They’re not going for the #1 pick. They signed Lang (to a great deal) and put Victor Tikhonov, Kyle Turris and Mikkel Boedker in the AHL. Are they really better off having a second line with guys like Radim Vrbata and  Matthew Lombardi? Often, teams need to be competitive for monetary reasons. Winning teams bring people in the door and mediocre teams do so more than bad teams. I don’t think they are going to attract many new fans with this team and they’ve already declared bankruptcy and are being discussed in relocation plans, so they really don’t have anything to lose. I’m sure their new fans in their new city would love (and pay) to see the #1 pick of the draft.

I think he may also be not as good when he has someone as talented as him on his line. He scores because he gets shots off quickly and accurately, and the more he shoots, the more he scores. Hartnell and Lupul let him do the shooting last season and if memory serves, Carter did pretty well when he was on a line with Andreas Nodl, who’s beginning to look like a career AHLer. I don’t know that Danny Briere is the best linemate for him because Briere doesn’t need him.

Even before it started, the game was built for excitement. Washington and Philly both won their first two games convincingly and was going to be shown nationally. I don’t get Versus, but I expected to be able to watch the game at a local sports bar. Well, local sports bars show NFL games which are on DirecTV which currently don’t carry Versus, so I came home expecting to miss the game completely. I got home and tried to watch on NHL.com’s GameCenter and couldn’t, find found another way to watch the game from the internet. So I’m already excited that I can watch.

What looked like it was going to be a tight game quickly got very interesting. The first period was scoreless, but the second period started playing with emotions. Richards scores on the power play, but Ovechkin immediately follows up with a preventable goal. Timonen scores on a delayed penalty, and Ovechkin ties it up again on another preventable goal. It looked like the Flyers had the game in control if they could just tighten up the defense a bit, but Semin disagrees, embarrasses Coburn, and scores to give the Caps the lead. Richards scores on the powerplay again to tie the game and restore some confidence and then gets a gift from Varlamov to complete the hat trick and put the Flyers back in control.

Just as it seemed that the Flyers have fixed their defensive problems and can win the game, the Caps score two quick ones and are back ahead. It’s now or never when the Flyers go back on the powerplay because they’ll have less than 4 minutes left to tie the game if they don’t score on it. They come through and sent it to overtime to grab one point. Overtime was exciting, of course, and it looked like a sure goal situation, but Briere couldn’t see the puck go in and took a second or two to celebrate, making me hesitate before celebrating.

What makes this game so great is how it played with emotions. First I was going to watch, then I couldn’t, then I did. The Flyers were up, then down, then they won. The game looked winnable, then it was a longshot, then they won. All of this happened in less than 3 hours. This is why we love sports.

Kimmo Timonen will get the reputation he deserves in about 2 months. He’s constantly being referred to as “The Underrated Kimmo Timonen”. Usually this sort of thing gets overdone and he’ll be overrated soon after. If he keeps playing defense like he did tonight though, that won’t be possible. He was the best player on the ice.

One comment on the offseason: good job by Holmgren getting Betts to sign for $515K. He fits the Flyers like a puzzle piece, because he can win faceoffs and kill penalties. Still, his agent was barely able to get more than the minimum. The comment to the media that the deal wouldn’t happen if it isn’t done by yesterday (Thursday) seemed to do the trick.

Rundown:

• Ryan Parent is a rock. Carolina players lined him a couple of times and bounced off him. He’s going to need a nickname if this keeps up.
• Coburn carried the puck well.
• Carcillo took two penalties to start the season, then drew one against Rod Brind’Amour, then was quiet.
• Tim Gleason is a pretty good defenseman. Good for him for standing up to Carcillo, too, even though he negated a power play and took his team’s best defenseman off the ice for 10 minutes.

Lots of players didn’t get a lot of ice time at the end of the game. Giroux was moved up to Richards’s line for one shift because his line with Asham and Van Riemsdyk wasn’t on the ice. Powe’s line with Lapierre and Carcillo played more. Van Riemsdyk did get a shift with Giroux in overtime. Syvret and Parent didn’t play much at the end of the period, either. Parent is clearly the fifth defenseman. I’d look this stuff up but it’s not available for preseason games.

Minnesota’s fourth goal may have been a fluke, but it came after two turnovers in the defensive zone. The second one was by Asham, but I forgot who committed the first. There were a ton of turnovers in the defensive zone by both teams, so it looks like it will be an exciting season. The Flyers also missed about 6 open nets, so by my count they won about 8-3.

Hartnell drew two in the third period. Maybe he was confused?

Pyorala played with Richards and Gagne. I don’t expect him to end the season there, but you gotta keep him there as long as he keeps scoring, right? We all know how preseason success pretty much guarantees regular season success, right?