It's familiar but different for Flyers' Simon Gagne

NEWARK, N.J. - For Simon Gagne, adjusting to life off the ice in Philadelphia was the easy part.

With his wife, Karine, and two children already familiar with the area, the Gagnes moved out of a local hotel and settled in South Jersey again. They're now trying to figure out how to get their nonessential belongings moved across the country from Los Angeles.

The bigger battle, though, has been finding comfort on the ice since being traded back to the Flyers on Feb. 26. Gagne has played seven straight games but says he still is not "100 percent" in game-shape.

"It's going really fast," Gagne said. "Slowly, it's starting to come [together]. I don't think it helped over the start of the season being in and out of the lineup [with the Kings]. You can work as hard as you want off the ice, skating and biking, but you need to have games under your belt.

"I feel that it's improving every game. We don't have too much time left . . . so I'll try to get on it as quick as I can."

Gagne, 33, has two goals in seven games with the Flyers. Coach Peter Laviolette said he thought Sunday, a win against Buffalo, was Gagne's best game to date. On Wednesday in New Jersey, Gagne was one of the Flyers' few consistent workers in an otherwise lackluster game.

"I thought last game [Buffalo] he played a real strong game for us," Laviolette said pregame. "It's always tough coming back, but he gives us a lot of depth in the top nine [forwards]. He can play some power play for us. He's starting to get back and get comfortable for us.

"I think it's been a good start for him. With the comfort of being back here, understanding the system and what we're doing . . . We need all of our players to continue to push."

Laviolette plugged Gagne on the left side with two players who have been struggling to score, Sean Couturier (two goals) and Danny Briere (five). Some have called it the "French Connection II," never mind that most couldn't name the three members of Buffalo's famed line of that name in the 1970s.

Or, well, the fact that it's the name of an underground heroin smuggling network from Turkey to France to the United States in the 1960s and '70s.

"Hopefully having two French guys on the same line will help," Gagne said. "I have no clue. I don't think [speaking French] changes much. The only thing it could change is if you're on a faceoff in the offensive or defensive zone and you want to switch something at the last second - and you don't have a French guy on the other team - you could speak French and they have no clue what you're talking about.

"After that, you know, it doesn't matter if you're French, Russian or Swedish. You just need to find a way to play good together. I guess it's just having that in common that makes it a little bit easier."

Defenseman Luke Schenn was a late scratch Wednesday night. Schenn, who had appeared in all 27 games to start the season, participated in the morning skate at Prudential Center and seemed fine, but the team said he came down with a case of the flu. Kurtis Foster replaced him in the lineup. Foster has played 13 games for the Flyers this season, collecting one goal and four assists. He had been a healthy scratch for the last 12 consecutive games, with his last appearance coming Feb. 15, also in New Jersey.

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