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Flyers' five-game win streak has been a team effort

It would be easy to look at the Flyers' five-game win streak, in which they have outscored opponents by a 24-7 margin, and assume the offense has carried the team to a tie for third place in the Atlantic Division.

Darroll Powe is within one goal of the six he scored all last season. (Steven M. Falk / Staff Photographer)
Darroll Powe is within one goal of the six he scored all last season. (Steven M. Falk / Staff Photographer)Read more

It would be easy to look at the Flyers' five-game win streak, in which they have outscored opponents by a 24-7 margin, and assume the offense has carried the team to a tie for third place in the Atlantic Division.

The truth, though, is that the Flyers owe their run to a multitude of people and departments.

For one, the Flyers' depth has picked up for the lack of scoring by their top two lines. While Jeff Carter leads the team with 17 points, 11 of those are assists. Captain Mike Richards (eight goals) and Carter account for just 14 of the Flyers' 57 goals. It's pretty shocking that one of the league's best offenses doesn't have a scorer among the NHL's top 25.

Instead, they have gotten contributions from players like Arron Asham and Dan Carcillo. Darroll Powe, who has five goals, is just one away from matching last year's total.

"I think mainly I've gotten used to the speed of the game and I'm playing with a little more confidence," Powe said. "We're confident. We've been throwing more pucks at the net. They're getting me the puck and we're working hard."

The Flyers' third and fourth lines have been able to shine because they haven't spent the bulk of their night in the penalty box. And when the other team is in the box, the Flyers have taken advantage.

Their league-best power play is operating at a 27.9 percent clip. They scored twice with the man advantage on Thursday and are 6-for-21 in the last five games.

"We have a pretty simple philosophy," coach John Stevens said. "We want to get it up top, get it to the middle, and shoot the puck with traffic in front of the net. It's odd, some of our success lately has been coming with guys on the rush where we didn't have a whole lot going on in the zone."

Defenseman Chris Pronger, who has three goals from the point, said the power play has been a team effort.

"Both [power-play] units are different," Pronger said. "It gives the opposing team a different look. A penalty kill usually wants to prepare one way. [We're] doing different things out there and that poses a problem. Both units are chipping in."

Another big part of the equation has been Ray Emery. His goals-against average in the last five games is a scant 1.40. The Flyers' defense has tightened up around him.

"Ray has been great for us," winger Ian Laperriere said. "We've scored quite a bit of goals recently and I honestly believe that comes from our defensive play."

"Solid goaltending is the start of anything," Pronger said.

Emery's hot streak has led to a debate as to when he will get his next break. Backup Brian Boucher has played in only one of the Flyers' 15 games. According to Stevens, that rest won't come any time soon.

"You've got to weigh a lot of things," the coach said. "We've got a lot of hockey coming up, certainly a lot of chances to get [Boucher] in. I'm not sure now is the right time. Ray is on a roll and he has been playing well. It's all being considered."

Injury update

Ryan Parent could be ready to play in tonight's game with Buffalo. Parent has been on injured reserve with a groin strain since he tweaked it on Halloween against Carolina. Before that, he had been out since Oct. 16 when he originally strained it in Florida.

"I feel pretty good," Parent said yesterday at practice. "I haven't been told whether I'm playing or not. I'm really excited, so hopefully I'm playing."

If Parent is able to return, Oskars Bartulis will likely be a healthy scratch, just 2 days after making his NHL debut. That would also give Ole-Kristian Tollefsen another day to rest. Tollefsen suffered a concussion a week ago against St. Louis but practiced every day this week except Monday.

Slap shots

David Laliberte was loaned back to Adirondack after four games with the big club . . . The Flyers look for their sixth straight win tonight against a Buffalo team that topped Calgary 2-1 in a shootout last night. This is the Sabres' second back-to-back set of games in the last 7 days . . . This is the second of three times the Flyers face the Sabres this month. The final time is on Black Friday . . . Approximately 1,200 tickets remain for tonight. Fans are encouraged to bring a frozen turkey or coupon for a free turkey to tonight's game to benefit City Team Ministries.

For more news and analysis, read Frank Seravalli's blog, Frequent Flyers, at http://go.philly.com/frequentflyers.