3 in a row! Flyers thrash Atlanta

(AP Photo/Gregory Smith)

Who needs baseball? Hockey games don't get postponed, so at least one of our Philly sports teams played on Tuesday night. And, boy, did they have a great game.

The Flyers put together their best effort of the season in destroying the Atlanta Thrashers 7-0. While few of their goals were very "pretty", the Flyers got two goal nights from Mike Knuble, Simon Gagne and Joffrey Lupul and Antero Niittymaki pitched a shutout in net. Glen Metropolit also added a goal and two assists. More importantly, the team played better defense and continued to show more energy and jump. Slowly but surely, this team is straightening things out and started to get rewarded in the win column.

Also having a great game on the night was Luca Sbisa who showed great poise in the back end and also added a pair of assists. Sbisa has just learned that he won't be going back to his junior team and will remain with the Flyers for the rest of the season. Although he is only 18, he has proven that he belongs.

The win was the third in a row from the Flyers who now have a record of 3-3-3 which looks pretty good after the slow start they had. While the Rangers are running away with the division with 19 points, the Flyers are right in the mix with a respectable 9 points.

The Flyers were smart to give John Stevens a chance to get this team on the right page and playing with more intensity before trying to make any drastic moves. The team looks a lot more like the playoff team from last year and appears to have avoided a disastrous start to the season.