Flyers lose to the Senators 3-2 in Ottawa last night.
Therien time was in full affect with the Flyers being out played and out shot 14-7 in the first period.
Nineteen seconds into the second period the Flyers were down 3-0. Soon after the Flyers decided to show up and play. Simon Gagne picked up his 37 goal of the season making it 3-1 at 13:46. Donald Brashear scored on a redirection, his second goal in two games at 16:52 of the second period to make it 3-2. That was it for scoring. All goals were at even strength, both teams went 0-3 on the power play.

Robert Esche started the game which was a surprise to me since he played 3 straight along with the game the night before. After giving up two goals on 13 shots Esche was pulled at 14:07 in the first period.

Hitchcock on the goalie change. “It was a wakeup call. We needed to get something changed because we were on our heels. It certainly wasn’t a reflection on (Esche), he played fine.”

So that’s the line. Personally I think his play was a little weak. The Flyers did need a wakeup call, unfortunately it didn’t happen until midway thru the second period.

Antoine Vermette, Antero Niittymaki and Chris Kelly were the three stars.

The negatives to the game were the Flyers lose again, three straight road losses. The first period was bad, again. And the Flyers were scored on first, again.
The positives were that no one got injured, they did not give up a power play goal and they mounted some sort of come back unlike the recent Tampa Bay and Montreal games.

After the game Ottawa recognized all Olympics athletes that played in the game. Not only the Canadians, but also the Americans, Swedes, Finns, etc. It was a nice little ceremony, a class act by the Ottawa organization.

Jon Sim picked up another goal with the Florida Panthers. I believe that’s 6 now since he has been traded for a late round draft pick.

The Flyers head to Ottawa tonight to play the Senators. This is the last game before the Olympic break for both teams. The Flyers lead the season series 2-0 last beating Ottawa 4-3 in Philly on December 22.
The Flyers are coming off a 5-4 win over the Capitals last night in Philly. The Senators are coming off a 2-1 loss to the Thrashers at home on Thursday.

Injuries for the Flyers include Peter Forsberg, Kim Johnsson, Petr Nedved, Keith Primeau, Branko Radivojevic, Mike Rathje and Chris Therien.
Injuries for the Senators include Martin Havlat, Brian McGrattan and Chris Phillips.

Antero Niittymaki should get the start in goal.

The Flyers beat the Caps 5-4 in Philly last night.
Brian Savage scored 2 power play goals his 5th and 6th goals of the season. Sami Kapanen also picked up a power play goal. Simon Gagne and Donald Brashear each scored at even strength. Gagne’s goal was his 36, a career high. Brashear’s goal was unassisted, his second goal of the season.
Two fights in the game first Doug Doull vs Donald Breashear, no real winner in that one. Second fight was Turner Stevenson vs Nolan Yonkman, Younkman took that fight.
Even with giving up 4 goals Esche still played well.
Brian Savage, Alexander Ovechkin and Robert Esche were the three stars.

Like so many games during the long road trip the Flyers played good enough to win and really not that much more. This was really evident when comparing game against the Islanders vs this last game against the Caps. The forchecking pressure just wasn’t there. During the Islanders game the penalty kill was pressuring the attackers deep in their zone. Last nights game the Caps weren’t pressured until almost to the Flyers blue line. The desperate play just wasn’t there. And the hits, every Flyer was finishing his check against the Islanders. Last night many of them just skated a way. The game would have been an easier win, if they just would have hit and worked a little more.
How much of it was laziness or having a game today in Ottawa or looking ahead to the Olympic break, I can’t say.
The other negative continues to be the penalty kill. Flyers gave up 3 pp goals on 9 kills.
But it is a win and two more points which puts them in 4th place in the division, for now.

The Washington Capitals come to Philly tonight to play the Flyers.
The Flyers are coming off a 5-2 home win over the Islanders on Wednesday. The Capitals are coming off a 5-0 home loss to the Florida Panthers. Former Flyer Jon Sim got his first career hat trick in that game. Flyers traded Sim to Florida back in January for a sixth round pick in the 2007.
The Flyers lead the season series 2-1. Flyers won the last meeting 3-1 in Washington on January 6.

