In his latest effort to generate offense from his sputtering team, Flyers coach Peter Laviolette on Thursday stuck Danny Briere on the left wing of his buddy Claude Giroux’s line. Wayne Simmonds remains on the right wing.
Laviolette used the combination late in the 2-1 loss at the Rangers on Monday. It produced no goals, but it looked good enough to give it another chance in Washington tomorrow night.
“We had some success with Matt Read on there,” Laviolette said. “We weren’t generating as much offensively as we would have liked, in New York, so we put Danny there. There’s probably going to be more switches, even if we reel off 10 in a row.”
NEW YORK -- It appears that rookie Tye McGinn’s impressive run in the Flyers’ lineup may be coming to an end on Tuesday night at Madison Square Garden.
McGinn, who netted his first NHL goal and assist on Saturday in Florida, could be swapped out for Zac Rinaldo against the Rangers.
McGinn, Jody Shelley and defenseman Kurtis Foster were the Flyers’ extras skating following the team’s pre-game practice at the Garden. As usual, coach Peter Laviolette would not discuss his lineup against New York.
TAMPA, Fla. -- As we pointed out in Monday's Daily News, the Flyers have finished either 29th or 30th in minor penalties in four of the seven seasons played since the 2004-05 NHL lockout.
The Flyers lead the league already again this year, by a wide margin. They also lead the league in penalties in minutes (124).
In case you were wondering, here are the infractions:
TAMPA, Fla. -- It was bound to happen at some point.
You can't hide from the whistles forever. The Flyers, the NHL's far and away leader in minor penalties through the first 8 days of the season, found out the hard way in Sunday evening's 5-1 thrashing at the hands of the high-powered Lightning offense.
Tampa Bay scored three times - twice on the power play - in a span of 4:21 in the first period to erase a lead Sean Couturier gave the Flyers in the first 59 seconds.
TAMPA, Fla. -- From the time last season started until it ended abruptly against New Jersey, Matt Carle was nagged with questions about his contract status.
Carle wanted to be a Flyer. The Flyers wanted him to stay in Philadelphia.
Along the way, negotiations continued to hit snags. First, the Flyers didn’t have enough “tagging space” - or the inability to exceed this season’s salary cap in next season’s commitments. James van Riemsdyk, Braydon Coburn and even newcomer Nick Grossmann were handed fat, fresh extensions before Carle.
SUNRISE, Fla. -- Two games into his promotion to Claude Giroux’s line, Matt Read is making the Flyers forget about Scott Hartnell going down with a foot fracture.
Read netted his first career hat trick in Saturday night’s 7-1 rout of the lifeless Florida Panthers. It was the Flyers’ only hat trick against Florida and the first in nearly 17 years, following Eric Lindros on March 18, 1995.
When asked about his personal success, Read shrugged.
SUNRISE, Fla. -- With Andrej Meszaros out for at least a third of the season, the Flyers are in the market for a defenseman.
This time, acquiring a depth defenseman isn’t going to cut it. Bruno Gervais, Kurtis Foster and Andreas Lilja are serviceable third-pairing players. But a weak third pair, as they currently constitute by league standards, could hamper the Flyers’ chances. Especially in a shortened season.
Having Meszaros healthy, or any Top 4 defenseman, to use on the third unit substantially changes the outlook.
Paul Holmgren does not believe the Flyers are snakebitten by injuries.
He would, however, like this whole “injury per game” streak to end sometime soon.
Thursday night's win over the Rangers cost them defenseman Andrej Meszaros, who went down with a left shoulder injury. He was re-evaluated by team doctors on Friday - and though the exact injury was not specified - Meszaros is expected to miss “about a month” or more.
The Daily News' Frank Seravalli reports from the Wells Fargo Center where the Flyers defeated the New York Rangers, 2-1, for their first on the season and snap a six-game losing streak to the Rangers.
The Flyers have placed goaltender Niko Hovinen, who has spent the season with the Trenton Titans, on unconditional waivers with the intent of mutual termination of his contract.
Hovinen, a 6-foot-7 monster in net, did not impress in Phantoms training camp in September and was assigned to the ECHL. In Trenton, Hovinen sported an unsightly 3.14 goals against-average and .889 save percentage. There were whispers that the organization did not appreciate his lacking work ethic.
The deal works for both sides. Hovinen, it seems, would much rather go back and play in his native Finland, and the Flyers have a glut of goaltenders (3) in Adirondack: Scott Munroe, Cal Heeter and Brian Boucher.
