Dominc Moore grabbing Mike Richards stick to draw a hooking penalty.

The Rangers beat the Flyers going to a shootout 3-2 last night.

Mike Knuble and Simon Gagne scored for the Flyers. Although the Flyers did lose (in a shotout, which I HATE) they did play a pretty good game.
Robert Esche played another solid game in goal stopping 38 of 40 shots. Any thought of Niittymaki already owning #1 position definitely has to now be questioned.

The Flyers have seemed to have found someone who can defend Jaromir Jagr. Denis Gauthier was tasked in stopping Jagr, for the most part he succeeded. Martin Straka also got to know Gauthier a little. Gauthier hit Straka pretty good to open up the game. In fact Gauthier had several huge hits, but you wouldn’t know that by looking at the score sheet which had him down for 0 hits. Yeah, none, zip, nada.

I do have to give props to Mike Richards, he was in his second fight in two games with Ryan Hollweg. Hollweg was suspended 3 games for a major boarding infraction during the previous meeting. Hollweg drilled Umberger from behind, giving him a nice shiner. The fight 2 minutes into the game was pretty much a draw.

The Flyers did kill all 7 Rangers power plays
Derian Hatcher was the lone player at minus 2.
Turner Stevenson was a healthy scratch.

With the shootout win the Rangers clinch a playoff spot for the first time in 7 years.

Three stars for the game were Kevin Weekes Michael Nylander, Robert Esche.

One more game with the Rangers this year, April 15 in Philly. How much you wanna bet the teams will still be within 2 points of each other?

The Flyers get another chance to draw even with the Rangers for first in the Division tonight in New York.
The season series is tied at 3 games each. The Flyers won the last meeting 6-3 in New York.
The Flyers are coming off a 4-1 win against the Islanders on Sunday in New York. The Rangers are coming off a 4-1 loss to the Ottawa Senators last Thursday.

Injuries for the Flyers include Keith Primeau, Kim Johnsson, Petr Nedved and Chris Therien.
Injures for the Rangers include Martin Rucinksy, Darius Kasparaitis and Henrik Lundqvist.

Robert Esche will get the start in goal tonight.

Two games this weekend for the Flyers. First one was a loss to the Devils at home 4-1 on Saturday. The second a win in New York against the Islanders 4-1 on Sunday.

Saturday the Flyers came out slow and really didn’t pick it up to try to match the Devils speed, aggressiveness and determination until almost half way thru the first period. By this time the Flyers were down by a goal and it was pretty much down hill from there.

Phil Sheridan of the Philadelphia Inquirer hit the nail on the head with regards to the Flyers play.

Yesterday, coming off three days of rest they said they needed, the Flyers somnambulated through a 4-1 loss to the New Jersey Devils.
They are playing like a team that thinks it can flip on intensity like a switch. It can’t. Very clearly, this team doesn’t have that ability.. This year, they (the fans) have learned to wait and see what level of energy the Flyers have brought to any given game. It really is that obvious.
Some games they care, some games they just seem to be thinking about getting it over with. Perhaps by now you’ve guessed which sort of game this was.
All you need to know is that the biggest cheer came when the Phillies score appeared on the scoreboard screen. When a Flyers fan is cheering for the Phillies on the first day of April, that doesn’t speak well of the hockey team.

I do have to say the Knuble-Gagne-Forsberg line and to a lesser extent the Carter-Umberger-Niko line did show some good energy throughout the game. Simon Gagne did pick up a power play goal in the third, but by this time the Flyers were already down by 3. Antero Niittymaki was average in goal at best, but the defense in front of him wasn’t any better. Any time you play Martin Brodeur you have to bring your ‘A-game’ that simply didn’t happen on Saturday.

Petr Nedved did leave the game in the second period with a groin injury he has been working thru. He also missed Sunday’s game. His ‘lower body injury’ has him listed day to day.

Any positives from the game? Sure, the Flyers did kill off all 4 penalty kills they had.
That’s about it. Derian Hatcher was minus 3, Simon Gagne, Peter Forsberg, Mike Richards and Eric Desjardins was minus 2.

Brian Gionta, Martin Brodeur and Simon Gagne were the three stars.

Sunday, the Flyers won.
Flyers scored three goals in the first period. The first by Mike Knuble then R.J. Umberger and Jeff Carter each scored an unassisted goal. Sami Kapanen added a short handed empty netter late in the third to finish off the Islanders. Carter’s goal was his 20th of the year.

Robert Esche who the day before was working thru the Flu sitting as backup started and played very well.

With Petr Nedved out with his injury some of the lines were adjusted. Gagne-Forsberg-Knubled stayed together. Niko-Cater-Umberger stayed together. Michal Handzus moved back to center with Brashear and Radivojevic on the wings. Richards centered Stevenson and Kapanen. Brian Savage was a healthy scratch for the second straight game.

Carter and Umberger have had some success together on and off this season. The line looked good with Ben Eager when he called up earlier in the season. But since the Flyers have acquired Niko Dimitrakos that line has really started to develop into a second scoring line for the Flyers. They always seem to be either first or second best line for the Flyers recently.

Robert Esche, R.J. Umberger and Mike Knuble were the three stars.

So what was the difference between the two games?
Simple, the Islanders are not the Devils. DiPietro is no Broudeur. Esche did look better in net, but the quality of team Niittymaki faced was definitely better. As far as effort goes, the Flyers really didn’t show any more Sunday then they did on Saturday. Playing good enough to beat teams under 500 but not ones in the playoff chase will not get you very far come playoff time.

Still two points behind the Rangers for first in the division, which is who they play next.

