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Hot to Prove More Than Just Hot |
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The Flyers had a 10-game winning streak in 2016-7 and only squeezed into the playoffs as the eighth seed, went 13-3-1 after calling up Carter Hart a year ago and yet didn’t make the postseason. There is a difference between getting hot and becoming good and being in competition for a division lead in mid-March is not the only indicator.
You look at scoring across four lines, numbers of shots against, whatever more sophisticated version of your basic Corsi numbers tell you what you want to know. And then, because it’s the opponents who know best, you wait for the term “right now” to disappear from the obligatory praise when asked about the next team on the schedule.
Of course the nine-game winning streak the Flyers brought into Tuesday night’s game with Boston was only naturally going to bring a lot of “right nows” in the carefully polite assessments from the Bruins. You didn’t hear that from any Flyer about the Bruins, who have reached 100 points for the third time in three seasons. Boston is not a good time right now, just a good team period.
No offense meant, but Bruce Cassidy put a “right now’ in there about Philadelphia, although adding he was not surprised, especially after the Flyers, following up a November victory at TD Garden, stormed from three goals back to beat the Bruins in January at Wells Fargo. “I see a good hockey team that basically took it to us for 40 minutes,” said the Bruins coach.
It’s rightfully hard earned, becoming a team that’s good more than just right now. It takes time and playoff wins for respect to grow. Another sign that a team is coming up in the world comes when it runs out of fourth liners to make fun of in the press box. But right now the only irrefutable evidence that the Flyers, who have not won a playoff round since 2012, are well on their way out of mediocrity is that the hockey gods have resumed their attack on them.
The Broad Street Bullies long ago apologized, well, sort of, for surrounding Mike Christie in that Oakland penalty box. But punishment apparently is ongoing. Ever since Bernie Parent and Rick MacLeish were not available towards a hat trick in 1976, on through the absence of Tim Kerr during 1985, 1987 and 1989 deep runs, then no Eric Desjardins in 2004 -- the time they really had the best team–the Flyers have historically been the victims of conspiracy, no time off for good behavior like trading away Glen Cochrane. They lost in the 2010 final on a goal anyone has yet to see and then Chris Pronger didn’t last through the next season.
So here they are again challenging for the Metropolitan Division lead without having Nolan Patrick, who would have anchored their second or third line, and Oskar Lindblom, who is a top six forward. And now, in the midst of all this being good right now, they have lost James van Riemsdyk, and just on Tuesday, Phillipe Myers.
Van Riemsdyk, you probably know is a 25-goal-a-year guy who was playing on the third line, one more reflection of this team’s increased depth. Myers, you may not know, is a rangy and talented rookie defenseman whose presence in the second pair with Travis Sanheim recently has had almost as much to do with the Flyers defensive improvement as has Matt Niskanen.
Really, the kid, somehow an undrafted free agent, has the reach, skill and mindset to be another Colton Parayko. So apparently just for old time’s sake the hockey gods knee capped the poor guy: Broken patella, out four weeks.
Boo hoo hoo, they are getting out the violins in Columbus, and don’t; want to hear it in Carolina either, but that’s four good Flyers out, just as the first kick of the tires that transported them out of the pack in the last few weeks to a division title run was taken by the overall points leader Bruins.
For lack of a tractor to bulldoze Tuukka Rask or a rebound falling on the right stick, the Flyers now have a one-game losing streak to replace their nine game winning streak. But for two periods it was the Bruins, who won on a screen shot and a deflection, 2-0, who looked overmatched, at least right now.
So, having outplayed the best team in the league, next test for the Flyers will be the shadow favorites, the Lightning, to be soon followed by the team with best player in the league, Edmonton, and then the Stanley Cup champion Blues. A significant challenge of their eight-point hold on a playoff spot this is, but it isn’t just the eye test suggesting these guys can consistently play with anybody.
The Flyers are 11-10-2 against teams currently in the top three spots of their divisions, 19-13-2 against clubs currently occupying playoff spots. With road wins at Boston, St. Louis and the first of two at Washingon, they were playing with the big boys even when their road record was questionable. So much for that now too- they have gone 7-2-1 in the last ten away games.
Half their defensive corps is of leas than three years NHL experience and their goalie is in his first season, yet here they are and not really that surprisingly to the people who have tracked how well they have been drafting.
As everything Chuck Fletcher did over the summer to add to the base talent chosen by Ron Hextall has worked, the Flyers are deeper now, which, save for one bad post-Christmas trip, has evened out the highs and lows for which they had become notorious. For a guy $2 million a year over cap slot, Kevin Hayes has been a snug fit in the lineup, Niskanen exactly what the doctor ordered for Ivan Provorov, and, especially with the loss of Sam Morin, Justin Braun’s addition on defense has proven needed, too.
For years, the Flyers fourth line wasn’t even winning shifts, now it buries chances. The anxiety of the bad goal at the wrong time has vanished as Carter Hart anticipates the next shot with instincts beyond his years and Brian Elliott has stayed healthy. In the lineup and with more coming, the Flyers may have as many players on the rise as any team in the NHL with their core guys—Claude Giroux, Jake Voracek still playing a high level. Right now, it’s hard to find a weakness.
Blogger •NHL Hall of Fame writer • 
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