsburgh on Thursday. The Rangers won their first game of the season beating the Capitals 5-2 in New York on Thursday.

Niittymaki will get the start it net tonight. We will see how his injured hip will hold up.

The CCR line is no more, at least for now. Umberger will be playing with Richards and Carter. Calder will be on the Nedved-Kapanen line.

Gauthier is expected back recovered from a concussion. This would leave Jones the odd D out, but Mike Rathje is a game day scratch and will be out indefinitely with a herniated disc. Reading up on herniated discs it looks like Rathje could be out 4 weeks to several months easily. That is if they decide to fix the problem instead of trying to just make it thru the season.

Cote will play in place of Kane.

Lars Jonsson is still out with an ankle sprain.

The Flyers drop their season opener being shutout by the Penguins in Pittsburgh 4-0 last night. While Robert Esche played bad enough to lose the game for the Flyers, Marc-Andre Fleury really won the game for the Penguins. Fleury had an awesome game stopping all 40 Flyers shots and earned the first star. Esche only stopped 3 of 5 shots in the first period, 4 of 6 in the second period but did stop all 10 shots in the third.

The defense did look a bit slow at times. While Hatcher does have some positive attributes, skating with any speed just is not one of them, the same for Rathje. But if you look at the score card neither was on the ice for the first 2 goals. The #1 line with Pitkanen and Meyer were on.

The offensive pressure was decent, but the passing was sloppy. The Flyers just did not have an answer for Fleury. Even with two 5 on 3s the Flyers were 0-10 on the Power Play. They did kill all 4 Penguins power plays if one wants to look for a positive.

Pitkanen picked up the most ice time with 26:43, Gagne led the Flyers with 8 shots. Hitchcock coached his 750 NHL game.

Flyers play their home opener on Saturday against the Rangers. Hope home ice can help get them their first win. No need to panic yet, if I recall correctly last season the Flyers first game was against the Rangers and they looked very bad then too.

For a team I call a serious playoff contender, they certainly didn’t look like it. Although they posted 40 shots on offense, the Flyers failed to find the net in their season opening 4-0 loss to the Penguins. The offense looked strong, but just ran into a hot goaltender in Fleury. The speed on defense once again killed us for 3 out of the 4 goals scored by Pittsburgh. The goaltending situation appears rather bleak compared to what I called one of our strongest assets. Esche should have had 2 of those 4 goals stopped at least. Overall, the Flyers have a lot of thinking to do in the coming 48 hours before they face off against the Rangers in their home opener, Saturday night at 7.

(Detailed Postgame Report to come tomorrow)

Many changes coming into this year from last for the Flyers. A new captain, Peter Forsberg (you know the guy who should have been here in ’94 anyway) replacing Keith Primeau who retired after suffering from post concussion symptoms for almost a whole year.
Other plays not back this year include….
Turner Stevenson – bought out, probably retired
Eric Desjardins – retired
Brian Savage – retired
Chris Therien – not resigned, probably retired
Branko Radivojevic – signed with the Minnesota Wild
Donald Brashear – signed with the Washington Capitals
Michal Handzus – traded to the Chicago Blackhawks
Jon Sim and Patrick Sharp also played about half of last season before being traded in December and January.

New faces for the Flyers include
Nolan Baumgartner on defense. Interesting that Baumgartner was drafted in the first round in 1994 by the Washington Capitals. The first round pick was traded to the Caps from the Maple Leafs. The pick was traded to the Leafs from the Quebec Nordiques. The Nordiques picked up that pick in the Eric Lindros/Peter Forsberg-Ron Hextall-Steve Duchensne-Kerry Huffman-Mike Ricci-Chris-Simon trade from the Flyers.
Lars Jonsson also on defense.
Forwards Geoff Sanderson, Kyle Calder, Randy Robitaille, Boyd Kane and Riley Cote the last two being call ups from the Phantoms expected to see limited action. Marty Murray, Brad Tapper, Mark Cullen and I think a few others were also added but were sent down to the Phantoms.

Is this team better than last seasons? A little bit I think. The forwards are a bit improved with Calder, Sanderson and Robitaille over Brashear, Handzus, Savage and Radivojevic.
The biggest criticism is on defense with the loss of Johnsson and Desjardins. Johnsson only played 47 games and Desjardins played 45 because of injuries last season which equals a loss of 1 decent d-man and the Flyers have done little to remedy the situation. At least it’s perceived that way. We will have to see how Baumgartner and Jonsson do this year. More bad news on the d front with Rathje continuing to suffer back pains even after taking cortisone shots. Although if he does end up on the shelf for long term injury that would free up 3.5M to get a decent d-man. Someone worth the 3.5M.

