QUICK HITS: MARCH 6, 2017
1) Things continue to get tighter and tighter in the race for the final wildcard spot in the Eastern Conference. With the New York Islanders' 5-2 loss in Calgary on Sunday, the Isles also lost the benefit of the game in hand they held on the other teams in the chase.
Even with the Flyers sustaining a 2-1 overtime loss in Washington on Saturday night, Philly gained ground this weekend on the Florida Panthers (2-1 regulation loss to the Dallas Stars on Saturday), the Toronto Maple Leafs (5-2 regulation loss to the Anaheim Ducks on Friday) and the Islanders. However, the Tampa Bay Lightning's 2-1 win over the Buffalo Sabres on Saturday pulled them into a points tie (68) with the Flyers.
Heading into a week that sees the Flyers play road games in Buffalo, Toronto and Boston, the Flyers are four points off the pace to reclaim the lower wildcard seed in the East. Keep in mind that a tie in points does the Flyers no good because they currently have a tiebreaker disadvantage against every team they are chasing for the final playoff spot. As such the Flyers likely must win outright on points, which is why the gap between themselves and the Islanders should properly be viewed as four points rather than three.
It is doable for the Flyers to come away with a playoff spot when all is said and done, especially if they come up with at least five of the six available points over the remainder of the road trip. However, all are difficult games and the Flyers still very much have their work cut out for them even with a big week.
First of all, they can't afford any sort of cold spell the rest of the season. The Flyers wasted all their mulligans when their play dropped off a cliff following the 10-game winning streak. Secondly, regardless of the goaltending and team defense -- both of which have been good over the past week -- the team is going to have start scoring more than 1-2 goals on most nights. Lastly, there will be nights when two teams ahead of the Flyers in the chase will play each other, meaning that one side is guaranteed of two points (and the dreaded three-point night could very well be in play, too).
The Flyers can't count on help every night on the out-of-town scoreboard. There will be night where holding serve is the best they can do. With that said, the team has been playing pretty good hockey of late overall. If that continues and they scratch out a few more goals, they are still capable of making noise in the remaining playoff chase.
The Flyers practice on Monday at the Skate Zone in Voorhees, NJ and then depart for Buffalo. Apologies for the lack of a blog yesterday on the Flyers-Caps game from Saturday night. I had internet connectivity issues in my hotel yesterday morning.