Phigment

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Flyers vs Islanders - Live Game Blog

Note: Nitty is out with the flu. Hopefully Marty takes advantage.

1st Period
Much better start today as the team did not take any penalties and was able to get all lines rotated through their shifts. More energy and better gap control by all units.

Carter is a beast. He looks like a more focused Mats Sundin. He takes every puck to the scoring areas! The Islanders look rattled after a few shifts. Players are wide open all over the zone. This could get out of hand quickly.

Flyers 1 - Islanders 0
Nice first goal setup by Upshall finding the wide open Giroux who calmly pounded it into the net.

Flyers 2 - Islanders 0
Carter fires one home from the right wing dot. Lupul makes a nice possession and pass in the offensive zone to find the wide open Carter.

Time for Biron to not let in a soft goal. Deflate the Islanders now and establish control of the game. Nice opportunity by Gagne off a Richards feed. Gagne hit the goalie in the glove. Strange that Stevens matches Gagne, Richards, and Knuble against the other teams best line repeatedly. That just goes to show how good those guys are at both ends of the rink. Upshall takes a dumb penalty - bad timing to run an elbow when the team is killing them. Good PK as the majority of shots were from blue line and outside. Giroux really is a player. He might even be able to play center when Danny comes back to ease Briere's defensive responsibilities. Giroux is very good on the back check as well. It was good for Biron to not allow anything in a period.

End of 1st Period Flyers 2 - Islanders 0

2nd Period
Again I really think the Flyers have a 3rd line when Briere is back. Giroux and Upshall with Danny will make teams defend hard. Should open up the ice some for either Richards or Caters lines. Kind of a disjointed period. Not many great chances either way, there has been some banging, but nothing cheap. Also pretty amazing that a team with half AHL players has not committed a penalty yet.

End of 2nd Period Flyers 2 - Islanders 0

3rd Period
Game has very little passion to start the 3rd period. Too much backing in and the Islanders capitalize.

Flyers 2 - Islanders 1

Wow that goal by the Islanders woke the Flyers up along with Stevens changing the lines around. Floodgates opened. A revamped 4th line scored two quick goals and Gagne scored on a penalty shot within about 90 seconds.

Flyers 5 - Islanders 1

Hey Lou finally gets to announce a "Peco Powerplay". That only took 55 minutes for the Flyers to get a powerplay. I have to give John Stevens credit for changing the lines up including the powerplay units to inject some energy.

I am not going to complain hard, but I witnessed at least 10 obvious penalties to the Islanders on the puck carrier that the officials allowed to go.

My three Stars of the Game

3 - Claude Giroux
2 - Jeff Carter
1 - Scottie Upshall