Thankfully the week-long break on the Flyers didn’t make them soft when they returned to the ice and face the Leafs in Toronto. At first, it looked like they were going to dilly dally around, give up goals on special teams (an ongoing weakness, still) and once again let Big E (Eric Lindros) have some satisfying revenge on his former team.
It did look that way with the Leafs scoring first on a power play, as expected. Then they jumped back in with their power play goal courtesy of Rico (Eric Desjardins). When the Second Period came around, the Flyers failed to capitalize on a four-minute power play courtesy of Wade Belak having a tantrum. This was followed by the Flyers being stuck on a one-minute 5-3 penalty kill six minutes later. If an NHL team can’t score on this, they should be playing in the ECHL. So it looked like the Leafs would score and probably kill the Flyers’ chances of regaining momentum. But remember that cliché you keep hearing this season, this is the new NHL. Scoring sensation Simon Gagne knocked the puck offsides forcing the Leafs to reset their attack. No big deal right? Nope, this encouraged Michal Handzus and Mike Richards to push their luck. Handzus made the Leafs turn over the puck, then Richards stole it, hustled up ice and nailed a short-handed goal on Crazy Eddie (Ed Belfour). First short-handed goal on a 5-3 penalty kill for the Flyers in 14 years! First I’ve ever seen outside of a PS2 game.
Let’s see if they can extend their winning streak beyond three games.