[Lightning vs Flyers coverage] [Lightning vs Flyers boxscore] [Raw Charge]
For the second time in two games, the Flyers netted six goals. If they can keep scoring six every game, I have a hunch it could lead to a lot more wins.
Some scattered thoughts on this game:
- He hasn’t gotten a lot of credit, but with this win the Flyers improved to 5-0-0 this year with Blair Betts in the lineup. None too shabby.
- Jeff Carter and Mike Richards each netted two goals, snapping respective seven and six game goalless streaks.
- David Laliberte scored again, becoming the first Flyer since Eric Lindros in 1992 to score in each of his first two games. With fellow French-Canadians Daniel Briere and Simon Gagne out of the lineup, nice to see the Flyers have more sources of accented scoring in the pipeline. His dive was pretty bush league, though.
- For a guy who only has one goal on the year, Claude Giroux sure has had a great start to the season. He looks ready to explode once a bounce or two goes his way.
- Ray Emery looked as good as he has all year. Fighting for every rebound and staying square to the shot effectively, Emery deserves a lot of credit for keeping this game as lopsided as it was.
- Mike Smith deserves even more credit for making this one a blowout. He wasn’t horrible, but it was not a brilliant effort by any stretch. But his replacement, Antero Niittymaki, was impressive in his return to Philadelphia. If he had started the game, it could have been a very different story this evening.
- Rick Tocchet was my favorite player growing up, and seeing himhave a head coaching gig is pretty cool. Having it be with the hapless Lighning is decidedly less cool, though.
- Remember when Vincent Lecavalier was one of the premiere forwards in the NHL? He’s now on the third line. In Tampa. How the mighty have fallen.
- Not that they were ever mighty, but wow, is the Southeast division ever atrocious right now. Except for Washington, they don’t have a single team in the top ten of the standings in the East.
After the jump, Travis’ pre-game questions answered, as well as your thoughts and comments on the win.
- The defensive pairings are back to normal. How do Coburn/Timonen look together again for an entire game? Same goes for Tollefsen/Syvret? Defense was pretty good. Syvret made one boneheaded play that led to the Lightning‘s first goal, but on the whole it was a very solid defensive game.
- How long does it take Steve Downie to drop the gloves with one of the Flyers’ tough guys? Plenty of yapping, but no fights for Downie.
- Are there any ill-effects to the early start? For the Lightning, absolutely. For the Flyers, not so much.
- How sparse is the crowd, thanks to the start time and the World Series? The area right near the glass looked less than packed, but on the whole it was a pretty solid crowd given the circumstances. And a bigger crowd than would ever be at a Lightning home game.
- Can the Flyers show their superiority over the Lightning? Are the Flyers a superior team to the Lightning? Yes and yes.
