Photo Credit: Robert Edwards, USA TODAY SPORTS
Twenty-four games into the Philadelphia Flyers regular season the club has a 12-10-2 record for 26 points. That places this Flyers team at 15th overall in the NHL currently.
When considering the appropriate sample size to assess what exactly this Flyers team is this season, 24 games is essentially a quarter of the NHL’s 82 game season.
In terms of a stylistic approach the Flyers of 2023-24 are playing much differently than last season’s Flyers and teams from prior years.
Mainly that’s been due to the Flyers defensemen moving the puck up the ice quickly to forwards in order to create offense in transition and through rush plays.
Another factor in that aggressive nature of play has been the Flyers defenseman pinching for pucks at the blue line and activating down low into the offensive zone. These tendencies from the defense have contributed to the creation of plays and sustaining an effective forecheck.
The Flyers neutral zone aggressiveness and willingness to take chances on plays in order to create offense has allowed them to establish an identity of being a transition offense based team through 24 games this season.
Philadelphia’s head coach John Tortorella addressed the team’s mindset to play more aggressively this season in a press conference last week.
“We’re trying to play a much more aggressive style, and with risk in it, to create offense.” Tortorella stated last Thursday. He also mentioned,
“Although we have struggled here as of late, I do think through the first quarter of the season, that has been one of the biggest improvements with our team — is transition offense, is stretching, is making long passes, leaving the zone earlier. All the things we’ve talked about. We’re staying with that.”
Cementing an offense oriented style of play is something the organization is looking to put into place in anticipation of such prospects that play with aggressive tendencies like a Matvei Michkov or Cutter Gauthier.
Nevertheless, it’s evident the Flyers have created an identity for themselves this season of being a team willing to take chances and be aggressive offensively. In turn they’ve become one of the more prominent rush offense teams in the NHL.
One specific stat pointing to this is that Flyers defenseman rank 1st in the NHL this season in rush scoring chances with 27 and 2nd in rush goals with four.
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Their aggressiveness and these types of chances stem from the team pressuring the opposition in the neutral zone, which forces turnovers. From that point the Flyers are making the decision to attack to try and capitalize on scoring chances off the rush.
The Flyers rush offense has been a key to the team’s playing style and has been one of the best transitional offenses in the NHL this season. Taking into consideration the statistics below it’s evident the Flyers are using their aggressiveness to create opportunities off the rush as much as possible.
Along with that comes their tendency to put shots towards the net in high volumes. Another trend to the 2023-24 Flyers play has been the fact that they’ve outshot the majority of teams they’ve played thus far this season.
When coupled with their aggressive offensive approach in transition the Flyers have become a team that can put considerable offensive pressure on their opponents. The amount of shots and looking to score off the rush when the opportunity presents itself only adds to such a notion.
Overall the Philadelphia Flyers have adjusted their style of play dramatically as opposed to last season. They’re looking to take chances and play with an offensive mindset. That has allowed them to become a more competitive and consistent team on a nightly basis through the first 24 games of this NHL regular season.
The Flyers are 8th in the NHL in expected goals percentage efficiency of 53.27% (as per Money Puck). What this cements is the fact that this new style of play has been paying off when looking and assessing their underlying process as a team this season.
Philadelphia’s ability to sustain their aggressive playing style through 24 games and remain competitive in essentially all of their outings points to a level of consistency becoming a mainstay in the Flyers game play.
With that comes the likelihood this Flyers team remains on the playoff bubble as the season continues to elapse. Their younger players getting to play meaningful hockey down the stretch run to the playoffs should only act as a valuable experience in their long term development as well.
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