UPDATE 12:15 PM ET
Chris Pronger will be in the lineup tonight, making his season debut. Updated Flyers line projections follow.
Carcillo - Richards - Carter
Hartnell - Briere - Leino
JVR - Giroux - Zherdev
Shelley - Betts - Powe
Pronger - Carle
Coburn - Timonen
Meszaros- O'Donnell
Bobrovsky
[Boucher]
*****
PREVIEW 10:15 AM ET
After grabbing three of a possible four points on the road in their first two games of the 2010-11 season, the Flyers (1-0-1) return home tonight for their home opener against the Colorado Avalanche (1-0-0). The Flyers will play six of the next seven games on home ice, playing three games this week, followed by four days off, followed by four games (three at home) in six nights.
Philly will be looking to build on the positives from their opening week road trip. Danny Briere (2 goals) has picked up where he left off in the playoffs, and his line as a whole has been effective. Even in the absence of Chris Pronger, the defense has played fairly well (you can't expect perfection) for the majority of the first two games. The penalty killing (13 for 15, with one of the goals against coming on a 5-on-3) has been strong. Most encouraging of all, the club has gotten strong goaltending so far from Sergei Bobrovsky and Brian Boucher.
On the flip side, there is plenty of room for improvement. The team cannot keep churning out poor first periods the way they did in Pittsburgh and St. Louis. The top line of Mike Richards, Jeff Carter and Dan Carcillo has been ineffective so far, as has Nikolay Zherdev. In addition, the club has taken too many penalties so far, and their own powerplay (1-for-9) has yet to get untracked.
Colorado opened the season last week with a 5-4 overtime win at home over the defending Stanley Cup champion Chicago Blackhawks. Paul Stastny scored a pair of goals, including the game winner in overtime. After tonight, the Avs will travel to Detroit to play the arch-rival Red Wings, then return to the east coast Friday for three games in four days against the other Atlantic Division teams (minus Pittsburgh). The team is without Peter Mueller (concussion) and David Koci (broken jaw).
The Flyers did not practice yesterday. Chris Pronger is still listed as questionable for this game. Sergei Bobrovsky is supposedly slated to start in net, but we'll see. I will update later with the lineups.
Projected lineups (based on last game and subject to change)
FLYERS
Carcillo - Richards - Carter
Hartnell - Briere - Leino
JVR - Giroux - Zherdev
Shelley - Betts - Powe
Coburn - Timonen
Carle - Meszaros
Bartulis - O'Donnell
Bobrovsky
[Boucher]
AVALANCHE
Galiardi - Stastny - Stewart
Jones - Duchene - Hejduk
Winnik - O'Reilly - Yip
McLeod - Olver - Porter
Quincey - Hannan
Liles - Wilson
Cumiskey - Foote
Anderson
[Budaj]
****
The Phantoms opened the regular season by splitting their first two games on the road. On Friday, the Phantoms got thumped by the Binghamton Senators, 5-1. On Saturday, Adirondack grabbed a 5-3 win over the Albany Devils.
Very little went right for the Phantoms in the opener. The club put itself shorthanded 8 times, yielding 3 powerplay goals. The club gave up 49 shots on goal and frequently left Johan Backlund to fend for himself. The bright spots: Patrick Maroon scored a powerplay goal in the third period to cut the deficit to 4-1. On the play Maroon converted a cross-ice feed from veteran defenseman Dan Jancevski. Mike Testwuide earned the secondary assist for his first professional point. Despite the lopsided score, Marc-Andre Bourdon reportedly had a strong first game of the season.
On Saturday, the game was tied 2-2 after two periods and 3-3 in the third period when Ben Holmstrom scored the game winner for Adirondack in the first of 12 games against Albany this season. Apart from Holmstrom, Stefan Legein, Jon Kalinski, Patrick Maroon, and Zac Rinaldo scored for Adirondack. Johan Backlund stopped 26 of 29 shots for his first victory of the young season.
With the Phantoms trailing 1-0 after one period, the Phantoms broke loose with two goals spaced less than a minute apart. From the left circle, Legein scored a PPG by sneaking a shot into the short side of the net off the shoulder of Albany goalie Jeff Frazee. Moments later, Jon Kalinski deflected an Erik Gustafsson point shot off both goalposts and into the net. Albany tied the game at 2-2 late in the 2nd period with a breakaway goal by their captain, Stephen Gionta.
Early in the 3rd period, Mike Testwuide carried the puck through center and then cut to the left wing, feeding the puck to Maroon in the high slot. Maroon made no mistake, scoring his second of the season. After Albany once again tied the score, the Phantoms took the lead for good at 11:52. David Laliberte shot the puck from the high slot. Frazee made the stop but juggled the rebound, which Holmstrom knocked out of mid-air from the left side of the goal mouth. At 18:31, Rinaldo followed up his own rebound for his first AHL goal and some insurance for his team.
****
Today on Versus.com, I take a look at
Tim Thomas' shutout of the Phoenix Coyotes in Prague yesterday.
In the next few days, the 15th Anniversary Season series on the hockey history of the Flyers current home arena -- now known as the Wells Fargo Center -- should run on Philadelphiaflyers.com
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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