The Seemingly Impossible Completed Ahead of Schedule

When on October 18th the Rangers had 13 points and the Flyers had 2 there was a lot of discussion as to whether or not the Flyers would be able to catch the Rangers and take first place before the end of the season. I'll say that again - the end of the season. At the end of the month the Rangers had 21 points, and due to a huge home and home sweep of the Devils, a thrashing of the Thrashers, and a game against the Islanders, the Flyers managed to keep up with the Rangers in terms of point differential with 11 points of there own. Everyone was down on the Flyers, the Phillies were winning the World Series, and there was talk of bringing in some veteran leadership in the form of Brendan Shanahan. But instead of signing B Shan, Paul Holmgren made a trade for puck-moving defenseman Matt Carle. Now whether or not it's purely coincidence, the trade scared the locker room, or Carle really has been such a key component of the Flyers game plan since coming to Philly, the Flyers have been earning points in almost every game since he's come to the club. And something that many only dreamed might be possible to achieve by the end of the season was accomplished on Saturday night, only 39 games in.

Depending on the outcome of tonight's Penguins - Rangers game, which is on Versus and should be a pretty entertaining one to watch as both teams are desperate for a win, the Flyers are in first place in the Atlantic Division until at least 10 PM tonight. They've been finding ways to earn points with their carousel of defensemen and depleted offensive unit. They've had to do everything short of dressing Marty Biron as 4th line center over the past few weeks, and they've still made it to first place. There's obviously still a lot of time left in the season, but right now, for one more day at least, you can look at the standings and see that indeed, the Flyers are the number one team in their very strong division.