San Jose vs. Philadelphia | inspin's Blog

Sharks -135 vs. Flyers

Things just keep on getting stranger for the Philadelphia Flyers both on the ice and in their scheduling. It is not often that two teams from different conferences play each other in home and home games, especially going from coast to coast, but this is the case for the San Jose Sharks and Flyers as they play each other for the second time five games tonight at the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia. Nothing can be stranger for the Flyers than they awful start to their season.

After going to the conference finals last season, Philadelphia (0-3-2) remains the lone winless team in the league. They came on so close to their first victory in San Jose Saturday night, but ultimately dropped the game 5-4 in overtime. The loss Saturday not only kept the Flyers winless, but also extended their winless streak against San Jose to eight years. Luckily they will get their chance to tear both of these gorillas off of their backs tonight in Philadelphia as the Sharks (5-1-0) take to the road. Philadelphia's greatest problem this season has been their porous defense. The team has allowed a league worse 22 goals in five games and has a swollen 4.40 goals against average. Starting net minder Martin Biron also has a league worst 5.74 GAA, while backup Antero Niitymaki was better in his start in San Jose, but was peppered with 45 shots, stopping 40 of them in the loss.

The Sharks have had a much easier time this season as they begin a three game road trip to Philadelphia and a trip to play the two Florida teams on Friday and Saturday. The road had been good to San Jose last season, but the Sharks have split their two road games this season. Their most recent road game was in Anaheim as the Ducks shut them out 4-0 even though the Sharks out shot the Ducks 38-20.

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