FLYERS NEWS

The Flyers began a long road trip tonight in Calgary against the new look Flames, in their first game following a trade that sent defenseman Dion Phaneuf to Toronto for 4 players. None of the new Flames made a difference tonight against the Orange and Black. The Flyer's were just too strong defensively for the struggling Flames, loser's of 10 in a row coming in. All night long they just seemed to be a step ahead of the Flames and other than one shorthanded opportunity Calgary really never had any decent scoring chances on the night. In fact overall, the Flames got off just 18 shots on goal and Ray Emery smothered every one of them. It was simply the most dominant defensive performance the Flyers have put forth in a long, long time.

They focused so much on their defense tonight, that the Flyer's almost forgot to score. It was not until 10 minutes into the 2nd period that Mike Richards finally put the Flyers on the board. Early in the 3rd period Claude Giroux scored for a 2-0 lead. Finally with a little over 2 minutes to play Richards slapped home a power play goal to put Calgary away for good 3-0. Sure it was against the Flames who haven't been very good this season, but the way the Flyer's played tonight it's doubtful anyone would have had success against them and you have to applaud them for that. If they can keep playing like this each and every night, they'll be tough for anyone to beat for the remainder of the season.

In his Flyer's debut, Lukas Krajicek had a solid night. He moved the puck around well and helped to keep things rolling on the offensive end of the ice, and on the other end he did well to disrupt numerous Flames scoring chances. He might be just what the doctored for the Flyers. With the win the Flyer's now have 59 points overall, which is currently good enough for 6th in the East, but only 3 points out of 9th in the East, so they'll need it keep it going if they want to stay safely in the Eastern conference playoff race.