Flyers 3, Senators 1

(AP Photo - Tom Mihalek)

Yesterday, the Ottawa Senators fired coach John Paddock, which comes as no real surprise given that team's run of sub-par performances. Former coach Bryan Murray took his place behind the bench. I mention this because any time a team fires their coach, they always seem to win the first few games under the new guy. And usually, one of those first wins comes at the expense of the Flyers (see: Boudreau, Bruce in Washington). Tonight, however, was the exception. The O&B got goals from Mike Knuble and Jim Dowd and defeated the Sens by a score of 3-1. The game got chippy, as do most meetings between these clubs. Steve Downie and Mike Fisher got into it and a bizarre sequence involving Marty Biron and Jason Spezza resulted in a game misconduct for Spezza. Biron didn't like the way Spezza was celebrating his goal, so in true Ron Hextall spirit, Marty shoved him in the back. Spezza took exception, Braydon Coburn came in to offer his views, and Spezza hit him with the butt end of his stick. All in all, no big deal.

The Flyers and the Buffalo Sabres are currently neck and neck for the final spot in the playoffs. Buffalo won last night 8-4, which put them in the 8th spot for all of a day. With this win, the Flyers have tied the Sabres on 71 points, but take the 8th position due to one more win overall. So...either the Flyers need to go on a ridiculous winning streak or the Sabres need to fall apart. If it stays like this until the end, I think our injuries will start to catch up to us. Vinnie Prospal didn't have a major impact tonight, but it's his first game, so give him time. I still think we needed to pick up a puck-handling defenseman like a Brad Stuart, but we should be OK so long as no one else gets hurt.

That's two wins in a row for all of you scoring at home...