The Flyers were able to get a little revenge pn the Caps beating them 3-1 in Washington last night. The New Years Eve game versus the Caps was the only loss so far on the Flyers 11 game road trip.

Mike Rathje scored a short handed goal, Simon Gagne scored a power play goal and Peter Forsberg added an empty netter.

Randy Jones was recalled from the Phantoms replacing Dennis Seidenburg who was out will a knee injury. Jones played 12 minutes and was even on the night. He wears #29.

Three stars for the game were Gagne, Forsberg and Ovechkin.

Coach Hitchcock along with many, many Flyers fans have not been pleased with Chris Therien’s play recently. It has been reported to the media that Hitchcock said – “I told Chris that the game time has to be 7 p.m. and not 7:45.” This pointing out Theriens slow starts.

Therien has gotten under the skin of a fan enough for them to set of a website.
http://www.theriensucks.com
This little gem was found by Jes Golbez.
“Yes, somebody actually took the time and money to purchase a domain and message board for the sole purpose of ragging on Chris Therien.”
Not only that, but the person also spent a little extra to secure the whois information. Could this be from someone inside the Flyers organization?
Hmmm, the site is hosted in Germany maybe not. Wait, Germany, Seidenburg, na.

The Flyers are the first team this year to 60 points. They lead the East over Ottawa by one point. The Senators do have two games in hand against the Flyers.

The Philadelphia Flyers won another 1 goal game beating the New York Rangers 4-3 in Overtime.
Simon Gagne scored 7 seconds into overtime to win the game for the Flyers.
The other three goals all came on the power play. Freddy Meyer scored his second ever NHL goal. Kim Johnsson and Brian Savage also scored.

The Rangers came out real strong in the first period taking the lead 2-1 with 18 shots on goal. The Flyers just could not keep up with the Rangers intensity. A different Rangers team came out for the second period. They slowed down to the pace the Flyers were playing and the Flyers were able to take advantage of this scoring two goals and taking the lead into the third period. The game picked up in the third with the Rangers tying the game with about five minutes left to play. Overtime was short, real short. So short the entire overtime period was shown in slow motion replay. Peter Forsberg won the initial face-off, passed off to Gagne who skated by a couple Rangers, shot and scored on a bad angled shot.

Gagne, Meyer and Straka were the three stars.

Gagne’s overtime goal was the second shortest in NHL history. The shortest goes to Mats Sundin in 1995 scoring in 6 seconds.

Jon Sim was a healthy scratch.

The Flyers head to New York to play the Rangers tonight.
This is the second meeting between the two teams. The first being the first game of the season. The Flyers suffered a embarrassing loss in Philly 5-3.

Lines have been changed again Carter has been moved up with Forsberg and Gagne. Knuble will play on the Handzus and Kapanen line. We will have to see how this works out. This was tried several games ago and lasted one shift. Other lines might be Umberger, Eager and Savage – Richards, Brashear and Radivojevic.

Injuries for the Flyers include Eric Desjardins, Robert Esche, Joni Pitkanen, Keith Primeau and Tuner Stevenson.
The Rangers have no injuries.

Mike Knuble has updated the Player Blog. He talks about hauling out the trash and watching the Orange Bowl with some teammates.

Happy New Year to everyone! Here’s hoping you are getting a chance to watch the World Junior Championships, which has been a great tournament so far.
Many future NHL stars are on the ice at the worlds, so take it all in. Now, a look at the NHL itself.
The Good [.continue.]

Barry Melrose discusses teams battling thru adversity, who is doing well and who isn’t.

The Good starts with the Flyers. Given the amount of injuries the Flyers have sustained this year they have held their own pretty well in the standings. Melrose gives credit to the younger guys for stepping up and providing offense at a time the trainer’s room for the Flyers looked like the MASH 4077.
For the playoff run though Melrose says…

I still think the Flyers need another goaltender — they don’t want to go into the playoffs with a rookie netminder, no matter how well Niittymaki is playing.

What is with Niittymaki getting no respect? His nickname might be Frank, but I think I might start calling him Rodney. First his own country and now Melrose.

Who are the Flyers going to get that is better than Niittymaki and is not a rookie? Ottawa going to trade away Hasek? Or is Roberto Luongo who you are thinking of Barry? Hasek is not leaving Ottawa. Luongo was rumored for a good wile to be leaving Florida, but how much would the Flyers have to give up to get him? Too much to for a partial season with his contract being up at the end of it. Add in that Luongo has zero playoff experience and it is not going to happen. Well it shouldn’t happen.

Or should Robert Esche be put back in because he has more ‘experience’? Before the last playoff run Esche played in 1 NHL playoff game and 4 AHL playoff games.
Frank has 33 games in the AHL under his belt in the playoffs winning the Calder Cup along with the MVP for the playoffs.
Sorry Barry, unless Niittymaki starts blowing games he is the guy to go with in goal.

