Photo Credit: Justin Graham
The Flyers find themselves with a record of 8-5-3, minus the services of Kevin Hayes and Ryan Ellis for a larger part of this hockey season. It’s a respectable record, but the Metropolitan Division is such a tough division they have to continue to win, they will have to dig hard to score some goals, they need to fix the Power Play immediately. Without further to play, here are our answers to your questions.
For Wild Card teams, a good magic number of points is 92 to 93. At this rate that’s what I see the Flyers as. There are just too many inconsistencies at the moment to consider them a top-tier team for the Metropolitan Division.
In order for them to make the playoffs they have to fix the Power Play, I cannot stress that enough. Fortunately, the Flyers are receiving good Goaltending from Carter Hart and Martin Jones alike, but they need to keep things simple to score some goals. They are averaging 2.7 goals per game, which is good for 19th best in the NHL. However, they are only scoring at a clip of 1.80 goals per game in their last 10 games played. Simply put, score some goals.
Max Willman has filled in admirably when his number has been called. Willman is a solid asset for this club, however, if Kevin Hayes’s injury is long-term they need a player that can fill in the top six, and in this case that would be Morgan Frost.
Willman fills in nicely in the bottom six, but his ceiling isn’t top six potential, whereas Frost’s talents are. Either way the loss of Kevin Hayes is a big one, and it wouldn’t shock me at some point to see Chuck Fletcher look on the open market for a plug-in player.
I cautioned the fans in the summer time, about being concerned with Hayes’s abdominal injury, as the Flyers have had a lot of experience with these type of procedures. It takes players in some cases almost an entire season to fully recover from the same procedure Hayes had. It’s just a shame for a player of Hayes’s caliber, and one that is so important to this club. Let’s hope it’s a minor injury, and one that is not related to his recent abdominal injury.
If you would like to see your questions submitted in our weekly mailbag. Just submit your question on our Twitter page @flyersknitty using #Flyersmail, or @JameyBaskow. Thanks to all the fans for another great mailbag, and Let’s go Flyers.
