The 10 year tenured Flyers winger, traded over the offseason, turned Lighning winger will make his first trip to Philadelphia since being traded from the team he was drafted by back in 1998. Gagne was one of the Flyers highest all time scorers with 259 goals and 265 assists for 524 points in 664 games, through out his 10 year career.
Through 2 games this season Gagne is a -3 with 8 shots on goal as the Lightning's 2nd line winger. The Lightning are 2-0-0 this season. The Lightning seem pretty deep this season, as opposed to their previous few years. Gagne upgraded the left wing and Tampa's scoring prowess. However the biggest change may have happened off the ice. Steve Yzerman was brought in as the new GM and starrt wheeling and dealing soon after.
He moved two big contracts in Andrej Meszaros and Matt Walker to the Flyers. That then set the place for Mattias Ohlund and Victor Hedman to be the 1 and 2 on defense. Pavel Kubina, cup winner with the Lighning, was brought back as a free agent from Atlanta.
Yzerman brought in Dan Ellis from the Nashville Preds to be the number 1 goalie on a Tampa team that has had defensive zone troubles. He will hopefully be able to keep them in more games than Mike Smith was able to do. And through all this Yzerman left the Lightning 11M in cap space.
This is not your old Tampa Bay Lighning, it isn't just Marty St. Louis and Vinny Lecavalier. Now the Stammer and the Hammer are in the peak of their careers. Steven Stamkos was the 1st overall pick in 08 and last year in only his 2nd pro season he scored 50 goals. Steve Downie, a former Flyers 1st rounder, was traded after a series of bone-headed on ice incidents and suspensions following. After bouncing back and forth from the AHL and NHL Downie found his place in the NHL. However a guy pick in the 1st round shouldn't have trouble doing that. Long story short, the change of scenery worked. He was traded for Matt Carle in 08.
Chris Pronger was made a game time decision just about an hour before Monday's game and ended up playing, and looked great too. Sergei Bobrovsky picked up his second career win, and for the second time only allowed 2 goals. The Flyers goal leaders are Danny Briere, Claude Giroux, and Jeff Carter who each have 2. Meszaros and Walker(if in the lineup) will be playing their 1st games against their former teams.
Projected Flyers Depth Chart
Carter Richards Carcillo...Pronger Carle...Bobrovsky Boucher
Leino Briere Hartnell...Timonen Coburn
Zherdev Girouz Jvr...Meszaros Walker
Powe Betts Shelley
Scratches
I:Leighton, Lappy
H:Nodl, O'Donnell
Players to Watch
Flyers
Andrej Meszaros: has had a great few games this season, look for him to play with an edge against his former team.
Claude Giroux: Alwasy seems to score beautiful goals against Tampa Bay, watch out for him on the PK as well. Both of his goals this season have come Shorthanded.
Lightning
Simon Gagne: Do i even need to say anything about this?
Steve Downie: always plays so well against the Flyers, seems to have found his place next to Stamkos.
Game at 7pm on Versus and CSN live from Philadelphia.
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