by Michael Perez - AP

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The story has been beaten to death over the last 72 hours or so. Ray Emery will face off against his old team, the Ottawa Senators, this evening at the Wachovia Center. But let's clarify a few things.

First off, half of the team that Emery played with during his Ottawa tenure, which lasted from 2005 to 2008, have moved on to greener pastures. In fact, as Flyers Goal Scored By pointed out yesterday, only seven of Emery's former teammates will likely be in the lineup tonight. One of those players is Jason Spezza, one of Sugar Ray's best friends. Actually, Emery was a member of Spezza's wedding party this past summer. But that's no different than the Flyers playing against Martin Biron and the Isles, or Chris Pronger playing against the Ducks. It's just another game.

Secondly, most of Emery's Ottawa problems stemmed from his relationship with coach John Paddock. There was no secret that the two weren't very friendly, but Paddock is no longer behind the Senators bench. In fact, he's in the Flyers front office, and the presence of either personality has not caused any issues. Emery did have it out with former teammates Brian McGrattan and Chris Neil early in 2008, but those fights don't mean a thing now. McGrattan isn't even in Ottawa anymore. After all, Emery also had an altercation with Spezza during the 2007 playoffs, and the two obviously are very close.

Emery still has a home in Ottawa and family in that area. Living there for four years means you still have ties there, obviously. But those ties don't mean a thing on the ice. As Emery told reporters yesterday, "it's just a city."

Nevertheless, it will be an actual storyline when Emery and the Flyers travel to Ottawa for the first time in January. No doubt about it. The fans in the Canadian capital will give him hell and he'll have to block that out. That's not the case tonight, however, in front of the home fans in Philadelphia. As his former employer visits his new one, he'll just try to win another hockey game.

More photos » by Matt Slocum - AP

27 days ago: Florida Panthers forward David Booth is wheeled off the ice on a stretcher as Philadelphia Flyers' Chris Pronger (20) checks on him in the second period of an NHL hockey game, Saturday, Oct. 24, 2009, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

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The league has made their decision, and there will be no suspension to Flyers captain Mike Richards for his brutal hit on Florida's David Booth a night ago. While many, especially those in the Miami area, may disagree, the league got this one right according to the current rules of the NHL.

Before we delve into the debate about the hit, let's watch it. Richards' shoulder does make contact with Booth's head, but his arms are both down, and in real time, it's a split second after the puck leaves Booth's stick. Secondly, he barely leaves his skates on the left side, but any time in the air is after the initial impact.

Richards doesn't have a history of being a dirty hockey player, and one would go through a lot of distress trying to find an illegal check he's performed in his career.

"I'm never out there to hurt anyone," Richards said last night. "I have respect for the game and respect for the players. My concern is with (Booth). Hopefully, he's fine and gets better. I just wanted to separate him from the puck. He dished it off and everything happened so quickly."

Florida's Keith Ballard even went as far as agreeing with Richards on the respect notion, but of course he disagrees with the overall hit, saying that he's "a good, honest hockey player" but that he knows Booth was in a "vulnerable position" and that he still went after him. My question to Ballard is "what's wrong with that?"

When Richards hit Atlanta's Ronald Petrovicky in 2006, where was the uproar? When Scott Stevens hit Eric Lindros ten years ago, a hit that came at just about the same spot on the Wachovia Center ice as the one on Booth last night, where was the uproar? It was nowhere to be found because everybody believed that the players are accountable for putting themselves in a vulnerable position. It's not like Richards told Booth to admire his pass, even it was just for a split second.

Historically in the NHL, like with the Stevens hit, there is absolutely zero debate about this sort of thing. Stevens was even championed for it by the Hockey Hall of Fame. Their website reads:

His thunderous checks, most notably on Eric Lindros in the semifinals, both inspired and dominated the post-season, and when his Devils won the Cup there was no question that he would be chosen winner of the Conn Smythe Trophy as the most valuable player in the post-season.

But some want to change the conventional wisdom about these type of hits. As recently as last March at the NHL General Managers' Meetings in Florida, shoulder checks to the head were specifically discussed. The opinions were mixed.

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More photos » by Gene J. Puskar - AP

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I think we understand what's at stake here with the NFL playing as well and the MLB playoffs and all that. It's a time where hockey is on the back seat so we'll have to deal with that.

>> Danny Briere

When the Flyers take the ice against the Bruins tonight at the Wachovia Center, it will be their second game in 11 days. They've played just six games up until now while most teams in the NHL have played eight or nine. Sure, that doesn't seem like a big difference, but early in the season, a stretch like this without playing real live NHL hockey can be devastating to a club.

Take a look at last Saturday when the Flyers played the Panthers on five days of rest. As Ben Rothenberg put it, the team "lacked explosiveness" all game long. That's what happens when you are out of game action for such an extended period of time. The cobwebs form. To a certain extent, you forget how to play the game of hockey. And this early in the season when a team is still developing chemistry, it makes the task even more difficult and puts them way behind the eight-ball.

Of course, as the players all will say, it's not an excuse. They're right. As professionals, they have to deal with this stuff. But there's no reason for it to be taking place. As Briere said above, the NFL and MLB playoffs could be a reason for the gap in games. Well, if it is, that makes absolutely no sense, because the schedule is written before anybody knew the Phillies would still be in the postseason. As for the NFL, there is no reason why their schedule should overshadow that of the NHL  -- they only play two days a week, and those two days are the thinnest on the NHL's schedule throughout the year.

