The Flyers have made a distressing habit this season of coughing up (or nearly coughing up) multi-goal leads. They have usually found ways to win -- with the big exception being the game against San Jose earlier this year -- but that's something the team absolutely needs to put a stop to.

Playing three games in four nights is never an easy undertaking, and some of the Flyers' struggles in the third period of last night's game can be attributed to fatigue. As last night's game rolled along, it had the unmistakable feel of the dog days of the regular season preceding the stretch drive and playoff preparations.

More than fatigue, the bigger problem was that the club seemed to shut down the engines after a dominant first-period, and checked out mentally against the scrappy Panthers when the lead grew to 3-0. Nearly blowing a three-goal lead against Florida in the third game in four nights with fairly easy travel (Philly to two stops in Florida) is not as easily excusable as holding on for dear life against the Detroit Red Wings after traveling from the west coast. Of course, the bottom line is that the Flyers won both of those games in regulation. Take your two points and move on.

Philly caught a huge break last night on the disallowed goal that would have cut the Florida deficit to 3-1. The puck disappeared into Andreas Nodl's skate, and one replay clearly showed Nodl's skate going several inches back of the goal line with nothing but white ice underneath it before his foot swung forward and the puck re-emerged in the crease. Even though there is no logical way that the puck could have been anywhere but over the goal line, the no-goal call on the ice stood because the puck itself could not be spotted. As it turned out, that call proved to be a big help to the Flyers.

On another note, it was nice to see Nodl finally get that elusive 10th goal of the season while playing on Danny Briere's line in place of the injured Ville Leino. I know that Leino's lower-body injury (suspected to be a groin strain) is supposedly minor and that Paul Holmgren said he could be back in the lineup as soon as Friday.

My view: don't rush it. Give him a few extra days, The ability to rest injured players at this time of year is part of the benefit of building up a bit of a cushion in the standings. The team can certainly win without Leino for a few games.

Finally, I am not surprised that even with Leino out, Nikolay Zherdev remained a healthy scratch. Peter Laviolette had been sending him a message about his increasingly lackadaisical play by cutting his ice time steadily over several games. Rather than heeding the warning, Zherdev continued to dog it. When he took a seat for the rest of the Carolina game after a shift in which his lack of hustle was readily apparent (on one of his final shifts of the game, Zherdev simply stood and watched rather than pursuing a loose puck along the boards), it was pretty clear that he'd gotten himself deep in the doghouse again.

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