This is not the article I was expecting to write when the season opened on the 15th of October, but with the season coming to a close on Friday when the Philadelphia Flyers take on the Ottawa Senators on home ice, we take a deeper look into all aspects of the 2021-22 campaign; the good and the bad.
Let’s get the bad out of the way first and try to finish off with the good later, but that’s going to be tough when the bad far outweighs the good. In any sense, maybe it’s because of recency bias but you can make the argument that the 2021-22 campaign has been the worst season in the last two decades, even beating out the disastrous 2006-07 season where the Flyers finished in last place and lost the Patrick Kane lottery.
The toughest part about being a Flyers fan is trying to temper expectations. Ever since their surprise run to the Stanley Cup Final in 2010, the Flyers’ front office has always tried to paint a pretty picture for the team they’ve constructed and have put on the ice. With Paul Holmgren, we witnessed a man who was willing to mortgage the future for everything and anything to get back to the promised land from 2010 onwards. He failed and left Ron Hextall a dumpster fire to extinguish, and to his credit he did what he set out to do from day one and that was to accumulate draft capital and build from within with a loaded pipeline. His dream never came to fruition with a lot of his prospects not making the NHL, and the ones that have haven’t been as impactful as we were told and expecting.
Then came in Chuck Fletcher, the current general manager, and he sat back and watched from above when he took over in 2018-19 and let the pieces fall as they may. He went big in the summer of 2019 and after a bumpy start to the season, the Flyers exploded once the new year hit and were the hottest team heading into the COVID pause. The playoffs represented a “Jekyll and Hyde” performance because they looked unbelievable in the round robin tournament as they swept through Washington, Tampa Bay, and Boston to claim the top seed in the Eastern Conference. That very same team that was electrifying and exciting, sort of lost their mojo once the playoffs commenced with Montreal and the New York Islanders.
Since then, the Flyers have been as disastrous as we have ever seen them, and it doesn’t look like it’s going to be getting any better unless something falls into their lap or they hit a home-run with every move they make from here on out.
Where do we begin with the 2021-22 campaign? Injuries undercut the Flyers all season with players like Ryan Ellis, Sean Couturier, and Kevin Hayes missing extended periods of time. The defense imploded when Ellis was sidelined and with players like Keith Yandle, Nick Seeler, and Kevin Connauton playing on a nightly basis and more minutes than the Flyers had hoped for.
The offense hit an awful snag once October came to a close and as we sit currently with one of the most prolific NHL seasons coming to a close in terms of offense, the Flyers only have two players with 50+ points in Travis Konecny and Cam Atkinson, and two 20+ goal scorers in Atkinson and James van Riemsdyk. Finally, the special teams were awful to say the least as you can’t win many games with the league’s worst power play and a bottom-tier penalty kill.
Injuries
“Man-Games Lost NHL” posted a tweet on their Twitter page on the 17th of April that showed the top 5 teams with the most games lost to injury and the top 5 teams with the least amount of games lost to injury. As of the 17th of April, the Flyers had the 5th-most games lost to injury at 508, trailing only the Vancouver Canucks (518), Buffalo Sabres (527), Arizona Coyotes (539), and the Montreal Canadiens (696). It’s interesting to note that the Canadiens and Coyotes are both at the bottom of the NHL standings, while the Sabres sit 24th, the Canucks just missed out on the playoffs, and we already know everything there is to know about the 29th-ranked Flyers. Conversely, the five least-injured teams were the Calgary Flames (84), Minnesota Wild (145), Toronto Maple Leafs (175), New York Islanders (178), and the Nashville Predators (182). The Flames are 5th-best, the Wild are 6th-best, the Maple Leafs are 4th-best, the Predators made the playoffs though they will be without goaltender Juuse Saros, and the outlier of the group are the Islanders at 20th.
James van Riemsdyk is the only Flyer to have suited up for all 81 games thus far. Travis Sanheim, Travis Konecny, and Ivan Provorov have missed 2, 3, and 3 games respectively due to COVID protocols with Provorov having his consecutive game streak snapped at 403 dating back to his rookie season. Oskar Lindblom has missed three games as well, two of which came as a healthy scratch due to maintenance. Keith Yandle had his iron-man streak come to a close at 989 games when the Flyers decided to scratch him on the 2nd of April. He made a return to the lineup after Nick Seeler and Kevin Connauton got injured in consecutive games; he currently sits at 75 games played this year. Cam Atkinson was also going strong until his season came to an end after he suffered a lower-body injury in his 700th career game against the Washington Capitals a few weeks ago, suiting up for 73 games.
