Photo Credit: Our very own Michael Reaves
With only 14 games remaining in the season for the Philadelphia Flyers the race to the playoffs is on.
Currently, the Flyers are third place in the Metropolitan Division with 76 points. Chasing them are the New York Islanders and Washington Capitals.
The Capitals have 75 points, while the Islanders have 73. Both clubs have one game in hand on Philadelphia.
With the tough stretch ahead taking on the Toronto Maple Leafs, Carolina Hurricanes, Boston Bruins, Florida Panthers and New York Rangers, the Flyers find themselves facing off against five teams that are top ten in the overall NHL standings.
Due to the tough schedule the Flyers ability to fend off the teams chasing them and continue holding a playoff spot will certainly be tested.
Defensive Issues
The concerning aspect of the next five games is the defensive woes that have plagued Philadelphia post trade deadline.
In their previous four games played Philadelphia has allowed a total of 21 goals against. Along with that, the Flyers have given up six plus goals for the third time in their last four games. They’ve also allowed five plus goals, five times in their last ten games.
What this demonstrates is the fact that Philadelphia have been shells of themselves defensively over the last stretch of games. Specifically, since the team has gone without Sean Walker (due to trade), Nick Seeler, Jamie Drysdale and Rasmus Ristolainen.
It’s evident the defensive structure and overall defensive coverages have been lacking significantly during the past handful of games. The main contributor to that is essentially being forced to play two third pairings in Zamula/Johnson and Staal/Attard.
Philadelphia’s inability to exit their defensive zone as efficiently as they were earlier this season has played a large role in their offensive struggles as well.
The Flyers for much of the season were a quick strike team that relied on their transitional play and rush chances for a majority of their offense.
However, with their new look back-end struggling to get pucks up to the forwards quickly this has troubled the team both defensively and offensively.
Not only are the Flyers having difficulties clearing pucks out of their defensive zone. But they’ve been unable to consistently break pucks out to their forwards in spots where the team was previously making those key transitional plays from defense to offense.
Time will tell if the Philadelphia Flyers can regain their form and hold on to a playoff spot with 14 games left to go in the NHL regular season.
Ultimately, the team will need to improve their defensive play and overall structure dramatically as a five-man unit in order to do so.
