From: seth@cbnewsh.cb.att.com (peter.r.clark..jr)
Newsgroups: rec.sport.hockey
Subject: FLYERS notes 10/7
Date: 7 Oct 92 14:32:47 GMT
Distribution: na
Organization: AT&T



The Lindros Era has begun. Tired of that phrase yet? Get used to it.

The FLYERS opened the '92-'93 season by letting their goalie keep them
in the game for two periods last night, and then turning it on in the
third to steal a 3-3 tie.

First, the scoring summary. Super Mario opened the scoring less than a
minute into the game. Ulf fed him the puck, and Mario broke in 2 on 1,
kept the puck and got a shot off from about 8 feet to the right of goalie
Roussel. If I remember correctly Roussel made the initial save but Mario
chipped the rebound between his pads to make it 1-0.

After an unsuccessful FLYERS power play, Brian Benning went off for 2
minutes.  Francis missed with a slap shot from the point and Rick Tocchet
picked the puck up behind the net. He got knocked down, but managed to
sweep the puck out to a crashing Stevens as he was falling to the ice
and Stevens connected to make it 2-0.

The FLYERS closed the gap to 2-1 on a poke by Fedyk. Lindros made a pass
to Recchi which was deflected by a Penguin, but Recchi caught up to the
misdirected puck and centered to Fedyk who was crashing Barasso. Barasso
made the initial save, and may have made another, but Fedyk finally poked
it through.

In the second, Mario was holding Benning by the shirt when Benning speared
Lemieux (who went down in a heap, but at worst lost his breath because
he wasn't out for long). Benning got 5 and a game, and things didn't look
good for the FLYERS, who weren't doing a fantastic job killing penalties
to that point. But for a change, they even got some pressure in the Penguins
zone, and looked for a minute like they might escape. But Mario and Tocchet
broke in 2 on 2, and Mario passed from about the top of the circle to Tocchet
who was driving at the net. The pass went through both FLYER defenders
and Tocchet picked it out of mid air to give the Pens a 3-1 edge.

The FLYERS were down 3-1 after 2, and were being outshot 33-15, and were
0-4 on power plays and 2-4 killing. To this point, Roussel was the only
thing keeping the FLYERS close, and being down to 5 defenseman, it didn't
look good.

In the 3rd period, however, the FLYERS came out, well, flying. Lindros
got his first NHL goal (keeping his goal per game pace in the preseason
alive) when Recchi and Fedyk made a good play to get a shot off, and Ulf
tried to sweep away the rebound. He only had one hand on his stick, however,
and he just managed to sweep it onto the stick of Lindros, who had more
than enough net to shoot at, and all of a sudden the FLYERS are down by
one 1/2 a minute into the 3rd.

1/2 a minute later, the FLYERS struck again. This time Galley dug out
the puck for Brind'Amour, who passed through the slot to a crashing Doug
Evans. Evans did a little deke to Barasso's right, Barasso bought it
and dove. Evans just pulled the puck back a little and slid it under
the goalies outstretched arm to tie it at 3.

Then, just a couple of minutes later, the first line was back at work.
Recchi took a point blank slapper that Barasso seemed to have stopped.
The puck slid through him, however, and hit the post. It slid along the
goal line tantalizingly. Fedyk dove at it, but missed with the stick and
fell on it, pushing the puck in with his arm. Ron Hogarth ruled it a goal,
but the replay official said no goal, and that was all the scoring for the
night.

Both teams had their chances to win, and Roussel made some incredible saves
to hold the tie. The FLYERS had the only two shots in OT.

No injury report at this time. Nobody that missed the last preseason
game played last night, so I assume all of those players are unchanged.
I do not know at this time why Mark Pederson did not play. I will send
out another post if I find out before Fridays game vs the Devils.

Lines:

Fedyk-Lindros-Recchi
Evans-Brind'Amour-Dineen
Paslawski-Butseyev-Mulvenna
Kasper-Acton-Brown

Benning-Yushkevich
Carkner-Galley
Hynes-Cronin (who was wearing Corey Foster's #44 (!))

Well, I've been openly unsold on Roussel, but he took a big step towards
making me a believer last night. He was stoning the Pens on breakaway
after breakaway, and was making some flat out incredible saves.

Fedyk may have knocked Eklund out of a job. He's quickly taken this team
from being very lacking at left wing to suddenly having too many. Pederson,
Lomakin and Eklund are going to have a tough time breaking back into this
lineup barring injuries. Only Pederson could manage to not look out of
place on the goon line, and Paslawski is doing a fine defensive job on the
checking line. All three of them may have to fight for Evans' spot, and
you have to consider Pederson the front runner for that spot (assuming
that an injury is the reason he didn't play last night).

The defense was pretty ugly last night. They did a good job of sweeping
away the rebounds while tying up Penguins trying to get at the rebounds.
But they couldn't pass to save their lives. That was the FLYERS biggest
problem last night, a complete lack of ability for the defensemen to
move the puck forward. Once the got into the Penguins zone they were fine,
they just couldn't get there. They also gave up too many breakaways, but
that's to be expected vs. the Pens. The centers were also not doing a very
good job on the transition, and Lindros had his worst passing game that
I've seen. He was missing Recchi a lot until he settled down after scoring
the goal.

Offensively, the FLYERS looked good when they were in the zone, but that
was pretty rare in the first two periods. They were misfiring a bit on
breakaways but that should correct itself. The power play was 0-4, but the
reason for that was the FLYERS inability to move the puck forward. The
Pens sensed that, and did a great job of forechecking, and probably
created as many, if not more, chances for themselves as the FLYERS got.

So the news is not all bad, and next up is the New Jersey Devils at the
Spectrum. If the FLYERS can play as well at home as they have been since
the second 1/2 of last year, they may return to the playoffs after all.

Media notes: The FLYERS pregame on 610 WIP has been chopped from 35 minutes
to 10 minutes, and will start at 7:25. Bill Clement will continue to do
color for FLYERS TV broadcasts when he's not in the ESPN studio with Tom
Mees and Al Morganti. Gary Dornhoffer will fill in for Bill for FLYERS
telecasts that Bill is unavailable for.

pete clark jr - rsh FLYERS contact