After that, the Flyers missed a slew of games from their “top guns” or players who were supposed to play a large role. Rasmus Ristolainen is going to miss 16 games by season’s end, Sean Couturier is going to miss 53 games by season’s end, and Ryan Ellis is going to miss 78 games by season’s end. For players who have been injured but are currently playing right now, barring any unforeseen injuries: Scott Laughton will have missed 15 games, Joel Farabee will have missed 19 games, Kevin Hayes will have missed 34 games, and Nate Thompson will have missed 49 games. Between injuries and demotions, Morgan Frost will have appeared in 55 games. Including players that were dealt at the trade deadline, Claude Giroux missed four games, three from COVID protocol and one from being held out before the trade deadline. Derick Brassard missed 31 games battling injuries, and Justin Braun played all but one game before their trades as well.
Defense
Coming into the season, the Flyers’ defense looked much better and far more improved than their 2020-21 counterparts on paper. The Flyers went from Ivan Provorov, Justin Braun, Travis Sanheim, Erik Gustafsson, Shayne Gostisbehere, Phil Myers, Robert Hagg, and Nate Prosser to Provorov, Braun, and Sanheim, but then added Ryan Ellis, Rasmus Ristolainen, and Keith Yandle. Gostisbehere and Myers were traded, Prosser didn’t return, and Gustafsson was traded at the trade deadline last season.
In return, they brought in Ellis to solidify the top unit with Provorov, they brought in Ristolainen to play with Sanheim, and then they rounded out the bottom pair with Braun and Yandle.
All three pairings had a right shot and a left shot, a good mix of veterans, and it should’ve all gone without a hitch unless injuries reared their ugly head because the Flyers didn’t have a safety net. Depth pieces on defense have always been a problem for Philadelphia because whoever is brought in instantly becomes the scapegoat and rightfully so. Prosser, Gustafsson, and Samuel Morin weren’t helpful and they even switched positions in the case of Morin as he became a forward temporarily. This year, Nick Seeler and Kevin Connauton were bad, to put it simply. Add in the fact that they played with Keith Yandle, who was even worse, and it really put pressure on the team, the defense, and the goaltending whenever they were on the ice. Plus/minus is a stat that brings up a lot of debate but its really hard to ignore the fact that Yandle is -43 on the season, while only averaging 13:56 ATOI.
Ivan Provorov has had another “Jekyll and Hyde” season, but definitely more Jekyll than Hyde, Rasmus Ristolainen got hits and blocks but didn’t play all that well defensively, the Justin Braun experiment didn’t fare too well as it became painfully obvious he wasn’t meant to be on the top pair, Travis Sanheim had an abysmal start to the season until the dismissal of Alain Vigneault, and the trio of Yandle-Seeler-Connauton were nightmarishly bad on most nights. All of which is evidenced by the Flyers being 27th in goals allowed (3.58 per game) and 29th in shots on goal allowed (34 per game).
Offense
Look no further to the fact that the Flyers only have two 20+ goal scorers and two players who have hit 50+ points. In a season where everyone is either scoring 30+ goals or reaching the 100 point milestone, the Flyers were either not invited to the party or they decided to reject the invitation. Travis Konecny has overtaken Cam Atkinson for the team-lead in points with 52 in 78 games, which is good for 117th in the NHL. Cam Atkinson and James van Riemsdyk’s team-high 23 goals are good for 96th in the NHL and Konecny’s team-high 36 assists are good for 89th in the NHL.
Yes, it has something to do with the injuries, the constant lineup shuffles, and slew of young players, but these are damning stats indeed. The Flyers sit at the bottom of the league in terms of 20+ goal scorers with the Montreal Canadiens at two apiece.
The Flyers’ top goal scorers went through some rough slumps this year to post their team-high 23 goals. After scoring goals in four of the first five games and starting the season with a five-game point streak, Atkinson then went 16 games without a goal sandwiched in the middle alongside four assists. He then went through a 15-game slide from mid-January to the end of February where he only scored two goals in 15 games, and then he ended his season on a 12-game goalless drought.
James van Riemsdyk started the season with just two goals in the team’s first 24 games, then he had another stretch of 26 games from December 30th to March 8th with 5 goals and 3 assists, and then finally after a good stretch of hockey from the power forward he has slumped to the finish line with goals in just four of his last 15 games.
Other notable slumps included the trio of Konecny-Lindblom-Sanheim, who struggled mightily before Vigneault’s dismissal. Travis Konecny had 5 goals and 10 points in the team’s first 22 games with 6 of those points coming in his first 6 games, Oskar Lindblom only had one point in his first 21 games, and Travis Sanheim was also held goalless in his first 22 games while only recording 3 assists.
Joel Farabee also went through some downward slumps as he went through a 14-game stretch from October 23rd to November 23rd only scoring one goal, then went through an 11 game stretch from January 15th to March 12th with only 5 assists, and is currently on a 14-game slide with 2 goals. In general, he has slumped his way into 6 goals and 17 points in his last 33 games.
