The Philadelphia Flyers have had a miserable start to their season. A 7-0 loss in their season opener against the hated Penguins at home, followed by a 3-2 overtime loss to the Devils where the only reason they weren’t blown out once again was Joseph Woll in between the pipes.
Now, they’re heading back to Philadelphia to face the reigning Stanley Cup champions, the Carolina Hurricanes. But before what should be an interesting game, we have to just take note of what our biggest concern is through those two awful games. What are we most worried about?
It’s a good ol’ fashioned roundtable.
What’s your biggest concern about how the Flyers have started their season
Jason M: Where to begin? Well, probably the most troubling thing is the lack of preparation or urgency the Flyers have shown in the opening back-to-back tilts. A few moderately average shifts against the Penguins to start the game was the highlight. Things were somewhat better against New Jersey, but urgency usually means winning one-on-one battles, gaining puck possession, and driving play towards the offensive zone. There was none of that shown. There’s lots of time left, but the lack of urgency was probably the most troubling thing not named the power play so far this year.
Jacob R: The most concerning thing thus far is how far the team has seemed to have strayed from the core identity they established last year. In just two games they have completely erased any thoughts of them being a team that battles every night, and have looked frighteningly complacent while the opposition skates them into the ice. Rick Tocchet is not capable of coaching a high scoring outfit, so if they cannot continue to at least keep some of that defensive identity and pressure up as a collective, there’s not much that will separate them from other run of the mill teams, in the Metro especially. And I guess that goes hand-in-hand with the offense, too. At least if they had the firewagon gene in their game you could see a path to them potentially stealing games. But their offensive game is so vanilla that it seems impossible that they could actually make that happen. So on second thought, I guess my biggest concern is that it seems impossible for them to win games. Which is probably fine right?
Brad: My biggest concern right now is that it sure doesn’t seem like Rick Tocchet came away with the right lessons from last season. We’re only two games in, but Matvei Michkov and Porter Martone sitting 9th and 10th in ice time among Flyers forwards is concerning given the drama from last season and Tocchet’s history with certain high-skill forwards. It feels like more of the same, and that can’t continue. As said above, it does feel like there’s a real lack of preparation when it comes to this team right now, and while a lot of that is on the players, it’s also on the coaching staff. It’s almost certainly too soon for him to be on the hot seat, especially coming off winning a playoff series, but man, this is a disappointing start. Plenty of time to fix it, though.
Thomas: My biggest concern has to be the defense. Even if we can make it a more broad scope like Jason’s point and about how they might just be unprepared, it scares me even more that they can’t rely on what was their calling card all season long last year. The Flyers allowed 21 high-danger chances against the Penguins in the season opener. That ties the highest amount in a single game from last year. And, they allowed 95 total shot attempts against in New Jersey. Last season their highest was 87 and it was against the Hurricanes (predictable). They have already put in two of the worst defensive performances we’ve seen dating back to this time last year and it’s the first two games of this season. Ah!!
Cole: Similar to what Jacob and Thomas said, the Flyers have thus far looked far from the defense-first identity that defined their playoff run last year. It was kind of my concern coming into the season, but the Flyers have so many areas of possible regression, on both sides of the ice. We just don’t know what so many of these players are, so if a few of them regress or have sophomore slumps (Porter Martone, Alex Bump, etc.), they might be in trouble. That’s before we get into the other young players on this roster, like a largely unproven Jamie Drysdale, or a vet’s production falling off a cliff. There is obviously so much season to go, and plenty of time for all of these players to get their games to where they need to be. They just don’t have the offensive talent to fall back on if the defensive structure continues to lapse. Just a confusing start to the season that erases so much of the good will the group built up last April.
