There is no denying, the Flyers are off to a very slow start to the 2024-25 season. Is this who the Flyers are? What seems to be the biggest difference from last season?
One big difference from last season was the great play of Carter Hart. Hart stole games for them, obviously until December. Now I want to make this clear, I’m not saying goaltending is the biggest or even a problem this season, but it’s just not as strong as last season.
Samuel Ersson has been good, not bad by any means. However, he isn’t stealing the Flyers games on a nightly basis, nor is Ivan Fedotov and Aleksei Kolosov. Ersson has played well for the most part, but not as good as Hart from the year prior.
That’s the big difference. Goaltending masked a lot of the problems last season, and now the Goaltending isn’t as strong. Some people are seeing problems with 5-on-5 play, and the goalies aren’t covering up the mistakes. It’s making the bad plays noticeable, whereas last season it wasn’t as noticeable.
It has become increasingly evident that Goaltending was one of the main reasons the Flyers overachieved last season. Hart stole games for the team, and it made the team feel good. Winning makes any team feel good. Unfortunately, that is not what is transpiring right now, and the unfortunate injury to Ersson hurts. Ersson was playing very well before his injury, and both Kolosov and Fedotov are not at his level of play yet in their young NHL careers.
Kolosov isn’t playing poorly, but he’s still raw and young. Both he and Fedotov are still learning the game. They cannot be expected to play great on a nightly basis. It’s simple, the Flyers need more talent. The Flyers top brass know it, so this makes for an interesting trade deadline.
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As of right now after 13 games the Flyers are 4-8-1. Last season they were 5-7-1 and had just lost to San Jose. I’m not sure what the angst is all about. The great start of last year is a myth. You are right about the loss of Hart. It has hurt. Would have been nice to sign Stolarz. He signed cheaper than Fedotov. Go figure.