Flyer’s Win Streak Against Thrashers Ends With 5th Loss in 6 Games

After falling 1-0 to the Atlanta Thrashers, the Philadelphia Flyers 14 game winning streak against the Thrashers is now history.  They have now dropped 5 of their last 6 games and will welcome the upcoming break to try and rally the troops and to heal their walking wounded as their next game isn’t until Thursday night against the Vancouver Canucks in Philadelphia.

Losing center Jared Ross to injury in yesterdays loss to the Buffalo Sabres, the Flyers thought they would get a lift with Danny Briere being eligible to return to the teams lineup against the Thrashers.  But it was reported early in the afternoon that Briere was unavailable and would not play because of the flu.

The team put up a valiant effort, but it’s apparent that certain players that are relied upon heavily to provide offense are having to log a lot of extra ice time.  The result is that those players are looking tired, and it’s understandable why after the physical rigors of these contests.  Jeff Carter, Mike Richards and Scott Hartnell each put up defenseman-like ice time numbers.  Carter led the way with 27:14, Richards saw 24:09 and Hartnell 21:42.

And for a second straight game, a known frequent offender attempted to knock a Flyer player out of the lineup.  James van Riemsdyk was drilled along the left wing boards by Colby Armstrong, who had a head of steam for a good 10 feet.  Armstrong took aim at JVR’s head as he turned from being tangled with Atlanta defenseman Zach Bogosian.  JVR sustained a cut but seemed to be OK otherwise as he stayed in the game after the initial scare.

Arron Asham immediately came to JVR’s aid and pummeled Armstrong.  When the dust settled, Armstrong was given a 5-minute major penalty and a game misconduct.  Given that it was a shot to the head, it’s almost certain that the NHL’s disciplinary team will take a look at the hit and there is a good possibility that Armstrong, a repeat offender, could receive a suspension.

The games only goal was scored in the second period by the Thrashers Rich Peverley, just as the first penalty on a two-man advantage was expiring.  With Claude Giroux and Ryan Parent in the box and Giroux about to leave the box, Peverley took a cross-ice pass from Pavel Kubina, one-timing the puck at the left circle and beating goaltender Brian Boucher to give Atlanta the only goal they would need.

Philadelphia carried play for much of the game and outshot the Thrashers 34-18 for the game, including holding Atlanta to just 3 shots in both the first and third periods.  Johan Hedberg registered 34 saves for the shutout, as the Thrashers jumped past the Flyers in the Eastern Conference standings.

My 3 Stars:

#1 Johan Hedberg ATL – Flawless on 34 Flyer shots

#2 Rich Peverley ATL – Thrashers leading scorer scored games only goal

#3 Pavel Kubina ATL – Solid on defense in over 24 minutes and assisted on Atlanta’s only goal

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Taking a Flyer:  The Flyers should have known that this streak would end when their designated Thrasher-killing goalie, Antero Niittymaki signed with the Tampa Bay Lightning as an unrestricted free agent in the offseason.  Niitty had been 11-0 against Atlanta, mostly playing against his Finnish counterpart Kari Lehtonen…the Flyers schedule doesn’t get much easier when they resume play next week.  They take on two of the NHL’s most formidable teams, Roberto Luongo and the Vancouver Canucks Thursday and Alexander Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals on Saturday…Flyers PP was 0-4 while Atlanta scored their only goal on a 2-man advantage and went 1-4 with the extra man…Kimmo Timonen seemed to be shaken up in the second period after blocking a shot with his hand, but stayed in and played the rest of the game…Ian Laperriere played after taking a Jason Pominville slapshot to the mouth in Fridays loss to Buffalo.  Lappy took somewhere between 50-100 stitches to close the gash between his lip and nose and lost 7 teeth.  He logged 17 shifts and saw 13:20 of ice time and besides difficulty seeing the puck in his skates a couple of times because of the full face shield now afixed to his helmet, otherwise played his usual game and didn’t look out of place.  W-A-R-R-I-O-R.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Follow me on Twitter, my user ID is @PhilaDAVEia, and “friend” me on Facebook at www.facebook.com/davidstrehle.  You can also contact me via email at DavidStrehle@live.com.