Photo Credit: Bruce Bennett/Getty Images
With all Chuck’s highly talked about off-season additions, the Flyers are once again an exciting team to watch. These welcomed additions not only have seemed to bring leadership (being that most of them has worn a letter on their sweater at one time or another while playing in the NHL) but they all have been able to come in and fill a very big void that was lacking previously from the Flyers roster last year.
Through the first few games the team has had the Wells Fargo Center on their feet as they appear to be quickly coming together. Largely because this 2021-2022 roster seems to have taken a page out of the Flyers recently forgotten formula that’s full of grit and determination that opposing teams dreaded playing against. With the additions of players like Ramus Ristolainen, Nate Thompson, Nick Seeler, and their latest player added: forward Zack MacEwen, joining the likes of Sam Morin the Flyers have seemed to bring the Bullies back to Broad Street.
In today’s NHL the league tends to cater to its star players. Cracking down on the masses with more penalties being called than ever before, to allow their teams star players free reign to score at will in order to try and boost ratings. When these types of rules were first being implemented, Philadelphia like many other teams around the league went away from employing the knuckle draggers of old and started to try and solely draft and sign the type of players who were only interested in scoring points. But, over the last few seasons the Flyers slowly found out that a team without grit was not one that could be conducive to winning it all. Over the past few seasons, the Flyers lacked but a few players that would ever finish a check, they lacked someone who was willing to body someone out of in front of their net (who was screening their goalie), and they lacked someone that would stand up for a fellow teammate when the opposing team delivered a dirty hit or went after one of the Flyers star players. This apprehensiveness to play the physical side of the game would prove to be their demise time and time again against more physical teams like the New York Islanders who most fans will recall not only beat Philadelphia on the score sheet in the 2020 Stanley Cup Conference Semifinals series but physically as well.
This is something that some of today’s fans fail to realize the importance of. Not only can a nice hit regain you possession of the puck, but it can also allow your team to win board battles, to clear out unwanted guest in front of your net and brings a level of respect from the opposition while out on the ice. And, once you have that it allows your stars a little more open ice to do what they do best. As evident by the type of point production forwards Joel Farabee, Travis Konecny, Claude Giroux, Cam Atkinson, and Sean Couturier have been able to produce so far this season.
With the Flyers now looking like the great teams of old the Bullies of Broad Street are set to truly compete this season. They have become a true team once more, who seems to enjoy playing the game that they love once again. Which could not be said for the Flyers the past couple of seasons. With this kind of reinstated grit, infused back into the lineup look for Philadelphia to continue to climb to forgotten heights within the eastern conference standings and be a menace come playoff time as well.
Quick Hits:
The Flyers have six players who have registered points in all three games, led by Joel Farabee with six points (3g-3a).
Joel Farabee (6pts; 3g-3a)
Keith Yandle (5pts; 5a)
Travis Konecny (4pts; 3g-1a)
Ryan Ellis (4pts; 1g-3a)
Cam Atkinson (4pts; 3g-1a)
Claude Giroux (3pts; 2g-1a)
The Flyers have scored 16 goals in their first three games, which is the most total goals they have scored in in 38 years
Zack MacEwen, Rasmus Ristolainen, and Martin Jones each made their Flyers debut tonight. MacEwen played 9:09 and had four hits. Ristolainen played 18:37, had two shots on net, and registered two hits.
