Update 5:14 PM
Some additional news and notes
* Ville Leino is a go for tonight.
* Dan Carcillo is back in. Andreas Nodl sits.
* The Flyers have loaned Oskars Bartulis to the Phantoms. I assume they have send him on a conditioning assignment and not waived him (because it would have had to be announced yesterday) and assigned him to the Phantoms. I am trying to get definitive confirmation, however.
* You've probably seen the photos by now, but Scott Hartnell has finally gotten a haircut, donating his hair to Locks For Love.
* In 8 career games against Toronto heading into tonight, Brian Boucher has a tidy 1.69 GAA and .965 save percentage.
* Among Flyers position players, Danny Briere (32 GP, 14 G, 18 A, 32 PTS) and Jeff Carter (18 GP, 10 G, 4 A, 14 PTS) have the best career production against the Leafs.
* The 2nd period has been Toronto's best this season. The Leafs have outscored opponents by a 7-2 margin in the middle stanza while being outscored 5-6 in first periods and outscoring other teams a 5-4 mark in the third period. The Flyers have scored 5 goals and allowed 5 in first periods, scored and allowed 3 in second periods and been outscored 5-8 in third periods (a product of the last three games).
* Toronto is plus-four (14 GA, 11 GA) at even strength so far this season, the Flyers are minus-two (8 GF, 10 GA).
PREVIEW 7:25 AM ET
The Flyers were an excellent home-ice club in the playoffs last season but they have stumbled early at home this season, dropping three of their first four games at the Wells Fargo Center and losing three in succession to teams that played the previous night while they were idle. Tonight, the Flyers (2-3-1) will take on a rejuvenated Toronto Maple Leafs (4-1-1) team that won its first four games before dropping its last two. The Flyers won three of four in last year's season series, including a late-season shutout by Brian Boucher, who is the probable starting goaltender tonight for Philly.
Both the Flyers and Maple Leafs need to get a wider array of players contributing to the offense. For Philly, players other than Danny Briere (4 goals) and Claude Giroux (3 goals) are going to have to start scoring. The onus is on Mike Richards and Jeff Carter to start being the team's best players, which has only been the case once for Carter this season and has not been the case in any game yet for team captain Richards.
Just as important, the team's horrific early-season powerplay drought (2-for-27, 7.4% success ratio) needs to end sooner rather than later. The man advantage is usually a real strength for the Flyers. The club's powerplay has almost perennially ranked among the best in the league in recent years-- the Flyers ranked third last season with the same key personnel and the club hasn't been lower than sixth since the 2007-08 campaign.
Toronto, meanwhile, needs to start getting some secondary scoring from its forwards -- other than from Clarke MacArthur (5 goals, 7 points) -- to support Phil Kessel (5 goals, 7 points). The Leafs' attack has gone AWOL the last two games in particular, scoring a combined two goals in losing, 2-1, to both the Islanders and Rangers. Toronto's powerplay (14.3%) hasn't done much better than the Flyers', especially this past week.
On the flip side, the team defense continues to look much improved, and the club has gotten stellar goaltending from Jean-Sabastien Giguere as well as a solid effort from Jonas Gustavsson his last time out. Defensively, the club could stand for team captain Dion Phaneuf to do a little less running around and a little more playing his man positionally, but that's always been the player's style and you take the good with the bad with Phaneuf. Meanwhile, amidst the constant trade rumors, Tomas Kaberle (4 points, +3) has been excellent in the early going of the season.
For the Flyers, Ville Leino (charley horse) is not definite to play tonight as of this writing. It will depend on how he feels at the morning skate. If he's unable to go, Dan Carcillo will get back in the lineup.
In the fisticuffs department, Jody Shelley dropped the gloves (as expected) with George Parros on Thursday, dropping a hard-fought decision after eventually losing his balance. He may very well try his luck with Colton Orr tonight. I would also not be the least surprised to see Scott Hartnell stir the pot with Phaneuf or Mike Komisarek, or vice versa, and for something to break out after the whistle.
Possible starting lineups (based on last game and subject to change)
FLYERS
Carter - Richards - Zherdev/Nodl
Hartnell - Briere - Leino
JVR - Giroux - Nodl/Zherdev
Shelley - Betts - Powe
Carle - Pronger
Coburn - Timonen
Meszaros - O'Donnell
Boucher
[Bobrovsky]
MAPLE LEAFS
Versteeg - Bozak - Kessel
MacArthur - Grabovski - Kulemin
Sjostrom - Brent - Armstrong
Brown - Zigomanis - Orr
Phaneuf - Beauchemin
Schenn - Kaberle
Komisarek - Lebda
Giguere
[Gustavsson]
****
The Phantoms (2-4-1) had a rough evening at home yesterday, getting blown out by the Charlotte Checkers, 5-1. Adirondack got out outscored in the opening period, 3-1, and outshot, 18-8, and never made much headway from there. Johan Backlund (35 saves) was left to fend for himself. The gap between the defense and forwards was never narrowed, and Charlotte had free reign in the offensive zone.
It was a rough night for defensemen Joonas Lehtivuori and Erik Gustafsson (each minus-three on the night), but the duo at least assisted on Eric Wellwood's late first-period powerplay goal. They were also on the ice for a shorthanded goal by Charlotte's Nick Dodge.
The Phantoms are back in action tonight, playing the first of two consecutive road games against the Hersey Bears (2-2-1).
*****
Today's
Daily Drop at Versus.com considers the question of whether Daniel Alfredsson deserves to rank among the top echelon NHL players of the last 15 years. Aldredsson scored a hat trick last night in the Senators' 4-2 win in Buffalo, reaching the 1,000 point plateau in his NHL career in the process.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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