Today is one of the best Wednesdays of the year. Some call it Thanksgiving Eve. Some call it Blackout Wednesday. Some call it a High School Reunion. But for us hardcore Flyers fans, we call it the quarter mark of the season. That’s right, we are 20 games into the 2016-2017 regular season.
The Flyers are sitting just above .500 at 9-8-3 with 21 points in the standings. This is a slight improvement from the quarter mark last season, where they had a record of 6-9-5 for 17 points. When looking at this team from an overall perspective, many fans may be disappointed thus far. Poor goaltending, failure to take and maintain leads, and questionable coaching decisions have a lot of fans scratching their heads as too what this team really is.
The Offense
The Good:
The offense has been tremendous so far this season. They are currently tied for 2nd in the league with 63 goals for. And the power play has also been rolling regardless of being 3/15 in their last 5 games, also sitting in 2nd place with an overall PP% of 27.1
Individual performances from Wayne Simmonds, Claude Giroux, Jake Voracek, and rookie Travis Konecny have all made the highlight reels, helping this team to have a chance at 2 points game in and game out.
We are shooting the puck a lot more then Flyers fans are used to! We currently have a 32.1 shots per game average (4th in the league). And we all can agree with the common phrase “get the puck on net”. It works, clearly according to our offensive statistics so far this season.
The Bad:
I am a firm believer in chemistry. We saw a lot of chemistry with our 2nd line early on this season between Travis Konecny, Sean Couturier, and Jake Voracek. But unfortunately, coach Dave Hakstol keeps tinkering with lines night after night. And not just with the bottom 6, but even with our top 2 lines. This makes little to no sense 20 games into the season. How do you expect anyone to really grasp player tendencies and build solid teamwork with one another? To the team’s credit, they have proven that regardless of these constant changes they are able to score goals. This makes me sleep a little easier at night, but it does have a poor effect on my dreams as my subconscious continues to place images of what our offense could be if Hakstol allowed lines to maintain consistency for the goal of line chemistry.
Another sore for our forwards so far this season is their ability to react to either offensive zone giveaways or neutral zone break outs. This is really only a jab because most of our forwards are aware that, at times, they have to be defensively responsible as our defense is not quite the best (more on that in a second). Is this the worst thing in the world, no. And in fact, it shouldn’t even be a top priority for an offense that is producing so much help on the scoreboard. Yet, because of our defensive situation, and apparently current goaltending situation, it might be a good idea for some of our more defensively rounded forwards to start focusing their game on conservative play, especially when in the lead.
Sean Couturier was injured in Tuesday’s game in Florida, it has been confirmed that it is a lower body injury – many fearing the knee. He is being evaluated by team doctors Wednesday, but all signs are pointing towards a long-term recovery. This is not good news for our top two lines, especially on the penalty kill.
The Defense
The Good:
As ironic as it is, we have the best offensive production from a team defense in the league. This has a lot to do with our power play and instinctive shoot-off-the-pass mentality so far this season.
Radko Gudas is my pick for defensemen of the quarter, as he seems to be the best at playing consistent defense (you know, his position). In 15 games played, Radko has tallied a total of 58 hits, 44 blocked shots, and only 8 giveaways. He is sitting even in the +/- column, which is good for a defenseman not normally on the power play. And how can you not love his well-groomed Fu Manchu?
The Bad:
Can I just say “a lot” for this section?
Or maybe I’ll just say “Andrew MacDonald” …
Even though our offensive production from the defense has been great so far this season, our defensive efforts have been sour at best. A huge lack of zone coverage (especially in the slot), irresponsibility around the neutral zone, and constant turnovers have been the sources to blame for this group thus far this season. In 20 games played, this group has combined for a total of 95 giveaways – and a large portion of them coming from within our own zone!
We all knew leading up to this season that our defense would be mediocre at best, even with the addition of rookie Ivan Provorov to the roster. But a lot of these mistakes are allowing the team to blow leads, and are even adding to the already disappointing performances in net.
A large aspect of this apparent defensive confusion are in the pairings. As with the offense, our defensive pairings are switched around daily. Now, back to back games (the Flyers have had 6 pairs already this season) can sometimes attribute to these changes depending on ice time per defensemen. But so far, I really just think it’s another case of over coaching by Dave Hakstol.
