After racking up their 5th straight win with ease last night against the Lightning, the Flyers traveled across Florida for a meeting with the Florida Panthers. The Panthers haven't been that much better than the Lightning this season so you would think this one would be another easy Orange and Black win. Unfortunately, while they have brought their scoring back from the break with them, it seems the Flyers totally lost their way defensively. They allowed a whopping 42 shots on goal and hung Micheal Leighton out to dry more than once as the he allowed a season worst 7 goals. The Flyers did at least keep it close for a while early on. Florida jumped out to q quick 2-0 lead after the 1st period, but power play tallys from Danny Briere and Jeff Carter twice pulled the Flyers within one early in the 2nd period, at 2-1 and then 3-2. They then seemed to run out of gas as Florida scored 3 straight goals for a 6-2 lead. From there the Orange and Black made one last push with goals by Ville Leino in the waining moments of the 2nd period, and Ryan Parent early in the 2nd period, cut it back to 6-4. Unfortunately ,that was as close as they would get before Florida closed out a 7-4 win.
Playing on back to back nights just after the olympic break was simply too much for the Flyer's to handle. The defense and Leighton had undoubtedly their worst games of the season thus far, but they were clearly fatigued. They have some time now before their next game so hopefully the'll be able to right the ship again before long. Otherwise it could be a long rest of the season. If nothing else it was at least nice to see the Orange and Black fight all the way to the end rather just rollover as they seemed to at times earlier this season. So anyway despite the loss the Flyers still remain 6th in the Eastern conference, and only 6 points out of 5th.
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