With Christmas right around the corner and the Philadelphia Flyers trying to turn their season around, the Flyers are in need of a Christmas miracle. Everyone needs something this time of the year, but the Flyers need several things to go their way. Losing 10 straight but then winning 3 consecutive games, and then claiming points in 5 straight is one way to turn things around but they’re going to need a lot more help and way more consistency. Hopefully this is a year the Flyers can avoid a stocking full of coal and reap the rewards of Jolly Old Saint Nicholas.
Health
First things first, this team needs to get healthy and fast. Losing Ryan Ellis changed the trajectory of the season since Ivan Provorov is partner-dependent and as we soon figured out, Keith Yandle is as well. Yandle had 5 assists in his first 3 games with Justin Braun by his side, followed up by 0 points in 18 games with Nick Seeler as his partner. His offensive game got anchored by a far lesser partner, and Michel Therrien taking him off the top power play unit didn’t help either.
Having Braun being able to play top minutes is a gift in it of itself but it can’t be relied upon on for too long, let alone for 20+ games. Braun is a serviceable defenseman and can be relied upon for safe and easy minutes, but at this point in his career he is better suited to round out the top six rather than being in the top two. He positioned himself well at the beginning of Ellis’ absence but recently has sagged a little and has found himself on the back end of many goals allowed and deflections into his own net.
The Flyers have been without the likes of Kevin Hayes, Derick Brassard, Wade Allison, Nate Thompson, and Joel Farabee for several games at the minimum. Hayes missed out on the first month and a bit before coming back just to re-injure himself upon his return. Wade Allison has yet to fully recover from his off-season surgery but is currently playing with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms, and Ryan Ellis and Derick Brassard re-injured themselves as well after making a too-quick return to the lineup.
Their centre depth has been tested with most of their top flight pivots out long-term, and we have yet to see this lineup fully healthy. Hayes has returned and is looking to find his form, Joel Farabee just came back to the lineup on Saturday and looked good, but Brassard is still day-to-day, Ellis remains week-to-week, and Wade Allison re-injured himself in the minors.
With COVID hitting the NHL like a truck, it took awhile for it to have an impact on the Flyers but they have had to place Morgan Frost, Max Willman, and now Kevin Hayes on the COVID protocol list.
The possibility of having a lineup as such would make any Flyers fan giddy with anticipation:
Joel Farabee – Sean Couturier – Travis Konecny
Claude Giroux – Morgan Frost – Cam Atkinson
James van Riemsdyk – Kevin Hayes – Wade Allison
Oskar Lindblom – Derick Brassard – Scott Laughton
Zack MacEwen
Ivan Provorov – Ryan Ellis
Travis Sanheim – Rasmus Ristolainen
Keith Yandle – Justin Braun
Offense
Offense has seemingly been a problem for several years with their 5 on 5 scoring at the top of that list. This year, the power play got a notch worse as it has been declining for years after the departure of Joe Mullen. No longer are the Flyers a top-ten team with the man advantage, and they’d be lucky to crack the top 15, let alone top 20.
Their offense from the end of October to the time Alain Vigneault and Therrien got fired was so abysmal and anemic, they weren’t even able to average two goals a game. They scored 27 goals in their last 17 games, while being shut out 4 times, and scoring 3 goals only twice in that span.
All their top flight players and big money makers went through some of their worst scoring droughts of their career. It was absolutely bizarre that the entire team was struggling collectively. Cam Atkinson went through a stretch of 1 goal scored in 16 games, Sean Couturier went through a stretch of 11 games without a goal, Travis Konecny went 12 games with 1 goal, Joel Farabee went 14 games while only scoring once, and James van Riemsdyk went goalless in 10. Everyone was struggling and struggled together.
Since Mike Yeo took over as interim head coach, the Flyers have scored 4+ goals in 5 of their first 7 games, something they didn’t do since October 27th when they defeated the Edmonton Oilers 5-3. They won three consecutive games for the first time all season and most of their top flight players are looking a lot better.
It’s as if they all tuned out Vigneault and were waiting for his demise. Yeo has simplified everything for the Flyers offense and it has worked like a charm. No longer are they constantly dumping and chasing, as they are entering the zone with controlled entries, holding onto the puck rather than taking pointless shots, and he has activated the defense which has been the Flyers’ ace in the hole on offense for years.
Travis Konecny has been unleashed, to a point where Yeo is letting him play his usual feisty, aggressive, and emotional brand of hockey. Atkinson is coming off a hat-trick on Tuesday night, and Frost has found his dynamic partner in Claude Giroux. Lindblom has two goals and four points in his last three games, and five points overall since Yeo took over, comparatively to his two assists in 21 games under Vigneault.
So far, so good, but all we ask for is consistency. The Flyers have a knack for playing streaky hockey, whether good or bad, and it’s time we finally get a consistent performance from this team on a nightly basis. It shouldn’t be too much to ask for, plus playing for a new coach usually sparks the locker room, as we have seen plenty of times in the past.
Power Play
Long gone are the days where the Flyers had a dangerous power play. Under Joe Mullen, the Flyers consistently finished in the top 10, while having a few top-five finishes. Since his departure and having Kris Knoblauch and Michel Therrien take over, the Flyers’ power play has dropped dramatically and drastically to a point where it was more advantageous for the opposing team.
Before his departure, Therrien’s power play was robotic, easy to figure out, and lacked firepower and initiative. They struggled mightily, while going 5 for 55 at one point. The coaches were insistent on keeping Ivan Provorov on the top unit, taking Keith Yandle away from his strongest suit. They tried every combination imaginable but the problem was based on system, not personnel.
Since Yeo took over as interim head coach, the power play has scored in several games, they actually look dangerous, and the coaching change has reawakened James van Riemsdyk, who has found himself back as the net-front presence; which was oddly missing under Vigneault and Therrien. As of Monday morning, the Flyers power play still sits in the bottom tier at 26th, capitalizing on a measly 15.85% of their opportunities. In their last 7 games their power play is 4 for 15, which is a small sample size, and it’s still not spectacular either but it’s a lot better than before. It’s also a silver lining for the new coaching staff.
Wins
As simple as it sounds, it’s all the Flyers need at the moment and if everything above starts to click; it’s only a matter of time for the win column to keep growing. 12-12-4 is not where they want to be in the middle of December, owning a 10-game winless streak is not something they’re proud of, and scoring 27 goals in 17 games is embarrassing all things considered.
A coaching change was absolutely necessary and it has reawakened the sleeping giants to the tune of a 4-2-1 record, but more importantly a 5-game point streak and scoring 4+ goals in 5 of those games. The Metropolitan Division was a problem at the beginning of the year when the Flyers were 8-4-2 and it’s an even steeper hill to climb as they sit 12-12-4.
However, as daunting as a 10-game winless streak is, the Flyers are a streaky team and can easily start a long winning streak as well. They are the only team in NHL history to miss the playoffs while generating a 10-game win streak and then to make the playoffs the next year after losing 10 straight. They’ve been defying logic for well over a decade, so why not again?
If the Flyers have no plans on rebuilding and want to keep re-tooling, which seems to be the guise that Dave Scott is under, then they need to play a lot better, effective immediately. They’ve won a few games recently but their overall game play has been abysmal outside of the New Jersey win and the first 15 minutes against Ottawa.
With a lot of games being postponed due to COVID and the Christmas break right around the corner, this might be the perfect time for the Flyers to recharge and try to make a run before the trade deadline, which would help the brass understand where this team is presently, and for the future.
