2-11 Flyers - Hurricanes Recap

It was nice to see the Flyers' dormant powerplay strike twice tonight, but I thought they should have been able to blow the game open with all the opportunities they had. Coming into this game, the Flyers power play had only converted on four of their last 32 opportunities (12.5%) Last night they scored two goals on six opportunities, which was only the ninth game of the season in which the Flyers scored multiple powerplay goals. Against a Canes' penalty kill that is ranked 23rd in the league and gives up a goal 21% of the time, the Flyers' powerplay still looked ineffective the majority of the time. 

I singled out Jeff Skinner out in the pregame write up as a player to watch. He was on the ice for the Canes lone goal, he drove the net taking Chris Pronger out of the play, but that wasn't the play Flyers' fans will remember him for. Twice in one shift Braydon Coburn threw Skinner to the ice like he was a child. Skinner showed the lack of restraint and maturity that can come with being 18 years old, and picked up a charging penalty a few seconds later when he left his feet on the hit when he tried to get a little revenge on Coburn. But who can blame him for jumping to hit a guy that is seven inches taller he is? He continued to show off his age by interrogating the ref on the way to the box, and then later harassing the ref for not getting the call when he was clipped with a high stick. Eventually the ref skated to the Carolina bench and told the Canes' head coach Paul Maurice "Tell him to be quiet," referring to Skinner. The kid has talent, but like a lot of young players in the NHL, he needs some veteran leaders to show him how to conduct himself on the ice. 

I was very relieved to see Claude Giroux return to the ice after taking a slapshot to the outside of his knee. He went down hard and missed a number of shifts afterwards. He returned to the game and looked fine, but I wouldn't be surprised if he was sore for a couple of days and isn't 100% on Sunday when the Kings come to town. I thought Coburn played a great game. It is always nice to see him use his size to gain puck control. Brian Boucher also played a good game, although he wasn't able to pick up that illusive first shutout of the year. There were a few plays that he lost sight of the puck when it got in close around the net and I don't recall any spectacular saves that he was forced to make, but he made all the save he had to and lead the team to their league leading 36 win of the season.