Carter's hat trick helps Flyers crush Hurricanes

When Jeff Carter scores, two things usually happen: he scores in bunches and the Flyers win. Such was the case on Thursday night as Carter, in his 3rd multi-goal game of the season, picked up a hat trick as the Flyers embarrassed the Hurricanes, 8-1. The win also moved the Flyers record to 4-0 when Carter scores a goal.

For Carter, it was a great game at the right time considering all of the talk about a possible contract extension. After a slow start, Carter now has 8 goals on the season and is on pace to score 40 on the year. While he doesn't seem to score the big goals in low-scoring games, Carter does have a knack for finding the back of the net against weaker teams, as all of his goals this season have come against teams in the bottom ten in goals against this year. Whether that's enough to merit big money in a contract extension is something the Flyers will have to figure out.

Four other Flyers scored goals against Carolina, including Danny Briere, who scored twice, and Mike Richards, Scott Hartnell and Nikolay Zherdev, who all scored once. With the way the Flyers offense is clicking, as Ville Leino and Claude Giroux are making beautiful setup passes to guys like Briere, Zherdev and Hartnell who are consistently finding the back of the net, few teams will be able to slow them down. Add in one of the best defenses in the league and the stellar play of Sergei Bobrovsky in net and you have the makings of a team that is destined for another deep Cup run.
(AP PHOTO)