Flyers Can’t Quite Get it Done Against Lightning

In the month of October, the Philadelphia Flyers fell victims to a rough schedule full of some of the best teams in the league. Thursday night would not be any different as they traveled into Tamp Bay to take on Steven Stamkos and the Lightning. The 1^st period saw the home team strike first as Vladislav Namesthikov (3) deflected in a shot from Anton Stralman that should have been ruled offside due to the puck being on the wrong side of the blue-line. However, the referees did not see it, and the Lighting took a 1-0 lead less than 4 minutes into the game. It took a while; but the Flyer finally knotted things up when Wayne Simmonds put in his sixth goal of the season. In the 2^nd period, the score remained a 1-1 tie until Stamkos (7) scored a goal with only 46 seconds to go until the horn sounded giving Tampa Bay a 2-1 lead going into the 3^rd period. Although they were able to keep things close, the Flyers would not be able to get the score even again. They eventually lost the game 4-3.

The Flyers fought hard, but just could not get it done. They were relatively close in shots losing that battle by 5 (32-27). What really hurt the team was their inability to stay out of the penalty box. The Flyers accrued 14 minutes of penalty time. Although some of the calls were very much on the iffy side of things, you cannot expect to put a team like the Lightning on the power play that many times and win the game. With last night’s loss, the Flyers finished up the month of October 4-4-2 (10 points). With the tough schedule and injury problems, the team cannot be disappointed with this .500 record. The month of November will start off a little easier with a game against the Florida Panthers on Saturday night.