In Need Of Some Lightning
Flyers hope to get back into the win column against Tampa Bay
By Brian Marks, philadelphiaflyers.com
The Flyers are in need of some winning medicine after dropping two games over the weekend to the New York Islanders and Boston Bruins. It wasn’t that they played bad - a team is just not going to win every single game. So, what better vaccine than facing the Tampa Bay Lightning, a team that hasn’t won in Philadelphia in more than six years? Or is it?
The teams met just 10 days ago at the First Union Center and the Flyers found out firsthand that the Lightning are not an easy team to handle. While the Flyers outplayed the Lightning, they just would not go away. It took a Michal Handzus third-period game-winning goal to give the Flyers a 3-2 victory.
It was just as hard on November 19 when the Flyers fought off another Lightning storm to win, 3-2, this time in Tampa Bay. The Flyers built a 3-1 lead, but the Lightning scored to make it a one-goal game entering the third period. The Flyers fended off their comeback attempt, but took note of their desperate play.
The young Lightning lineup is led by right wing Martin St. Louis (47 points - 23G,24A), center Vincent Lecavalier (46 points - 21G,25A), center Brad Richards (44 points - 10G,34A) and former Flyer Vaclav Prospal (47 points - 11G,36A).
Despite that offensive punch - five Lightning players have more points than any Flyer - it is the defense that has been the team's downfall. Goaltender Nikolai Khabibulin is having an off-year by his standards. The All-Star netminder has an 18-19-6 record on the season with a 2.78 goals-against average (GAA), a .903 save percentage and two shutouts. He recently received some support by way of the trade that brought goalie John Grahame to the team from Boston. Grahame is a steady back-up and his combined numbers this year are a 13-10-2 record, a 2.61 GAA and one shutout.
Defense is obviously not something that has slipped the grasps of the Flyers, however. While they lost in overtime, the Flyers’ game with Boston on Saturday showcased their smothering “D” as it created no holes for the opposing offense to work with. It is something the team is very proud of. Even though they had a little bit of an offensive letdown over the weekend, their defensive play has finally paved the way for a much-improved “O.”
“Our approach has been guys come focused and prepared to play every game and we’re doing a lot of things right,” said Keith Primeau. “Defensively, we were doing things right in the first half, but we just weren’t generating anything offensively. Now, we’ve put the two aspects together and we’re a different team.”
“We’re getting big contributions for our lines, especially Handzus’ line in the last three weeks,” said Jeremy Roenick. “It’s nice. It takes pressure off guys like myself and [Mark Recchi] and [Primeau] and makes our whole balanced attack more potent.”
Head Coach Ken Hitchcock credits the forecheck for creating the offensive output.
“The more we check, the better we check, the more we score,” Hitchcock said. “The players are sold on it. Since we started checking better, we're getting more scoring chances and scoring more goals. That is what it’s about.”
Tampa Bay has just a 3-7-2-1 record in their last 13 games and have not won any of the past eight meetings with the Flyers (0-6-2). The Orange and Black will use that to their advantage in a building the Lightning haven’t struck for victory since January 9, 1997, a skid of 0-9-4. Game time is 7:00 p.m.
Notes: The Flyers announced today that defenseman Marcus Ragnarsson has been cleared to play and should be in the lineup for Tuesday's game...With Ragnarsson's return to the lineup, the Flyers today reassigned defenseman Jim Vandermeer to the Philadelphia Phantoms (AHL)...Vandermeer had posted a goal and two penalty minutes in 10 games for the Flyers this season...The team also announced today that Terry Murray would be joining the coaching staff as an assistant coach...Murray had served as a pro scout for the Flyers over the last three seasons.
Monday, January 27, 2003
AI
