HOW HAVE THE FLYERS BEEN SO SUCCESSFUL ON THE PK?

Last night, the Boston Bruins beat a shorthanded Flyers club 3-1 at the Wachovia Center. Beating the Flyers when they are shorthanded, of course, is something of a rarity these days. Philadelphia's penalty killing is one of the major reasons why they are sitting just six points back of New Jersey in the ultra-competetive Atlantic Division and are primed to make a run for the Eastern Conference this June.

Philadelphia's shorthanded success comes from assistant coach Craig Berube's philosophy to attack the point. When a Flyer is in the box, and the other team is setting up their power play attack, Berube sends his forwards up towards the blue line to agressively defend the point men. This forces quick decisions and lots of mistakes from opponents and leads to offensive chances for the team that's down a man. Through Wednesday, the Flyers lead the NHL with 13 shorthanded goals, mostly resulting from breakaways. Attacking the point men will do that for you.

This new philsophy really works for the Flyers because they have the speed to make it work. Jeff Carter, who leads the team with 53 points (32-21-53) through the team's first 50 games, is one of the fastest and most skilled players in the NHL. Former Sabre Daniel Briere is incredibly quick, and forward Simon Gagne has the speed and skating ability to make this scheme work wonders.

Overall, the Flyers have killed off 83.5% of opposing power plays, which is seventh best in the entire NHL. Ironically, they are the only team in the league that is yet to allow a shorty, so clearly other team's coaching staffs haven't figured out (or decided not to use) Berube's gutsy philosophy.

If the Flyers keep forcing turnovers and scoring while down a man, they could really shake up the balance of power in the East. Unfortunately for them though, they seem to be at their best with only four men on the ice.