The Flyers shutout the Bruins yesterday afternoon in Boston 1-0.
Jeff Carter scored the only goal in the second period.

Antero Niittymaki was big in goal getting his second career shutout. Praise continues to be heaped on him about his play. This was Niittymaki’s tenth straight start, stepping in for injured Robert Esche. Esche should be ready to play within the week. It will be interesting to see when/if Esche will see ice time again.

Besides Niittymaki, the Flyers had karma on their side for the game. The Bruins had multiple empty net opportunities and off the post shots in the first half of the game that they could not convert on. Honestly I thought Boston was the better team overall, but the Flyers played good enough to win, again. This is the eighth straight one goal game for the Flyers.

The three stars were Niittymaki, Bergeron and Carter.
What no Toivonen? Only allowing one goal, which was a deflection, has to count for something.

The Flyers are 3-0 against the Bruins this year.
Jon Sim was a healthy scratch.
Simon Gagne returned to the lineup after missing last game with the flu.
Chris Therien played his 741st game, tying Bob Kelly and Rick MacLeish for fifth all-time with the Flyers.

The Philadelphia Flyers look to get back into the win column against the Bruins this afternoon in Boston. The Flyers lead the season series between the two teams 2-0 last beating the Bruins 5-3 in Boston on November.

Injuries for the Flyers include Eric Desjardins, Robert Esche, Simon Gagne, Joni Pitkanen, Keith Primeau and Turner Stevenson.
Injuries for the Bruins include Nick Boynton, Ian Moran and Jiri Slegr.

Gagne who missed the last game with the flu will be in the lineup.
I expect the Flyers to come out hard against the Bruins considering the browbeating Hitchcock gave them in the media.

Chris Therien needs one game to reach 741 as a Flyer, tying Bob Kelly and Rick MacLeish for fifth place on the Flyers All-Time List.

Mike Knuble has posted another blog entry. He talks about the Flyers visit to the Pentagon and that he doesn’t like to wear suits.

The Flyers lose yet another game in DC to the Capitals around Christmas time.
The Capitals won a 4-3 shootout victory.
I have made the trip down to DC several times to watch the Flyers around Christmas/New Years time and every time they lose. The trip is always fun with the amount of Flyers fans there. It is almost like a home game. I did not go this year hoping that might help, guess not.
Peter Forsberg and Jeff Carter each scored on a Power Play. Sami Kapanen picked up a short handed goal.
Antero Niittymaki had another good game, except for the shootout. He seems to be weak in that area.

Jon Sim played for the first time in 2 games. League leading scorer Simon Gagne was scratched with the flu.

Lack of leadership is really starting to show with the team, someone needs to step up and get the team motivated. The last 7 games have been one goal games. Of those seven, 2 have been overtime games and 3 have been shootouts. Sure they have won 5 out of the 7, but playing just good enough to win is not going to cut it, especially with Flyers fans. Playing Ottawa on December 23 the Flyers knew that was a big game and came out hard scoring 4 straight. They were able to hold on and win 4-3 against the team first in the division. The next game the Flyers were able to play good enough against the last place Penguins to win 5-4.
Against the Capitals with the same record as Pittsburgh, the Flyers did not play good enough and loss. The effort just wasn’t there.

“This was as dead as we’ve been in a month. I don’t remember us playing this poorly. We had no work ethic, and their workers controlled the hockey game. Our goaltender was outstanding. When you go on the road and allow almost 50 shots on goal, it’s not good.” – Coach Ken Hitchcock.

The Capitals might be a last place team but they will beat the Flyers every time in Washington until the Flyers start to take them seriously.

The three stars were Ovechkin, Kapanen and Willsie.

The Flyers went the first 24 games without a shootout. In the last 14 games there have been 5. In shootouts the Flyers are 2-3.

The Flyers play the Capitals today at 1pm in Washington DC, the last game for each team of 2005. The Flyers are coming off a 4-3 OT win against the Hurricanes on Thursday. The Capitals are coming off a 7-2 loss to the Devils on Wednesday. This is the second meeting between the two teams this season. The Flyers won the first, 8-1 on November 3 in Philadelphia.

Injuries for the Flyers include Robert Esche, Joni Pitkanen, Eric Desjardins, Keith Primeau and Turner Stevenson.
Injuries for the Capitals include Jeff Friesen and Brent Johnson.

Antero Niittymaki and Olaf Kolzig will be the goalies for the game.

Jon Sim has been a healthy scratch for the Flyers the last two games.
A win by the Flyers will extend their winning streak to 6 games, tying their longest streak of the season.