Game #3

The Flyers finish off their home-and-home with the Rangers tonight, visiting Madison Square Garden in a nationally televised game (Versus, 7:00). In an effort to avoid losing the first three games of a season for the first time in 12 years, coach Ken Hitchcock will change the lineup again tonight. Jeff Carter will move back to center and reunite with his linemates from the end of last season, Niko Dimitrakos and RJ Umberger. Antero Niittymaki will get the start in goal again. The Flyers will be trying to continue their early season penalty killing prowess; so far, they are 10 for 10 in killing of penalties. For the Rangers, they'll be looking to start a season with three straight wins for the first time in 17 years. Their power play continued its ineffectiveness on Saturday, going 0-for-6 to move to 0-for-9 on the young season. In other news, Tim Panaccio updates his article from yesterday about Brian Leetch by throwing in this little tidbit: Many NHL observers believe that Leetch, who reportedly is not in playing condition, will retire. He would need time to get in shape. So, let's sign a 38-year-old player who's out of shape and won't be able to contribute right away, if at all. Oh, I forgot to mention that Panaccio believes it would take a base salary of around $1 million to sign Leetch while the Flyers have less than $2 million in cap space. This sounds like a great plan. See: Game Notes