The Flyers talk another one in overtime 4-3 against the Hurricanes.
The second game in two nights Sami Kapanen scored in overtime to win it for the Flyers. Brian Savage scored his third goal of the year, his second in two days. Freddy Meyer scored his first goal ever in the NHL. Simon Gagne took sole first place in the league lead with goals with his goal in third to tie the game.

“I think there’s a tremendous feeling of team in the locker-room,” coach Ken Hitchcock said. “Nobody wants to be the person that lets the other person down right now. If you stay with that feeling, you can take a long run.”

We can only hope.

One thing that really surprised me in overtime was the lack of any effort on the part of the Hurricanes. The third period had turned into a track meet, continuously up and down the ice. In overtime they were just standing around, literally. The Flyers were able to take advantage of this with Kapanen putting away a rebound off his first shot.

Overall both goalies played very well.
A scary moment for Mike Rathje in the third period. He took a puck in the throat from former Flyer Rod Brind’Amour. Rathje fell instantly, after a couple minutes was able to get up and eventually return to the game.

Special teams almost cost the game for the Flyers. Giving up 2 goals on the penalty kill and not being able to score on the power play made the game tight. The Flyers are now 0-23 on the Power Play the last four games.

Kapanen, Cullen and Gagne were the three stars.

Jon Sim has been a healthy scratch the last two games.

13 of the last 15 Flyers games have been decided by one goal. This has made the games, at least from a fans perspective very exciting.
The Flyers will not practice on Friday, instead will take a tour of the Pentagon.
Flyers play the Capitals in Washington Saturday afternoon.

The Flyers have no time to rest as they head to Carolina to play the Hurricanes tonight.
This is a big game, both teams leading their divisions. A win for the Hurricanes would put them back in second place in the conference and drop the Flyers to third.

The Flyers are coming off a 4-3 OT win in Atlanta against the Thrashers last night.
The Hurricanes are coming of a 6-2 loss in Ottawa last night against the Senators.

The Hurricanes lead the season series 1-0 beating the Flyers 8-6 on October 28 in Carolina.

Injuries for the Flyers should be the same as last night, Robert Esche, Turner Stevenson, Eric Desjardins, Joni Pitkanen, Ryan Ready and Keith Primeau.
Injuries for the Hurricanes include Andrew Ladd and Josef Vasicek.

I am thinking this will be a slow game with both teams playing last night and traveling.

The Flyers won 4-3 in overtime last night in Atlanta against the Thrashers.

Goal scorers for the Flyers were Simon Gagne, Brian Savage, Branko Radivojevic and Sami Kapanen. Kapanen scored the winning goal 13 seconds into overtime.

Antero Niittymaki was average the first half of the game, but then had a great second half making some big saves.

One fight in the game, Mike Richards vs Garnet Exelby. It was a close fight, but I would have to give the edge to Exelby. Richards had a strong game, one fight, one huge hit on Ronald Petrovicky and an assist.

Stars of the game were Kapanen, Niittymaki and Michael Garnett.

Garnett’s shutout streak ended at two games when Gagne scored early in the first period.
Jon Sim was a healthy scratch. The first healthy scratch the flyers have had in about a month.
The win moves the Flyers into second place in the Eastern Conference.

Gagne’s goal keeps him tied for the NHL lead in goals with Eric Staal. Forsberg’s assist on that goal keeps him tied for the NHL lead in assists with Joe Thornton.
Just looking at some other stats, Gagne lead the league in even strength goals with 17.
Mike Knuble leads the league with first goals scored with 7.

There was a big hubbub yesterday about breaking up the Forsberg-Gagne-Knuble line. After all the buzz, the change lasted one shift.
Asked about it Ken Hitchcock said. “That was giving you guys something to write about.”

That’s just funny.

The Flyers continue their long road trip tonight in Atlanta.

The Flyers are coming off a 3-2 shootout win over the Panthers in Florida on Monday.
The Thrashers are coming off a 4-0 win over Montreal on Monday.
This will be the third of four meetings between the two teams. The series is tied 1-1.

Thrasher’s goalie Michael Garnett will be trying for his third consecutive shutout.

The big buzz about the Flyers today is the breakup of the Flyers top line. Basically it is just moving Mike Knuble to another line. Lines would be Forsberg-Gagne-Umberger, Carter-Knuble-Eager. The Forsberg-Gagne-Umberger line showed some good energy Monday in Florida and I am interested to see how well it will work.
The other two lines would be Handzus-Radivojevic-Brashear/Kapanen and Richards-Savage-Sim.

