| The questionmarks for the Philadelphia Flyers entering | | | | season for fan favorite Michal Handzus to bolster |
| their 40th season were supposed to be on defense. | | | | scoring but who has yet to get on the board this year, |
| Upgrades on the back line, where the experts | | | | will be moved up to play on the right wing along side |
| suggested the Flyers needed the most help, were | | | | Forsberg and Gagne on the new "top line". |
| sacrificed in favor of creating depth up front. Moves | | | | Mike Richards will center Geoff Sanderson and |
| were made in the off season to improve both their | | | | presumably Randy Robitaille on the third line while Petr |
| team speed and scoring. | | | | Nedved will continue to play with Sami Kapanen and |
| However, four games into the season, the Flyers have | | | | Boyd Kane. |
| scored only 11 goals, 8 of which have come from the | | | | Hitchcock's changes won't stop there as for the first |
| line of Peter Forsberg, Mike Knuble and Simon Gagne, | | | | time since an opening night loss to Pittsburgh, Robert |
| and coach Ken Hitchcock has decided it's time to | | | | Esche will find himself back between the pipes. It |
| shake things up. | | | | should be interesting to see how Esche and his fragile |
| The first move is to break up his top line in an effort to | | | | ego responds to what essentially amounts to being |
| create some parity among the forwards so, begining | | | | demoted to the #2 goaltender spot. |
| tonight in Buffalo, Hitchcock will be moving Mike Knuble | | | | These changes, at the very least, should send a |
| to a line with Jeff Carter and RJ Umberger, a line | | | | message to the Flyers that even though we are only |
| created in the third period against Montreal last | | | | four games into an 82 game marathon, the results |
| Wednesday to some success. | | | | they are producing thus far are unacceptable. |
| In turn, newcomer Kyle Calder, acquired in the off | | | | |