[BeanSobie]

Since starting the season 1-1 against the two Original Canadian teams the Flyers have not had the best of luck. They continued their season by flying out to Carolina game two of their back-to-back. Upon coming home they hosted the Panthers and Coyotes. Then after the Yotes game they boarded a plane and headed out to Detroit for a game the next day.

Game 3 @ Carolina

Emery was given the nod to start against the Canes on October 6th. The first period was pretty dry all the way around as through the first 15 minutes there were about a dozen shots total and both teams had killed off a penalty. Late in the period however Mark Streit got called for interference and at the bitter end of the PP Sekera was finally able to beat Emery for the first goal of the game. Half a minute later Eric Wellwood, one of the Flyers top penalty killers, was rung up for interference and the tired PK team gave up a quick second goal to send the Canes up 2-0 going into the break.

Five minutes into the second period Wellwood got taken again for interference; this time the kill team was able to starve off the PP. It was actually the Flyer's man-advantage that got the 3rd goal of the game as B. Schenn was able to put one up with the help of Hartnell and Simmonds. But the celebration was short lived as during the celebration Schenn hit the board at an awkward angle and was unable to finish the game. The second period also saw Downie given a 10 minute misconduct, effectively leaving the Flyers short one line.

In the third period Giroux was able to tie up the game. The tie was short lived as Riley Nash scored the go ahead goal 1 minute later. With under 7 minutes to go Emery had a mental lapse and gave up two points in 30 seconds and was pulled for Steve Mason. "Razor" Ray gave up 5 goals for his 33 shots face, while Justin Peters was able to stop all but 2 of the 32 he faced.

Game 4 vs. Florida

Every coach has at some point in time been asked why they started the goalie they did, and without fail they always answer "I needed to play the goal who would give us the best chance to win." Going into the game vs Florida that was clearly not the plan for Philadelphia's bench manager as he sent out Ray Emery again against a weak Florida team. "We want Ray to know that we have trust in him, so we are giving him this second start to show us that he is better than he played two nights ago."

In terms of time on ice per goal Emery had a great first two periods only allowing 2 goals over 40 minutes. Unfortunately, those goals came against the 11 shots he faced in those periods. And in the third period, when he was given his 12th chance of the day, he let Scottie Upshall have a weak goal. Philadelphia fans were throwing a fit as their old fan favorite put the home team down 3-0. Emery was pulled for the second time is as many games, but that was it for the Flyers who were so demoralized they let Mason get peppered with shots and he gave up 3 goals in 12 shots as well. Matt Read scored his first goal of the year, having been moved up to the third line in Schenn's absence, but that didn't save the team from the wrath of Shjon Podein who locked the media out of the locker room following the embarrassing loss.

Game 5 vs. Arizona

It is probably not advised to flip a table over after an embarrassing loss when one of the players in the room just made their NHL debut, but it appeared that Podes really got through the language barrier and made an impression with Michael Raffl who scored his first NHL goal 30 seconds into the game from a nice feed from Wellwood. The first period also saw goals from Hartnell, Read, and even Tye McGinn for his first NHL point as well, as the Fly Guys were firing at a shot per minute pace. The Flyers ended the game by dominating the Yotes in shots (41-28) and on the scoreboard (5-2).

Game 6 @ Detroit

The injury woes continued with Eric Wellwood suffering from some back soreness, opening the road for Chris Vande Velde to make his Flyer's debut. Despite missing their speedster, the fourth line again started off the scoring for the Flyers as the new comer was able to push in a rebound that Howard just couldn't get a handle on. After holding the dangerous Red Wings to just 8 shots in the first the opening four minutes of the second saw the wings double their shots and triple their goals. Today it was Mason who got pulled in favor of the backup.

The rest of the game had the Flyers playing catch-up with the 4-0 Red Wings, but goals from Giroux and Raffl were not enough as the team eventually lost 6-3. Six games into the season and with only 4 points to show for it the Flyers coaches are sitting down and making some changes to their lineup as VandeVelde joins the injury list. Following the game Shjon Podein was caught by a Philly beat writer and offered this, "We have a playoff caliber hockey team in our city. Our top line has the potential to be one of the top lines in the league, and our middle six is deep with talent. We are getting pucks on net, the problem is we just aren't getting the bounces, that is something that we can't fix." When asked about McGinn's role on the top line Podein added, "The AHL season is starting soon. These six games were a tryout period for him, but he could only get four shots on net. He needs another year or so, but I still see him as someone who can play with our top two guys long term."