FLYERS OUT OF THE GATE FAST

Open Up Season With A 9-1 Start

Philadelphia,PA- The Flyers have litterally flew out of the starting gate of 2008-09 HBMHL campaign by compiling a 9-1 record, which includes a perfect 5-0 record away from the Wachovia Center. The first place Flyers lead the Sabres by 4 points, Bruins by 6, Devils by 8, Penguins by 10, & the Rangers by 11.

"Getting of to a fast start was our goal coming out of camp." said 2nd year head coach Keith Jones who added "We have to continue playing well, we saw what happened last year when all of the sudden we couldn't find the net."

The Block 1 report card:

GOALTENDING: A+

J.S. Giguere went 6-1, with a 1.72 GAA & a league leading .946 SPCT and one shutout. Of the 12 goals he gave up, half of them were scored while the opposing team was on the PP. He also stopped 41 of 48 GRs for an 85% rating. Antero Niittymaki was not stellar, but compiled a 3-0 record with a 3.28 GAA & a .891 SPCT. Overall, the goaltending has a 2.19 GAA & .930 SPCT.

OFFENSE: A+

43 goals scored in 10 games. If that pace can continue, 4.3 goals a game will win a lot of hockey games. The line of Dany Heatley (12-5-17) -Mike Richards (4-18-22) -Patrick Sharp (5-8-13) has been roaring with 21 goals, 31 assists & 52 points as the number one line & number one PP unit. Heatley leads the league in goals with 12 while Mike Richards leads the league with 18 assists and 22 ponts. Jeff Carter (shown scoring one of his 2 goals in Minnesota) & Brooks Laich each have scored 6 goals.

DEFENSE: A+

22 goals against and not one defenseman with a minus rating and they have a combined +41 which is led by Randy Jones & Mike Commodore who are each +9. Braydon Coburn leads the team with 13 hits (81% Intimidation) & followed by Andreas Lilja's 10 hits (77%) and Michal Rozsival leads the team with 13 takeaways.

POWER PLAY: B+

The Power Play went 9/38 for a 23.7% which currently ranks them at 10th in the league, which is averaging 23.0%. Heatley is tied for 2nd in the league with 5 PPGs. Four Flyers have one each. They need to get more scoring from players other than Heatley. Richards leads the team with 7 (1g 6a) PP points.

PENALTY KILLING: A+

83.7% (40/48) gets an A+ because they have also scored 9 Shorthanded goals, which is just as many PP goals the team has scored. They have killed off 24 of 25 penalties on the road. Carter has scored 4 SHGs to lead the league & Sharp has scored 2. The team has an overall 73% skating success which is led by Rozsival (88%), Laich (80), and Richards (79).

"We just want to keep playing at the level that we are now" added Keith Jones.