The Flyers have officially been eliminated from the playoffs after yet another lackluster loss to the New Jersey Devils last night 5-3. Unfortunately, it has been a dreadful and painful season for most Flyers fans. Most fans had the Flyers making the playoffs before the season began, however, they have become disappointed with the organization as the year has gone on for good reason.
One of the major downfalls to this Flyers team is their dreadful Penalty Kill. They were good in this area last season, but Flyers Head Coach says the team has youth on the penalty kill, so that may be one of the reasons this unit is struggling. Yes, the Flyers have more youth on the penalty kill than year’s past. This does not change the fact they were supposes to take the next step this season, even some had them pegged as Stanley Cup contenders (Me for starters). How would they be considered Cup contenders if they had a struggling unit with the way they are struggling recently.
“One thing I will say is we’re trying to work some of our young personnel in and it has been a learning experience,” Vigneault said following the game. “Last year, we had a couple of more veteran players there that had killed a bit in those situations before. This year we are working in a couple of guys. Phil Myers, for example, last year never killed it was Nisky over the boards. This year, we’re throwing over the boards him and. I don’t want to get into specific names there, but obviously trying to work in some personnel, and it’s made our penalty killing a little bit more challenging.”
The man problem are bad habits, and they have to be cured sooner rather than later for this team to rebound next season. They are getting subpar goaltending recently, coupled with puck management problems. Moreover, the Flyers are having trouble clearing the zone, and picking up their man. This has lead to the orange and black having the second worst penalty kill with a success rate of 72.8%.
Wait for it Flyers fans the numbers get worse, yes they get worse:
The Flyers have allowed the most power play goals in the league, 41 to be exact. This is just unacceptable, even more so as the New Jersey Devils have tallied four goals out of six attempts in the last two games against the Flyers. Young or not, Mike Yeo should be on the hot seat.
Yeo did manage a successful unit last year with having the 11th best penalty killing unit with a success rate of 81.8%, and they only allowed 47 goals while short-handed in 69 games played. This year the Flyers have allowed 41 goals short-handed in just 40 games played. This is a massive drop off, and it gets worse. Yeo also coaches the defensive unit.
One area of improvement that the Flyers must improve upon next season is to stop taking bad penalties, give their goaltenders a chance for once. This is not a recipe for success, just stay out of the box. The faster this bad habit is cured, the faster this team can become a Stanley Cup contender. To me Yeo should be dismissed at year’s end to give this team a reset. Is it all on Yeo? No, but something just doesn’t seem right, so dismissing Yeo should be on Flyers’ General Manager Chuck Fletcher’s agenda.
