The Flyers couldn’t come up with enough energy and drive last night in a lost to the Devils 4-1 in Jersey.

Niko Dimitrakos scored the lone goal for the Flyers on the power play. The Dimitrakos-Umberger-Carter lines seem to be good for a goal a game now.

Coach Ken Hitchcock – “We were way behind the pace in the first period. They built momentum off of the 2-0 lead, and we were too far behind the pace at the start of the game. Their pace was red-hot and we were behind the bar. We got going in the second period and created a bunch of pressure there and then when it was 3-1 we had some pressure but their pace at the start of the game, their puck movement was quicker and they got beyond our forecheck. They looked more ready to play then we were at the start. They were going and creating a bunch of odd-man rushes and we made some mistakes.

“I’m like the players right now. I’m disappointed. This was a big game and the pace was up there. We didn’t have everybody on board. We made far too many mistakes at the start of the game. If it wasn’t for our goalie in the first period, we gave up five odd-man rushes. You can’t do that and win hockey games. We settled down, but the puck was moving faster than we were thinking at the start. We got going in the second and third, but you don’t want to get down 2-0 to New Jersey. Their goalie was good and they had all the power plays at the start of the game.”

They sucked but instead of ranting on about it, figure just let the coach do it.

The win brings the Devils up to a tie for 5th in the conference with the Flyers. The Devils are on a 5 game winning streak.
Since the Rangers lost last night the Flyers still have a chance to win the division, now so do the Devils.

Zach Parise, Brian Gionta and Scott Gomez were the three stars.

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.

While the game wasn’t pretty the Flyers did get 2 points out of it. With the win they stayed 2 points ahead of the Devils and pulled within 3 points of the Rangers. Scoring for the Flyers were Simon Gagne, Brian Savage, Joni Pitkanen and Jeff Carter.
On the Pitkanen goal Ryan Potulny picked up his first NHL point.
The Flyers almost lost it, blowing a 3 goal lead before finding their legs again to play just hard enough to win which has been typical of this year.

Robert Esche was pretty decent in goal, officiating kind of sucked.

But it wasn’t as bad as the OLN commentary. I always liked P.J. stock as a player, but he was awful calling the game.
Some advice for Stock…
Slow down a bit, you’re speaking too freakin fast.
Take some speaking/speech classes if you’re not doing so already. You sound like if I were doing the job and my speaking sucks.
When the puck is dropped just shut up. If your ‘analysis’ is going to take 15-30 seconds longer either wait for another break or just drop it. By the time you get done there is going to be another whistle with something else to talk about and no one cares what you’re currently rambling on about.

David Printz making his NHL debut on defense for the Flyers had 5:45 minutes of ice time. He had 2 hits, 1 takeaway, 1 blocked shot and 1 missed shot.
Today he was sent back down to the Phantoms and Randy Jones was called up. I guess Jones’s upper body injury has cleared up. With the call up of Printz the Flyers have used 14 rookies this season. This ties the record the Flyers have set twice before.

One fight in the game with Donald Brashear going up against Eric Cairns, a pretty even fight but I would have to give the edge to Cairns.

Joni Pitkanen, Freddy Meyer and Sergei Gonchar were the three stars.

Sid Crosby has 14 points against the Flyers the most ever by a rookie in a season.

Tonight the Pittsburgh Penguins come to Philly to play the Flyers at the Wachovia Center. This is the last meeting between the two teams this year. The Flyers lead the season series 5-2. Penguins won the last game 2-0 in Pittsburgh on March 12.
The Flyers are coming off a horrible 5-2 loss to the Maple Leafs on Saturday in Philly. The Penguins are coming off a 1-0 loss to the Lightning in Tampa Bay on Saturday

Denis Gauthier will miss the game serving the first of a two game suspension for a hit on Toronto Maple Leafs Kyle Wellwood.

Randy Jones who would be the expected call up to fill in for Gauthier has a concussion. Phantom defenseman David Printz is expected to make his NHL debut. Printz is a 6-5 220lb 25 year old from Sweden. He has played in 78 games this year with the Phantoms with 6 goals, 13 assists, a minus 5, 126 penalty minutes, 1 power play goal and 1 shorthanded goal.

