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Flyers Wrapup: 11-6-08 vs. Ottawa

November 6, 2008, 11:52 AM ET [ Comments]
Bill Meltzer
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • RSSArchiveCONTACT
Wrapup, 10:00 PM, EST

The Ottawa Senators cloned their outstanding defensive effort from the Capitals game, and the Flyers had no answers to it in tonight's 4-1 loss. Philadelphia had a very hard time gaining the blueline and generating chances.

The Flyers had a short surge in the second period where Mike Richards canceled out a near Ottawa goal by clearing the porch of Christoph Schubert. On the next shift, Luca Sbisa demonstrated some of his outstanding mobility in carrying the puck up ice, and the Flyers generated their first sustained forechecking pressure of the game. When Arron Asham scored to cut the deficit to 2-1, it looked like the Flyers had a chance to change the tide of the game. But Ottawa promptly restored its two-goal lead, and cruised from there.

Bottom line: Ottawa dictated the tempo of the game and won most of the battles. It's hard to play catch up hockey, especially when you don't get any powerplay chances until the third period.


Preview (11:45 AM, EST)

The Flyers (4-4-3) will look to get back on the winning track tonight when they travel to Ottawa to take on the Senators (5-5-2). The Senators have played much better hockey of late, and are coming off a 2-1 overtime win against the Capitals, while the Flyers have had a defensive backslide in their last two games.

The Flyers usually play the Senators tough, and the games between the clubs are usually pretty nasty affairs. Coached by former Flyers assistant Craig Hartsburg's Ottawa club has been inconsistent at even strength over the balance of their schedule to date. In their last game, however, Ottawa was its best. They kept riding Washington stickhandlers off the puck and quickly moved the puck up ice. Dot to blueline they were very solid.

It will be important for the Flyers to win the battles in 5-on-5 play. If they do, Philly will be in good shape. If not, they're in trouble. Hartsburg has done a lot of line matching of late, and the line of Mike Fisher, Daniel Alfredsson and rookie Jesse Winchester was assigned to the top Capitals line in the last game. It remains to be seen if Hartsburg keys on the Simon Gagne and Mike Knuble line centered by Glen Metropolit or targets the Mike Richards line. One of those lines see a lot of defensemen Chris Phillips and Anton Volchenkov.

Ottawa relies heavily on Dany Heatley, Jason Spezza, Alfredsson and defenseman Filip Kuba to carry the offense, but those three players are capable of breaking a game wide open. They've provided 18 goals to date. Kuba is very dangerous when triggering the breakouts.

Special teams are always important, of course, but the clubs may cancel out each other in this department. Both clubs have been strong on the powerplay (Flyers rank third, Sens fourth). Ottawa ranks seventh in penalty killing, the Flyers in the middle of the pack (currently 17th).

The Flyers will see some familiar faces on the Sens' blueline tonight. Former Flyers captain Jason Smith has been moved down to the third pairing for Ottawa but they'll see him in penalty killing situations. Ex-Flyer Alexandre Picard has frequently played 20-plus minutes in recent games.

Antero Niittymäki will get the start in goal tonight for the Flyers against Alex Auld. In eight career games against the Sens, Niitty has 4-3-0 record, 3.19 GAA, and .904 save percentage. He has been the more consistent of the Flyers' goalies so far this season. His only "bad" outing (the back half of the home-and-home with San Jose) was a game where the opposing forwards had free reign in the offensive zone.

Philadelphia has talked a lot this week about the need to tighten up the team defense. Specifically, the forwards need to do their part to help out the defense and goaltenders. The effort has been very inconsistent in that area. Faceoffs are another area that needs improvement. Ultimately, for the Flyers to rise above their current .500 record, they will need to be a better puck possession club and pay more attention to defensive assignments.

I expect Scott Hartnell to try to set a hitting tone early in the game tonight, along with Richards. Other players will have to follow suit. Offensively, Simon Gagne, Richards and Jeff Carter have been the stalwarts all season, while Mike Knuble and Joffrey Lupul have been hot as of late. Knuble has also been blocking shots on the penalty kill.

The Flyers' top defensive pairing of Kimmo Timonen and Braydon Coburn is coming off its worst game as a tandem since they were put together in the second half of last season. They should bounce back tonight, but the rest of the defense remains very much mix-and-match, and will be without Ossi Väänänen tonight.


FLYERS LINES AND SCRATCHES

Gagne - Metropolit - Knuble
Hartnell - Richards - Lupul
Upshall - Carter - Asham
Cote - Raduns - Kane

Coburn - Timonen
Sbisa - Eminger
Alberts - Kukkonen

Niittymäki
[Biron]

Scratches: Nödl (lower-body injury), Väänänen (upper-body injury), Powe (concussion), Briere (IR, hernia), Jones (IR, hip), Parent (IR, shoulder), Hatcher (LTIR, knee)

*****

I'd like to say a special thank you to Dan Legroulx of Team1200 Ottawa's "Late Crew" for having me as a guest on his show last night. It's always a pleasure to talk hockey with Dan.
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