In net it’s still the same as last year with Robert Esche and Antero Niittymaki. With Niitty injured even with him cleared to practice, Esche will have to carry the load for the time being. I really think there won’t be much of a goalie controversy this year unless Esche starts to falter. At least there shouldn’t be. Frank should get the surgery now and be 100% healthy for the second half of the season instead of just trying to ride out the injury.

While I do think the Flyers will definitely make the post season I think their health will determine on how far they go. Too many things can happen between now and April for me to really predict which team will finish where.

Buccigross predicts the East and has the Flyers 10th.
This coming from a guy who picks Tampa Bay first in the East.
First?!
First that is IF the team refocused and IF they make a good deadline deal.
Deals made at the trade deadline don’t get a team first in the conference unless the team was already competing for the spot. Tampa Bay barely made the playoffs last year, did they improve that much in the off-season?
Tampa Bay first, Buffalo second, eh Buccigross must have been watching the Trailer Park Boys and smoking some good hash when making these predictions.

It’s hunch time. Peter Forsberg’s health is always an issue. The Flyers’ blue line is hardly top shelf, and what to make of the goalies? I love watching Mike Richards and Jeff Carter, and if they establish themselves as big-time players, then everything will be fine. As some of you know, I’m writing a book with new Flyers television analyst Keith Jones that is almost done and will be out in February. For his sake, I hope he has a winning team to talk about. But, my gut tells me that after 11 straight playoff appearances, there might be a one-season hiatus in Philadelphia. I hope not, because for the overall health and buzz of the league, it’s important to have franchises like the Flyers in the postseason.

Point projection: Jeff Carter, 36-31-67. Get this guy on the power play and let him go high glove.

So another season of Flyers hockey is upon us. It looks to be a fairly promising season again for the Flyers. During this season preview, we’ll overview all of the positions, as well as make predictions for the upcoming season.

Flyers Offense

The off season acquisitions adding Kyle Calder and Geoff Sanderson, can only be looked at as a huge win by Bob Clarke. Overall, you lose Handzus, but in the new NHL, players like Handzus’s role are quickly becoming diminished. The Flyers possess the perfect balance of grit, poise, and finesse on offense. This, of course, starts with the Gagne – Forsberg – Knuble line, which will most likely combine for around 115 goals this season. Next, you have the interesting Calder – Carter – Richards line, which is showing some strong signs of being a 80+ goal line this season. Beyond that, you have the solid role players like Umberger, Kapanen, Nedved, Robitaille, and newcomer Boyd Kane. Overall, the Flyers offense will not be a handicap at all for the upcoming season.

Flyers Defense

I’ve preached it all summer, and it doesn’t look like Bob Clarke reads this site. The Flyers need more SPEED on defense. I don’t care if Clarke thinks Hatcher improved over the offseason, he’s still one of the slowest defensemen in the league. Mike Rathje is still having health issues, and that just makes him slower. Other than that you have Pitkanen, Meyer, Jonsson, Gauthier, and maybe Baumgartner. You can expect the lack of scoring ability and speed of this Flyers defense to perhaps cause them a deep run in the playoffs.

Flyers Goaltending

Controversy? We couldn’t be the Flyers without a goaltending controversy. Regardless of what ‘Frank Nitty’ and Esche tell you, it is a bother to have your goalie partner be an equal and not a backup. However, don’t look for this to be a handicap until late in the season. I think Hitchcock should play it as he did last year, and not announce anything until the start of the playoffs. For the regular season, the goaltending situation will be a huge positive for this club.

The Division

The division looks fairly week overall. Don’t look for the Penguins to do much more than go .500, while the Islanders and Devils look to be sub-500 clubs. The problem club in the division appears to be the R-R-R-R-R RANGERS. (Yes, it was that hard for me to say it). They have a solid club, and will most likely be challenging for a low playoff spot.

Predictions

I’m not saying this because I’m a Flyers fan, but when I look at the division it appears to be fairly certain that the Flyers will win it and lock up the #3 spot in the conference. Make no mistake about it, home ice advantage is key and the Flyers will make it to the 2^nd round of the playoffs, where I see them losing to a team such as Carolina, whose defense is way more potent than ours.

Overall, I look forward to bringing you the season as it happens, along with Mike. Stay tuned to FlyersFanCentral.Com for the latest Flyers news, game previews, and post game reaction all season long!