Flyers Fall to Rangers, But Do So In Fighting Fashion

February 9th, 2008 by James

When the Flyers release the coming season’s schedule, I always make sure to mark the calendar for games against the Rangers, Penguins and Maple Leafs. They are usually the most exciting, and today was no different. It was everything that you want to see in a division matchup, fighting, lots of hits….well, everything but a win. And to top it all off, there were a ton of Rangers fans at the Wachovia Center who just wouldn’t shut up.

The Flyers need to find ways to beat the Rangers and Devils. Those two teams have been a thorn in the Flyers’ side this season. The Rangers shutout the Flyers for the second time in 10 days, and with their backup goaltender. The Flyers had spurts of strong offensive pressure, but nothing consistent and nothing that resulted in a goal. There are periods of the season where every team seems to stumble through a stretch of games. However, with the Eastern Conference as tight as it is this year, the Flyers need to snap out of it as soon as humanly possible. With today’s loss to the Rangers and Pittsburgh’s win against the Kings, the Flyers have been bumped down to second place in the Atlantic Division.

Now, to the exciting stuff. As with any game against the Rangers, there is always animosity, and today was no exception. There were a lot of great hits. One that stands out is a hit by Derian Hatcher that put a Ranger through the bench door. There was a scare when Riley Cote’s skate caught a linesman in the face after he was hit low and flipped. As the linesman was bleeding all over the ice, all hell broke loose. Cote went at it with Colton Orr, while Steve Downie completely tuned up Fedor Tyutin and at the same time Jim Dowd took on Ryan Holweg. It was a great set of fights. The second period ended with Mike Richards beating on Brandon Dubinski, who didn’t get one punch in.

Even though he was out for more than a month, Joffrey Lupul looked great today and was one of the only bright spots in the Flyers’ nonexistent offense, with some great skating and puck handling.

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