Sami Kapanen will be back missing the last game with the Flu.
Chris Therien missed practice yesterday with the Flu.
Therien might not play, other injuries for the Flyers include Robert Esche, Turner Stevenson, Eric Desjardins, Joni Pitkanen and Keith Primeau.

Injuries for the Thrashers include Brad Larsen, Peter Bondra, Steven Shields, Mike Dunham.

With Therien missing practice, Brashear for the second time in the last two weeks practiced on defense.

The Flyers beat the Panthers 3-2 going to a shootout in Florida last night.

Ben Eager scored his first and second NHL goals ever for the Flyers.

Simon Gagne, Peter Forsberg, Mike Richards all did not score in the shootout. Michal Handzus the fourth player in the shootout scored.

Another strong game for Niittymaki, he didn’t have a chance on either goal.

Stars for the game were Niittymaki, Jokinen and Eager.

Sami Kapanen missed the game with the flu.

The Flyers play the Panthers in Florida tonight after having a couple days off for Christmas. The Flyers are 2-0 against the Panthers this season and are looking to extend their winning streak to three games.
The Flyers are coming off a 5-4 win against the Penguins on December 23. The Panthers are coming off a 4-3 loss to the Hurricanes on December 23.

Injuries for the Flyers include Keith Primeau, Joni Pitkanen, Eric Desjardins, Ryan Ready, Turner Stevenson and Robert Esche.
Injuries for the Panthers include Anthony Stewart and Branislav Mezei.

This is the second of an eleven game road trip for the Flyers, longest in team history. Thanks to Disney On Ice which will occupy the Wachovia center the next few weeks.

The Flyers led, loss the lead then came back to beat the Penguins 5-4.

Simon Gagne and Dennis Seidenberg each picked up a power play goal. Peter Forsberg scored twice. Mike Knuble scored the game winning goal, extending his goal scoring streak to five games.
Seidenberg’s goal was his first of the season.

The first half of the game was rather slow, not much energy. Halfway thru the second period down by 3 goals the Penguins picked it up and scoring 4 straight, 2 goals in the second and 2 more in the third. At this point I figured the Flyers just ran out of gas after playing a tough game the night before in Philly. But the Penguins let up just enough to let the Flyers back in the game. Forsberg scored around the 15 minute mark of the third, Knuble scored about a minute later.

One of the things we’ve got to do better is develop the attitude when we’ve got people down we’ve got to keep putting the hammer to them. -Ken Hithcock

I agree

Both young goaltenders, Fleury and Niittymaki had average nights letting in some soft goals.
There was one fight in the game, Ben Eager and Matt Murley. Not much to it, it looked like Murley injured his shoulder while they wrestled. Eager was about to throw when Murley went down.

Forsberg, Crosby and Gagne were the three stars.
The win moves the Flyers into first place in the Atlantic Division a point ahead of the Rangers with two games in hand.
This was the last game before Christmas for the Flyers. The next game will be on Dec 26 in Florida.

Season’ Greetings from the Flyers – 3.72MB windows media format(wmv)

Tonight the Flyers head to Pittsburg to play the Penguins.

The Flyers are coming off a 4-3 win last night against the Senators. The Penquins are coming off a 5 day rest and 3-4 loss last Saturday against the Sabres. Five days rest vs 20 hours? That is a messed up schedule people could complain about.
The Flyers won the last meeting between the two teams 6-3 in Pittsburgh. This season the Flyers have won 2 against Pittsburgh and lost 1 in overtime.

Injuries for the Flyers should be the same as last night Keith Primeau, Joni Pitkanen, Eric Desjardins, Ryan Ready, Turner Stevenson and Robert Esche
Injuries for the Penguins include Mario Lemieux and Dick Tarnstrom.

With the war of worlds between Forsberg and the kid last game, it should be interesting. I’m sure Hatcher will make his presence known again too.

This is the first game of an 11 game road trip for the Flyers, longest in team history.

Some Olympics notes…
Sami Kapanen is considering bowing out of the Olympics.
“Right now I’m leaning more toward staying home,” Kapanen said after learning of his selection. “There are just so many games (at the Olympics). We play the first six games in eight nights. It’s a tough schedule and it takes a lot out of your body.”

Niittymaki might just make the Olympics after all. Miikka Kiprusoff will not be playing for Finland in the Olympics to rest his hip.

Branko Radivojevic made the “Taxi Squad” for Slovakia, which means he gets to go the Olympics, but wont play unless someone pulls out.