Somehow, the Philadelphia Flyers remain as one of the NHL’s most interesting teams heading into the final stretch of the regular season. Projected to be at the bottom, crushed by any team worth a damn, the Flyers have found themselves fighting and trying to stiff-arm their way to keeping their current playoff position.
This has made it one hell of a ride this season and the Flyers are staring down the final six games of the season needing just about every point they can manage as other Eastern Conference teams are slowly (because they keep losing) catching up with just about any advantage they have.
Obviously, if you were to think of one thing to look for, it would be that. To just watch the scoreboard and just hope that the good guys (the Flyers) get the points, and the bad guys (everyone else) keep on losing. But that’s just keeping it so broad and we’re not in the business of just making sweeping expectations and not wanting any more detail.
In these final six games, what else is there to look for? Any personnel that could be interesting? Something to keep an eye on when it comes to positioning? Hmm…
Battle in the crease
There is no easier way to exemplify what it means to pay attention to the Flyers, than what has gone on between the pipes for the last couple of months. Carter Hart was arrested and charged, Sam Ersson was given the starting role with fewer than 50 games of experience, Cal Petersen and Felix Sandstrom played like EBUGs, and then Ivan Fedotov made his NHL debut after being arrested for allegedly evading military service and being able to return to hockey and playing one KHL season. That is some soap opera stuff.
Now with a tandem of Ersson and Fedotov, we can breathe a little bit easier, but it is also a major progressing storyline through the rest of the Flyers’ campaign. Ersson has been simply overworked and relied on so heavily that we can start seeing the cracks in his game. Meanwhile, Fedotov is the shiny new toy (a more experienced player at that) but has been very impressive in his first two periods of big-league action.
Before Friday’s game against the Buffalo Sabres, it sure looks like Fedotov might be getting more starts than we assumed when he initially came over. He certainly should make an appearance during the upcoming back-to-back on Friday and Saturday, but could we see the humungous Russian in between the pipes a couple more times before the playoffs? Head coach John Tortorella certainly seemed impressed with his newest player, so it is definitely something to keep an eye on.
Roles of veterans and young players
John Tortorella is continuing to do John Tortorella things and holding just about everyone accountable for what he sees as poor play. We already know the saga of scratching captain Sean Couturier from the lineup, and leaving veteran Cam Atkinson in the press box, so as the season really grinds to a dramatic halt and every point available needs to be earned, the roles in the lineup should be an interesting narrative.
Will we continue to see the young duo of Morgan Frost and Ryan Poehling as the team’s top-two centers? Is Tyson Foerster, Owen Tippett, Joel Farabee, and Bobby Brink, going to be crucial to the Flyers’ offense? If those young players start feeling more fatigued with a full NHL season, could we see Tortorella relying more on his old friend Atkinson and maybe Scott Laughton, to play higher in the lineup?
It certainly feels like the team could be doing a balancing act of developing these young forwards, but while also relying on them to be the motor behind the team’s talent.
Jamie Drysdale
Unlike lumping all the young forwards together in a gelatinous goop of potential, Jamie Drysdale really deserves his own spotlight. Clearly, the attention is already on him for being the primary return for top prospect Cutter Gauthier (we don’t want to type his name anymore), but we only fear that in the coming weeks, as the former Flyers prospect goes on in the Frozen Four and then signs with the Anaheim Ducks, that Drysdale will only receive more unnecessary attention.
Regardless, his next handful of games should and shouldn’t be important. It should be important to see if he can finish his first season in the Orange and Black on a high note. But it shouldn’t be important if he doesn’t do that, and looks like the still completely raw defenseman that he is.
If he plays like he did in the first couple of games post-trade, then this Flyers team could be extremely dangerous in the final stretch of the regular season and catch a heater in the playoffs. That could be exciting to watch — Drysdale with a longest leash imaginable and returning to a rover-type game, covering every inch of ice. And we might be nearing close to that. He did fortunately return for one game on April 1 and did earn an assist while playing almost 21 minutes.
The almost-22-year-old will have so many eyes on him, and we will need to hold ourselves together to not overreact to either end of the performance pendulum.
Will Denis Gurianov get a chance to earn a contract?
Denis Gurianov is such an interesting player. He is speedy as all hell, and has scored goals from all over the offensive zone in his NHL experience. But, for some reason, the Flyers are taking the long route with putting him in the lineup and he has become a regular in the press box, playing four games and earning zero points along the way.
Due to him turning 27 years old in June, he is set to be an unrestricted free agent this summer. Getting almost no playing time before hitting the open market must be frustrating on a personal level, but honestly, it would be interesting to see what he can do for Philadelphia.
Can he bring a speed and power aspect to the bottom-six forward group that is missing? Do the Flyers just not see him as a player for them next year, so they’re just letting him walk and keeping him around for insurance? This team does have plenty of wingers already and we can’t really argue passionately that he should take the job from any of the eight in the lineup today. Maybe Cam Atkinson, but Tortorella could just be relying on what he knows compares to what he is still finding out, during this important part of the season.
How does the overtime look?
It is becoming comical how predictable the results are during any game where the Flyers reach overtime. Both against the Rangers and the Islanders, this team just completely fell apart and allowed the game-winning goal within seconds. It is like they worked their ass off for the single point and just threw their hands up in the air, saying “okay, that’s enough”. Individual mistake or team-wide flub, any extra time is just a waste of time.
So, will Tortorella and his coaching staff really try to solidify some 3-on-3 overtime work during the final six games? Or are they just praying that it doesn’t get to that point, and the Flyers don’t miss the playoffs because of a missed opportunity after 60 minutes of regulation.
Imagine the scene that the Flyers miss the playoffs by one point and we can all point back to the Rangers, Islanders, or some upcoming mistake in overtime, as the reason why we are not enjoying any postseason play. God have mercy on their souls.
