Revenge.
The Flyers got some tonight, avenging a Thursday night shootout loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs with a Friday night shootout win of their own. The big story as this one wraps up? Michael Leighton left the game just before the shootout with what the broadcasters on Leafs TV were calling a slight injury. Beyond that, we don’t know much.
But you have to imagine something is wrong, because just throwing Boucher in without any warmup in a shootout situation is a recipe for injury, and you have to expect that Peter Laviolette wouldn’t do that unless it were necessary.
Let’s hope nothing major is wrong with Leights. Bullet points, now.
– Phil Kessel actually won the game in overtime, but it was waived off and the officials didn’t go upstairs. Apparently there’s no video replay in exhibition games. Sorry, Leafs.
– Dan Carcillo absolutely demolished Carl Gunnarsson in the first period. Mike Brown, who sports a terrible mustache, attacked Carcillo and they fought to a draw in a battle of terrible mustaches.
– Eric Wellwood got his first look in orange and black and had the great fortune of playing most of the game on a line with Carcillo and Darroll Powe. Despite, he put in a solid performance. Very hard-nosed type play. That’s what playing with those two will do to you, though.
He played a part in the Flyers second goal, though, while out there with Nikolai Zherdev and Claude Giroux. Kind of a fluky goal. Clearly, the coaches liked what they saw from Wellwood, because he started overtime with Danny Briere. In overtime, Briere fed him with a beauty and Wellwood made a move that would make his fat brother jealous. Just missed, though, hitting the outside of the net.
– Giroux’s shootout goal was a thing of beauty. I’m convinced this dude has a little sleeve on under his elbow pad, kind of like a quarterback in the NFL would wear, that has a list of moves on it. And they’re all stolen from NHL 11.
– Much like game one against the Devils, Leighton looked really solid until about the midway point of the second period. From there, his rebound control and a subpar defense cost him and the Flyers. He played all three periods, though, and while he wasn’t tested too much in the third, he looked okay when he did see rubber. Can’t blame the third Leafs goal on him, though.
– Again, for the second straight night, Andrej Meszaros did not impress. I made sure I watched him closely every time he took the ice, too. He had a perfect chance to tie the game on the power play in the third period and fanned on it Carter-in-Game-6-style. He has time to improve, but right now, he’s not worth his hefty salary.
More bullets after the jump. Holding off on the comment of the night since the game wasn’t on TV and a lot of people are jumping in the thread for the 10 PM encore on NHL Network.
– Oskars Bartulis had a rusty game, not helped at all by the penalty he took that led to the Leafs first goal.
– Put Andreas Nodl on the “good game” list tonight after a mediocre performance last night. He was all over the place and all over the puck, just when he needed a strong outing.
– Colton Orr probably had the best game of his professional career. He owes Kessel a beer or 12.
– Mike Testwuide got to play with Briere and Nodl for most of the night. To my knowledge, he didn’t really take advantage of the opportunity. He didn’t look particularly bad, per se, but he didn’t stand out either. The same could be said for David Laliberte, who played with Zherdev and Giroux for most of the night. To be fair, though, playing with those two is a lot to keep up with.
– Speaking of Zherdev, he looks very shifty and you can tell he has a lot of skill in the offensive end. He’s a bit rusty, perhaps, as evidenced by the between-the-legs pass to nobody in the second period or a few other passes that were just a bit off the mark. Hopefully that improves with time. As for defense? Well, that’s a different story. He just kind of floats around in his own end. from what I noticed tonight.
– Still, wouldn’t mind hearing “Giroux to Zherdev… SCORE!” 20 more times this season.
– I thought Carcillo had a pretty solid game. I wonder if he can feel Bill Guerin breathing down his neck?
– It seemed like Erik Gustafsson was getting a lot of ice time, but I don’t have a log to double check that with. If my inclination is correct, that could mean the coaches are giving him a hard look.
