Flyers Power Past Penguins, 6-3

Going into yesterday's key intra-division clash on the road with Philadelphia, the Penguins had killed off 23 of their last 25 man disadvantages, and were ranked 7th in the league on the PK.

Against the Flyers, the Penguins' penalty kill gave up more goals than penalties it killed.

Philadelphia scored 4 power play goals on 6 opportunities and buried the Penguins, 6-3 to move ahead of Pittsburgh into 2nd place in the Atlantic Division.

It's the first time the Penguins have been as low as 3rd in their Division all season.

The Flyers got contributions from up and down their lineup in beating on the Pens' yesterday afternoon. Jeff Carter, Mike Richards and Mike Knuble (2) were just among the many Philadelphia players who padded their offensive stat totals at the Penguins' expense. Kimmo Timonen had 4 assists -- not surprising since the Flyers got rich on the man-advantage.

The Penguins were never really in the game. The closest they were was 2-1 following a nice tic-tac-toe passing play which ended with Jordan Staal deflecting one past Flyers netminder Martin Biron. The Pens' other 2 goals were late in the 3rd when the game was already over, by Eric Godard -- his first as a Penguin -- and Ruslan Fedotenko.

Despite the Penguins' struggles on the power play, they had other issues yesterday. They didn't really play with intensity, for one thing. It showed all over the ice, and especially in front of the goal on the Flyers' man advantage. It even showed on the Penguins' power play, as the Flyers penalty kill typically outworked the 5 guys the Penguins' put out there.

Dany Sabourin also didn't have a good game. His penchant for being slow to react to pucks coming off the boards behind him and for leaving pucks around the net hurt again yesterday. The Penguins definitely need a healthy and well-performing Marc-Andre Fleury back in goal.

Yesterday was the Penguins' 7th game in 11 nights. They've lost 4 of their last 5 games and are on the negative side of .500 after going through a 7-0-1 stretch earlier in November. Perhaps their schedule has caught up to them a little.

The Penguins' next suit up after 5 days rest, on Thursday against Atlanta. It's likely Fleury will play in that one, since he dressed as Sabourin's back-up yesterday -- a decision I was a little surprised at. If Fleury was healthy enough to dress as Sabourin's back-up, he had to be considered healthy enough to play. And if he was healthy enough to play, I don't know why he didn't play. The reason shouldn't be because they wanted Curry to get back to meaningful minutes in the AHL. He played recently and if the Penguins wanted to keep him around since the last game, they would only have had to wait 2 more days before sending him down.

NOTES:

There's a good chance that both Max Talbot -- who missed the game yesterday with an undisclosed injury -- and Mike Zigomanis will play in Atlanta. Zigomanis has missed the last 6 games with what is believed to be an arm problem, and the Penguins' have suffered in the face-off circle somewhat without him.

Ryan Whitney doesn't appear to be quite ready to return yet.

The Penguins recalled Connor James from Wilkes Barre before yesterday's game because of Talbot's injury. He suited up against Philadelphia, but didn't have an impact and was returned to the AHL after the game along with Jeff Taffe. Interestingly, the Penguins continue to keep Tim Wallace on the roster. They must like what he's giving them.