Carter and Richards Best Lecavalier and Stamkos: Canada's Yzerman Watching?

The Philadelphia Flyers came out firing on all cylinders Monday night, beating the Tampa Bay Lightning like a bad habit, 6-2.

The game had an interesting sub-plot, namely the battle down the middle: The Flyers Mike Richards and Jeff Carter vs. Tampa Bays Steven Stamkos and Vincent Lecavalier.

In the end, it was no contest as Richards and Carter put up two goals and one assist each (six points) to Stamkos one goal, Lecavalier netted zero points and was a  minus-three on the night.

For Richards and Carter, the game served notice to executive director for the Canadian men's Olympic hockey team, Steve Yzerman, that they are the hands-down favorites to occupy two of Canada’s four roster spots down the middle.

Richards and Carter dominated every aspect of the game, laying the body, controlling the neutral zone, scoring four goals between them, they were, awesome!

Lecavalier now sits with just one goal and ten points through twelve games and an alarming minus-eight rating. Simply put, that’s not going to cut it if Lecavalier intends on making Team Canada.

On the other hand, Stamkos has been having a great season. Last night’s goal marked the sixth straight game he has lit the lamp and he was a plus-one on the night, which is impressive when you consider the 6-2 score.

Other Flyer players that impressed were Scott Hartnell and James Van Riemsdyk, each of whom had three points. Hartnell and JVR more than made up for the loss of Simon Gagne (who reportedly will miss up to two months with abdominal surgery), and Daniel Briere (out with a pulled leg muscle).

Going forward, Hartnell, JVR and, to a lesser extent, Claude Giroux, will have to pick up the slack in Gagne and Briere’s absence. It is a glorious chance for Giroux to impress and the added ice time should do wonders for JVR’s stats, if you don’t have him in your fantasy pool, get him.

Ray Emery was solid in net for the Flyers, stopping 26 of 28 shots. The polar opposite, T-Bays goaltender Mike Smith, struggled mightily, giving up five goals on 18 shots, which led to him being pulled in favor of former Flyers goalie Antero Niittymaki, who played well- stopping 12 of 13 shots.

Next up for the Flyers, a Friday night tilt against the Buffalo Sabres.

Until next time,

Peace!