After losing in the last minute of overtime to the Devils last night, the Atlanta Thrasher boarded a plane to Philly for tonight's game against the Flyers. After playing good hockey for the first half of the season, the Thrashers have been in free fall since early January, losing 19 of their last 25 games. The Thrashers should be desperate for a win since they are only six points out of eighth place with only 14 games to play, but they might also be a little spent coming into their third game in four nights with the previous two games going into overtime.
The Flyers are coming off of their best game in weeks and will be looking to build on their improving play. One area of their game that could still use some work is their power play. In last two games the Flyers have had a five minute power play against two of the worst penalty killing units in the league and have only been able to score one goal during each of them. The Thrashers gave up three power play goals on six opportunities last night to a Devils team that has a worse power play than the Flyers. This could be a perfect game for the Flyers to get multiple power play goals in a single game for the first time in 14 games.
The Thrashers have struggled mighty in the second game of back-to-backs this season; going 2-7-3, averaging only 2.33 goals, and being outscored 48 to 28. The Flyers have the capability to offensively over power the Thrashers who will ice a defensive unit that is a combined -39 for the season. This is a perfect game for the Flyers to go out and impose their will on an opponent. If the Flyers are able to duplicate their aggressive starts from the two previous games, they should be able to take advantage of a tired Thrashers club and put this game out of reach early.
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