THREE KEYS TO FLYERS STRETCH DRIVE
Over the next 10 days, there will be considerable speculation about potential roster moves the Flyers will make before the March 5 trade deadline. Regardless of whom they add or delete -- I'm not sure how active the Flyers can or should be in a market with relatively few outright sellers -- the team is going to need to hit the ground running during the stretch drive.
Currently, the Flyers are in third place in the Metropolitan Division, one point behind the New York Rangers and three points ahead of the Columbus Blue Jackets, who have a game in hand. The Washington Capitals are also three points behind the Flyers but have played the same number of games (59) as Philly. Carolina is five points behind but has two games in hand on the Flyers. The Devils are five points behind with 59 games played. Only the last-place New York Islanders -- 14 points behind the Flyers with one more game played and the head-to-head season series with Philly already finished -- are out of chase.
The last thing the Flyers can afford is stumble out of the Olympic break the way they staggered off to a 1-7-0 start at the beginning of the season. Since that time, the Flyers have gone 29-16-6, including a 4-1-0 run heading into the break that included wins over the Los Angeles Kings, San Jose Sharks (Thursday night's opponents), Colorado Avalanche and Calgary Flames.
Three keys to success during the stretch drive:
1) COMMITMENT TO TEAM DEFENSE: When the Flyers make a team-wide commitment to defense, as they did during their California road trip and the early weeks of Craig Berube's tenure, they become a much tougher team to beat. It all starts with making sure that everyone keeps skating and maintaining good gap control.
When the Flyers do that, they spend much less time working to get out of their own zone and yield fewer transitional rushes off turnovers. Puck support and backchecking need to consistent characteristics of this team as the games continue to get tougher and tougher.
2) CONTINUED STRONG GOALTENDING: Apart from a few tough weeks in December and January most notable for a pair of six-game road trips, Steve Mason has been the Flyers' most valuable player this season. The Flyers will need him to come back off the Olympic break playing well and showing the form he had in October, November and his final four starts heading into the Olympic break.
In the meantime, backup Ray Emery has generally played better than his uninspiring season stat line looks. There have been a couple ugly games that got away from the Flyers that had little to do with Emery's play in those games.
3) EVEN STRENGTH PLAY: Power plays and penalty kills run hot and cold during the season, including those of the top special teams clubs in the NHL. The Flyers' power play got off to an abysmal start to the season, especially at home, but ended up in the top one-third of the NHL (19.6 percent, 10th overall) by the Olympic break. Likewise, the Flyers entered the Olympic break ranked seventh overall in penalty killing (84.6 percent).
Coming off the break it could take the Flyers and other clubs a few games to get one or both elements of special teams cranked up again. At least everyone is in the same boat.
A more important -- and, in my mind, more concerning -- challenge for the Flyers will be to maintain strong play at even strength. Although special teams can win or lose a game on any given night, it is the teams that play best at even strength that generally have the most consistent success. The Flyers learned that lesson the hard way last season, missing the playoffs despite enjoying the best combined special teams rating in the NHL. They lost too many games at even strength.
Take a look at the best even-strength teams in the NHL this season. The top nine in even strength goals for/against ratio are defending Eastern Conference champion Boston (1.48), Anaheim (1.43), St. Louis (1.40), defending Stanley Cup champion Chicago (1.38), Tampa Bay (1.22), Colorado (1.15), San Jose (1.13) and Pittsburgh (1.11). It is pretty close to a comprehensive list of the teams (with the exception of Colorado) who are considered the League's top threats to win the Cup this season.
The Flyers currently rank 19th in the NHL in even strength ratio (0.94). That may be just good enough to have them currently in playoff position, but they need to get on the positive side of the ratio to have a real chance at making noise.
A related point: After the Thanksgiving break, the Flyers became masters at third period comebacks. They have already matched their franchise-best season mark for wins after trailing at some point in the third period. That is unsustainable down the stretch and into the postseason. While the occasional comeback may be needed -- and it's good to have confidence in their ability to do it successfully -- the Flyers need to play from ahead more often. Improving their even-strength performance would go a long way to accomplishing that goal.
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CASINO ROYALE FUNDRAISER WITH FLYERS ALUMNI
On Sun. March 9, starting at 5 p.m., Abrams Hebrew Academy will hold its annual Fund Raising Dinner and Casino Royale Night at Congregation Beth El in Yardley, PA. Special guests for the night will include Bernie Parent, Brian Propp, Bill Clement, Joe Watson and Bob "the Hound" Kelly.
Apart from the dinner and casino event, there will also be a host of items available via auction, including a signed stick by all three members of the Flyers' legendary LCB line (Reggie Leach and Hall of Famers Bob Clarke and Bill Barber), boxes of Bernie Parent's signature cigar line, a handsome Clarke lithograph and many more goodies.
All proceeds go to benefit the school. My nephew, Sammy Sherman, attends Abrams and my sister, Liza, helped to organize the event and line up the Flyers alumni guests. The slogan for the event is "Help Abrams Make Its Goal."
For more information,
click here.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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