Power play energizes Flyers

After the Flyers' 6-3 win over Buffalo Tuesday, Sabres coach Lindy Ruff tried to dissect the defeat.

"If you want to give a team energy," Ruff said, "you put them on the power play."

Apparently, Ruff wasn't aware that the Flyers had been showing about as much energy on the power play as Ryan Howard when he watched the Called Strike That Will Live in Philly Sports Infamy.

Before Tuesday, the Flyers were 25th in the 30-team NHL by clicking on just 8.6 percent (3 for 35) of their power plays.

Energy?

The power play had seemingly drained the Flyers of energy in their first eight games.

That's what made Tuesday's performance - the Flyers were 3 for 5 on the power play - so surprising. They scored as many goals on the power play as they had in their first eight games combined.

There were a couple of reasons for the team's newfound success.

More shooting and less passing. In five power plays, the Flyers had a total of 11 shots - just the second time in nine games they had reached double figures with an extra skater.

More cohesiveness. Coach Peter Laviolette had been rotating more forwards on the power play. But he decided to go basically with six forwards Tuesday. He also gave more time to the unit that frequently had Danny Briere, who played 5 minutes, 20 seconds of the team's 7:38 power-play time; Jeff Carter (3:40); and Scott Hartnell (3:32) up front.

The other unit usually was composed of Claude Giroux (3:58 on the PP), Mike Richards (2:56), and Ville Leino (3:26).

The points were handled by Chris Pronger, who had a strong overall game and was plus-3, and Kimmo Timonen; and Andrej Meszaros and Matt Carle.

James van Riemsdyk and Nik Zherdev have been seeing power-play time through most of the season, but they combined for just two seconds on Tuesday. That gave the other forwards more ice time and a chance to get into a rhythm.

"For me, the power play has shown good life [lately]," Laviolette said. "It was moving it around pretty good, I thought it's been for the last couple games. . . . A lot of times when your power play is not going the way you want it, you start to see that life first and then you start to see the results. I think the results finally came."

The results will be needed again Friday, when the Flyers play in Pittsburgh. It will be the third meeting between the cross-state rivals in the season's first three-plus weeks. Each team has won in the opponent's arena.

In addition to the improved power-play work, the Flyers finally received balanced scoring in the win over Buffalo.

"It was awesome. I think we have a team that's not going to rely on one line," said Briere, who has scored a team-high six goals - three on the power play - while centering the Flyers' most productive line, one that includes Leino and Hartnell. "We're a team that's built to come at you with different waves. It was good to see some guys get going, and hopefully that's going to carry on."

With Tuesday's 3-for-5 outburst, the Flyers' power play went from 25th (8.6 percent) to 18th (15 percent) in the league. . . . Entering Wednesday, the Flyers were tied for second in the league in fewest shots allowed per game (26.1), behind only St. Louis (25.7). . . . The Flyers are 25th in the NHL in face-off percentage (47.4 percent). . . . Going into Wednesday, Briere was fourth in the NHL with 39 shots, and Carter was tied for sixth with 36. . . . The Flyers have their second set of games on back-to-back nights this week. After facing Pittsburgh Friday, they host the Islanders on Saturday night. . . . The removal of the statues outside the Spectrum will begin Thursday at 10 a.m., and Comcast-Spectacor is determining where they will be relocated at the sports complex.