You can fault their execution at times yesterday. You can fault their continued poor showings in the shootout. You can most certainly fault their continued ineptitude on the power play. But nobody should question how badly the Flyers wanted yesterday's game against the Rangers.

Don't forget the Flyers were playing their third game in less than 96 hours against a rested opponent. They were playing with a short bench because of the injury to Blair Betts and the third-period benching of Ville Leino. They were also playing against a New York Rangers team that had (and still has, because of the abomination to the game known as the shootout) a perfect record when leading after two periods.

In this era of parity in the NHL, it is not often that you can simply impose your will on another club that comes in with plenty of motivation of its own. Not every game in which you don't dominate for three periods represents a lack of intensity and work ethic.

I though the Flyers did have a drop in energy during the first half of the second period but otherwise, they matched the Rangers' work ethic in the game. It was far from a perfect effort. Laviolette sent a message to the club with the benching of Leino that anyone who was a passenger in the game wouldn't see the ice in crunch time, lineup injuries or not. From the start of the third period to the end of OT -- and a time when it would have understandable if they had no legs left -- the Flyers dug deep. I can live with one point under those circumstances.

Here's the bottom line. The Flyers have 100 points WITHOUT shootouts, and after yesterday are again first in the East -- albeit via tiebreaker-- and are within three points of winning the Atlantic. If the Flyers beat Ottawa on Tuesday and gain even one point from either the Buffalo or Islanders games at the end of the week, they are Atlantic Division champions no matter what the Penguins do.

Winning the Eastern Conference could potentially require the Flyers winning out -- depending on what the Capitals do in their remaining three games -- but the biggest concern to me is staying out of a Tampa Bay matchup in the first round of the playoffs. After that, let hockey's real season begin.

*****

Didn't it seem almost inevitable even before yesterday's game that Ruslan Fedotenko and/or Vaclav Prospal would figure in the scoring for the Rangers and that Nikolay Zherdev would hurt his old club?

Today's Daily Drop at Versus.com looks at how these three players have made a habit of hurting their former teams, not only yesterday but throughout this season (Zherdev) and their respective careers (Rusty and Vinny).

Join the Discussion: » Comments » Post New Comment

» Phantoms Take Game 1 vs. WBS, Farabee to Worlds

» Flyers Re-Sign Fedotov to Two-Year Contract

» Musings and Quick Hits: Flyers Power Play, Phantoms vs WBS Preview

» Quick Hits: Flyers Daily, Phantoms, TIFH

» Quick Hits: Phantoms Playoff Series Set