Despite his teammate, Antero Niittymaki being named the MVP of the Olympic Games Ice Hockey Tournament for guiding Finland to a Silver Medal that included three shutouts in six starts, Esche insisted that no matter who starts for the Flyers in goal, both guys would completely support each other.

"We have two healthy goalies coming down the stretch and knowing (coach) Ken Hitchcock, he's not going to play a goalie that's not winning. There won't be a gray area. Both of us are going to get games. It's a great situation to be a part of. It's great for the Flyers.

"(The media) are dying for a goalie controversy of old, but I really don't care. I just want to win. But, I'm a big enough man to know if I'm not playing well I can't point the finger. I can't go out there and cut (Niittymaki's) skate laces. I can't slash his tires. You're either going to win or not. If you look at it that way. You're going to alleviate a lot of pressure and a lot of bull-."

Esche was playing well before the Olympic break and appeared to have the lead heading down the stretch as far as being the Flyers playoff goalie.

But then Niittymaki emerged on the international stage, shutting out three of the best teams in the world and winning two other games against tough competition before succumbing to the Swedes in the Gold Medal Game Sunday.

Meanwhile, Esche sat back as a third string goalie for Team USA, playing only one meaningless game during the entire break.

This makes Niittymaki the hot goalie, and Esche, well, just well-rested.

But, that doesn't mean Niittymaki has taken over the top spot, no matter how clutch he appears to be in big games.

Hitchcock, while happy with the way Niittymaki performed in the Olympics, is still a little leery about throwing full support behind a rookie goalie on a team with Stanley Cup dreams.

"Let's see how he looks when he comes back over here," said Hitchcock. "This is a different game over here. Angles are different and there's a tremendous amount of activity around the goal here; a lot more than there is in the Olympics. The shot totals are a lot higher here and the quality of shots is a lot higher in the NHL. Let's see how he plays when he comes back here and let's see how his energy is."

Niittymaki is due back from the Olympics today, but may not practice with the team, as a result, Esche will get the first start of the final 24 regular season games Wednesday in New Jersey.

That sets up a gold medal rematch possibility Thursday between Niittymaki and Henrik Lundqvist when the New York Rangers visit the Flyers.

"Things are going to flip around," said Esche. "There's going to be games that I'm winning. There's going to be games that he's winning. It's going to be a revolving door until somebody jumps all over it and runs with it."
...
The Flyers hoped the Olympic break would help them recover from the rash of injuries that plagued the team for most of the season.

And while it will be nice to see Peter Forsberg, Mike Rathje, Petr Nedved and Branko Radivojevic back in the lineup, the Flyers will still be without four regulars.

Kim Johnsson and Chris Therien are both still out of comission because of concussions, and don't appear close to even resuming skating.

Simon Gagne will miss at least one and probably two games while recovering the knee contusion he suffered in the Olympics. The good news there is he probably won't miss two weeks as originally reported and could be back in the lineup by Saturday.

Michal Handzus who is rehabbing a torn labrum in his shoulder, will probably miss a week to 10 days.
Handzus has decided to delay getting surgery to repair the tear in his shoulder until the end of the season because recovery from that surgery usually falls in the 10-week range, which would knock him out until the middle rounds of the playoffs.

Still, with Handzus taking another week off, missing Wednesday's game will put an end to his consecutive games played streak at 256.

The streak was the fifth longest active streak in the NHL. His 222 straight games played with the Flyers ranks third all-time.

As a result, the Flyers still appear to be a player short up front and most likely will need to recall a forward from the Phantoms of the AHL for Wednesday's game.