Max Talbot

Twenty minutes after their Pittsburgh Comeback Tour was over, after the Flyers had pulled another escape that would have made Harry Houdini proud, Max Talbot was so exhausted he could barely move. The Flyers' hardworking forward had scored a shorthanded goal, assisted on another shorty, and compiled a career-best plus-5 rating - and he didn't have the energy to talk about it. His jersey drenched with sweat, Talbot sat in front of his locker after the Flyers' had-to-see-it-to- believe-it 8-5 win Friday over his former team, the Pittsburgh Penguins, and he was approached by a swarm of reporters.

BOSTON - Perhaps the Flyers should send a request to the NHL offices: Do not include afternoon games on our schedule. Pretty please. With goalie Tim Thomas snapping out of a slump and Patrice Bergeron netting the game-winner in a shootout, the Boston Bruins ended a four-game losing streak - and continued the Flyers' afternoon woes - as they scored a 3-2 win Saturday at TD Garden. The Flyers are 3-8-2 in early afternoon games this season, losing their last six. This matinee loss, however, was easier to accept than others.

PITTSBURGH - Jaromir Jagr has scored 658 goals in his sensational career, but the one he scored Thursday had to be one of the most satisfying. No, it didn't come in the heat of the playoffs, and it didn't come in the closing seconds of a tie game. Instead, it was scored against his former team and a city that has scorned him ever since he nixed a chance to rejoin the Penguins and signed with the Flyers. Jagr snapped a 1-1 tie by scoring on a backhander to the short side in the second period, sparking the Flyers to a 4-2 win over the Penguins before a raucous-turned-quiet, sellout crowd at the Consol Energy Center.

RALEIGH, N.C. - Despite allowing two shorthanded goals - one on a penalty shot - the Flyers continued their winning ways on Monday night. Claude Giroux scored two goals, and Chris Pronger had three assists as the Flyers outlasted the Carolina Hurricanes, 5-3, at the RBC Center. The Flyers have points in seven consecutive games (5-0-2), and they moved into a tie for first place with the Pittsburgh Penguins in the Atlantic Division. Jaromir Jagr set up each of Giroux's goals.

Earlier in the day, two of Ilya Bryzgalov's former Phoenix teammates - defensemen Derek Morris and Adrian Aucoin - criticized him mercilessly in radio interviews, saying the goalie created animosity in the locker room. In the other locker room Thursday night, the Flyers praised Bryzgalov for keying the team's latest victory, a last-minute 2-1 triumph over the Coyotes at the Wells Fargo Center. Matt Read scored on a rebound with 18.6 seconds left to snap a 1-1 tie and enable the Flyers to run their points streak to eight games (6-0-2)

SIX MINUTES, 23 seconds remaining. One snapshot in a long season. The Flyers' Chris Pronger, trying to control the puck along the boards, his back to the middle of the ice. The Kings' Jarret Stoll, bearing down, hitting Pronger from behind and crashing him into the boards. Pronger getting up and offering an indignant, retaliatory shove. The only penalty going to Pronger. Nobody was hurt. Life went on. Sometime between the moment it happened and the next morning, someone at the NHL office in Toronto, at some level, will have taken a look at the video.

The Flyers lost their top-line right winger, veteran Jaromir Jagr, to free agency Tuesday when the future Hall of Famer signed a one-year deal for $4.5 million with the Dallas Stars. In his only season with the Flyers, Jagr battled through groin injuries but still recorded 19 goals and 54 points, and his unmatched work ethic should leave a lasting impression on his former teammates. "The way he prepared for games and the way he practiced, it's good that the young guys got to witness that," general manager Paul Holmgren said.

PITTSBURGH - About 7 minutes. That's all the Flyers needed to hang on. Clinging to a 1-0 lead, the Flyers were 7 minutes away from kicking off their playoff push with an important two points. Seven minutes away from ending Pittsburgh's precious 11-game winning streak for the third season in a row. Seven minutes away from surviving a hellacious third-period onslaught against a team that is now tied for the league lead in wins when trailing after two periods this season.

It doesn't take a lot of pondering to figure out that the game plan for Pittsburgh Penguins winger Chris Kunitz is to try and take the Flyers' best defenseman out of the series. Not having Kimmo Timonen in the Eastern Conference finals last year was a killer for the Flyers' chances of advancing to the Stanley Cup finals. But it can be said that Kunitz crossed the line Sunday and tried to hurt Timonen with a high check to the head behind the net early in the game. Kunitz came flying in and leveled Timonen.

Could the Flyers be facing a double dagger from the Pittsburgh Penguins? The Pens clinched the Atlantic Division crown on Wednesday with a 4-2 victory over the Flyers. Today, Pittsburgh could clinch the No. 1 overall playoff seed in the Eastern Conference with another victory over the Flyers. Given the nastiness shown on both sides of the puck this season, the latter figures to be a motivating factor for Michel Therrien's Pittsburgh club, which has played outstanding hockey in the second half of the season and gone 7-2-1 in its last 10 games.