Back in the 1980s when Eklund was a young lad, Clara Peller made herself internationally known with a simple question: Where’s the beef?
Five games into the season, Flyers general manager Bob Clarke has got to wondering about all those moves he made over the summer to add secondary scoring to his lineup.
And Clarkie has to be asking himself, “Where’s the goals?”
Why, they are in the same place they were last year … on the first line. Peter Forsberg, Simon Gagne and Mike Knuble have 8 goals and 8 assists for 16 points.
There are 15 Flyers on the roster who don’t have a goal. Eight don’t even have a point. That is baaad.
On Tuesday, the Flyers visit the Little Shop of Horrors, otherwise known as HSBC Arena in Buffalo where the Sabres _ the team I predict will meet Anaheim for
the Stanley Cup next spring _ are 5-0.
The Flyers are dead last in the Atlantic Division and 14th seeded. Okay, it’s just five games into the season … Except … the Fly Boys have to play Buffalo and then Tampa Bay two nights later where they are 0-7 against the Lightning over the past two seasons that were actually played.
So, who gets the job in net against Buffalo? Well, Flyers coach Ken Hitchcock is letting Robert Esche out of the dog house (benched 4 straight games).
Why did Hitch choose Buffalo, I asked Esche.
“I don’t know … I don’t try getting into his head that for sure,” Esche replied. “It’s an empty place.”
Ouch!
What the Flyers would like to see tonight is an empty net behind Esche and not the usual empty net in front of their goalies from lack of pucks going in.
“They are all tough [games] right now,” Hitchcock said when someone suggested he was throwing Esche to the starving wolves.
“Sure, it’s a challenge. That is part of the game. Sometimes the team bails the goalie out and sometimes, the goalie bails the team out. That’s what makes it a team.”
Hitchcock tore up the lines yesterday and re-arranged them to get certain guys going …
Guys like Kyle Calder, who doesn’t even have a point this season. And Jeff Carter and R.J. Umberger and Mike Richards and Sami Kapanen and … you get the picture.
“One of our obligations is to get other people going,” Hitchcock said. “Part of a coach’s obligation is to give people in the lineup some help when they need help. Get people who are playing well to help others.”
Hitchcock is breaking up his only legitimate scoring line in hopes of generating goals elsewhere with new faces …
Here’s the new lines:
Gagne-Forsberg-Calder
Umberger-Carter-Knuble
Geoff Sanderson-Richards-Kapanen
And Petr Nedved centering … well, his two wingers are actually unknown at this point. There are three players left to choose from and they all have been shooting blanks, as well.
It will likely be Randy Robitaille and Boyd Kane with Nedved. The other guy alternating on that line is Niko Dimitrakos.
The Flyers need to turn things around on this three-game road trip which begins in Buffalo and ends in Florida. Given their lack of scoring right now, that figures to be a huge task.
“Just keep shooting,” Carter told me. “They are going to go in eventually. Why not just put it on net. They can’t stop ‘em all, right? It’s been tough so far. We’re getting chances. If we didn’t have chances, we’d start to really get worried. It’s a matter of time before we put them n the back of the net.”
As Garth would say … that’s my story and I’m stickin’ to it.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger • 
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