The Flyers host the New Jersey Devils this afternoon at the Wachovia Center. This is the last regular season meeting between the two teams. Flyers lead the season series 3-2. They also won the last meeting on March 21 in Philly 2-1.

Antero Niittymaki is expected to get the start in goal. This will be his fifth start in six games.

Injuries for the Flyers include Keith Primea, Kim Johnsson and Chris Therien.
Mike Rathje, Michal Hanzus, Petr Nedved and Simon Gagne also have injuries but have been and will be playing thru them. Brian Savage has missed several practices for personal reasons.

Read into this what you want. With the arrival of Ryan Potulny space had to be made in the dressing room. Chris Therien lost his space. Keith Primeau who won’t be back and Kim Johnsson who probably won’t be back this season still has their space available.
Therien signed a one year contract before the season and I suspect won’t be resigned after this season.

Injuries for the Devils include Darren Langdon and Richard Matvichuk.

Ten games remaining in the regular season. Flyers need a win to keep pace with the Rangers for first in the division.

Ryan Potulny who might see a game or two before the end of the year will be wearing #11.

The Flyers had their small winning streak snapped by the Maple Leafs last night, losing 3-2. The Flyers squandered a chance to reclaim first place in the division back from the Rangers. The Maple Leafs played a hard, fast, high energy game, the Flyers did not.

Flyers jumped out to a 1-0 lead on a power play goal by Joni Pitkanen early in the first period. Mat Sundin of the Maple Leafs redirected a shot past Antero Niittymaki to tie up the game at 1 later in the first. The Flyers only had 4 shots on goal in the first, the Leafs had 13. Considering only 1 of the Flyers shots was at even strength, you start to see how dominating the Leafs were in that period. Flyers did come out with some better energy in the second period. The game was more balanced, but no scoring in the second. The third started with the Flyers coming out basically flat. They gave up 2 goals in the first two minutes of the third period. R.J. Umberger did score late in the third, but the Flyers couldn’t score the tying goal in the last seconds to get the game to overtime.

Nitty for the Flyers and Aubin for the Maple Leafs played really well.

The Flyers played a totally different game last night as compared to against the Senators this weekend.

Coach Ken Hitchcock – We had the wrong attitude to start the game. We knew what the game was going to be like. They play a heavy game, an old NHL game. We wanted to play around the game instead of plow through it. We got it back a little bit in the second period with some of our guys, we were down two goals and we started to get it back in the third. We had a terrible start in the third period. We had a neutral zone give away. When we started the game, it looked like we just threw our sticks on the ice.

Yep, that about sums it up.

Matt Sundin, Alexei Ponikarovsky and Michal Handzus were the three stars.

Branko Radivojevic and Turner Stevenson were healthy scratches.

Looking at the Flyers plus/minus stats Petr Nedved and Brian Savage are at the bottom with minus 15. Much of Nedved’s stats are from Phoenix, but Savage’s is all Flyers. With the lazy play tonight and since Savage was minus 1 I hope Hitchcock shakes things up a bit. Like scratching Savage and letting Branko Radivojevic play some games. Sure Branko is minus 4, but that’s a hell of a lot better than minus 15.
I believe it was Glenn Healey that made the comment last night during the game about Savage’s crappy plus/minus stats. Career wise Savage is a minus 77 player. That cant be good.

Good news for Kim Johnsson. On Tuesday he skated for the first time since January when he left with a concussion. Although he is still weeks away from joining the team in full practice. Keith Primeau is continuing to improve, but really not much hope with him returning for the playoffs.

According to a Street & Smith’s SportsBusiness Journal survey in the March 20-26 issue, the Flyers led the NHL in total ticket sales through March 13. The Flyers sold 667,427 tickets for their first 35 home games. Tuesday night’s game against the Maple Leafs marked their 34th sellout in 36 games. Street & Smith’s ranked the Detroit Red Wings second in the league with 662,178 tickets sold and the Calgary Flames came in third with 655,826 tickets sold. So are the US venue’s larger than the Canadian ones or are fans in Detroit and Philly more passionate about the game than the teams up north?

The Toronto Maple Leafs come into town tonight to play the Philadelphia Flyers.
The season series is tied between the teams at 1 game a piece. Flyers won the last meeting between the two teams way back on October 22 5-2 in Toronto.
The Flyers are on a 4 game win streak, coming off a 6-3 win against the Senators in Philly on Saturday. The Maple Leafs are coming off a 4-3 win over the Devils on Sunday. The teams really seem to be headed in different directions. The Flyers weathered an obnoxious rash of injuries and are fighting for first in their division. The Maple Leafs are slowly seeing any playoff hopes fade, if there is any left at this point. Key injuires have hurt them and it looks like there will be some off season moves that wont be restricted to just players.

Injuries for the Flyers include Keith Primeau, Chris Therein and Kim Johnsson.
Injuris for the Maple Leafs include Ed Belfour, Eric Lindros, Carlo Colaiacovo, Karel Pilar, and Jason Allison.

Antero Niittymaki will get the start in goal tonight.
There has been a lot said about the ‘goalie controversy’ the past few days.
This really got going with Robert Esche stating on the record that he thought Nitty was already unofficially chosen as the number one guy. In his mind, Hitchcock might already have done this, but he isn’t letting on to it. Back in 2003 Hitchcock proclaimed Roman ‘Uni’ Chechmaneck the #1 guy in February while some were pointing to ‘rookie’ Robert Esche as the one that should start. He doesn’t want to repeat that mistake again. So we probably won’t know who the #1 will be until after the first week in April. Well, officially that is.