FLYERS NEWS

When the 2010-2011 NHL schedule first came out all Flyers fans and players immediately noted the very first date on the schedule for the Flyers. They were to open the season against the archrival Pittsburgh Penguins in the first game at brand new Console Arena. Ideally, every team wants to open their new arena with a win. When it was announced first that Micheal Leighton would be out for a month and later that Chris Pronger and his knee would not be ready for the opener there seemed to be little doubt that Pittsburgh would have any trouble doing so.

However rookie goalie Sergei Bobrovsky, thrust into the starters role at the last minute, and the Flyers silenced any doubters with their efforts tonight. Bobrovsky had 29 saves, all of them crucial, with the Prongerless Flyer's defense playing sloppy at times in front of him. They were particularly sloppy in the first 2 periods with 24 of Bobrovsky's 29 saves coming in that time, but they picked it up when they needed to in the 3rd period. Bobrovsky wasn't perfect and did make the rookie mistake of getting out of position more than once, but Pittsburgh wasn't really able to make him pay. In fact neither Sidney Crosby nor Evgeni Malkin managed a goal against him. Moreover, no Penguins scored on him in the first 2 periods and by the time they finally got going in the 3rd period it was seemingly too little too late.

No one scored at all in the first period with Marc Andre Fleury matching Bobrovsky save for save. Early in the 2nd period, on the Flyers 2nd power play of the season, Danny Briere finally lit the lamp off an assist from Mike Richards. Late in period Blair Betts redirected a Darroll Powe shot to make it 2-0. 44 seconds into the 3rd period Bobrovsky finally yielded on a wide angle shot by Kris Letang to cut it to 2-1. It stayed 2-1 until Claude Giroux stole a pass in the Penguins zone and beat Fleury for a shorthanded tally about 5 minutes into the 3rd. It looked like that would be enough until Pittsburgh finally scored their 1st power play goal to cut it to 3-2 and then went on the power play again for the game' s final minute and 13 seconds.

Somehow Bobrovsky and the Flyers held them off and walked away with a satisfying 3-2 win to open the season. Overall it wasn't a great performance for the Orange and Black but a great debut for Bobrovsky and hopefully a sign of things to come for him.