The Flyers waited until the third period to show any urgency last night, and paid the price with their third straight loss on what has become a disastrous road trip.
It appeared that the club may have suffered yet another injury when Kimmo Timonen played only 16-minutes and did not appear on the ice for much of the third period. Per the Daily News' Frank Severalli, Paul Holmgren reported no injuries after the game. That begs the question, though, as to why Timonen missed all those shifts if he wasn't hurt.
As for the game itself, it was (obviously) a positive to have Jeff Carter and Daniel Briere come through with two-goal games and for the team to erase an early two-goal deficit and get back within a goal in the third period after trailing by three goals. But that's scant comfort on a night where the team played soft hockey for much of the game and got so-so goaltending from Ray Emery.
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One bright spot in the Flyers farm system so far this season has been that two of their recently drafted goaltenders have been having strong seasons in their respective leagues.
Swedish goaltender Joacim Eriksson (Leksands IF, HockeyAllsvenskan) recently posted back-to-back shutouts and ranks in the Swedish minor league's top three in most major goaltending categories, including goals against average (2.14), save percentage (.933, best in the circuit) and shutouts (3, tied for the top spot).
Saskatoon Blades backstop Adam Morrison has emerged as a solid WHL starting goaltender at age 18. He put together a string of four good outings in a row and has racked up 10 wins in his 16 starts to go along with a 2.40 GAA and .913 save percentage.
Meanwhile, Notre Dame junior goaltender Brad Phillips continues to split time with freshman Mike Johnson. In seven starts, Phillips has a 1.96 GAA, .931 save percentage and one shutout. In six outings, however, Johnson has fared even better (1.49 GAA, .943 save percentage and one shutout).
In the WHL, Jacob DeSerres (who looked unimpressive at the Flyers' rookie camp in September) has not done much better with the Brandon Wheat Kings (3.48 GAA, .886 SV% in 7 games) than he did prior to his trade from the Seattle Thunderbirds.
In the Czech Extraliga, Jakub Kovar is the backup goaltender to former NHLer Roman Turek on HC Mountfield Ceske Budejovice. In 11 appearances, Kovar has a 4-7 record, a 2.66 goals against average and a .903 save percentage. Turek has started 18 games, has a 7-11 record, a 2.97 GAA and .906 save percentage.
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On today's
Daily Drop at Versus.com, I take a look at the Penguins third-period comeback against the Florida Panthers.
I also authored the head-to-head game preview for Wednesday's game between the Dallas Stars and St. Louis Blues. The feature will appear on the Hockeybuzz section of the Versus Web site. Because of the deadline for the feature, it had to be completed before the Stars' 2-0 shutout win last night against lowly Carolina and the Blues' 4-2 loss to the Bruins.
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I will be doing book signings for the Pelle Lindbergh book on the following dates:
December 4th 7 PM
Chester County Book Company
975 Paoli Pike
West Chester, PA 19380
610-616-1661
December 12th, 2pm
Barnes and Noble Booksellers
1553 Almonesson Road
Deptford, NJ 08096
856-232-3123
December 13th, 1 PM
Barnes and Noble Booksellers
2300 Chemical Road
Plymouth Meeting, PA 19462
610-567-2900
December 16th, 7PM
Barnes & Noble Booksellers
150 W. Swedesford Road
Devon, PA
610-695-6612
Devon, PA 19333
You can order
Pelle Lindbergh: Behind the White Mask online at
Barnes & Noble, via
Amazon or through
Middle Atlantic Press.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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