Hartnell cut his "3-year" locksThe Flyers made the Philadelphia fans happy on a day where their Phillies lost a heartbreaker to end their season. The flyers tallied 5 goals on 40 shots to beat the Leafs and JS Giguere. Flyers goals were scored by Richards, Leino, Betts, Hartnell, and Briere. Everything just clicked, as it has seem to do versus the Leafs in recent years.
As expected, Brian Boucher got the start in net. He played well, killing the Leafs many comeback attemps, ending up with 12 saves on 14 shots. These Flyers looked on all game, shown in the Leafs shot totals (by periods) 4-7-3. Phil Kessel and offseason signing, Clarke MacArthur each scored their 6th goals of the season.
Briere's goal was his 5th of the season, he leads the Flyers through 7 games. Leino and Richards each tallied their 1st of the season. Betts and Hartnell each got their second goals of the season. This 5 goal performance was their highest goal total of the season, and came after scoring only 5 goals in their past 3 games.
Dan Carcillo had an awesome scrap with Toronto's Mike Brown late in the first. Carcillo was playing in his 5th game this season after being benched in place of Andreas Nodl. He settled in on the 4th line aside Blair Betts and Jody Shelley.
Coach Peter Laviolette shook-up the lines before this game and it paid heavy dividens. The lines end up as follows: Jvr-Carter-Zherdev, Leino-Briere-Hartnell, Giroux-Richards-Powe, Shelley-Betts-Carcillo. THe lines shifted a few times however, some times showing the B.L. (Before Leino) Briere-Carter-Hartnell line. Richards also had a nice assist where he set up Scotty Hartnell for a goal. After a win like this, there is plenty of optimism in whatever lines Lavvy puts together.
I guess the question is, can Giroux be as effective on the wing as he has been at center? Against Tronto, he only took one shot but was on the ice for over 20 minutes. You would think with that much ice time, he would have taken more shots.
ReplyDeleteyeah, he played on the wing up until last season. i think he has too much skill not to be on center. it looks like the flyers are gonna stick with the Richards Giroux Powe line, so we'll see.
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