Flyers drop Preseason Opener

The Flyers woes in Detroit, MI continued as they dropped their preseason opener 3 to 1.

The first period saw both teams combine for 15 hits (Detroit 8 hits/Flyers 7 hits; even Briere had a hit)

Penalties: Red Wings got called for a bench minor at 9:14, this was their only penalty of the period; the Flyers Power Play did not capitalize.

at 7:19 Scott Hartnell was called for 2 penalties, one for Roughing & one unsportsman -like conduct, which gave the Wings a 4-minute Power Play, the Penaltly Kill unit stood tall and killed it off

at 1:29 Andreas Nodl was called for hooking, so that meant the Flyers would start the second period down a man. The Penalty Kill again was successful.

So Penalties (Red Wings 1/Flyers 3) - Power Plays (Red Wings 0 for 3/Flyers 0 for 1).

The Red Wings out shot the Flyers 7 to 5 (mostly due to the 3 Power Play opportunities).

Neither team scored by the end of 1, so Emery was 7 for 7 in save opportunities.

The second period (Flyers again start the period short-handed, but killed off the Nodl penalty)

There were 18 hits in the second period (Red Wings 6/Flyers 12)

Penalties: at 14:26 Lehtivuori was called for a high stick, this penalty was a double-minor, giving Detroit another 4-minute Power Play and the Flyers killed the penalty off

at 8:38 Kolanos was called for high sticking; once again Detroit's power play did not capitalize.

the Detroit Power Play for the Kolanos penalty came to a screeching hault when at 8:19 Jakub Kindl took a hooking penalty(this was Detroit's only penalty during the second period, and second of the game). The Flyers Power Play did not cash in on the 19 seconds of PP time they had.

at 4:40 Bartulis was called for hooking, Detroit's Power Play again failed.

So, Penalties (Flyers 3/Red Wings 1); Power Plays (Flyers 0 for 1; Detroit 0 for 3).

The Red Wings again out shot the Flyers 19 to 7 (again due to the amount of Power Play time they've had), Detroit scored on 2 shots, and the Flyers scored on 1. (Emery stopped 17 of 19 shots in the period)

Emery finished his night at the end of the 2nd Period, and stopped 24 of 26 shots (92%).

Scoring!

The Flyers opened the scoring when James Van Riemsdyk scored an unassisted, even strength goal to put the Flyers ahead 1 to 0. On the ice for JVR's goal (Carter, Hartnell, Pronger, Carle, and Emery for the Flyers; Datsyuk, Franzen, Holmstrom, Lidstrom, Rafalski, and Howard)

John Stevens' team jumped out to a 1 to 0 lead, but no surprise, Stevens' team could not protect the lead (much less add to it).

Detroit tied the game 1 to 1 when Kris Draper scored an even strength goal at 10:24, Rafalski and Ritola got the assists. On the ice for Draper's goal (Briere (shocked!), Giroux, Bartulis, Jones (surprised!), Lehtivuori, and Emery for the Flyers; Ritola, Tardif, Lidstrom, Rafalski, and Howard).

Detroit took the lead 1 to 2 when Jamie Tardif scored an even strength goal at 1:52 (another John Stevens' trait, giving up goals with under 2-minutes to go in a period), Justin Abdelkader recorded loan assist. On the ice for Tardif's goal (Briere (-2 already), Giroux (-2), Van Riemsdyk, Lehtivuori (-2), Parent, and Emery for the Flyers/Pitola, Abdelkader, Meech, Ericsson, and Howard).

The Third Period begins with Emery replaced by Brian Boucher

There were 15 hits (8 by the Flyers, and 7 by the Red Wings)

The Period also saw one Fight between Ian Laperriere and Jamie Tardiff (Tardiff is an assist short of a Gordie Howe hat trick)

asside from the fighting majors, there were only 2 penalties in the third period both on Detroit (surprise!), the Flyers failed on both Power Play attempts

So Penalties for the thd (Flyers 1 major; Detroit 1 major & 2 minors) - Flyers Power Play 0 for 2

Each team recorded 9 shots in the period. Detroit was the only team to find twine in the period.

Boucher stopped 8 of 9 shots (89%)

The Red Wings extended the lead to 3 to 1, when Jason Williams beat Boucher at 16:25, Jakub Kindl and former Flyer, Andy "The Donkey" Delmore got credit for the assists. On the ice for Williams goal (Blair Betts, Andreas Nodl, Bell, Jones (surprised! -2), Bartulis (-2), and Boucher for the Flyers/ Emmerton, Ryno, Kindl, Delmore, and Daniel Larsson for the Red Wings)

Basically Penalties were the Flyers doom. The Flyers found themselves short handed 6 times in the first two periods, including having to deal with 2 double minors. Lucky for the Flyers they were able to kill off every penalty they've faced. Detroit was only called for 3 penalties, but 1 of their 3 only cancelled out a Flyer penalty.

Emery looked good, stopping 24 of 26 shots and dealing with 2 double minor penalties.

JVR recorded a goal against some good competition with Datskyuk, Franzen, Holmstrom, and Lidstrom on the ice.

Unfortunately JVR was also on the ice for one of detroit's 3 goals.

Briere and Randy Jones were both a -2. I guess it would be a good idea for John Stevens to avoid having Briere and Jones on the ice at the same time.

There were plenty of hits and one fight.

The Flyers are back at it tomorrow night for their second Preseason game against the Toronto Maple Leafs, I believe the game will be televised on the NHL network..

so, what do you all think of my report? :D