The Flyers’ five-game unbeaten streak came to an end with a 3-2 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins. The team rallied valiantly from a 3-0 deficit, but was unable to score the tying marker in the third period.
“You know you’ll never go undefeated for an entire season,” said captain Nik Lidstrom. “It’s not fun to lose, but eventually this was going to happen. What matters now is that we rebound from it and get back on the winning track.”
Milan Hejduk leads the team in scoring with four goals and four assists for a total of eight points so far in six games. He’s also a team-leading +4 and has two clutch game-winning goals.
“I’m just trying to do my part to help the team win. Having Robert Lang down the middle to feed me the puck has really helped my game,” commented Hejduk.
GM Matt MacInnis has been public in his search for another centre, but nothing appears to be imminent. The team is clearly struggling with depth issues early in the season however, and many of its key players are playing banged up with minor injuries. One issue of concern has been the lack of production from Brian Gionta, who has just one assist in six games thus far and is a team-worst -4. Goaltender Vesa Toskala has led the team with a strong 1.96 goals against average and a stellar .926 save percentage.
“The team has played really well so far but I’m not certain that we can assume that we’ll keep playing at this level,” admitted MacInnis. “We need to keep up this pace, and I need to do my job and get some help for the second-line, and then we should be a legitimate contender.”