One of the main reasons why the Flyers think they can make another run deep in the playoffs this year without a top-notch goaltender is the club's off-season strategy of trying to strengthen the blueline.
It's debatable whether the club managed the salary cap properly when it came to assembling the seven (and possibly eight) defensemen it will carry into opening night. Nevertheless it is also pretty clear that, at least on paper, the Flyers' now have one of the deepest 1-to-7 bluelines in the NHL and potentially one of the best groups in franchise history, at least on a single-season basis.
Even so, there is only so much your defense can do to keep the puck out of the net. Strong defense has to be a team-wide commitment, with the forwards carrying just as much responsibility as the defense. When I look at the Flyers' forwards defensively, I see a pretty average team in its own of the ice -- especially if Blair Betts misses time at the beginning of the season.
One area in particular that concerns me: faceoffs. If you lose too many defensive zone faceoffs, sooner or later the puck will wind up in your net within moments of the draw. It may not happen at all in a given game, or it may happen once or twice and cost you a game or a blown one-goal lead. Either way, it's playing with fire.
Michael Leighton is a goaltender who prefers to freeze the puck rather than keeping play going. That's certainly preferable to other goalies (Brian Boucher for one, Martin Biron for another) who like to take chances in keeping play alive, but really shouldn't because they often cause more problems than they solve. Even so, frequent defensive zone faceoffs put a lot of pressure on the skaters to either win the draw and work the puck out of the zone or at least avoid losing it cleanly and giving up a scoring chance.
Say what you will about Marty Turco's age and reputed declining reflexes. The new Chicago goaltender is still an excellent puckhandling goalie, even in the trapezoid era that only allows goalies to handle the puck in front of the goal line or in the small allowed area directly behind the net. For that reason alone, he could have brought a dimension that could have helped the Flyers in the puck possession game.
But what's done is done. For the Flyers to truly be an improved defensive club this season, they are going to have to improve in the faceoff department and get certain forwards (Nikolai Zherdev for one) to buy into consistent backchecking as well as as aggressive forechecking.
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With a little over a month to go before the start of NHL training camps, there is still a slew of unsigned unrestricted free agents on the market place. You have to figure that a significant percentage of them will still be looking for jobs when camp opens. As a result, there is likely to be a lot of veteran players who come to NHL training camps and non-roster invitees.
In a new column for
Versus.com, I took a look at six players of varying skill levels and on-ice roles who could find their next NHL employer via this route if they are not signed to a contract in the next month.
The Flyers have been one of the more active NHL teams in inviting non-roster veterans to camp the last few seasons. Last year, it worked out well with Blair Betts. There have also been situations where it hasn't worked out, such as with Mark Bell last year and Bryan Berard the previous year.
While I have no direct knowledge of this and it is mere speculation on my part, I could see Wayne Primeau being the type of player the Flyers might want to give a look in camp. It's not because he's Keith Primeau's brother, but rather because the 34-year-old checking center can fill a need as an insurance policy in case Blair Betts' is not ready to play in the first few weeks of the season or suffers yet another shoulder separation. He's also an accomplished faceoff man.
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On IIHF.com, I have authored a
career retrospective on the late Wayne Stephenson. My article focuses both on Stephenson's international accomplishments playing with Team Canada as well as his five-year Flyers career.
There are also good Stephenson memorials at
the Capitals official site (which looks extensively at his two seasons in Washington), another at
Philadelphiaflyers.com (which includes a statement from Ed Snider and a Stephenson photo gallery), and Tim Panaccio's
CSN Philly article.
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