Sam Donnellon: Flyers' rooks can chalk it up to experience

WITH 1 MINUTE and 40 seconds remaining in overtime of a wildly entertaining hockey game at the Wells Fargo Center yesterday, Flyers veteran defenseman Kimmo Timonen was sent to the penalty box for holding. That produced a four-on-three advantage for the Stanley Cup champion Boston Bruins, who just a day before had been in the reverse situation and - despite remarkable health that has marked their season - did not survive it at home against the New York Rangers.

Flyers coach Peter Laviolette sent out these three players Braydon Coburn, Max Talbot and 19-year-old rookie Sean Couturier. And when Couturier tired after flagging down a puck in his own corner and lofting it over everyone's head and into the opposite end 200 feet away, on jumped another rookie in his place, Matt Read, to get the game into a shootout.

"With eight of them in the lineup, we kind of have to use them," Laviolette would say later, of his rookies. "Or we'd kill the other guys."

That Boston prevailed, 6-5, in the shootout mattered only in the point lost. But the point again made, a day after Danny Briere became the latest casualty in a season that should have been derailed long ago, is, well, that the kids are more than all right. Facing two teams they might very well see in the playoffs (the Flyers beat the Devils, 4-1, on Saturday), the Flyers grabbed three of a possible four points despite missing three significant scorers from their lineup, as well as their captain, out for the season with a concussion.

Couturier had 30 shifts and 21 1/2 minutes of ice time against the Bruins. Brayden Schenn, often playing with Claude Giroux and Scott Hartnell, skated 25 shifts. Read, who had just under 20 minutes of ice time, even took the first Flyers shot in the shootout.

Or, at least, tried to. Read wound up behind Boston goalie Tim Thomas. The puck wound up over in the corner somewhere.

But, oh, the experience.

"They're young, but they play like mature players," Timonen said of Read, Couturier and Schenn. "These guys are going to be great down the line for years for the Flyers. But sometimes we expect them to do too much."