The Official Thread of the Philadelphia Flyers (Established 2005)

[Sully]

Ken Hitchcock

Entry Date: 11/10/2005

Post-game on Thursday.

"I thought that a lot of the young guys played really well tonight. I thought that they helped us come back. (Mike) Richards’ fight…to show courage like that. Asham's a pretty big boy and knows how to fight. Some of the physical plays especially with guys like Umberger and Sim. Sharp played a heck of a hockey game. I thought that we got a lot from them and they gave us the energy tonight.

"We have to have a better reaction to getting checked. The same thing that happened in the Boston game happened tonight. We didn’t react to getting checked very well. We didn’t enter the zone the right way. We tried to work it through people and got checked off the puck. We started to do some of the things that we need to do in the second period and then when we got the lead in the third, we did exactly what we needed to do."

On Niittymaki:
"When it was 2-0, it could have been 5-0. He kept us in there and even when we were mounting the comeback in the second period, we had to open the game up a little bit and we were still giving up odd man rushes all over the place in the second period. I just think he’s a heck of a goalie. I’m not even evaluating him. To me, we just need to find games for him and we will because we have a lot of back-to-backs so we’re going to have a real opportunity. The guys from the Phantoms are contributing and he is one of them. You look at game stars tonight and most of them played for the Phantoms last year so we have a lot of trust and confidence not only in him but the other guys too."

On Sharp:
"He’s starting to really compete at a high level, you can see that in practice now. He’s getting up to speed. He’s starting to do the things that you have to do to be a good player in this league."

On the young guys thinking about the veterans coming back:
I don’t know that the young guys think like that. They are long ways away. I think the earliest guy we get back on the forward thing is the end of November, so there’s 7..8..9..10 games before these guys even think about coming back."

More on the game:
"We went four lines in the third period, which was good. This was good for us. To get into a battle like this where it was a lot like the Ottawa game. New York meant business tonight. They know what happened in the game here before. They were embarrassed and they came and pushed us really hard-as hard as we’ve been pushed in this building all year. I’m sure if you are sitting in their coaching box right now, you have to think that your team played a heck of a hockey game."

[daflyboys]

I have a man crush.....and his name is Ken!

[Sully]

Unbelievable finish! Knuble scores the shorthanded goal with only 4 ticks left in regulation. Esche didn't play his best game, but we still came away with the win. Our terrible penalty kill managed to keep the Florida power play unit off the scoreboard, and we even scored two shorthanded.

9 in a row at home. What's even more impressive is that we are doing this without Preems and Rico....and don't forget Sami. I can't wait until we're at full strength.

[Skerik]

KNUUUUUUUUBLE!!!

Great play by Handzus to push the puck into the zone 1-on-2, great play by Knuble to follow up with that rocket of a shot. The place was jumpin' for those last 4 seconds! Great win!

Random notes:

- Does the big "thump" sound of Esche making a pad save scare the hell out of anyone else? Because you know that puck is ending up loose in the slot....

- Therien is brutal. When Rico comes back, Therien had better be the odd man out on D.

- Carter looks about 100x more confident than he did for the first 10 or so games of the season. At one point tonight, Hitch ran Carter, Richards and Umberger together on the PP. Pretty cool.

[JJLinn]

3.2 f-ing seconds baby, that's how I like it. What a game.

[Sully]

Quote: Originally Posted by Skerik

KNUUUUUUUUBLE!!! Great play by Handzus to push the puck into the zone 1-on-2, great play by Knuble to follow up with that rocket of a shot. The place was jumpin' for those last 4 seconds! Great win! Random notes: - Does the big "thump" sound of Esche making a pad save scare the hell out of anyone else? Because you know that puck is ending up loose in the slot.... - Therien is brutal. When Rico comes back, Therien had better be the odd man out on D. - Carter looks about 100x more confident than he did for the first 10 or so games of the season. At one point tonight, Hitch ran Carter, Richards and Umberger together on the PP. Pretty cool.

Ah, Esche is probably the worst in the league at controlling rebounds. I just hold my breath, and pray that one of our players gets to the rebound first.

I've never been a Therien fan. Big, slow, and no offensive talent. He's an extremely poor man's Derian Hatcher. I'd definitely rather have Seidenberg on the ice instead. Hopefully, Hitch feels the same way.

Speaking of Hitch, I love the fact that he's running Carter, Richards, and Umberger out there on the PK and PP units, even if they aren't together. It speaks volumes about their play. Over the last 4 or 5 games, Carter has arguably been our best player on the ice. He's playing with so much confidence right now. Early on, I was worried that the team wouldn't generate much offense outside of the Forsberg/Gagne/Knuble line. I'm curious to see who gets demoted when Primeau and Kapanen come back.

[daflyboys]

Esche hung out to dry tonight...... man, the Lightening name fits eh?

And as everybody knows, "Therien" from the Greek derivative means "suck"!

[Flyermania]

Therien is and always will be a pylon. Worthless. Hitch should play Seidenberg and keep Therien as a 7th d-man. Heck, I'd rather see Jones or Meyer out there.

My only issue with Hitch is his use, or lack thereof, of Carter. Yeah, he's getting some PP and PK time, but for the longest time he was stuck on a line with Brashear (who should have been bought out, but that's another story) getting only 8-9 minutes of ice time.

As far as Esche goes, he certainly has not reduced his "rebound issue". But I am more concerned with our pathetic PK numbers than anything else at this point.

[daflyboys]

Quote: Originally Posted by Flyermania

As far as Esche goes, he certainly has not reduced his "rebound issue". But I am more concerned with our pathetic PK numbers than anything else at this point.

Flyers seem incredibly passive on the PK compared to other teams I watch. The days of sitting back might be over.

As far as Esche and the rebound issue.... I took care of it. I sent him some Nerf pads from ToysRUs.

[JJLinn]

Sick pass by Carter. 1-0 early in the 1st.