Last Five Games: 10/31 to 11/12

If someone else has posted any of this I'm sorry. I looked around and didn't see anything, so please forgive me.

This is just a progress report on some basic catagories on how the team is doing.

Penalties: 32 (6.4 per game; 6 Fighting-Majors, 0 Majors, 0 Misconducts, 0 Game-Misconducts, 26 Minors) *Penalties are up from previous 5 games*

Penalty Kill: 12 for 15 (80%); 5-on-3: 0 for 0 (0%) *No Shorties* 

Power Play: 6 for 23 (26%); 5-on-3: 0 for 0 (0%) (I believe the Flyers have had only 1 opportunity at a 5-on-3 advantage all season long) *No Shorties Allowed*

Face-Off Attempts: 289 (58 per game)

Face-Offs Won: 157 (31 per game)

Face-Off %: 54.3% (This is WAY up! from the last 5 games in which they were 46.8%)

Give Aways: 42 (8.4 per game) *up from the last five games*

Take Aways: 29 (5.8 per game) *about the same as the previous five games*

Hits: 81 (16.2 per game) *down from the last five games*

Blocked Shots: 84 (16.8 per game) *up from the last five games*

Shots Against: 152 (30.4 per game) *up from last five games*

Shots For: 159 (31.8 per game) *down from last five games*

#29 Ray Emery (Goaltending): 145 for 152 (Save %: .954, Wins: 5, Shut-outs: 0, GAA: 1.40) *Emery's numbers are much improved!*

Goals Against: 7 (1.4 per game) *Way down from the 3.2 per game from the last five games*

Goals For: 23 (4.6 per game) *Way up from the 2.6 per game from the last five games*

Record: 5 - 0 - 0

Points: 10 (out of a possible 10)

My own Observations

Mike Richards: Continues leading the team with 8 goals, but has only scored 1 goal since the Anaheim game (fifth game of the season)

Chris Pronger: I think so far this guy has been playing as advertised. He leads the team in Blocked Shots with 42 and Assists with 13. His Plus/Minus of +12 is second on the team, only to his partner Matt Carle. He leads defensemen in hits with 18. And he has 3 goals on the season (scoring 1 goal every 5 games so far).

Timonen & Coburn: Through the First 10 games, their Plus/Minus were like -9 & -10 (-19 combined). Since then, they've both played a lot better and have improved their Plus/Minus on the season to -3 for both. This Pairing needs to continue to improve and play the way they are capable of playing.

Simon Gagne & Danny Briere: When Simon Gagne's Team Canada injury finally caught up to him, I was initially worried because I remember the last time the Flyers lost Gagne to an injury, they lost 10 games straight.

As for Briere, I remember last year the team started off the season slow going 0-3-3 and as soon as Briere went down, the team started winning consistantly. Here we go again, Briere went down with an injury when they team was playing .500 hockey and suddenly they win 5 in a row. (I know Briere returned and played against the Senators..so the team won 4 in a row without his services).

Blair Betts: His return to the lineup has improved the Flyers Face-off %.

Overall Record

Record: 10 - 4 - 1 (10 - 5); Winning %: .667

Third Place in Division with 21 points!

If the playoffs started today they would have the fifth seed and be playing.....PITTSBURGH! (Can you believe the Devils are in first place?)