Great News

Although not any news on Timmo, the return of Downie could mean they found their energetic piece to check the Penguins with. Maybe if hit them enough like a pinball game we could cause them a chink in their best playmaker and thus even the talent on the ice.

From the Courie-Post:

The biggest change in tonight's lineup will be the return of rookie right wing Steve Downie, who will replace Thoresen on a fourth line with center Jim Dowd and Sami Kapanen.

Stevens said Downie's ability to win puck battles is something the Flyers might havce been lacking in the series opener.

"Steve has the ability to come in and be a big player," Stevens said. "The bigger the game, the better he plays. That's the reason he's going to get some consideration."

In addition to coming back into their defensive zone to start their rushes, the Flyers' forwards said they'll need to run traffic in front of Penguins goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury and hunt for rebounds if they hope to have success the remainder of the series.

Steve Downie played well in game 2 but it was the same result... another lose for the Flyers.

The Flyer need to come out at home and win game three big time!

I must say this is looking pretty futile. Crosby and Malkin lit us up in game 1. We shut down Malkin in game 2 but Crosby continued and now they get help from a 4th liner. With us losing Timonen and possibly Coburn, I just don't see our D matching up in any way with the Penguins. Derian Hatcher is ancient and almost as slow footed as Randy Jones. Lasse Kukkonen and Ryan Parent (who will probably replace Coburn if needed)are young and talented, but raw and inexperienced. Jaroslav Modry is an adequate defensemen at best. Jason Smith is going to have to step up HUGE. I think we may actually need to play Sami Kapanen at Defense, as we did once before a few years ago. He is very quick and a great puck handler who can bring it up ice for us. We could then play both Downie and Thoresen on our 4th line. And can someone please support Mike Richards! He seems to be doing it alone. First series it was Briere...second series it was Umberger...why can't we tie this all together? Let me know who you all think will be our Defensive pairings if Coburn can't go for game 3. I hope to God we split up Jones and Hatcher. It does no good having 2 slow footed defensemen on the ice at the same time. I project

Jason Smith - Randy Jones

Derian Hatcher - Lasse Kukkonen

Jaroslav Modry - Ryan Parent (or) Sami Kapanen

The Flyers are in behind the eight ball at the moment. I don't like to say this but it seems they have to scrap the the previous design and develop a new style with just the players we have available and design line sets that attenuate their talents. I guess we'll have to stop showing the Penguins the area that we are missing. We can't keep pointing to Timmonen's not there and give the Pens the place to concentrate their efforts. Changing our strengths on the run, we may have to break up some of the previous combinations that worked or go with two lines with only our best players ie two powerplay type lines and two checking lines. the three top lines and one mix/match line of our best penalty kill guys, which means alot of double shifts.

Umberger-Carter-Lupol-Modry-Jones

Prospal-Richards-Hartnell-Hatcher-K
ukkonen

Upshall-Briere-Knuble-Kapanen-Smith

Having a new line set may have helped. only it was Richards paired with Briere, dropping Prospal down