Injuries for the Flyers include Keith Primea, Chris Therien, Kim Johnsson, and Peter Forsberg. Petr Nedved who has missed 4 games with a lower body injury is expected to start. Flyers trainer Jim McCrossin stated that both Therien and Johnsson have showed little progress with their concussion symptoms and it appears unlikey that either would be back this year, at all.
Injuries for the Penguins include Jocelyn Thibault, Ryan Vandenbussche, Matt Murly and Lyle Odelein.

Yesterday and still continuing today the buzz is all about Keith Primeau showing up to practice and practicing and actually getting a little physical. While that is very positive news, what happens within the next couple days is a big deal. Does he wake up today or tomorrow with symptoms? If he practices tomorrow then we will know.

Ryan Potulny is expected to start his 2nd NHL game tonight.

Robert Esche is expected to get the start in goal tonight.

Brian Savage was nominated by the Philadelphia Chapter of the Professional Hockey Writers’ Association as the Flyers representative to receive the Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy.

The Masterton Award is given annually to “the NHL player who best exemplifies the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication to hockey.”

Savage was recognized by the media for his resolve after dealing with many family related cancer issues in recent years, especially this season with news that his brother was suffering from esophageal cancer.

In his short time in Philadelphia, he has been very active in the community, helping to raise money for various charities, all the while maintaining his own, primary charity, Megan’s Wings, named after his nine-year-old niece who passed away from Leukemia in 2003.

It is the second time Savage has been nominated for the award.

Savage was nominated in 2000 as a member of the Montreal Canadiens after he returned from a broken neck in just four months, missing only 44 games.

TSN

The National Hockey League has suspended Philadelphia’s Denis Gauthier for two games as a result of his hit on Toronto’s Kyle Wellwood on Saturday night.
Gauthier was given a major penalty and a misconduct in the second period for boarding on Wellwood. Gauthier will miss Tuesday night’s game against the Pittsburgh Penguins as well as Thursday’s game against the New Jersey Devils. Gauthier was acquired by the Flyers at the NHL trade deadline from the Phoenix Coyotes. In 14 games since the trade, the rugged defenseman has points but has amassed 28 penalty minutes to go with the 61 he had picked up while with the Coyotes.

Personally I don;t think the hit was worth the suspension.
So with Therien, and Johnsson still out I suspect that Randy Jones will be called up for a couple games.

(Reuters)
Antero Niittymaki wearing his new Darcy Tucker blocker.

Specials teams lose the game again for the Flyers as they were beaten by the Toronto Maple Leafs 5-2.
All Leafs goals came on the Power Play as they went 5 for 8 on the PP. All year the Flyers have basically sucked on special teams, especially the Penalty Kill. They are 27th in the league and 30th at home on the PK. The Flyers are minus 17 on special teams, giving up 17 more goals than scoring on the PP/PK. Only 5 other teams have given up more power play goals than the Flyers. Guess what they will be doing two weeks from now, it wont be playing in the playoffs. If this continues the Flyers will be playing golf by May.
Lately all the buzz has been who the starting goalie is going to be. If the PK doesn’t pick up the starting goalie really doesn’t matter.
When is the team going to address this?

For the Flyers R.J. Umberger scored at even strength and Jeff Carter scored on the PP. The Carter-Dimitrakos-Umberger line continues to show up every night.

Antero Niittymaki got the start in goal. He stopped 24 of 28 shots. He really didn’t play that bad. The Flyers penalty kill just did a bad job in front of him.

Denis Gautheir was giving a 5 minute boarding major and a game misconduct for a hit from behind on Kyle Wellwood. The major I can live with, but a game misconduct? I have seen worse hits similar to that one that gets no call at all. With a game misconduct the play gets automatically reviewed by the NHL, he could see some suspension time.

One fight in the game, if you want to call it that, Donald Brashear vs Wade Belak. Breashear fell a second into the fight, no punches were thrown.

Ryan Potulny after making his NHL debut on Friday was a healthy scratched

Jeff O’Neill, R.J. Umberger and Jean-Sebastien Aubin were the three stars.

