#6 Philadelphia Flyers (33-25-3, 69 pts) at #13 Florida Panthers (24-28-10, 58 pts)
BankAtlantic Center - 7:30 PM ET - Sunrise, FL
TV: Versus HD, CSNPhilly HD
Radio: 610 WIP
This is the open game thread.
Get Florida reaction at Litter Box Cats
 

YAAAAWN.  That's the general reaction to today's deadline which saw the Flyers abstain from making a move.  Good or bad, these are the guys expected to bring the Cup back to Philadelphia.

But enough about the trading deadline:  there is a hockey game tonight after all.  Tonight, the Flyers take their five-game winning streak into Sunrise to face the Panthers.  Aside from the Flyers winning streak, the next two biggest stories are the Flyers playing against the goalie a lot of people wanted and David Booth's first game against the Flyers since being concussed by Mike Richards.

In anticipation of Booth's return against the Flyers, the Sun-Sentinel asked how he feels to share the ice with Richards again:

"We’ve got to get two points, that’s the bottom line. …But it’ll be an interesting game, sure. "

I asked him if he would try to return the favor from October with a big hit or if he would challenge Richards to a fight.  

Booth responded: "I’m just going to play my game. I have to get back to playing physical. You see that in the Olympics. Everyone’s finishing their hits, everyone’s winning battles and that’s something I’ve got to get back to. I can’t get sidetracked with the other things."

So that's that.  Fairly typical answer, essentially nothing to see here, move along.

As far as Tomas Vokoun goes, it will be interesting to see how he plays after offering to waive his no-trade clause for a select few teams.  Assuming Philadelphia was one of those teams, he will likely want to impress by showing he was worth whatever offer Paul Holmgren refused.

By beating Booth and Vokoun tonight, the Flyers can tie the season series at two games apiece. 

After the jump, Projected Lineups, Expected Starting Goaltenders, Questions to Answer, and our in-game discussion thread.

Flyers Line Combinations

Gagne - Richards - Carcillo
Hartnell - Carter - Briere
JVR - Giroux - Asham
Powe - Betts - Laperriere

Pronger - Carle
Timonen - Krajicek
Parent - Coburn

No expected changes.

Florida Line Combinations

Booth - Weiss - Stillman
Frolik - Reinprecht - Dvorak
Campbell - Matthias - Olesz
Kreps - Moore - Oreskovich

Ballard - McCabe
Kulikov - Allen
Garrison - Ellerby

No idea on the defensive pairings, since Leopold and Seidenberg were traded in the past two days.  Ellerby has only played two games this year amassing a whopping 6:55 of total ice time.

Starting Goaltenders

Questions to Answer:

1. With the assurances that nobody will be traded (ignoring waiver trades), do the Flyers come out like they did last night?
2. There were rumors of a potential deal involving Jeff Carter for Tomas Vokoun:  In a ridiculously small one game sample, does Carter prove more valuable?
3. The Panthers defense is... significantly weaker than it was on Sunday.  Can the Flyers take advantage?
4. Nobody got traded or fired today, so can the team best their efforts from last year's game against Calgary (after Upshall was traded) and this year's game against Washington (after Stevens was fired)?