FLYERS NEWS

The Flyers welcomed the Washington Capitals to the Wachovia center tonight and it wasn't pretty. Peter Lavoliette's first game as Flyer's head coach was about as bad as it gets and downright embarrassing. Midway through the 1st period the Flyers finally scored a goal as Mika Pyrola snuck one by Jose Theodore to tie the game at 1. That was as good as it got for the Flyers tonight though. Dan Carcillo was penalized twice on the same play and the Flyers were hit with an unheard of 9 minute major power play to kill off while Carcillo was sent to the showers. With the lethal Capital's power play on the ice, even without an injured Alexander Ovechkin, those 9 minutes proved fatal to the Flyers. Washington scored not once, not twice, but 3 times on the same power play and each time the Ray Emery, who the got the start in goal, really had no shot to stop the Caps, as replays clearly showed he never saw the puck coming, and you can't stop what you can't see. Washington wasn't yet either. They just kept coming after the Flyers one rush after another and each time the Flyer's were powerless stop it. By the end of the 2nd period Washington had 3 more goals, and a laughable 7-1 lead. Emery was back on bench after the 5th one, in favor of Brian Boucher, but obviously he did no better allowing another 2 goals before the end period. Of course, Boucher had no chance a couple times as well. The Flyer's finally got on the board again early in the 3rd period as Scott Hartnell scored to cut it to 7-2, before another Washington power play finished off the 8-2 massacre. I am not even sure what to say about this one, except I am sure Lavoliette will make sure things get better eventually and it's still early enough in the season for the Flyer's to turn this thing around, but they desperately need to get healthy first.