Kevin Hayes and Sean Couturier were playing through injuries, so that explains their splits as well. Hayes started his season with 3 goals and 11 points in his first 24 games, but since then he has 7 goals and 20 points in his last 22. Couturier started the season very strong alongside Claude Giroux as he accumulated 12 points in his first 10 games. However, his play noticeably dropped to a point where he finished the last 19 games of his campaign with just 1 goal and 5 points.
Special Teams
It’s tough to find the right words to describe the Flyers’ special teams, the word terrible comes to mind because the Flyers power play dropped to 32nd and their penalty kill is 24th. The Flyers have only scored 28 power play goals this season, which is second worst in the NHL to the Arizona Coyotes, who have one less goal in 36 less opportunities. The Flyers sit 16th in power play opportunities with 232, which is 37 less opportunities than the number one-ranked Colorado Avalanche. To put into perspective at how bad their power play has been, the Flyers have scored 28 power play goals, while Chris Kreider leads the entire NHL with 26 power play tallies alone.
The Flyers have allowed 56 power goals in 231 attempts, which is good for 8th-worst and 16th-worst in the NHL, respectively. They have only scored six shorthanded goals which is good for 17th in the NHL, and have 11 shorthanded goals allowed which is 2nd-worst to the New Jersey Devils’ 14. In terms of taking penalties and drawing penalties, the Flyers are relatively even with 9 penalty minutes per game and 9.1 penalty minutes per game for their opponents, which is 13th and 10th in the NHL.
After firing Alain Vigneault and Michel Therrien, the special teams units haven’t gotten any better, especially the power play. The power play was abysmal under Therrien but somehow it’s gotten worse under John Torchetti, who was brought in mid-season to help Mike Yeo and his undermanned coaching staff. There have been several instances when the Flyers power play has gone through brutal stretches where they scored 5 goals in 55 attempts, 6 goals in 61 attempts, and most recently 3 goals in 35 attempts. The power play has been so bad that it gives up more chances against than they produce with the extra skater.
Off-Ice Issues
This season hasn’t been easy for the front office executives and the ownership group as the Flyers’ attendance has dropped to 18th in the NHL, the average number of tickets sold is at 16,514 which represents 84.5% capacity at the Wells Fargo Center, the actual number of seats filled around the Wells Fargo Center is somewhere around 10-12,000, the brown paper bag era was ushered in Philadelphia, and season ticket holders haven’t been renewing at the same pace of yesteryears past.
Dave Scott sent out a memo to the season ticket holders earlier in the year, apologizing for the events that have taken place on the ice and promising change in near future. The Flyers have lowered ticket prices and packages, hoping it would bring back the fans and they even promised that they wouldn’t increase prices for non-premium seats, which was a first. Sadly, that hasn’t yielded the change they were hoping for, but it just goes to show you that even the most loyal and die-hard fans have lost patience with the franchise and their trajectory.
The Flyers Hall of Fame ceremony for Rick Tocchet and Paul Holmgren was met with a lot of criticism. Former player and broadcaster, Chris Therrien blasted the organization for how they promoted and staged the ceremony. He mentioned how they barely marketed the event, the alumni game wasn’t marketed at all, shown on TV, or even posted on their website, the stadium was almost empty because they staged the ceremony at a time that was far too early almost knowing fans don’t show up that early, and it was almost a sad event even though it was supposed to be a celebration for two franchise icons.
Another critical issue that popped up was when the Flyers didn’t acknowledge the anniversary of the birthday of late Flyers founder Ed Snider on any of their social media platforms. The organization was met with a lot of anger and disdain from fans and even family members of Mr. Snider, however they doubled down on the fact that this wasn’t the first time that they had missed the anniversary via Twitter or other social media platforms, and that they have undergone different avenues to remember their former owner.
Finally, the Flyers are currently in a legal battle after medical staff members Jim McCrossin and Sal Raffa sued the organization over cancer diagnoses. McCrossin has myelofibrosis, which is a rare type of blood cancer as well as essential thrombocythemia and myeloproliferative neoplasm, which can be fatal. Raffa also has thrombocythemia, which currently has no cure. The Flyers came out with a statement that stipulated that the allegations and claims have no merit and that they could no longer comment any further due to the matter being in litigation.
I have seen every Flyers game since 2006-07 when NHL GameCentre finally made an appearance in Canada. I used to have to wait for the score-ticker at the bottom of every Canadian sports media outlet just to see whether or not the Flyers had won or lost that night. Highlights of the game were always super quick, generally just the game-winning goal, and if the Toronto Maple Leafs were still in the playoffs at the same time as the Flyers, any chance of seeing a playoff game was moot. I feel that I can speak for the collective here and say that there’s a sigh of relief with this particular season coming to a close. There was no passion, emotion, or want-to, to keep watching their games after January but when you’ve been doing something for so long, it becomes habitual.
After everything that had happened last year, there was hope once again that things would change for the better, but as the old adage goes “a leopard never changes its spots”.
