The Flyers currently sit atop the East Division with a record of 3-1-1 (7pts) with the New York Islanders and Washington Capitals each having one game in hand on the Flyers. This young Flyers team has been beaten and battered here as of late with losing the likes of Sean Couturier, Morgan Frost, Philippe Myers, and Mark Friedman for a period of time in last night’s game.
Let’s start with some great news first as the Flyers are having no trouble scoring goals. They have tallied 19 goals for a +3 goal differential in five games played. With the good news, of course, there are some bad news. The Flyers are having trouble with puck management, and this is forcing some ill advised turnovers. Moreover, the Flyers are also allowing too many shots per game at a clip of 37.4 shots per game. These bad habits have to be cured sooner rather than later for this team to be considered a Cup contender.
It appears the Flyers are rushing plays, and trying to thread the needle with perfect passes. This is forcing some uncharacteristic turnovers, as well. The defensive unit of the Flyers are having trouble with breakouts/zone exits, and it appears to be effecting their puck management. Moreover, shot selection is a huge key to effective puck management. Under no circumstances should a player shoot the puck at the goalie’s belly button. The Goaltender will gobble up the puck, thus having no second chance at scoring a goal, “What I saw tonight was our decision making with the puck wasn’t good enough,” Flyers Head Coach Alain Vigneault said after a 6-1 drubbing to Buffalo on Monday night, “When it’s not good enough, obviously it feeds the other team’s transition and they come at you and they come at you hard. That’s what happened for the most part tonight. We need to be better with the puck. If we are, we will spend less time in our zone. We’ll get through the neutral zone and we’ll be able to do a better job in the offensive zone.”
“There are some decisions with the puck that we need to make a little better,” Vigneault said after Tuesday night’s victory, “I thought overall, our compete level was very strong tonight. We battled hard on the forecheck. We battled hard to keep pucks in.” The Flyers cannot score if they do not have the puck. Puck possession has been a problem for the Flyers in the early going of the season. The good thing is Vigneault and his experienced coaching staff are aware of this, and have vowed to rectify this.
Take for instance last night, the Flyers controlled the play for the most part in the second period of their 5-4 shootout loss to the Boston Bruins. That was arguably one of their best periods of play on the shortened season thus far. They scored two goals (2-0 lead), limited turnovers, had clean zone exits/breakouts. Of course, then the Flyers went into their bad habits of the short season of turning the puck over, giving way too much space to the Bruins to create in the third, thus the Bruins outscored the Flyers 4-2 in the final stanza. This just cannot happen.
One last area of improvement the Flyers need to improve is preventing shots. The Flyers are the second to the worst team in shots allowed this season. Their opponents are shooting an average of 37.4 shots per game. Last season, the Flyers were well under the league average in this category with only allowing 28.6 shots per game, as the league average of shots per game last season was 31.7. Carter Hart and Brian Elliott cannot continue to face these amount of shots, and put up quality numbers. Yes, injuries might be a factor in this category, however, the Flyers have to overcome this adversity, and play a better overall team defense. Team defense does not just consist of two defensemen, rather it’s a five man unit. If players do not want to buy in, so be it to the press box they go.
The faster these bad habits improve, the faster this team can prove to the world that they are indeed Cup contenders. Until this time, people throughout the world will continue to doubt whether this year’s Flyers team is better than last year’s.
