The Flyers shutout the Panthers in Florida on Wednesday night 4-0. For the first time in quite a while the Flyers played a very good, very hard, full 60 minutes of hockey. The Flyers seemed faster and kept the forecheck pressure up the entire game.
Simon Gagne, Petr Nedved, R.J. Umberger and Jeff Carter all scored a goal at even strength. Joni Pitkanen picked up two assists and goalie Robert Esche picked up one, his third for the season.

One fight in the game with Donald Brashear vs Jamie Allison. A very close fight, but I would have to give a small edge to Brashear.

Robert Esche got his first shutout of the season stopping all 27 shots.
Derian Hatcher returned to the lineup after missing several games with a bruised knee. He led the Flyers in ice time with a little over 25 minutes.

Three stars of the game were Joni Pitkanen, Robert Esche and Simon Gagne.

With a couple days off on the beach the Flyers seemed to be recharged for the game. A game that the Flyers should win even without the time off. Sure the Panthers won 3 games in a row against the two top teams in the east, but the Panthers are still 12th in the conference. This one game shouldn’t be looked at as the Flyers back playing like they should. Beat a playoff bound team 4-0, then that would be saying something.

Flyers play the Panthers tonight in Florida.
The Flyers have won all three meetings between the two teams this year. They last won 3-2 going to a shootout on December 26 in Florida.
The Flyers are coming off a 2-0 loss to the Penguins in Pittsburgh on Sunday. The Panthers are coming off a 4-3 OT win against the Hurricanes on Saturday.
This should be a high energy game with both teams well rested.

Robert Esche is expected to get the start in goal.

Injuries for the Flyers include Kim Johnsson, Christ Therien, Keith Primeau all three with concussion injuries. Michal Handzus with a shoulder injury, he is expected to return to the lineup this weekend.
Derian Hatcher is expected to return to the lineup tonight recovered from a bruised knee. He has missed 2 games.

Injuries for the Panthers include Branislav Mezei, Anthony Stewart, Stephen Weiss and Gary Roberts.

The Flyers are currently on a 6 game road losing streak. Flyers last loss in Florida against the Panthers was on January 17, 2000.

Flyers assistant general manager Paul Holmgren was named the General Manager for Team USA for the upcoming World Championships in Latvia this May.
I still don’t understand how any team can be called world champion that is thrown together only for the tournament.
The IIHF World Chanpionship runs May 5-21, during the NHL playoffs.

The Flyers lost their second straight game with a loss 2-0 against the Penguins in Pittsburgh last night.

The Flyers had 15 minutes of Power Play time and could not score. Included in that was 7 straight minutes late in the game down by 2. Not only did the Flyers not score, but they only managed one shot on goal for the entire 7 minutes. This against the Penguins who are dead last on the PK.
And they also gave up a PP goal.
Robert Esche got the start and the goals he gave up were not soft.

5 shots on goal in the first, Flyers pick it up in the second with 11, but only 6 in the third?
One could say it was fatigue from playing the day before, but it seems this is norm for every game recently.

If it hasn’t been said before, it has to be said now. The Flyers are in a big crisis.
The Flyers spent today down in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. With a couple days off before facing the Panthers in Florida, hopefully they will find some juice. The Flyers have been fortunate the rest of the division is playing .500 hockey. Even with all the crappy play recently the Flyers are still only 2 points out of the division lead. The Rangers after beating the Flyers on March 2 have lost 5 straight.

Derian Hatcher has missed 2 games with a bruised knee. Turner Stevenson was a healthy scratch for the second straight game.

Marc-Andre Fleury, Colby Armstrong and Sidney Crosby were the three stars.

The Flyers have 17 games left in the season. This was the 5th game this season the Flyers have been shutout.

No rest for the Flyers today as they head to Pittsburgh to play the Penguins tonight. The Flyers are coming off a 6-5 loss yesterday afternoon against the Sabres in Philly. The Penguins are coming off a 6-3 win over the Devils last night in Pittsburgh. The Flyers lead the season series 5-1 against the Penguins. Flyers won the last meeting 4-2 in Philadelphia on January 23.

Robert Esche is expected to start in goal.
Derian Hatcher is expected to be back in action after missing a game with a bruised knee.

Injuries for the Flyers include Michal Handzus, Kim Johnsson, Chris Therien and Keith Priemau. Handzus was initially scheduled to be back on March 10.
Injuries for the Penguins include Jocelyn Thibault, Ryan Vandenbussche, Matt Murley and Lyle Odelein.

The Philadelphia Flyers lost to the Buffalo Sabres 6-5 in the closing seconds of the game yesterday. With less than 5 seconds remaining in the game Buffalo’s Mike Grier scored giving the Sabres the win.

The Flyers scored two shorthanded goals, one by Sami Kapanen and one by Brian Savage. The rest were scored at even strength by Mike Knuble, Simon Gagne and Mike Richards.