Injuries for the Flyers include Peter Forsberg, Kim Johnsson, Petr Nedved, Keith Primeau, Branko Radivojevic, Mike Rathje and Chris Therien..
Simon Gagne who missed Wednesday game with a stomach virus is questionable for the game.
Injuries for the Capitals include Chris Clark, Matt Bradley, Steve Eminger and Jeff Halpern.

Robert Esche will get the start in goal.

Flyers break their 3 game losing streak by beating the Islanders last night 5-2 at the Wachovia Center.

The Flyers really needed this win and the effort on the ice was outstanding. Mike Richards picks up his first NHL hat trick with a shorthanded goal in the first period, a goal in the second period and an empty net/shorthanded goal in the third. Richards is the first Flyers rookie to score a hat trick since Mikael Renberg did in San Jose on February 15, 1994.
The Flyers were aggressive on their forcheck, they won the battle along the boards and they hit. This is the type of play needed by the Flyers to win with almost half of the team injured, high energy, and aggressive, desperate hockey. R.J. Umberger picked up a power play goal in the first period and Jeff Carter a power play goal in the second. Before Umberger’s power play goal the Flyers were 0-23 on the power play over the last 5 games.

If there was one negative about the game it had to be giving up 2 power play goals in 7 chances. But that is minor considering the two shorthanded goals and the Flyers own power play goals.

Robert Esche was good in goal and got his second point of the season off of Jeff Carter’s goal.
Ryan Ready was called up from the Phantoms. Ready made his debut with the Flyers back on November 29 only to leave the game after 3 minutes of ice time with a groin injury. Ready faired better this time around with almost 12 minutes of ice time and earned his first NHL point.
Stefan Ruzicka made his NHL debut with a hooking call and a trip to the penalty box on his first shift.
Eric Desjardins returned to the lineup after being out since December 7 with a shoulder injury. Desjardins was the top Flyer for ice time at 28:41, he also picked up a point on the last goal.
Simon Gagne was a late scratch, he had the stomach flu.
Petr Nedved left in the third period when he aggravated a groin injury. I am surprised he made it that far. So many times this year Flyers players have come back from groin injury only to injure it again that game.
Michal Handzus played last night with a bruised foot. Handzus has played in 254 straight games, the fifth longest active streak.

Stars for the game were Mike Richards, R.J. Umberger and Jeff Carter.
Two games left before the Olympic break.

Tonight the Flyers try to end their three game losing streak against the New York Islander in Philadelphia. The Flyers are coming off a 5-0 shutout loss in Montreal on Sunday. The Islanders are coming off a 3-2 OT loss to the Lightning at home on Monday.
The Flyers lead the season series 3-1 against the Islanders. The Flyers won the last meeting 4-3 November 29, 2005 on the road.
Injuries for the Flyers include Peter Forsberg, Kim Johnsson, Keith Primeau, Mike Rathje and Christ Therien. Eric Desjardins and Petr Nedved are probable for the game. Michal Handzus has a bruised foot, but is expected to play.
Injuries for the Islanders include Keven Colley, Petteri Nokelainen and Alexei Zhitnik.

Pat Kavanagh and Ben Eager have been reassigned to the Phantoms. Defenseman Alexandre Picard and forwards Ryan Ready and Stefan Ruzicka have been recalled for the game.

Robert Esche will get the start in goal tonight. This should setup a match up between potential starting goaltenders for Team USA Esche and Rick DiPietro.

The Olympics starts in 3 days. Men’s Ice Hockey runs from February 15 thru February 26. Here in the US, NBC will be showing every game with the US and medals games being shown commercial free, which is great. But personally I just can’t get motivated to watch the Olympics anymore. 1988 was the last one that really held my interest. There is no US vs. USSR rivalry anymore. No us vs. them. Most of the sports wouldn’t hold my interest at any other time. Curling, figure skating, skiing, eh they are ok. I’m not sure if I will watch much of any of it even the hockey.
The Flyers have 9 players selected to play in the Olympics
The ones selected were…
Joni Pitkanen
Peter Forsberg
Robert Esche
Derian Hatcher
Sami Kapanen
Antero Nittymaki
Kim Johnsson
Mike Knuble
Michal Handzus

Branko Radivojevic made the Slovakia Taxi Squad.

