The Flyers somehow found a way to hang on to beat the Thrashers 4-3 in Philly. Thrashers out shot the Flyers 31-18 and also outplayed them most of the game. The Flyers were losing many of the small battles. They would win the face off, but then lose the puck from being out hustled by the Thrashers.
This from a team, the Thrashers, who played the night before and lost in overtime. They showed no let up in energy, energy the Flyers did not seem to have.

“It looked to me like we tried to play around the competition rather than through it,” Hitchcock said.

Gagne did pick up his first hat trick of the season, second of his career.
Flyers have won six straight games at home.
Johnsson returned to the lineup, recovering from a pulled groin muscle.

Gagne, Hatcher and Kozlov were the three stars.
Hatcher doesn’t deserve a star for that game. Besides not having any points, Hossa’s goal with mainly Hatcher’s fault. On the penalty kill, Hatcher floated out toward the face off circle where no one was at, leaving Hossa alone beside the net. This has happened atleast twice before.
Give the star to Esche.

Steven Shields of the Thrashers was scheduled to start in goal, but suffered a knee injury during warm-ups. Mike Dunham who played the previous night started in goal.

Alexander Ovechkin might become hockey’s premier player someday, but for one night, another first-year player stole the spotlight, the puck (at a rather opportune time) and maybe even the Russian budding superstar’s mojo.
Jeff Carter made one of those “I know you’re great, but watch this” moves Thursday night to ignite the Flyers’ 8-1 rout of the Washington Capitals. [.continue.]

Great game to watch that is if you are a Flyers fan. Washington played well for the first part of the first period, and then the Flyers just took over. Flyers were due for another shorthanded goal and they got one from Carter.
Carter, Gagne and Sim each had two goals with Knuble and Forsberg adding one each.
Flyers did lose another player to injury, Desjardins took an elbow to the head and has a concussion.

“We’re starting to gain an identity and a lot of confidence. You hear things on the bench now; the bantering between the players, which is excellent. You can hear the locker room has a lot more life. Our team is starting to jell.” said Coach Ken Hitchcock

Hitchcock had said that in Primeau’s absence, left winger Simon Gagne would wear the captain’s C against the Capitals. Instead, Gagne wore an A. Awarding the C here would have indicated a long-term absence for Primeau.
This sounds like good news with Primeau.

Three stars were Carter, Gagne and Rathje.

Robert Esche, who missed Tuesday’s practice due to a slight groin strain, practiced Wednesday and will start in goal for the Flyers.
The groin strain had to be extremely slight and Esche has to be fully recovered to do this. Groin injuries can be very bad for goalies and with Nitty as the backup, there is no need to risk injuring it worse, especially against Washington.
Handzus and Savage will play. Johnsson is still questionable.
The Flyers are unbeaten in their last 14 (13-0-1) vs. Washington in Philly, a streak dating back to Jan. 31, 1998.

I will be watching tonigh’s game in HD (High Definition). It will be the first game I see in HD, can’t wait!

This time, the Flyers didn’t blow a two-goal lead in the third period. They played responsibly with the puck, despite having just five defensemen. And they got timely saves as Robert Esche clearly outplayed Dominik Hasek.
It all culminated in a shocking 5-3 Flyers victory over the white-hot, speedy Senators last night at the Corel Centre. [.continue.]

Solid play by the Flyers, although the Senators playing the night before surely had an affect on their play. The biggest disappointment coming out of the game was Kim Johnsson leaving in the second period with a groin strain. Depending on how bad the injury is, the Flyers won’t have any healthy defenseman to scratch. Both Seidenburg and Therien will be getting ice time.
Desjardins picked up the most ice time with almost 28 minutes

“I talked before the game to every guy, and some guys stepped up. Jeff [Carter] played a great game. I talked to Robert [Esche] before the game, and he had maybe the best game of the year for us. When you lose your captain, your leader, you need guys to step up, and some guys did tonight.” said Simon Gagne

Looks like he is earning the letter he is wearing.

Carter looked like he is getting into the groove, hopefully this will lead to more ice time. He did have the best face off percentage for the Flyers last night.

Stars for the game were Forsberg, Esche and Chara.

Watching the Flyers on Center Ice usually means watching the other teams broadcast, which can be quite, um, interesting. With the Flyers game being on UPN instead of Comcast, CI showed the Flyers feed. It was nice to listen to some ‘unbiased’ commentary for once. The really nice thing about it was no commercials. This got me thinking, I am paying for Center Ice, they should not be showing any commercials at all.

Flyers center Keith Primeau is doubtful for Sunday’s game against the Ottawa Senators after missing the pre-game skate at the Corel Centre on Sunday morning. Primeau and Flyers Head Coach Ken Hitchcock talked with the media following the skate.
In nine games this season, the Flyers captain has one goal and six assists for seven points and six penalty minutes.
To take his place on the roster, the Flyers recalled center R.J. Umberger from the Philadelphia Phantoms. In eight games with the Phantoms, Umberger is leading the team in scoring with three goals and seven assists for 10 points and eight penalty minutes. [.continue.]

Going into the game tonight against a very strong Ottawa(8-1)team was going to be a challenge. The challenge got a bit tougher with Primeau sitting this one out. So apparently the elbow he took from Perezhogin had an affect on him.

I really don’t know anything about Umberger. I am a little surprised they called up a center, does the phantoms have no decent wings? With Sharp, Carter, Richards, Forsberg and Handzus listed as centers why not call up a wing and give Sharp and Carter some more ice time?