When the Flyers last faced the Pittsburgh Penguins, the Pens steadily outworked the Flyers to a 2–1 shootout win. The Flyers bounced back with a solid win over the lowly New York Islanders, but then lost control against the Boston Bruins on Sunday. Tonight’s 5-2 win still came with some hesitations early on, but there were enough positives to go to bed feeling confident.
The Leino-Briere-Hartnell had a strong night, responsible for three of the five goals, including a crucial powerplay goal from Scott Hartnell in the second period to take the lead. Often, one will see written in print that “x” player hasn’t score in “y” amount of games, but it shouldn’t be expected that every line produce every night. As long as any of the top three lines are producing in a game, they should be content with the results.
Case-in-point, the JVR-Richards-Versteeg line was -1 on the night, but has played very well over the last three games (JVR hat trick anyone?).
The biggest question mark heading into the playoffs, goaltending, was given another shot in the arm as Sergei Bobrovsky followed his performance in Nassau with a spirited effort against the Penguins. He looked much better than his counterpart at the other end of the ice, Marc Andre Fleury, as he stopped multiple one-on-one opportunities, including a late stop of defenseman Kris Letang.
The most worrisome issue following tonight’s win is the news that Kimmo Timonen left the game after the second period with a “lower body injury.” The team has responded decently in the absence of cornerstone Chris Pronger, but losing Timonen for the playoffs would be a monumental loss. His importance to the team can not be understated.
Should Timonen sit out for the rest of the regular season as a precaution, the defensive pairs will likely match up as Carle-Coburn, Meszaros-O’Donnell, and Boynton-Syvret.
The Flyers will face the Atlanta Thrashers for the final time on Thursday at the Wells Fargo Center. This is another match that the Flyers should be able to dominate if they play a full 60 minutes, as the Thrashers are all but out of playoff contention at this point.
That was a tough game, we got some lucky bounces. Timmonen is definitely essential to our team, I love that little guy. Our top 5 defensemen are all really good though. I think Carle is the worst defensively but is the best passer, while Meszaros and Coburn can just be straight nasty- especially Coburn here lately. But Kimmo is just so intelligent and savvy and never gives up out there. He is one tough guy.
A great win, Flyers are building some momentum for the Playoffs..