Antero Niittymaki got the start in goal and stopped 33 of 39 shots. The early goals he gave up were of a result of odd man rushes, defensive breakdowns and rebounds not cleared. The last couple goals he should have stopped. For Buffalo, Ryan Miller got the start in goal. After giving up 5 goals last game against Tampa Bay, Miller gave up 5 more yesterday against the Flyers. He was pulled after the second intermission with Martin Biron taking his place.

Niko Dimitrakos made his debut as a Flyer. He was minus 1, played 11 shifts with 9 minutes of ice time and had one minor hooking penalty. Denis Gauthier also made his debute. He was also minus 1, played 26 shifts with 19:37 minutes of ice time, 1 shot on goal, 2 blocked shots and 1 hit. Gauthier was on the ice for 4 of Buffalo’s goals.

So why did the Flyers lose this one?
The first period play was solid. Even though the Flyers were out shot, they were up 2-0 after Miller let in a couple of soft goals. 15 seconds into the second period Buffalo scores on an odd man rush and its all down hill from there. Although the Flyers did score 3 goals in the second, they gave up 4. There are not too many games that you can give up 4 goals in a period and win. Again out shot in the period. The third period the Flyers just stopped playing, registering only one shot for the entire third period. Martin Biron gets the win by stopping just one shot.
Out-shot, outplayed, lack of defensive play, lack of discipline and lack of heart is why the Flyers lost the game like so many others recently.

Peter Forsberg – “We’re not skating, we’re not hitting, we’re not doing anything. When we had the lead, we never really went after them. We sat back and waited for the other team to score. It’s been like that most of the year.”

I agree with that.

Three stars for the game were Mike Grier, Sami Kapanen and Daniel Briere.

Turner Stevenson was a healthy scratch.
The Flyers how now lost 8 games this season when leading after two periods.

Flyers play the Buffalo Sabres this afternoon in Philadelphia.
The Flyers are coming off a 3-2 shootout win over the Carolina Hurricanes on Wednesday at home. The Sabres are coming off a 8-5 win over Tampa Bay Thursday night in Buffalo. Sabres lead the season series 2-0 between the two teams. Sabres won the last meeting 4-2 in Buffalo on February 2.

Injuries for the Flyers include Michal Handzus, Kim Johnsson, Chris Therien and Keith Priemau.
Injuries for the Sabres include Adam Mair.

Antero Niittymaki is expected to get the start in goal today.

Denis Gauthier making his first appearance as a Flyer wearing #23 will be paired with Eric Desjardins on defense. Other pairings are Pitkanen-Rathje, Meyer and Jones. Jones will be the 7th defenseman when Hatcher returns.

Niko Dimitrakos the same, who will wear #15, looks to be playing on the Umberger-Nedved line. Other lines are Gagne-Forsberg-Knuble, Kapanen-Brashear-Radivojevic and Cater-Savage-Richards.
Another article has Dimitrakos playing with Richards-Savage, other lines Carter-Forsberg-Gagne, Nedved-Umberger-Knuble, and Kapanen-Brashear-Radivojevic.

Mike Rathje has a torn labrum in his right hip that will require off-season surgery. He has been playing with the injury for over a month. He is 80% at best. Is Rathje really helping the team to continue to play injured? If Rathje would have just hung it up for the season a good amount of cap room would be freed up for another decent defenseman.

A MRI has shown Derian Hatcher’s knee injury is only a bruise. There has been conflicting reports on whether he will play today or not.

For the second game in a row the Flyers have won in a shootout, this time beating the Carolina Hurricanes 3-2.
R.J. Umberger scored a power play goal in the second period and Freddy Meyer scored the tying goal with 0.6 seconds left in the game.
Antero Niittymaki got the start in goal and played a great game stopping 29 of 31 shots.

Derian Hatcher left the game early in the second period with a bruised knee.

For the first game in awhile the Flyers special teams pulled them thru. They were 1 for 4 on the power play and killed all 7 Carolina Power Plays. Although it did look like the Flyers were going to implode again in the second period. Eric Desjardins was in the box for high sticking, 33 seconds later Joni Pitkanen goes off for shooting the puck over the glass, 17 seconds after that Freddy Meyer does the same thing. With Hatcher out and 3 defensemen in the box, the Flyers were down to only 2 defensemen for part of the kill. Even with the extended PP time Carolina could not solve Niittymaki.

On the shootout, Forsberg and Gagne scored and Niittymaki stopped 3 of 4.
Stars for the game were Simon Gagne, Freddy Meyer and Ray Whitney. Gagne did score the winning goal in the shootout, but Niittymaki kept them in the game and deserved a star.

Although the Flyers did squeak out win, they were still out hustled and outplayed. Too many odd man rushes, it looked like the Flyers were back to playing just good enough to win like they were on the long road trip. But it is 2 points and now 2 wins in a row, hopefully that is something to build on.