Avalanche vs. Flyers
Colorado -130 vs. Philadelphia
Two winless clubs skate onto the ice in Denver's Pepsi Center Thursday night as the Philadelphia Flyers travel to the Rocky Mountain State to take on the Colorado Avalanche in this early season, inter-conference battle.
The Flyers have started their season in very disappointing fashion after finishing in the final four of the league's playoffs last spring. The Montreal Canadiens may have gotten a small amount of revenge on Philadelphia (0-2-1) by beating them Tuesday night.
The Flyers ousted the heavily favorite Canadiens in the Eastern Conference Semifinals from last year. The Canadiens kept the Flyers winless by coming from behind with four goals in the third period to claim a 5-3 win.
One of those goals was off of Scottie Upshall's stick into the Flyers goal. The only bad thing about that for the Flyers was the goalie Upshall's shot caromed past was also wearing the black, orange and white sweater. Thus is the life of the Flyers in the early part of the 2008-2009 Season.
Philadelphia Flyers will not receive any notes of condolences from the Colorado Avalanche who continue to have struggles of their own. Unlike the Flyers who have managed a shootout loss, worth 1 point, thus far, the Avalanche are still searching for their first point of the season as they struggle at 0-3-0. The last time out the Avs suffered a defeat at the hands of rival Calgary Flames 5-4.
Fans of the team are growing restless with an aging Colorado team and a front office not moving fast enough to improve the team. Last season the Avs ranked 22nd in the NHL in penalty killing and the team did nothing to address that discrepancy. In this young season Colorado has yielded 5 goals in 12 power play chances.
The teams drop the puck 9 pm Eastern time Thursday night.
