Carter's Blowing Himself Away

Merry Christmas....ladies.

During Christmas break (is 2 days a break?), and right before a 12 day 6 game road trip, seems to be a pretty good time to take a look at where the Flyers are this season. The boys have 48 games left to play this year which means they are 7 games to the half way point and 41% complete with the season.

- Jeff Carter currently leads the Flyers with 26 goals and 40 points. All of last season he had 29 goals and 53 points. On this upcoming road trip he stands to eclipse his career high in NHL goals.

- Simon Gagne is tied with Carter, both 4th in the league, also with 40 points. Last year this time he was spending his days getting injections in a hyperbaric chamber.

- Due to a recent hot streak, Kimmo Timonen is tied for 5th in the league for scoring among defensemen with 24 points. Last year he had 44 points.

- Braydon Coburn has played in all 34 games and earned 15 points. He's a plus three and, due to all his minor penalties and not tough guy penalties, is tied for 10th in PIM among defenseman with 48 minutes. Last year he had 36 points and 74 PIM in 78 games.

- Scott Hartnell is 59th in the NHL in total scoring. He must be pumped to be on the Center City Line because almost half of his points have come in the 25% of games so far this season that he's been playing with Lupul and Carter. And it makes car pooling easier. Last year he had 43 points in 80 games. He's 16 off that total with 48 games to go.

- Joffrey Lupul, who had 20 goals in 56 games last year has 13 in 34 this year. A slightly higher scoring pace that sees to have him hit the 30 goal mark for the first time in his career.

- Despite a mini-slump with no points in 3 games Mike Richards is 13th in the league in scoring with 38 points. If he can keep up this pace he'll break the 90 point mark, far exceeding his previous career high of 75 points from last season.

- Veteran presence Mike Knuble (Brendan who/where?), like Lupul, has 13 goals in 34 games and stands to hit the 30 goal mark for the first time since the abysmal 2006-07 season.

The Flyers have been putting up huge offensive numbers. They are 3rd in the league in Goals For and 4th in Goals Per Game.

Many of the Flyers seasons are not so easy to understand in these little capsules. Danny Briere, Randy Jones, Riley Cote, Ossi Vaananen, and now Scottie Upshall have all missed significant time due to injury. Matt Carle and Andrew Alberts are now Flyers - not something that would have been possible to forecast in early October.

All in all, there's a lot of season left, and who knows what it holds. But if the Flyers can keep up what they're doing offensively while improving the defense as injured players return, all with goaltending that stays above the .900 mark, which it currently is, they're going to be Cup contenders come April.