The Flyers have been playing under intense "playoff pressure" for 6-8 weeks now but now appear to have pretty much run out of gas. Save for the superb play of the two targets, Steve Mason and Michael Neuvirth, and rookie blueline phenom Shayne Gostisbehere in particular over that time, however, they probably would not really have been anywhere close to making the dance. While the largely heroic Wayne Simmonds tipped in the goal that tied it late in the third period against Toronto last night for his 30th of the season, if the Flyers fail to make the post season it will also be be in part because of two bad "out of gas" plays he made in the final two weeks: the ill advised icing he took when the Flyers had a PP and 2-0 lead with just over a minute to go in Columbus that ended up being a 3-2 OT loss to the Jackets, and the giveaway tonight in his own end on a back pass that resulted in the Leafs 3rd goal on Grabner's unassisted breakaway. Save for the final ten minutes against the Leafs on Thursday night, they were also largely outplayed by spoiler minded Toronto, the 29th place team in the league and losing in OT, 4-3.
Making the playoffs this year now comes down to their two games this weekend -- their third and fourth in five days. On Saturday the Bruins (who beat Detroit last night, 5-2) have Ottawa at home and the Red Wings (who shut out the Flyers on Wednesday, 3-0) are at MSG against the Rangers who will be without both their captain, Ryan McDonagh, and Dan Girardi on the blueline and plan to start backup Antti Raanta in goal. Both of these teams also have the ROW tiebreaker over the Flyers if they end up tied in points. These two games will be over by the time the Flyers take to the ice against the Penguins at 3:30 on Saturday afternoon on NBC. (As always I will be sitting in the TV booth to the left of Doc and Edzo.) Although the Pens (3-0 against the Flyers this year) defeated the Caps in OT on Thursday night to guarantee home ice in the first round, I don't really don't expect them to rest anybody for the Flyers game even if they want to because of all the regulars sidelined with injuries. I also expect they may want to do anything they can to keep the Flyers out of the playoffs so that they would not have to meet this intense rival that seems to won them in the Pens home building anytime in the post season. If the the Flyers fail to claim a wild card spot on Saturday, they then still have one more game available to try to make the post season when they visit the Islanders (who beat the Rangers tonight to move ahead of them in the Metropolitan Division) on Sunday for the makeup of the game in January that was postponed because to the east coast blizzard.
While they can still make the playoffs, getting just one out of six available points in the last three games is making that a much tougher task. Flyer fans should not despair, however, as the team is really a good bit better off then they had any right to expect at mid season, and the unexpected impact and development of Gostisbehere has been a major factor. Had it not been for his unanticipated call up from the AHL Lehigh Valley Phantoms when Mark Streit went down for six weeks in November, the Flyers would likely have been much closer to the bottom of the league standings now than with still having a shot at making the playoffs. And it should be remembered that in 2010 they made the cut in the shoot out of the final game of the season when the edged (and knocked out) the New York Rangers and then went on to take Chicago to six games into the finals,
I have been involved in working with and/or covering the Flyers for 46 years now so I have pretty much "seen it all". I can honestly say that no matter what happens this weekend, this has not been a "lost season" for them by any means.