PHILADELPHIA, Pa – When it is all said and done, the Philadelphia Flyers will look back at the 2010-19 decade with quite a bit of regret. What started out with a trip to the Stanley Cup Finals in 2010 against the Chicago Blackhawks, the Flyers ultimately fell two games shy of the franchises ever elusive third Stanley Cup Championship.
Players of the Philadelphia Flyers and Player of the New York Islanders dig for the puck in the last minutes of the game.
In a bit of cruel fate, it would come in large part at the hands of Patrick Kane who scored the series clinching goal. We bring up Kane because the Flyers were slated to have the first overall pick in the 2007 NHL Draft. Unfortunately for Philadelphia the “hockey gods” had other plans with Chicago winning the NHL Draft Lottery thus winning the right to draft Kane.
The Hawks went on to win three Stanley Cup Championships. Kane is still one of the best players in the league while the Flyers are still searching for a return trip to the NHL Playoffs. Overall things are looking up in the playoffs hunt department but December had been a cruel reminder that while the Flyers are still in a playoff spot holding the last Wild Card position in the Eastern Conference, but they are hanging on for dear life thanks to a rough six game road trip that has seen the Flyers slip in the standings with three more road games still to play. To make matters worse the Carolina Hurricanes are only two points behind Philly.
The Flyers have been stellar at home with a 13-2-4 record but are only 9-12-1 on the road. Oh, and don’t think that things will instantly get better once they get home because staring them in the face are the Washington Capitals, Tampa Bay Lightning, and the Boston Bruins. If this was a Wile E Coyote cartoon you can only imagine him holding up a sign with the word “Yikes” on it. Also, did I mention that the Flyers will then go on a one game road trip to St. Louis to face the Stanley Cup Champions?
What a difference a month makes. Last month the Flyers were on the verge of having one of their best seasons ever. The current road trip from heck, the loss of one of their best players in Oskar Lindblom no thanks to a recent Cancer diagnosis, has left the Flyers with a huge hole in their lineup. At the time he left the lineup Lindblom was tied for the team lead in goals with 11 with Travis Konecny.
Some players have picked up their game while others are still looking for theirs and with half the season already in the books, and the NHL Trade Deadline fast approaching on February 24th, what the Flyers do in January will go a long way to deciding if the team are buyers or sellers at the deadline.
Currently the Flyers are 12th overall in points after being as high as 6th in the league at the end of November. Philadelphia is still tied for 15th in the league in goals scored. The Flyers were 6th overall in goals allowed but are now 9th overall. The power play is still 13th overall but the penalty kill has fallen on hard times dropping 3rd overall to 14th overall.
New York Rangers Center Lias Andersson (#50) and Defenseman Radko Gudas (#3) of the Philadelphia Flyers
The Flyers are still the league’s top face-off team currently humming at 54.6% up from 53.9%. The Flyers offensive slippage can be attributed by their lack of shots on goal. The Flyers are down from 10th to 12th overall. They are up a tick from 4th overall with shots against to 3rd overall.
The goaltending tandem of Carter Hart and Brian Ellliot have been solid, but both have seen their play slipping and it is not all about the defensive lapses in front of them. The same issues that plagued the team last season has reared its ugly head yet again. The Flyers are falling behind quickly in the first period. Alain Vigneault needs to find someone that can stabilize the blueline.
Justin Braun still has a team worst -11 plus/minus rating while Phillippe Myers still leads the Flyers D-men with a whopping +17 rating, up from his +9-rating last month. Truth be told, beside Myers, Ivan Provorov, Matt Niskanen, and Travis Sanheim, they are the only ones that have been consistent since the start of the season. That leaves General Manager Chuck Fletcher in a bit of a bind and with Braun’s cap hit of $3.8, and Shayne Gostisbehere’s $4.5 cap hit, that makes both players hard to move. Fortunately for Philly Bruan’s contract expires at the end of the season.
Making matters worse has been the status of Nolan Patrick who was put on Long Term IR, and with no news coming out of the Flyers camp other than Patrick stating that he will play this season, that is all we have to go on at this stage of the game. The jury is still out but one must think that if he is not still playing in February, Patrick won’t play this season. That will force the Flyers hand into making a move for another forward. Keep in mind that Patrick is an RFA at the end of the season. Morgan Frost had a brief stint up with the big club but has since made his way back to Lehigh Valley. Frost will need to up his game if the Flyers are to fill Patrick’s and Lindblom’s skates.
The bottom line for the Philadelphia Flyers is they need at least two more defenseman. Fletcher will probably go after at least one defenseman. They also need another scorer or a penalty killer at the trade deadline. The Flyers must keep two defensemen in mind in their own organization before they go outside of it: Cam York and Yegor Zemula. York is a first-round pick in 2019 and Zemula, like Myers, went undrafted but looks like another steal for the Flyers.
If the Flyers are going to promote a forward prospect then Frost should be back sooner than later but German Rubtsov is another first round pick that has bided his time and with Mikhail Vorobyov is having trouble at the NHL level, and it is high time the Flyers find out what Rubtsov can do on a regular basis.
The Flyers lost, 6-2, to the Arizona Coyotes on Saturday, in Glendale.
Brian Jennings covers the Philadelphia Flyers for prohockeynews.com and can be found on twitter at @Flyersfan22.
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