It’s no secret that the Philadelphia Flyers didn’t do much to address their offense this off-season. Their primary goal was to revamp the defense and find a suitable backup goalie for Carter Hart. They traded Nolan Patrick to the Nashville Predators in a deal that netted them Ryan Ellis and then they swapped Jakub Voracek for Cam Atkinson. The rest of their forwards remain the same as last year but that has caused some concern amongst the fanbase.
When comparing the defense from 2019-20 and 2020-21, the most important factor that’s always brought up is that it was the same defensive corps minus Matt Niskanen. It was obvious that he was the steadying force on the top pair for Ivan Provorov and they failed to replace him. The Flyers’ offense, however, remained the same except for a few minor changes, so there really wasn’t an excuse for their lackadaisical effort.
Up until March, the Philadelphia Flyers were handling their business mostly because of their offense. The defense had allowed 54 goals in 18 games but the offense was keeping the team afloat as they averaged 3.39 goals per game (61 goals). The wheels spun off when the team was rocked by Covid-19 and the following two months were absolutely hellish. In the month of March alone, they were outscored 75-46 in just 17 games, which was just an average of 2.7 goals per game. The month of April was somehow even worse as they got outscored 53-36 in 15 games, for an average of 2.4 goals per game.
Covid is a valid excuse up to a certain point since every team in the United States dealt with their fair share of cases. The players the Flyers depended on the most to score goals all went through disastrous slumps. James van Riemsdyk, Kevin Hayes, Travis Konecny, and Joel Farabee all went through slumps where they only scored two goals in a 25 game span. In a 56 game season, the Flyers only managed to have four players get over 40 points, and only five scored in double digits.
The 2019-20 Flyers ranked 7th in the league in goals, had six players hit 40 points, almost had five players score 20 goals, and nine players scored 10+ goals. Travis Konecny led the team with 61 points but ended up with only 34 in 2020-21. James van Riemsdyk, who led the team in points, had a hot start where he had 25 in his first 18 games but then only managed 18 points in the final 38 games. Kevin Hayes’ goal number got cut in half, Nolan Patrick only managed four goals, Oskar Lindblom could only get 14 points, and Scott Laughton went cold in the final 23 games of the season as he only scored two goals in that span.
As for the big three, Jakub Voracek went goal-less in his final 10 games as a Flyer and only put two in the back of the net in his final 17 games. In his final 20 games, Claude Giroux only scored five goals and two of them were multi-goal efforts. It was really only Sean Couturier who consistently scored points as he netted 18 goals and 41 points in only 45 games.
What aided their offensive demise was the faltering power play, as it was truly a detriment to their game. They finished with the 18th best man-advantage in the league at 19.2% and allowed the third-most shorthanded goals with six. Voracek ended the year without a power-play goal, Giroux only had one, Couturier and Hayes had three, Konecny had four, and “quarterback” of the first unit, Ivan Provorov also failed to score a powerplay goal. Shayne Gostisbehere barely played and still had five more power-play goals than Provorov. Therrien also got rid of the one-timers, which has become a very useful weapon on the modern power play.
They’ve added some new faces who could feature on both power-play units. Keith Yandle is more known for his offensive prowess on the man advantage than anything else, Rasmus Ristolainen and Ryan Ellis featured on their power-play units last year and actually outscored Ivan Provorov, and Cam Atkinson should play a prominent role in and around the blue crease. All these changes come down to Michel Therrien, who tinkered with the power play far too often last year.
To no one’s disbelief, the Flyers were outscored in the first period and rarely ever scored the first goal of the game. They scored the first goal in 57% of their games in 2019-20, compared to just 40% in 2020-21. The Flyers only led after the first period in 13 games, compared to 20 times the year prior. Probably the biggest difference between the two seasons was that the Flyers carried a lead into the third period 31 times in 2019-20 compared to just 12 times in 2020-21. The first period was always their downfall as they were outscored 63-41 compared to 68-61 the previous year. The difference was that the Flyers came back in the final two frames with a vengeance. In 2019-20 they outscored their opponents 161-121 compared to being outscored 130-114 the following season.
It’s insane to think that these same players scored the 7th most goals in the NHL the year prior. The exact same group of guys scored on 10.5% of their shots, which was 5th best in the NHL. Their play in 2020-21 lacked enthusiasm, comradery, and teamwork; they were essentially playing as individuals and just waiting for the season to end. The 2019-20 Flyers exhibited a closeness and comradery that I had never seen in over a decade. Kevin Hayes brought this team together and they played like a cohesive unit on a game-by-game basis. They were unstoppable on some nights and you could actually feel the energy, shift by shift.
For whatever reason, that energy disappeared and the Flyers looked like a team of individuals. Chuck Fletcher made the moves that he made because he knew there was dysfunction in the locker room. Elliotte Friedman had mentioned in one of his podcasts that certain players spoke up and complained about the coaching staff to the general manager. You didn’t need to be in the locker to tell that there was definitely tension and animosity amongst the players and coaches. It was an unhappy setting and it became virile once certain players started speaking out.
Chemistry isn’t the only thing that can flip the switch for an offense. If Buffalo played as a cohesive unit, they would still struggle to score goals and win games. The difference here is that, on paper, the Flyers actually possess a very good offense and firepower. Execution and consistency are just the names of the game for this disgruntled franchise.
Getting rid of Nolan Patrick might be a blessing in disguise because it seemed like the coaching staff was going out of their way at times to play him in all situations. Shayne Gostisbehere’s days of being an elite offensive option might be behind him, that is unless he can reawaken the beast in Arizona. Losing Voracek might seem like a massive loss but his offensive game started to depreciate for years. His constant turnovers, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde performances, and his pass-first mentality didn’t help, especially whenever he passed up on odd-man rushes and wide-open shots.
It’s hard to predict the outcome in 2021-22 because of how different the 2019-20 and 2020-21 seasons were. The same group of players scored at such a high rate one year but then completely fell off the face of the earth the following season. A healthy Sean Couturier and Kevin Hayes should make a big difference, the addition of Cam Atkinson should replace Voracek’s goals and then some, bounce-back seasons from Konecny and Lindblom should add a lot more goals, and more consistent efforts on the offensive side of things from Giroux and van Riemsdyk will go a long way.
Constantly chasing the game and playing from behind becomes exhausting and since the Flyers did their best to shore up the defense, I would have to think that those early back-breaking goals are soon to be a problem of the past. Whenever they have a lead they’re able to come through with the win. However, scoring that first goal and getting out of the first period with a lead, has to be priority number one for the offense coming into the 2021-22 season. They have to break that cycle if they want to become a contending team, even if they are able to regroup in the later periods.
There are a lot of ifs and buts and intangibles we can’t really predict but if the Flyers are able to get rid of their early-game habits, fix their powerplay, and prioritize getting the puck on the net instead of making a cute pass; we should see a season similar to 2019-20. With everything that’s been said about them, all the changes that have been made, and the lack of ongoing success in recent years; the Flyers’ offense should be a motivated bunch. However, if they continue to struggle on the power play, can’t find any consistency from their top players, and go through 20+ game goal droughts, we’re going to be in for a long season, especially since it’s going back to the 82 game format.
