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The Philadelphia Inquirer

By Tim Panaccio, The Philadelphia Inquirer

Oct. 6--PITTSBURGH -- Flyers coach Ken Hitchcock had predicted that things might be dicey at the start of the season, figuring his team would need at least 10 games to get its act together.

He didn't say anything about an opening-night rout by the Pittsburgh Penguins. This was ugly. Like 4-0 ugly at Mellon Arena.

"The first two periods, we created a lot of chances for ourselves and we didn't finish," Hitchcock said. "They capitalized on a couple of mistakes we made. We did a lot of really good things in stretches, but we have to finish what we're creating. You can't live on scoring chances."

Penguins goalie Marc-Andre Fleury looked terrific last night, making 40 saves.

"On the one five-on-three, we had five good scoring chances and everything was hitting him," Flyers captain Peter Forsberg said. "He played great. Some games, when a goalie plays great, you need people in front of him to screen. We didn't get enough traffic."

The Flyers didn't dress enforcer Riley Cote. Maybe they should have, because the Penguins took liberties with Sami Kapanen and Forsberg and outhit the Flyers, 27-10.

Nothing the Flyers did early on looked good. They were beaten to the loose puck and the Penguins repeatedly trapped them at their own end. The breakout was indecisive. Aside from better scoring chances as the game wore on, their defensemen were in scramble mode too often.

And the Flyers' revamped power play was 0 for 9. Much of that had to do with Fleury.

"He played great, what can you say?" Hitchcock said. "And what he didn't see, he stopped.

Does it matter that the Flyers are 2-7-2 when opening the season on the road?

The first period was ghastly. Every time the Flyers had a rush going, it ended with a broken-up pass or a low percentage shot on net. They even had a four-minute power play and a 34-second two-man advantage. During that time, they managed only three shots on goal -- two good ones by Geoff Sanderson. Pittsburgh cleared the zone seven times.

Michel Ouellet scored the Pens' first goal at 6 minutes, 46 seconds on a wrister going across the blue line. It was one of a couple of goals that Robert Esche could have stopped.

Not even three minutes later, Pittsburgh got another goal off transition. Forsberg sent a home-alone pass to Freddy Meyer, who tried to get the puck across the slot to Mike Knuble. But it went behind him and the speedy Penguins went flying up the ice.

Esche made a pad stop on Ouellet, but the rebound slid into the slot, where Jarkko Ruutu swatted a shot into the corner of the net. Both goals were scored while Forsberg's line was on the ice.

"We should have come out a lot harder in the first period and not given up those chances," Forsberg said.

Sidney Crosby made it 3-0 early in the second period on Pittsburgh's eighth shot of the game. All it took were two great passes -- the first from Rob Scuderi off the left wall right onto Nils Ekman's stick. He gave Crosby a long breakaway pass for a shot that beat Esche stick side.

"We dug ourselves a really big hole at the beginning and gave up two bad goals," Forsberg said. "They had a rebound and one three-on-two."

Fleury, who had 12 saves in the first period, was tested with better shots in the second period and made two spectacular saves against Simon Gagne.

"We had the right scoring chances and we didn't score," Hitchcock said.

If that wasn't bad enough, Colby Armstrong made a nasty, blind hit on Kapanen, and in the spirit of Hitchcock's "team toughness" challenge, Nolan Baumgartner went to Kapanen's defense by fighting Armstrong.

That was just a tune-up. Crosby, who jawed with Forsberg last year over the then-rookie's taking a dive, got into another scrap with him with 6:51 left in the period. After a whistle, Crosby skated over and elbowed Forsberg, who went back at Crosby. When it was settled, the Penguins star was in the box for slashing.

Josef Melichar made it 4-0 soon after.

Loose pucks. Cote and Niko Dimitrakos were healthy scratches... . Denis Gauthier (concussion) could be in the lineup for tomorrow's home opener against the Rangers... . Keith Primeau will join Comcast SportsNet for Flyers Post Game Live, beginning with the home opener. Primeau will join host Al Morganti for 16 weekend games and periodically will appear on other hockey programming.

Contact staff writer Tim Panaccio at 215-854-2847 or tpanaccio@phillynews.com.

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Philadelphia Inquirer

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