It looks like the Flyers might be trying to make that transition from a World Series loss to hockey season an easy one for the Philly sports fan. With last night's win the Flyers moved into a tie for fifth place in the Eastern Conference with the Rangers, who apparently could not handle the return of Ilya Kovalchuk to the Thrasher's lineup. More impressive even is the fact that the Flyers are tied for third place in the entire NHL in winning percentage (a stat not really used in hockey) with the team they beat last Friday and face tomorrow, the Buffalo Sabres. The only two teams better than the Flyers and Sabres right now are the Devils, who are on a 7 game winning streak and the Sharks, who are treating their fans to another impressive regular season.

If you tuned into last night's game late then be thankful, because you missed the most boring first period since that time the '94 Devils had an inter-squad scrimmage (insert Family Guy clip here). After that though, Blair Betts started the festivities with a goal that resulted from his trademark work ethic. The Sens power play that followed was, not a point of concern, but frustrating to watch. You have 4 skaters and the other team has 5. Simple math tells you that somewhere you're going to have a 2-on-1 situation and three 1-on-1 situations. If the other team gives you the choice don't you want that 2-on-1 to be above the faceoff circles and to the perimeter of the offensive zone. The Sens set up in an umbrella and either because of on ice miscommunication or bad coaching the Flyers were set up in a way that caused their box to shift into a diamond. The goal was a result of simple positioning.

Matt Carle shouldn't he defending Kovalev here. Betts should be applying pressure from above. Here's the goal.

You see how they started off in a box and Carle's play made the Flyers rotate into a diamond? He can't do that. Kovalev can score from around there, but not from right there. Until he makes you make a decision you have to wait him out if his ass is on the boards. If he starts walking in off the boards then you move out towards him which gives Richards more time to get down low and Pronger can safely charge Fisher.

I nitt-picky thing to focus on, but it was annoying none the less. Good thing we had Claude Giroux and Kimmo throwing hail marys on the powerplay that period.

The third period more than made up for the flaccid start to the game, and as you know the Flyers won their tenth. Briere's mid-air swat and smack shot goals were both impressive and his celebrations still made me cringe.

Loose Puck Bunnies:

- I thought Oskars and Danny Syvret played a very solid game. Syvret is even starting to look a bit more comfortable and joined the rush a couple times. I wish Bart had chosen a different number - he'll be in John Stevens' dog house in no time.

- Did Matt Carkner get confused and think he was in an AHL game last night? He was staring over at Lappy in the box like he had one punched the guy instead of like he just gave a much smaller opponent a couple stitches in his 19th game in the NHL after 524 in the AHL. Guy's a joke.

- I'd listen through three hours of audio to hear the 5 sentences Riley Cote, Simon Gagne, Ryan Parent, OKT, and David Laliberte exchanged in the press box last night.

- Danny Briere has 7 goals in 11 games this year. If he can stay healthy that's pace for a 49.64 goal season. Jeff Carter's assisted on all of them except for the second one last night.

- Blair Betts is now 8-0. Man is that guy's strong on the puck.