Scott Hartnell celebrates his goal 10th of the year.


Coming into Sunday evening’s affair with the Red Wings, the Philadelphia Flyers hadn’t won a game in Detroit since 1988—two years before I was born. A 16-game losing (0-14-2) streak at the Joe Louis Arena was intact.

That changed.

Second period goals by James van Riemsdyk, Dan Carcillo and Scott Hartnell propelled the Flyers to a 3-2 victory to jump atop the Eastern Conference standings with 53 points.

Philly is tied with the Pittsburgh Penguins and Red Wings for the most points in the league; however, since the Flyers have played one less game than the Pens, they’re above them in the Atlantic Division and Eastern Conference standings.

Brian Boucher got the start in net for the orange and black, trying to get the team back to their winning ways after dropping two of their first three games on a five game road trip. Boucher earned the game’s first star with a 25-save performance, getting his eighth win of the season.

The game was scoreless in the second period until the red-hot van Riemsdyk put the Flyers up 1-0 just 51 seconds into the period. Shooting at a bad angle, JVR fired a shot that went off two Red Wing players and past goalie Jimmy Howard.

van Riemsdyk has nine goals in his last 18 contests after not scoring a goal in his first 17 games.

About five minutes later, Carcillo finished off a great shift by deflecting an Andrej Meszaros bomb from the point past Howard to give the Flyers a two-goal lead. Carcillo just missed scoring seconds before Meszaros took the slapper. It was his second of the year.

Meszaros finished the game with a +1 rating in 22 minutes of ice time. He leads the NHL in +/- with 25.

With a little over five minutes left in the period, Hartnell potted his 10th of the year after gathering a rebound, and roofing it past the struggling Howard. The play was created by a great keep in from 39-year-old defenseman Sean O’Donnell.

For the Flyers, the second period against the Wings was the team’s best effort all season in one 20 minute period. Detroit’s a puck-possession team, and the Fly guys did a wonderful job breaking up passes, and keeping the puck themselves. Philadelphia out shot the Wings 19-11 after two, and had a 3-0 lead heading into the third.

Detroit’s coach Mike Babcock decided he had enough of Howard, who allowed three goals on 27 shots. Chris Osgood replaced Howard to start the third period, and held the Flyers scoreless. Osgood had five saves.

In the first minute of the third period, Valtteri Filppula scored a dandy of a goal to get Detroit within two goals when he undressed Meszaros and sniped Boucher for his 10th of the year.

With 8:22 left in regulation, Henrik Zetterberg got his Wings within one goal when he backhanded home a rebound on a power play with former teammate Ville Leino in the sin bin for a very questionable goaltender interference call.

A couple minutes prior to Zetterberg’s tally, Boucher had the play of the game when he performed some left-handed larceny on Swedish winger Johan Franzen from the slot with a phenomenal glove stop. It happened with 12:43 left in the game and a 3-1 Flyers lead.

The Flyers will finish off their road trip in New Jersey on Thursday night as they play the away portion of a home-and-home with the Devils.

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Zherdev could be on his way out of Philadelphia.


For the first time since he suffered a sprained knee against Ottawa last month, Dan Carcillo returned to the lineup in the Flyers 2-1 overtime win in Boston Saturday night.

To clear the way for Carcillo’s return, coach Peter Laviolette made Nikolay Zherdev a healthy scratch for the third time this season.

Zherdev was signed by the orange and black during the offseason for $2 million for one year.

Through 31 games, Flyers general manager Paul Holmgren’s flier isn’t working out as originally planned.

In 28 games, Zherdev has nine goals and one assists with a +2 rating and 10 penalty minutes.

When bringing the 26-year-old to Philly, Holmgren knew what he was getting; pure offensive talent with major flaws in his all around game and attitude.

His thinking was that a year in Russia would remind Zherdev how much of a decrease in competition and lifestyle playing in the KHL is compared to playing in North America.

While it’s still early enough to made a noticeable impact, Zherdev has displayed all the negatives that led to him playing in Russia last year.

The book on the former first rounder was that he floats in the defensive and offensive zone, takes shifts off and is lazy.

Nothing he has done thus far suggest he’s a better player.

Blessed with natural talent, Zherdev thinks he doesn’t have to skate in the offensive or defensive zones, only in the neutral zone.

His style of play and Laviolette’s system is like fitting a square peg in a round hole.

With an inconsistent work ethic on the ice, Zherdev starts out each game on the fourth line with Blair Betts and Jody Shelley. Lavy’s plan is to make the Russian earn his playing time. In most games, Zhe usually makes it up to the third line with Jeff Carter and Claude Giroux.

Laviolette has shown in his year-plus tenure that no player is given ice time based on pure ability. Look at Ville Leino, who couldn’t crack the lineup until an late season injury allowed him to play in the playoffs.

Leino is now a second line winger on Danny Briere and Scott Hartnell’s line.

Earlier this year, Laviolette sat Homer’s second overall pick in 2006 James van Riemsdyk because he couldn’t light the lamp if the puck was on his tape with an open net.

Since JVR cracked his way back into the lineup, he has been a different player. More like the kid who showed up in the preseason than the player who wouldn’t use his size to his advantage.

van Riemsdyk has five goals since returning to the lineup.

The Flyers said that they expected a physical contest against the Bruins, hence the decision to insert Carcillo for Zherdev.

From this point forward, no one knows when Laviolette plans to put him back in the lineup, if at all.

Taking into account the looming roster decisions Holmgren has to make when Michael Leighton returns from back surgery, it’s not a stretch to wonder if Zherdev will be a cap casualty.

The Flyers have the scoring depth to be able to survive without Zherdev’s nine goals. Four players already have double digit tallies with Briere leading the way with 16.

In order to activate Leighton from the lone term injured reserve, the Flyers will have to clear $1.555 million.

Then, if they go with Leighton as the backup to rookie Sergei Bobrovsky, Holmgren will have to make two moves.

For example, waive or trade Brian Boucher and Matt Walker, Carcillo or Zherdev.

As it looks today, Boosh isn’t going anywhere, anytime soon.

Rather than losing defensive depth in waiving Walker, shopping Nik Zherdev for a draft pick would be wise.

It’s never too early to admit a mistake. If Zherdev isn’t playing the system, wouldn’t it make sense to trade him rather than paying him $2 million to sit in the press box?
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