Flyers 6, Penguins 5 (OT)

Well, the worries about the lack of emotion about the Flyers were misplaced. All I needed was to see Forsberg flatten Fleury on the Flyers second goal and Richards run Caron in OT... then I was hoping someone would get their butt kicked. Unfortunately, the Pens sent Roy out and all he would do was go after King Thug (Donald Brashear). What he should have done, as Errey said on the telecast, was go after Forsberg or Gagne (especially Forsberg, for running Fleury).

Having said that, it was a game that went from bleak to exciting quickly. The Pens were down 5-1, had pulled Fleury in favor of Caron (when it was 4-1), and things looked hopeless. They started chipping away, cutting the lead to 5-3 at the end of the second period. They made it 5-4 and took a faceoff around center ice near the Pens bench. Off of the faceoff, from the red line, Maxim Talbot dumped the puck toward the goal, and Nittymaki, who was evidentally not paying attention, allowed the puck to slip into the goal (Nittymaki appeared to still be cleaning his crease). With the score tied, Caron made a truly amazing save with his glove. I'd describe it here, but I couldn't possibly do it justice. Go find the replay. Watch it. Be amazed.

Anyway, Crosby took an ill-advised penalty with 13 seconds left in regulation, and Gonchar took another one in OT. The Flyers scored near the end of the Gonchar penalty on a blast from near the left circle. Very disappointing, but still excellent that the Pens were able to battle back to earn the point for making it to OT.

The one player who still seems to not have things figured out yet is Gonchar. He's really struggling with bad passes and bad penalties. The Pens really need him to get going.

The other problem is consistency. Fleury didn't play poorly, from what I could see. He was more like the sacrificial lamb. I thought Edzo made the change for the sake of getting his team's attention, though Caron certainly played extremely well. But that was also due to much improved effort in front of him. Had Fleury been the beneficiary of such effort, he may not have needed to leave the game at all.

Tomorrow night is home against Tampa Bay. So nice of the league to schedule the Pens first two home games on the second night of a back-to-back...