Flyers Win The Gimmick!

Well, after a nice long break, we finally got to see some puck in Philadelphia that resulted in a win for the Flyers. Not to be a gloomy gus, but it was hardly an impressive win. The Flyers showed an inconsistent effort and had some issues, especially with clearing the puck. Fortunately, the Bruins were playing the second game of a back to back, and the Flyers picked up the physical edge and seemed to wear down the Bruins in the third and OT.

Boston was also short key playmaker Marc Savard and big Milan Lucic. Rookie back-up Tuukka Rask got the call and played well, stopping more than 40 shots. Ray Emery was solid for the Flyers, including two remarkable stops in the second period.

Stuff I saw:

Stevens seemed to be juggling the lines, looking for a spark as the game progressed. I see this as a good thing, because some lines just were not clicking. Scott Hartnell seemed to get the short end of the stick for a bit, but Dan Carcillo, Mika Pyorala and Arron Asham were juggled, too.

The third Boston goal was off a horrid rebound by Emery. He kicked it right back out into the low slot and defenseman Kimmo Timonen had no chance to do anything to stop Steve Begin from banging it home.

Ole-Kristian Tollefsen came with in a goal of a Gordie Howe Hat Trick, picking up 2 assists in the second and beating the snot out of Trent Whitfield. Fellow third pair defenseman Danny Syvret had a quietly solid evening.There were still some issues with the top four, however. On the first Bruins goal, Braydon Coburn seemed to lose his focus after a slew of failed clearings and was out of position. Kimmo Timonen failed to read a forechecker right on him late in the third that lead to a scoring chance. Chris Pronger scored a goal, but he also failed to clear a screen on the first Boston goal. Matt Carle continued to have a very solid start to his season.

Simon Gagne had another uneven night. During the first period he had two or three exemplemary shifts-he was buzzing around the zone, being aggressive, forcing the defense to rush with the puck…then, he seemed to disappear to a degree. In the third he had a rebound, where he was involved more, but even then it was missing something. In the OT, he twice forced passes to a covered Carle, who had to be quick and lucky to avoid a bad turnover on each.

In the shootout, Stevens diverted from his usual trio of Danny Briere, Mike Richards and Gagne by using the shifty Claude Giroux as his third shooter. It worked, as Giroux was the only shooter from either side to find the twine. Michael Ryder did come close though, hitting the inside of the post behind Emery just after Giroux beat Rask.