Photo Credit: Abiagael Filon
The Flyers currently sit as the 10th best team in the Eastern Conference, and have endured a 10 game losing streak. Yes it is embarrassing, it is somewhat of a shocker. It’s not a shocker that they are not a Stanley Cup contender, rather that they are having trouble scoring goals, and are playing inconsistent hockey for the most part.
Regardless of injuries to Ryan Ellis, Sean Couturier, Derick Brassard, Nate Thompson, or Kevin Hayes throughout a large portion of the season. Having them in the lineup wouldn’t have done much to improve upon their record. They are what they are, and that is a team that lacks an identity. Even if the team didn’t have Covid affecting their lineup, not much would change.
Speaking of Covid, like last season, the Flyers have six players in Covid Protocol and they will miss tonight’s game against the Pittsburgh Penguins: Claude Giroux, Travis Sanheim, Travis Konecny, Jackson Cates, Nick Seeler, and Ivan Provorov. That’s it just like last season, you never know who’s going to be playing, as covid is affecting the NHL big time once again this season.
On a different note, breakouts, puck support-to include puck support from the Forwards, and a lack of energy continue to be problems on a nightly basis. These are all major factors into the lack of identity for this current Flyers team, which is having trouble scoring. They are currently averaging 2.61 goals per game on the season. A team just isn’t going to win many hockey games with scoring a tad over two goals per game on a nightly basis. To make matters worse there are only five other NHL teams that are scoring less on a nightly basis than the Flyers: Montreal, Vancouver, Chicago, Arizona, and the New York Islanders.
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To make matters worse, the Flyers own the 27th worst power play in the league, with a success rate of 16.0%, while Flyers’ General Manager Chuck Fletcher backed his staff four days before Alain Vigneault and Michel Therrien were dismissed:
“It’s interesting. We haven’t had a good power play since ’14-‘15. That’s the last time. I think it’s six years, seven years. We’ve had a couple of 14th place finishes, 17th, 18th and 24th. We were 14th in the first 10 games. We were 29th in the last 10 games. Power play since I’ve been here has been an everyday question and clearly going back to ’14-’15, it has been an everyday question here. It’s something personally, I think that way too much blame or even credit gets attached to the power play coach. I think there’s certainly things we can do. When I look at our power play right now, the biggest thing to me is just our entries. We’re really having a hard time entering. I think in-zone, we need to shoot the puck more. There are certain things we need to do, but when you can’t enter and successfully set up, you can’t shoot the puck because you’re not in there. We’re spending a lot of our power play going back retrieving pucks and coming down. The biggest thing to me that we have to fix right now, coaching is a part of it. A lot of it is execution and mindset. We have to find a way to enter the zone more successfully. That’s clearly something that’s dropped off for me the last year or two. In-zone, there’s up and down. I don’t think we’re getting enough shots, but yet the first 10 to me, there were signs of good things happening. In the last 10, nothing’s happening. We got to get it going. Again, it’s been an issue since I’ve been here every day, the power play. We talk about it internally. You guys ask about it. It’s spent seven years, so it’s something that probably goes above and beyond the coaching.” – Chuck Fletcher
Believe it or not, the power play has gotten much better under the direction of Interim Head Coach Mike Yeo and Assistant Coach Daryl Williams. When Yeo first took over the ship fires power play was ranked 29th in the league with a success rate of 13.9%. Nonetheless, obviously this remains a work in progress once again this season.
This was supposed to be a rebound season, not a rebuild season from last year’s debacle. The only thing that has remained consistent throughout the course of this season is the Goaltending. Carter Hart is enduring a big rebound season, and Martin Jones has played well to support him. Both goaltenders have played well, given the unfortunate circumstances of this team lacking an identity. With the quality of goaltending this team has received on a nightly basis, it is a shame that this team is this mediocre.
Flyers fans have been patient enough through seemingly a rebuild since 2014. They have stuck with this team through thick and thin, and Flyers fans see the same product on the as last season for the most part. It’s getting tiring for them to see the same product on the ice year after year.
