Date Published: 11-27-2022
Photo Courtesy of John Munson, Associated Press
After dropping yesterday’s tilt to the New York Islanders, the Philadelphia Flyers are now winless in their last 10 games. In that period of 10 games, the Flyers put forth a record of 0-7-3 for a total of 3 points out of a possible 20. The Flyers have not won a game since their November 8th victory while taking on the St. Louis Blues. Over that period of time, their team has also been outscored by a wide margin of 44-22
It’s been a tough month of November for the Flyers, who surprisingly had a better start to the NHL Regular Season than expected. Since their 7-3-2 start they have fallen back to earth. Largely their recent losing streak can be attributed to a combination of issues. Although, it can’t be ignored that the injuries they’ve sustained and their significance have largely affected the team’s performances.
Injury Breakdown
No one wants to use injuries as an excuse for this most recent losing streak yet it’s the reality of the situation that injuries have played a factor. Especially when looking at the players not in the lineup. It could easily be argued that Sean Couturier, Travis Konecny, James Van Riemsdyk, Cam Atkinson, Scott Laughton and Wade Allison would likely compromise a large part of the Flyers top 3 forward lines if healthy.
When you’re missing that many players it should be expected that a team’s on ice performances will suffer. Most other teams in the league would be subject to a similar fate in the same scenario. Case in point the Washington Capitals and Columbus Blue Jackets are in the vicinity of the Flyers standings wise. Both of those teams have also suffered injury troubles to begin the season.
In total the Philadelphia Flyers have lost 129 man games to injury so far this season in just 22 games as per @NHLInjuryViz on twitter. The stats below (courtesy of @NHLInjuryViz, nhlinjuryviz.blogspot.com) demonstrate how much the injuries have had an impact on this particular Flyers lineup.
Out of all the teams in the NHL, the Flyers have the largest average cap hit of 7.94 milion when looking at the players they are missing from their lineup at the moment. Along with this, the average minutes the injured players would play that are out of the Flyers lineup is 107.11 minutes, which is also the highest in the league. Lastly, the Flyers lead the league in lost positive WAR (wins above replacement) of injured players as well at 2.23.
For those that aren’t familiar, a players WAR, attempts to measure the number of wins a players team achieved above the number of expected team wins, if that player were substituted with a replacement level player.
The evidence above only further cements the fact the Flyers 10 game losing streak is largely being impacted by injuries and players not being available for this team. It doesn’t mean they are a playoff team or even a playoff contender but they are not actively this bad with a healthy line-up.
One thing that can certainly be questioned is the lack of preparation and action Chuck Fletcher and the Flyers front office took in the event something like this did occur during the regular season. Not making any depth signings that can contribute in a top 9 role this off-season was very puzzling.Â
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There were potential middle-six center and wing options available that went to other team’s for fairly reasonable cap hits. Failing to make any of those types of signings can be criticized and critiqued.
An alternate perspective would be that in the long run keeping the cap space open could be more beneficial. However, that is dependent on if the cap space not spent this off-season is eventually spent wisely. There is no guarantee that is the case.
Effort Is There and Frustration Is Setting In
Even though the Flyers have suffered from a rash of injuries there’s no doubt or question the team has been working hard this season. They’ve played with effort throughout this 10 game losing streak. When looking at the losses to Columbus, Montreal and Washington those were all winnable games.
If the team was healthy there’s a good chance they would have secured wins in those situations. On the other hand, crucial mistakes at important moments in the games were the difference makers negatively for the Flyers. One could argue that such mistakes have become a theme of Flyers hockey the past few seasons.
During this 10 game losing streak the effort has certainly been there but it does not take away from the fact that the mistakes have also piled up. Most commonly the constant self inflicted errors have been what’s plagued the Flyers.
Whether it be an unforced turnover in their own end when a clear was available. Or if it was a missed coverage of an opposition player during a back check/line change. It’s been the same mistakes costing the Flyers. The lack of talent on the roster clearly contributes to these mistakes.
Players on the roster are in lineup positions they would usually not be in while playing against a quality of opponent they may not be accustomed to. In turn, that explains some of the team’s struggles. As they’re losing the matchup battles against a variety of teams talent wise.
Nevertheless, it essentially comes down to a lack of execution on the Flyers end for a lot of these mistakes and losses. Despite the fact the effort and hard work is there the execution is not. Due to that, frustration is setting in for this Flyers team, roster and fanbase.
Flyers defenseman Tony DeAngelo’s comments during last night’s post game press availability reinforces that idea.
“You want to take the positives any time you can, but at some point in time, the positives go out the window,” said DeAngelo.
“You’ve got to win a game. We’re close, but close isn’t good enough. Especially if you give up two goals in 20 seconds against a good defensive team, that’s the game. Game’s over.”
What’s revealing about DeAngelo’s statements is the Flyers realize they are playing and working hard. Regardless, the team still hasn’t won in 10 games. Several of their losses can be directly attributed to repeat errors like turnovers and missed coverages. That’s where frustration starts to set in for the Flyers roster considering the circumstances.
Obviously, the Flyers have identified that a main goal of this season is to rebuild their culture, standard and work ethic as a team. It’s hard to bring those elements and reinforce them when you’re consecutively losing as the Flyers are right now.
Looking ahead, the Flyers may be getting some players back in the coming weeks such as JVR, Scott Laughton and Travis Konecny. Until then, they’ll need to keep putting in the effort, working as hard as possible, and playing near perfect games to break this losing streak. Once the Flyers begin to get healthier the hope would be that they can continue progressing as a team in setting that standard and building towards a better identity in terms of on ice play.
