Not Great, Not Terrible

Four points can often mean the difference between finishing the regular season with a playoff spot or hitting the links in April. For a marginal team. The Flyers are not marginal - they're one of the best teams in the Conference. There's no reason to panic about the Flyers not getting any points in their first two games. They've played two decent teams to one goal games and frankly, as long as Matt Stairs is hitting home runs in the seventh inning like he has been lately, no one's really going to notice. Among the negatives there have been a significant amount of positives that can be taken from both of the 2/3 efforts so far:

- Simon Gagne has a goal in each game. This isn't so much important for the numbers game but for his confidence. Yes there's only 38 more until he hits 40, but a good, confident start could have him flirting with 50, and in my dreams 60.

- Ossi Vaananen and Luca Sbisa have been pleasant surprises. Both are confident with the puck and use their bodies effectively.

- Nitty played great against the Rangers. Tonight we'll get to see how he fairs against a powerful offense in a full frame.

- Jeff Carter is hopefully getting more comfortable out there. He was infinitely more noticeable against the Canadiens then he was the Rangers.

- Glen Metro looks shifty out there. I like it. He could provide some fun goals during the year.

Last year the Flyers started off the season 1-1 and then came out and blew Vancouver away in the third game of the season. If we get the power play working and make sure to stay out of the box against these guys a win tonight could give us a bit of momentum before we head out west.

New Flyer Alert: Tonight could mark the appearance of our first new Flyer of the year, Andrew Alberts. No one could have predicted it would happen this soon, but we have a new big man on the blueline. Another Flyers defenseman who wore #41? John Stevens.