No, if there's any excuse, it would be the start of the NBA season, considering that most cities have teams that share buildings. But logistical concerns like that have been worked out between the teams and the leagues for decades now, and the NBA season doesn't even start until this weekend.

After tonight, the Flyers will feel the flipside of the scheduling coin. In November, they'll play 13 games in 26 days and in December they'll play 15 games in 27 days. That's a treacherous run that, with inevitable injury, could potentially kill a teams' hopes. But every team will go through most of the schedule like that this year. It's an Olympic year, which means that the league will stop for two weeks in February as many players travel to Vancouver to represent their countries.

With 16 days off for the Games and these 10 days off now, the Flyers will be forced to play all of their 82 games in much less time than every other team in the league. It hurts the brain to understand why this is happening. The NHL should have used every opportunity to spread games out as much as possible this year, but instead, a lapse by the league's schedulers has put the Flyers at a severe disadvantage.

If you ask Anaheim's James Wisniewski to list dirty players on the Flyers' roster, you'd be surprised to hear that forward Danny Briere might make the cut. Wisniewski injured his shoulder in the third period in Philadelphia on Saturday night, and he blames everybody's favorite number 48.

From the Orange County, California Register...

"[Briere] decided to finish his check while I’m lying on the ice," Wisniewski said.  "Well, my arms were laying straight out. Actually, he even went a little bit lower to get a little more piece of me, which to me is kind of a dirty hit.

"I mean, there’s no need to do that when a guy is in a vulnerable spot to go ahead and finish your check. But that happened. Stuff happens. My shoulder just kind of got crunched against the boards and that was it."

Unfortunately, there's no video of the hit available online (from my searches), and my memory doesn't recall the incident well enough to judge. It really doesn't sound like Briere to do something like that, though. Or, it could be that Danny is just so short that it just seemed to Wisniewski like he went "a little bit lower."

Nevertheless, I'd love to hear what Briere has to say about the accusations.

UPDATE! Reader DragonGirl0583 uploaded a video of the "hit" and shared it in the comments below. You'll be entertained by these accusations after you see it, and that's a guarantee.

More photos » by Matt Slocum - AP

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Hopefully this won't be a multi-part series, but there are some more interesting stats to look at from the first 5 games.  But whereas my previous post dealt with emerging trends, this one I plan to compare players to give some context.

Here, we'll look at Darroll Powe, the third defensive pairing, and the duo of Braydon Coburn and Kimmo Timonen.

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More photos » by Matt Slocum - AP

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Even though we're only 5 games into the season, there is already a large break in action.  The Flyers will only play once between now and next Thursday, which is both good and bad.  Bad we don't have any hockey to watch but good that JVR and Blair Betts can get some recovery time.

With this free time, I decided to look at some of this season's stats.  Now, before anybody yells "sample size!", it's important to realize this is just to point out trends.  But there are in fact some emerging already.  Check after the jump.

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More photos » by Michael Perez - AP

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With a lot of questions about how he would perform,  Ray Emery had an unbelievable start to the season.  For his first five regular season periods in the orange and black, Emery was perfect.  He stopped the first fifty shots he faced.  Through the first 110 minutes of the season, he had a 0.00 GAA and a 100% save percentage.  None too shabby.

But since the floodgates opened, the goals have been pouring in.  Going back to the third period of the New Jersey game, Ray Emery has had a 5.14 GAA and a lowly 82.8% save percentage.  There's no sugar coating those numbers--that's some seriously sub-par goaltending.

I know Emery has done a lot of things right this season.  He's staying square to the shooter, maintaining decent rebound control, fighting for position in traffic, and coming out to challenge the cut down angles.  But it could be a lot better.

After the jump, a nauseatingly detailed, goal-by-goal breakdown of what Emery has been doing wrong, with video clips of all twelve goals he's allowed.

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Ole-Kristian Tollefsen will make his Philadelphia Flyers debut tonight against the Penguins at the Wachovia Center. The four-year NHL veteran has struggled with injuries his entire career, and it was no different this preseason. Lingering knee and hip injuries were only compounded by a puck he caught with his skull, but he feels like he's ready for action tonight.

"I knew I would be held back a little but because of the knee and everything and that made it [hard] for my hip when I hurt it," Tollefsen told the media. "I knew it would take a little bit of time to get back into game shape. And I was ready for that. I’m feeling good right now."

Still, his hard-hitting style makes him extremely injury prone, so there's no guarantee he'll see the second period tonight. We took a look at his injury history back in July when the Flyers signed him, but let's take another look to remind us.

• December 2006, broken nose, missed 1 game
• Early February 2007, broken ribs, missed 1 game
• Late February 2007, elbow injury, missed 2 games
• April 2007, hip injury, missed final 3 games of season
• November 2007, hand injury, missed 4 games
• December 2007, neck injury, missed 11 games
• February 2008, concussion, missed 3 games
• March 2008, upper body injury, missed final 7 games of season
• December 2008, head injury, missed 16 games
• February 2008, knee injury, missed final 27 games including 4 playoff games

But is there more to OKT than meets in injured reserve? Well, his time in Columbus was not especially impressive, and he was let go by the Jackets after four years partly due to up-and-coming young talent in their system. Tollefsen didn't add much offense and was a liability with the puck, but he's a heart-and-soul type player that leaves it all on the ice.

The question, of course, is how many more of those type of players do the Flyers need? Here's to hoping Tollefsen can find some skill in his game. We begin to find out tonight.

PS -- In case you haven't figured it out by using your Flyers IQ, Danny Syvret will sit tonight so OKT can join the lineup.