The first 20 minutes of tonight’s game vs. the leafs has brought mixed emotions for flyers fans. The flyers have scored only one goal in the last two games but thanks to Newmarket native Steven Downie and Jeff Carter some offense has been produced. Just under 10 minutes into the game Downie notched his first National Hockey League goal; he looks pretty comfortable playing close to where his hockey interests began. 6 minutes later Jeff carter scored what looked like an instant replay of Downie’s goal, shooting a rebound of Umberger’s shot top left corner.
With a win tonight the Flyers can gain some ground in the east and be back in a top 8 spot again.
Although the period began with lots of positives for the flyers it ended on some bad notes. With 2:07 left in the period Hatcher hit a Toronto player and bounced off smashing Lupul. Hatcher landed on Lupuls head and Lupul looked really shaken up. Luckily Gagne is ready to be back soon, but losing a player like Lupul who’s been so productive of late is a big blow. It’s likely that he has a concussion.
Looked like Lupul’s stick was under his neck when Hatcher landed on him. Pretty Ugly scene.
With less than a minute remaining in the game Coburn was hit from behind on what should have been a boarding call.
Why do I feel that if the jerseys were reversed we would have a suspension pending on our hands?
At least call a penalty, Coburn was bleeding badly and there was a large gap between him and boards when he was hit. Jones and Hartnell received trivial suspensions earlier this season, if they were called, then this hit should have been as well.
Nitty has been standing on his head, he looks even better than his last game which was a 1-0 shutout vs. Florida.
We might have a goalie controversy on our hands?
More to come as the 2nd periods about to begin…