Flyers

PHILADELPHIA -- Mike Ricci is learning that before he becomes the heart and soul of the Philadelphia Flyers, as many expect the 19-year-old rookie to do, he must stand head and shoulders above the personal burdens he is lugging around.Here are the slump-ridden Flyers, their confidence fragile, their offense on the MIA list, their Stanley Cup playoff chances flickering, and much of the stretch drive depends on the performance of a gap-toothed teen-ager who is younger than most of the athletes playing in the National Collegiate Athletic Association basketball tournament.

PHILADELPHIA -- Washington Capitals coach Terry Murray has never been the kind of guy to tiptoe around his feelings.After what he saw at the Spectrum last night -- his team was utterly squashed by Philadelphia, 6-1 -- there was no wasting time expressing his feelings after the game."

PHILADELPHIA -- Objectively speaking, the Philadelphia Flyers have always been a hockey team easy to dislike. In fact, if a concession wasn't made to this being the season of charity, one might say despise or even hate might be a more appropriate word.It goes back a long way, to the days of Bobby Clarke and the Broad Street Bullies, circa mid-'70s. The pesty and sneaky Clarke would get something started and be across the state line by the time the gloves hit the ice. They were good and they let you know about it, not only winning games but most of the fights, too.The thing is, though, the Patrick Division just hasn't been the same the last two years when Philly missed the playoffs, and this season when it came stumbling out of the gate (0-3-1)

Terry Murray looks the same, acts the same and dresses in the same impeccably styled gray suit he wore when he was coaching the Washington Capitals.Now he is head coach of the Philadelphia Flyers, and he has spent the last two nights coaching against his former team.Friday he was booed when he walked on the ice at U.S. Air Arena, where he had led the Capitals to 163 victories, 134 defeats and 28 ties over the past four years.His revenge, had he wanted any, would have come in his team's 2-1 victory.

LANDOVER -- The new-look Philadelphia Flyers got the same old results at the Capital Centre last night.Philadelphia has not won a game at the Capital Centre since Dec. 1, 1989, and nothing changed last night.Not even the presence of recently acquired right wing Mark Recchi and defenseman Brian Benning could change the Flyers' fortunes in an emotional Patrick Division game before a sellout crowd of 18,130.Recchi scored 33 goals for the Pittsburgh Penguins this season, and he scored two more last night in his debut with the Flyers.

Michal Handzus converted in the fourth round of a shootout last night to give the visiting Philadelphia Flyers a 3-2 victory over the Florida Panthers. Philadelphia goaltender Antero Niittymaki forced Josef Stumpel, Florida's final shooter, wide and he didn't get off a shot. Philadelphia's first three shooters, Mike Richards, Peter Forsberg and Simon Gagne, were unable to get anything past Roberto Luongo, while Florida's Joe Nieuwendyk, Nathan Horton and Olli Jokinen could not beat Niittymaki.

Jeff Carter, Simon Gagne and Jon Sim each scored twice, leading the host Philadelphia Flyers to an 8-1 victory over the Washington Capitals last night. Mike Knuble and Peter Forsberg also scored and Robert Esche had 29 saves for the Flyers, who have won three of their past four games and five straight at home. Chris Clark had the only goal for struggling Washington, which has lost six of eight. The Capitals haven't won in Philadelphia since 1998, going 0-14-1 in that span. "It was playing against bigger, stronger players," Capitals coach Glen Hanlon said.

At the NHL All-Star Game, staged a month ago, Chicago Blackhawks goalie Ed Belfour gave up what many veteran hockey observers described as one of the softest goals in the history of the sport.The puck was dribbling toward him slowly as he moved about 20 feet up ice to meet it. Somehow, the disc, which would have been handled with aplomb by any midget or atom, trickled through Belfour's legs, and Mike Gartner of the New York Rangers gathered it in and nudged it into the net to send the Wales Conference off to a 16-6 victory over the Campbell Conference.

PHILADELPHIA -- The music blared throughout the Washington Capitals locker room yesterday evening, a sure sign that things are going right. And any time the Capitals can beat the Philadelphia Flyers, 4-2, at The Spectrum, things are definitely going right."

DETROIT -- A muscular bronze arm, its hand balled into a menacing fist, hangs in the middle of Jefferson Avenue. Yesterday, that curious sculpture seemed an apt symbol for what is ailing the Philadelphia Flyers.In falling behind the Detroit Red Wings, three games to none, in the Stanley Cup Finals, strong-armed Philadelphia has misplaced its familiar punch. Perhaps that's it, swinging in a median strip, just a block from Joe Louis Arena.As the befuddled Flyers attempted to dissect their dreadful, Game 3 performance yesterday, there was at least one logical reason offered for the team's predicament:Their presumed physical advantage is nonexistent.