Gagne's hat trick powers Flyers past Rangers 6-0

A fella could get used to this, I tell ya. Last night the Flyers steamrolled the Rangers in Madison Square Garden to the tune of 6-0, to raise their record to 4-0 on the Walt Disney Presents "The Flyers Six Game Road Trip."

I gotta say that I was a huge fan of the Flyers mindset going into this game. Kudos to head coach Peter Laviolette. Everyone else in the free world was talking about Friday's Winter Classic game against Boston, but all the Flyers were thinking about was picking up two points against a divisional rival that just so happened to be directly ahead of them in the standings. This could have been a trap game had the Flyers made the mistake of looking past a not-so-great team that has two very great players on it.

Last time these two met, it was the Rangers who came out like their butts were on fire, scoring quickly and dominating play to the extent that Laviolette was forced to call a time out just to get everyone back on the same page. Last night the exact opposite happened.

In his first game back at MSG, ex-Ranger Blair Betts scored his fourth goal of the year on a bouncing rebound less than one minute in. Ian Laperriere forced the turnover that lead to the goal. From there the teams settled in for a bit, with the Flyers still getting the better chances.

That is until another Rangers turnover, this one caused by Mike Richards, found its way behind starting goalie Henrik Lundqvist. Richards corraled the puck along the boards, sent it along to Jeff Carter who somehow found Danny Briere wide open down low, one on one with Lundqvist. There wasn't a blue jersey in sight, save for the goalie and Briere nearly deked him out of his to score his 14th of the season.

Less than two minutes later the Flyers were back at it as Claude Giroux bested Lundqvist for his eighth goal. The Rangers goalie was screened by one of his own guys on the play and Giroux's knuckling shot slipped past him to close out scoring in the first period.

Immediately following this goal, Rangers coach and noted wallflower John Tortorella called a timeout to try and regroup his troops. He did this in his usually calm and reserved manner... oh wait. No he didn't. He screamed himself Philadelphia Phantom purple and looked darn close to passing out. The Flyers finished the period outshooting his team by an 11-5 clip.

Tortorella elected to yank Lundqvist in between periods and it was Rangers rookie goalie Chad "Ochocinco" Johnson who took the ice to start the second to make his NHL debut. If it had worked and turned the game in the Ranger favor, Tortorella would have been called a genius. Instead, it didn't and he looked like a bit of an idiot. Johnson gave up a Simon Gagne goal on the first shot he faced, let the next one hit the pipe behind him, faced two subsequent 2-1 breaks and was essentially left hanging out to dry by a Rangers team that seemed to have gotten caught looking forward to watching the Winter Classic.

I understand Tortorella's motivations, but none of the first period goals were really Lundqvist's fault. His attempt to shake up his team was a wise one, but throwing a young goalie like Johnson out there, especially when things were still a manageable 3-0 seems insane. Ochocinco made one nice save on Gagne later in the period, before giving up to more to #12 to end the scoring. The natural hat trick was Gagne first hat trick of any kind since 2005, when he and Peter Forsberg were regularly lighting up scoresheets.

Gagne finished the game with three goals and one assist, Briere had a goal and an assist, Carter and Richards each added two assists and Giroux finished with a goal and a very pretty assist on Gagne's hat trick goal.

The Rangers did manage to outshoot the Flyers 12-2 in the third period but the Flyers did manage to score a goal on one of those two. Also, the orange and black had outshot the the blueshirts by a margin of 29 to 10 through the first two periods, so I guess they can be forgiven. Also, as the Flyers proved very often over the last month, outshooting an indifferent team in the third means absolutely nothing. You can build on it, because when the next game starts, the other team will be trying. It's not the same situation at all.

Michael Leighton. Wow. 22 saves on 22 shots. The man once waived by the NHL's worst team picking up a shutout and securing his fourth straight win. What more can be said? Leighton has given the Flyers every opportunity to win games and that's all the team could have asked from him. Well done, Mr. Leighton, well done sir.

At the halfway mark of the first period, Scott Hartnell and Sean Avery had one of the least satisfying fights of all time. These are two agitating guys who I'm sure a lot of other teams would love to see beat each other to a pulp. Instead, Hartnell lost his balance and fell down. The two exchanged blows while Hartnell was falling and while he was on his back, but nothing much came of it. Really not worthy of five for fighting, more like a two for roughing situation I think.

Well, next up: the Winter Classic against the Boston Bruins. Weather forecasters have been bouncing between rain and snow for this thing so you know that likely means it will be 60 and sunny with not a cloud in the sky. The game takes place at 1 p.m. For the Flyers, this has to be just another game. They can't enjoy the pomp and circumstance associated with the NHL's biggest event, because they haven't put themselves in the position to. Thanks to their awful stretch, it has to be just another game. They need those two points and badly. Now, the only question that remains is who gets the start in net? The streaking Leighton or former starter and backup Brian Boucher? Hell, you could ask the same of the Bruins as their own back up Tukka Rask picked up the shutout last night as well and has been regularly outplaying incumbent starter and Vezina Trophy winner Tim Thomas. Could it really be Leighton vs. Rask headlining the NHL's flagship event? Only time...

Happy New Year folks. Stay safe out there tonight.