FLYERS NEWS

There's been a lot of talk lately, some of it warranted and some not, about the Flyers not putting in full efforts night in and night out. Unfortunately tonight was no different, but this time they at least had a decent excuse with Chris Pronger out, Blair Betts still out, and James Van Reimsdyk loaned to the Phantoms for the night to make room for waiver pickup, defenseman Nick Boynton. Unfortunately Boynton couldn't make it out to Ottawa for the game tonight, so rookie Erik Gustaffson, recently called up from the Phantoms, took his place in lineup and in turn forced JVR to sit the night out. As a result the Orange and Black just didn't have the same energy tonight as they've had most of the season until recently. Still with the Senators, last in the Eastern conference, their opponents they shouldn't have needed that much energy. In the end though they just picked wrong night to come into Ottawa flat.

It was really just a bad night for the Flyers all around. They went 0 for 4 on the power play while allowing the Senators to go 2 for 3. Brian Boucher was also mediocre stopping just 25 of 29 shots. Moreover the Orange and Black compiled just 31 shots on goal and only 16 all together after the first period. In the 1st period things looked good as the Flyers out shot Ottawa 15 -3 and took a 1-0 lead as Nikolay Zherdev fed Scott Hartnell perfectly on a breakaway score. Unfortunately after that the Flyers just seemed to shut it down completely, while the Senators amped it up physically the rest of the way and rolled a disheartening and disconcerting 4-1 win. Hopefully this was only a one night thing for the Flyers but it does make you wonder a bit.