FLYERS NEWS

When Simon Gagne was traded to the Lightning in the offseason the first thing most fans likely did was check the schedule to see when Tampa Bay's first visit to Philly would be. As it turned out that visit was tonight, in just the Orange and Black's 2nd home game of the season. The Lighting came in fresh off an overtime war in Montreal on Wednesday and thus should have been tired an easy mark for the Flyers. Instead they played with a surprising energy the Flyers could never quite muster. Maybe they were extra motivated to win for Simon or maybe the Orange and Black decided to throw their old buddy a bone, but whatever the reason, Tampa just had it tonight and Flyers didn't.

The Orange and Black struggled particularly on defense, continuing to turn the puck over and take bad penalties as they have all season thus far. They took 7 penalties alltogether, 6 of which resulted in power plays. While their red hot penalty kill managed kill off all 6 power plays , the constant penalty killing took away any momentum they might have been able build offensively from 2nd the period on. Moreover, the Flyers power play continued to struggle, going o for 4 on the night, to move to 1 for 17 on the season. Just 1 power play would have at least gotten them a point tonigt. By the same token if Brian Boucher's play in net had been just a tad better they would have gotten at least a point also. He was pretty much hung out to dry on 2 of the 3 Lightning goals but he probably should stopped the last one.

There were at least some bright spots for the Flyers on the night. Late in the 1st period Nikolay Zherdev scored his first goal as a Flyer and 100th of his NHL career. At the time the goal tied the score at 1. Midway through the 3rd period Danny Briere scored his 3rd of the season to cut the Tampa Lead at the time to 3-2 and briefly restore Flyer's hopes of earning a point or 2. Unfortunately a James Van Reimsdyk penalty put the Flyes right back on the penalty kill stalling the comeback. They just ran out of time and steam from there as Tampa hung on for the 3-2 win. I'm happy that Simon got one more win, at the Wachovia, er Wells Fargo center, but the Flyers will need to start playing up to their ability to avoid any more losses like this one.