My Flyers are still shaping up decently. Stuck in 2nd place with the Atlantic Division thanks to the one-week Olympic break coming early for them and Ottawa.
They gave the Washington Capitals a total 8-1 thrashing and defeated the Atlanta Thrashers 4-3, that game shouldn’t have been so close. At least Simon Gagne had a hat trick against the Thrashers and Jeff Carter had a beautiful short-handed goal on the Caps.
Gagne and Forsberg continue to tear up the scoring leads in the NHL but Tim Panacchio of the Philly paper brought up a really nagging problem in the latest Flyers’ podcast. Their Penalty Killing is in the bottom third of the NHL (like 27th of 30) and in recent history, not one Stanley Cup winner has a PK rating in the top third. I can only hope Ken Hitchcock gets that addressed by April because we’re out Primeau and Desjardins indefinitely and leading the league in short-handed goals won’t compensate.