Goose Egg

Losing 4-0 to the Rangers at home is never what you're looking for. But it happened, and we will move on from this bump in the road and recover. But what upsets me about this shutout is that it came not against Henrik Lundqvist, but backup Stephen Valiquette, who stopped the meager Flyers attack. But something tells me we aren't going to be shut out many more times like this for the rest of the season.

Antero Nittymaki, for the second game in a row, struggled. After giving up his 4th goal in just 22 minutes, he was pulled for Marty Biron. The last two times he has made starts he has not made it through the whole game. This is probably only a minor setback, but any questions regarding who is the #1 goalie right now should be put off. Hopefully Nitty will bounce back when he gets his next start.

It's not like the offense was much more impressive. John Stevens said afterward that Valiquette probably only had to make two hard saves all night. They just couldn't shoot the puck on net for most of the game. Let's just chalk this performance up to an isolated slip-up and expect the team to come out firing against the Ducks.

28-17-5, 61 points, 1st in Atlantic, just 1 point ahead of Pittsburgh and 2 points ahead of the Devils. The Rangers have crept within 5 points with the shutout.

The Flyers are still the 2 seed in the East through Thursday's games, but they'll be challenged on Saturday against Anaheim. Then comes Atlanta on the road and then Washington at home. Two out of the next three should be expected.

PETER FORSBERG. Just wanted to mention this...apparently, according to SI.com, a Swedish newspaper has reported that Foppa himself wants to return to the NHL, and the Flyers would be very interested in his services. I think if Paul Holmgren has the opportunity to sign him, go ahead, spend the last dollars that you have under the cap, and get him for the rest of the season. It's very possible. Of course, Holmgren will have to analyze how the team would be affected by Forsberg, but if he's healthy (and that's a HUGE if), he'd be one of the top 3 players on the team.

-ajd