Fresh Ice Cuts: Shootouts, Zherdev, and Leighton

After 4 preseason games the Flyers sit at 3-0-1.

Devils at Flyers Sept 21st
The opener saw the flyers wear their new away jerseys and win in what's become typical Flyers manor, the shootout. Goals were scored by Powe, Carter, and Briere with captain Mike Richards icing the game off with the shootout winner. Michael Leighton started the game giving up 3 goals on 23 shots and rookie Sergei Bobrovsky came in to save 7 of 7 and stopped 3 of 4 in the shootout.

Leafs at Flyers Sept 23rd
A 'home' game in London, Ontario saw the Flyers go to their second shootout. This one was a battle between Sergei Bobrovsky and Toronto's Johnathan Reimer that saw controversial offseason signing Colby Armstrong beat the young russian goaltender in the 11th round. Bill Guerin and Marc-Andre Bourdon scored their 1st goals as Flyers.

Flyers at Leafs Sept 24th
The Flyers saw their second game against the Leafs in two nights go to yet another shootout. Leighton faced off against the Leafs starter in J.S. Giguere. The flyers came back on the scoring of Nikolai Zherdev, who tallied 2 in the third, and Briere who pack on his 2nd goal on the preseason and scored the shootout winner.

Flyers at Wild Sept 25th
A night after the Flyers battled back to beat the Leafs they went back to work in St.Paul. Nik Zherdev kept his hot hands going scoring the 1st goal of the game, his 3rd of the preseason. While Darroll Powe, who's rumored to be expandable if Guerin is signed, scored his second of the preseason. How would this one end? How else, a shootout. Sergei Bobrovsky played the entire game for the Flyers stopping 26 of 28 shots and stopping all three he faced in the shootout. Zherdev scored the lone shootout goal.

Headlines

Zherdev leads the Flyers with 3 goals and 1 shootout winner. The hot and cold russian has seemed to find a niche in the Flyers lineup. His goals have came against NHL starters JS Giguere and Nik Backstrom.

Michael Leighton had to be pulled before the shootout due to a back injury that he had re-aggravated in the 3rd period of the Flyers third preseason game. There has been no announcement of how severe the injury is; however the Flyers management have been cautious talking saying the injury needs to be further examined.