What to do? What to do? What to do? These thoughts have to be going through General Manager of the Flyers Chuck Fletcher’s mind at the moment. Moreover, I’m pretty certain every Flyers fan is thinking the same thing now in terms of the overall team defense. The loss of the current Selke Trophy Award winner Sean Couturier was a big one, and now some people are seeing just how valuable he was on a nightly basis. Couturier covers up many mistakes and gaffes by the defense, and in reality it makes them appear to better than they actually are. One of the biggest weaknesses to this 2021 Flyers team is the overall team defense, check out this play below:
As stated in this tweet from our very own Conor Doherty, this was the Boston Bruins fourth goal of the night this past Saturday in a 6-1 drubbing, or slaughtering of the Flyers. This simply cannot happen and essentially this is a 3-on-0 on Carter Hart. Blown coverages, bad breakouts/zone exits, and sloppy play in the neutral zone are main reasons this Flyers team seems like a mess right now. Take a further look in the picture you have a steady Michael Raffl and Ivan Provorov on the ice at this time. These are two of your more reliable players, and whatever the case maybe this simply cannot happen regardless of who is at fault. Raffl is playing out of position due to the Couturier injury, but he still has to be better than this. Hart had every right to be a little frustrated following the game:
These defensive mishaps are now more at the forefront due to Couturier’s absence. Robert Hägg continues to struggle with transitioning, and just lofts pucks out of the zone, or he tries using the glass to get the puck out of the zone. Why not try to carry the play up the ice for a clean zone exit for once. Teams have become accustomed to his style of play, thus it is causing turnovers and odd man rushes the other way in some instances. Moreover, Erik Gustafsson is a turnover machine right now, and he is usually solid at pushing the play up the ice. The Flyers defense overall are struggling mightily with transitioning from defense to offense, that the Forwards appear to be just skating around. They are not giving the Forwards a chance to have some sort of puck posession, as breakouts have been brutal in the early going, and it’s causing turnovers in the neutral zone, “We need to be better with the puck,” Alain Vigneault said following a 6-1 loss to the Buffalo Sabres this past week, “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.”
Unfortunately, the Flyers are skating to close together. They should spread out more to open the ice up a bit more. Even on some goals scored by the opposition they are supporting each other on one side of the ice, thus leaving players open in the slot or in front of Hart and Brian Elliott. Again this is caused by blown coverages, and decision making. It appears the Flyers are trying to be too perfect, rather than just letting the game come to them or just keeping it simple.
What I thought was interesting this past weekend was Alain Vigneault mentioning before Saturday’s game in the morning presser that he wanted Kevin Hayes to pay a little more attention to detail on the defensive side of the puck. Again Hayes is playing as a top line center so he needs to produce which he is doing (3g,5a) in six games played. The only thing I can think of is this comment circles back to Couturier and what he is able to do offensively and defensively as a top line center, while playing against top lines night after night.
In the end, the Flyers have too much depth within their system to overcome this key loss of Couturier in their lineup. Couturier is not a reason for them losing hockey games, rather it’s the team beating themselves and making ill advised decisions with the puck. They have allowed the third most shots in the league (35.5 per game) as well, so they have to tighten up the defense.
The Flyers have to keep their game simple against the New Jersey Devils on Tuesday night. The Devils are a team that is feeling pretty good right now as they are 3-1-1 in the early going, with Jack Hughes torching his opponents. These bad habits of the Flyers in the early going are correctable, and they have to correct them sooner rather than later to become a consistent hockey team.
