Three and half weeks. That's all that's left until we get to see what we all came to see...the NHL Playoffs. Nothing against March Madness, the World Cup or the NFL....the NHL Playoffs are the Greatest Show on Earth...And what we have going on right now is spectacular. Pure and simple, the races for the final playoff spots are amazing...despite the fact that we should have three points for a regulation win...
I will, for the most part be looking and talking about the teams who are chasing the Cup, but since there are several interesting teams who are in transitional phases, I thought it would be fun to talk about those teams as well… taking into account the Draft and July 1 are less than four months away.
Today I will start closest to home....
Team in Transition: The Philadelphia Flyers
The Flyers loss to the Bruins on Saturday was about as devastating a loss as you will see. Just seconds away from a regulation win, the Flyers gave up a goal and then lost in overtime. The fact the team they're chasing was the team defeated them made this loss particularly painful, but the reality is the Flyers have lost many games in the past month in very similar ways. Columbus, Calgary... The same formula: battle hard, get lead, lose lead, lose in OT/SO.
In all my years watching the Flyers, this may be among the most odd.
The reality is the Flyers have the offense and goaltending to be a playoff team...To actually be a very good playoff team. They simply don't have the defense to hold leads and kill penalties.
The direction Hextall has chosen, by moving Timonen and Coburn for the future showed an acceptance by this Organization which I don't believe Flyers fans have ever seen before. In the past, whenever this team was battling for a playoff spot, the team would go out and fill needs. This team needed shutdown defense, and instead of going and getting those defenders, they looked at the rest of the league and moved two of their best shutdown defenders just at the point they needed them the most.
You can tell how much this is frustrating to guys like Giroux, Simmonds, and Voracek...three of the more talented forwards to ever don the Orange and Black.
The fact the Flyers have gotten points in 18 of 23 games and have played solid hockey since the All-Star break hasn't done anything to change the plan. They are NOT and actual contender in Hextall's mind, who knows they have blue-chip young defenders coming...but not yet ready. This trade deadline, Hextall did something this team has never done before.
Admit they aren't good enough to win now.
You can debate that of course, and say the two defenders the Flyers moved weren't really a part of the team this year anyway, and there is no debating Hextall got an amazing return...but you can't debate both players would have seen more ice-time late in the game against Boston than the players the Flyers have been force to use every time such a situation presented itself this season.
As a Flyers fan, you can take this in many ways. I've always said the greatest part of being a fan of this team is knowing this team will always go for it. You knew, even if the chips were down, they would do SOMETHING to try and improve NOW. Ed would always go for it.
That is why this is a hard season to watch this team. You know they could do more for the short-term. You know they could probably do enough to squeak into the playoffs. And you remember the last time they snuck into the playoffs they went to the Stanley Cup Final. In the NHL playoffs work that way.
But....
This feels like a two-year plan by Hextall to set this team on a course.
The reality is the Flyers are young. They're a young and talented team in the latter stages of a rebuild. A rebuild that happened on the fly until now, but happened. They have extremely good top of the line talent in their mid-to-late 20s, and a very solid group of Third/Fourth liners who are improving every day. The defense will come, as will the coaching.
It is my opinion Craig Berube is an excellent coach, but not the kind of head coach to bring this team to where they need to go. The fact this team continues to underperform against teams worse than them in the standings and over perform against teams better than them in the standings has to point to coaching. The fact that this team has one of the biggest drop offs from their first Power Play unit to their second unit points towards coaching.
The fact that the Flyers continue to compete despite the defensive holes is actually impressive, but from watching them you get the sense that has more to do with Steve Mason than anything else.
I also get the sense there is something bigger here. Part of the plan which will soon be more obvious.
The Flyers don't want to bring on just any coach to head this team. Berube is more than adequate for the kind of year which they would trade away their biggest needs. This summer there will be some serious coaches available. Hextall knows this and perhaps more impressively, has sold this.... The result of which is an odd sort of apathy which hasn't been seen often by Flyers fans. It feels wrong to watch the same mistakes over and over without expecting to see changes.
Unless....
You believe the Flyers are gearing up. Gearing up to go after Mike Babcock. This is the kind of scenario Babcock could see as interesting because the talent is quality and young, many of the pieces are in place, and of course the money will be very high. If not Babcock, there will be other top-notch coaches available.
Again, the only reason you allow this sort of inconsistency is if you are looking beyond this year.
We will discuss this and more on today's podcast and thanks for reading....next in the Teams in Transition series will be Toronto.....yeh....