Flyers 4, Devils 1

(Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)


OK, I'll admit, I missed most of the first period due to dinner, but I did catch enough of the next two periods to come away fairly impressed with the young kids tonight. Particularly with Steve Downie, Luca Sbisa, and Matt Clackson, who dropped his mitts just like I thought. Downie, who is basically pegged as a mindless thug by the entire hockey world, showed that he does have a scoring touch, bagging one each in the first and second period and looked comfortable centering the third line with Asham and Kalinski. New captain Mike Richards and Scott Hartnell scored the other two goals, giving the Flyers the 4-1 win. Marty Biron played fantastic, stopping all 20 shots he faced. Sbisa, who's a better puck handler than I thought, didn't look too out of place for an 18-year old and showed that he could handle playing in a physical division. He's too young to make this team for this campaign, but he'll give Holmgren and Stevens a good reason to consider a call-up should someone get hurt. The lone Devils goal came off a giveaway by Claude Giroux right in front of the Flyers net, otherwise the defense played virtually a perfect game. Overall, not a bad first start. It's New Jersey, so I didn't expect a shootout. But if Downie and the rest of the younger players keep progressing, this will be a good team for a long time.


Next up - Flyers travel to Ottawa to face the Senators, who lost 2-1 to the Rangers in New York tonight. MSG is broadcasting all of the Rangers preseason games, and apparently they're playing four games in four nights this week. Guess they wanted to get them out of the way...