The Washington Capitals, the Boston Bruins, the Pittsburgh Penguins, and the Tampa Bay Lightning. These are the only four teams left that have a chance to pass the Flyers in the standings. A win tonight and the Bruins and Lightning can be scratched off of that list. Two points against the second worst team in the Eastern Conference, and the Flyers are guaranteed home ice for the first round of the playoffs.
Should be an easy win for the top team in the East, but this team has shown on numerous occasions that they struggle beating teams that are far less talented than they are, and I can't recall a win that came easy for this team in the last few months. The Senators will be even less of a threat as Erik Karlsson, Sergei Gonchar, Matt Carkner, and Daniel Alfredsson could all miss the game. The Senators have very little to play for, in fact they would benefit more from losing. I can say that the Flyers should win this game, but I can say it with an ounce of confidence.
Here are a couple of random facts; the Flyers have not won a game in Ottawa since November 24, 2007 and the Flyers were 3-0-1 on Tuesday night games last month. Those four games account for half of the Flyers wins last month, and 7 of their 16 points. Not sure which one of these meaningless statistics will hold true, but an overtime lose would not be a total shock.
I will continue to be an optimist and predict a Flyers win. Even without Pronger and Briere, this team should be able to put away a crippled Senators club. I think we might see a good game out of Richards, with only a week left in the season it is about time for him to step up his game and be the leader that this teams offensive core desperately needs. Flyers win 5-1 (5-3 is Boucher starts).
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