Of those Kapanen, Johnsson, have withdrawn and will sit out the Olympics. Forsberg might soon be a third. Today in practice Peter Forsberg experienced ‘tightness’ in his groin and wont play in tomorrow’s game. Some might call it a war of words, but Flyers chairman Ed Snider has said very plainly he does not want Peter to play in the Olympics. Peter has said he will play if he is healthy. Personally. I would like to see him sit and rest. Peter’s groin has been injured since back around Thanksgiving. Ok, one time it’s his left and the other times it’s his right groin, it doesn’t matter he has been injured and shouldn’t play. Joni Pitkanen is also having issues with his groin following his surgery. He should also rest and sit it out. Heck I’d rather see all of them rest and be healthier for the rest of the season. Flyers are up to what around 270 man games missed because of injuries?
A lot of hockey will be played in a short period of time, 5 games in 6 days. 8 games in 11 days if you make it to the gold medal match. Too much hockey for a team that has just been killed with injuries.

There will be a roster freeze from February 13 thru the 27 during the Olympics break.

The Philadelphia Flyers were shutout 5-0 by the Canadiens last night in Montreal. Michael Ryder scored a hat trick for the Canadiens becoming the third player in six games to do so against the Flyers. Only saw one hat on the ice for Ryder, what’s the deal with that?

The Flyers gave up 2 power play goals on 6 chances and went 0 for 5 on their power play chances. Flyers have gone 5 straight games without a power play goal.
Flyers also lost another player to injury, Mike Rathje left in the second period with a groin injury.

Sami Kapanen who last week was made a permanent Alternate Captain had this to say. “We keep talking about playing a good game and following up with another good game and obviously we didn’t do it once again today. It’s getting to the point [where] it’s ridiculous. When the other team is smiling and laughing skating up the ice, at least punish those guys. I don’t care what we do we just have to fight a little harder. It’s frustrating right now.”

This is the problem with the Flyers right now. There is no passion, no energy. Aren’t they supposed to get a little pissed off when getting outplayed so badly? They have been shut out twice, badly in the past five games. They should be pissed at themselves for sucking so bad and pissed at the opposing team. Late in the game when the Flyers are down 4 or 5 goals in the third period, the game should be ‘tense’. I’m not calling for anyone to take off anyone’s head, or break anyone’s ankle, but the Flyers need to do something else besides having meetings, holding hands and talking about what is wrong.

Three stars for the game were Michael Ryer, Cristobal Huet and Michael Komisarek.

Throughout this slump the Flyers have been going thru in January the goal tending has been between decent and great. Antero Niittymaki last night was really good thru the first two periods. The first couple goals by Montreal were unstoppable, but when the Flyers don’t score it doesn’t matter how well the goaltending is.

It can be hard to be so critical of the team with the ridiculous amount of injuries the Flyers have had to deal with, sometimes I just feel sorry for them.
But the problem with the team is the lack of energy. They are just not playing with any passion. If the Flyers would play high energy high passion games and still lose, then yes the 260+ missed man games would be to blame. Thankfully there are only three games left before the Olympics break.

The Flyers head into Montreal to play the Canadiens this afternoon.
Only two games today with it being Super Bowl Sunday.
The Flyers are coming off a 4-3 OT loss to the Rangers in Philly yesterday.
The Canadiens are coming off a 2-0 win over the Bruins at home yesterday.

Injures for the Flyers include Keith Primeau, Eric Desjardins, Kim Johnsson, Peter Forsberg, Petr Nedved, Branko Radivojevic and Chris Therien.
Canadiens have none.

The Canadiens lead the season series between the two teams 2-0, last beating the Flyers 5-3 on January 25 in Philadelphia.

The Flyers have fell out of first in the division for the first time since late December. With only a one point difference and a game in hand, a win by the Flyers today would move them back into first in the division.