The Goalies
I’m going to start with “The Bad” for this section, you’ll understand why momentarily…
The Bad:
Before Michael Nuevirth’s injury back on November 12th, both Flyers goaltenders were ranked below 45th in the league in save percentage. I know, that was hard to read. But during that time, I tweeted about how this can sometimes occur with teams that do not have a clear cut number one goalie.
Again, a common theme appears. Just like the offense needs chemistry with the players to their left, and to their right. Just like the defense needs chemistry with the gentlemen beside them. The goalie needs chemistry with the iron in back of him. Having two starting goalies switched night in and night out does not allow either of them to build any rhythm. Is this an excuse for them having below a .850 SV% in the first 15 games? Not necessarily. But it does play into effect, and we are witnessing the transition of this rhythm right now.
The Good:
You never wish injury upon a player. Never. Thus, the news of Michael Nuevirth’s 4-6 week lower body injury was tough to hear. However, sometimes injuries can work in your favor. This injury is allowing Steve Mason at least one month from November 12th to be the clear cut starter.
Before the Flyers home game against Ottawa, I tweeted out some predictions regarding Mason’s performance for the remainder of the month knowing he would be able to start each and every game (pending injury).
Since that game, Steve Mason has totaled for 107-115 shots faced for a .930 SV%. Thus, raising his season total to a .895 SV%. The Flyers have also managed to grab 5 out of a possible 8 points with 4 games left in November. Go ahead, look at those tweets again.
Bottom line, Steve Mason is in a groove right now, and it is because he is forced to be the number one guy each and every night. #BelieveInSteve.
The Coaching
I will not be doing a “Good and Bad” breakdown for Dave Hakstol, but rather a stream of hot takes as I have had many over the past couple of weeks. Before I launch into these bullet points, I want everyone to know that I still think Hakstol is a good coach. He would not be in the NHL if he hadn’t proven his worth. However, there have been many question worthy decisions so far this season that need to be addressed…
Hot Takes:
Why the hell is Chris Vandevelde still in the lineup? Is it just for the penalty kill? Wayne Simmonds is proof that you don’t need players on an active roster just for the PK. So if that’s not the only reason, what is? Evidence is growing that because Hakstol coached Vandy at North Dakota, his player to coach chemistry too tough to break
What’s up with the tinkering Hakstol? You’re like one of those guys in fantasy football who spends all Sunday morning changing players in and out of their lineup, only to wind up losing anyway. Let the projections and the numbers speak for themselves!
Ghost has the most points for a defenseman on the team. You benched him. MDZ is our clear #1. You benched him. Luckily for you, we won both of those games. But neither of these moves make any sense as you are replacing them with a glorified beer league MVP in Andrew MacDonald. I could go on for days about this issue and how irresponsible it is on a coaching perspective, especially when your goaltending issue seems to be on the turnaround!
Why is Mark Streit still an alternate captain? Is it just to make his impending exit out of Philadelphia a little easier? The man is skating worse than Sean Courtier right now with his knee injury (too soon?). This isn’t me telling you to bench Mark as he seems to be improving a bit on the blue line, but if you are all about these “college level” punishments, take the ‘A’ from him!
What is the deal with Gostisbehere’s time on ice? And why the hell do you keep pairing him with Andrew MacDonald!? I get Ghost has been a little irresponsible with zone coverage, but don’t you realize that he plays aggressive on both ends of the ice? Thus, why in the world would you play an offensively aggressive D-man with arguably the worst defensemen on an active NHL roster? He will never be able to cover!
You’re “Not Afraid to punish team” – as in bag skating? And I thought these healthy scratches were the signs of a college level coach. These players are on contract, making hard earned cash to satisfy the likes of their respective franchise’s market. Who are you trying to be, Herb Brooks?
I did not see many of these questions come into play with you last season, thus the concern. Were you just getting used to the schedule, the workload, and the atmosphere last year before bringing your “flare” to the daily grind? If so, please go back to innocent, first-year Dave.
To answer the ultimate question for the quarter mark, “Who are the Philadelphia Flyers?” Well, still don’t know. This team doesn’t really have an identity as of yet. They are in a win-one, lose-one loop with mistakes and successes being thrown across the board. This being said, it is a little concerning especially after the way they ended last season the hot and fast way they did.
But at the end of the day, we can’t say the Flyers are a disappointment thus far as they are not worse off than they were last season. And I do think they will get their act together sooner rather than later. Either way, we will soon know where this team stands in the playoff race as we enter into a hard stretch of 12 games in 20 days starting tonight in Tampa Bay at 7:30pm ET.