The last time the Flyers gave up this many power play goals was back in 1988 when they gave up 6.
Flyers have lost 3 straight at home. With the loss the Flyers are now 5 points behind the Rangers for first in the division with 5 games remaining. The division championship is slowly slipping away. The Flyers also need to watch the Devils who are now only 4 points behind them.

No rest for the Flyers today as they play the Toronto Maple Leafs tonight in Philly. Toronto leads the season series 2-1 winning the last game 3-2 in Philadelphia on March 28.

The Flyers are coming off a 4-2 win in Buffalo over the Sabres last night. The Maple Leafs are coming off a 3-2 shootout loss to the Bruins Thursday night in Boston.

Injuries for the Flyers include Chris Therien, Keith Primeau and Kim Johnsson. Peter Forsber and Petr Nedved are also expected to miss the game with groin injuries. The Flyers have 368 man games missed to injuries this year.

Injures for the Maple Leafs include Eric Lindros, Jason Allison and Ed Belfour.

Antero Niittymaki will get the start in goal for the Flyers.

Flyers are currently 3 points behind the Rangers for first in the division and 5 points behind the Sabres for 4 in the conference.

(Reuters)

For the first time this year the Flyers beat the Buffalo Sabres with a 4-2 win last night in Buffalo. It had been awhile since they won in Buffalo. The last win coming in Buffalo on April 8, 2001. The win clinched a playoff spot for the Flyers making it 11 straight playoff appearances.

R.J. Umberger, Simon Gagne and Mike Knuble scored at even strength, Eric Desjardins picked up a power play goal. Knuble has scored a goal in each of the last three games.

Ryan Potulny made his NHL debut centering Brashear and Savage. Potulny had 6:23 of ice time, and won 3 of 6 faceoffs. His line did pretty well for the ice time they saw. The Carter-Umberger-Dimitrakos line also continues to play well. They have really become a threat every shift on the ice.

Robert Esche play in net was solid. The win gives Esche 20 for the year, Niittymaki has 22. This is only the second time in Flyers history that they had two 20win goalies. In 1999-200 Brian Boucher and John Vandbiesbrouck were the first.

Simon Gagne, Mike Knuble and Tim Connolly were the three stars.

Tonight the Flyers head to Buffalo to take on the Sabres.
The Flyers have not had an answer yet for the Sabres this year losing all 3 games between the teams. Buffalo won the last meeting 6-5 in Philadelphia on March 11.

The Flyers are coming off a 3-2 shootout lose to the Rangers in New York on Tuesday. The Sabres are coming off a 5-4 overtime win over the Ottawa Senators in Buffalo.

Robert Esche will get the start in goal.

Injuries for the Flyers include Keith Primeau, Kim Johnnsson and Chris Therien. Peter Forsberg and Petr Nedved are questionable for the game.
If those two do sit out Ryan Potulny will get his first start.

Forsberg and Nedved will not be playing. Ryan Potulny will be making his NHL debut.
Possible line combinations would move Mike Richards up to the top line with Knuble and Gagne. Potulny would center Savage and Brashear. The Carter-Umberger-Niko line would stay together. Handzus-Kapanen and I guess Stevenson would be the other one.

Injuries for the Sabres include Teppo Numminen and Jochen Hecht.

A win tonight for the Flyers would clinch them a playoff spot.

Brian Savage who has missed some games for personal reason has revealed the reasoning. His brother was diagnosed with esophageal cancer.

“Last week was tough on our family,” said Savage. “My brother was diagnosed with esophageal cancer. He had a tumor on the lower part of his esophagus. We decided to go to Montreal where the Canadiens’ team doctor performed surgery on it.

“It didn’t go as great as possible. The tumor was attached to his heart. They had to scrape the heart and take out about one-third of his stomach. That was a tough week. He’s recovering in the hospital right now and it’s tough on my family and tough on my parents.”

Wow, I hope things work out as best as they can in this type of situation.
Savage’s family has had to deal with some very nasty diseases. He lost his 9 year old neice to leukemia 3 years ago. His aunt had died of cancer and his father has had to deal with skin cancer.