Meltzer's Musings: So Close and Yet So Far
In the big picture, the Philadelphia Flyers' 2019-20 regular season and playoffs were a step in the right direction. The team was within the top four in the Eastern Conference during the regular season, swept the round robin to enter the playoffs as the No. 1 seed and then came within one win of reaching the Eastern Conference Final for the first time since 2010.
Young players such Travis Konecny, Travis Sanheim and Phil Myers advanced during the season. Sean Couturier was a Selke Trophy finalist. Oskar Lindblom took a major step forward offensively early in the season and then battled all the way back from Ewing's Sarcoma to achieve remission and then rejoin the Flyers lineup for Games 6 and 7 of the second round of the playoffs.
However, it's hard to call the Flyers' playoff performance satisfying once the round-robin ended. The Montreal Canadiens carried the play for much of the First Round series with the Flyers, and it was the goaltending of Carter Hart and the team's closeouts in the third period that enabled the team to win 2-1, 1-0, 2-0, and 3-2 games.
In the Islanders series, New York was the better time by a wide margin in two of three periods in Games 1,2, 3 and 5. With the exception of the second overtime of Game 6, New York spent more time attacking than defending in the four straight periods. The closeout ability that the Flyers showed during the regular season and up through the Montreal series vanished as Philadelphia lost 3-0, 2-0 and 2-0 leads in their three wins in the series only to ultimately rescue victories in overtime (setting a new franchise record with three OT wins in a single playoff series).
Most disappointing of all was how feeble the Flyers looked as soon as adversity hit in Game 7. Philadelphia controlled the play for the first six-plus minutes, including a deflection that went off the post and earning the game's first power play. After a coverage breakdown by James van Riemsdyk that led to a Scott Mayfield goal and then one by Jakub Voracek that contributed to one on the other side by Andy Greene, the Flyers made zero pushback. Philadelphia was limited to nine shots on goal through two periods and 16 overall in a 4-0 loss.
With the season on the line, that wasn't even in the ballpark of what was needed. I've seen teams that were on fumes from earlier series comebacks run out of gas in Game 7 -- including the 1987 Flyers in the Stanley Cup Final against Edmonton -- but they at least put up a more competitive battle for two-plus periods in the last game. Game 7 of the Islanders series was a huge disappointment after the moxie the team showed in pulling out wins in Games 5 and 6.
Overall, it would be fair to say that going 3-0-0 in the round robin and 4-0-0 to start the playoffs raised false hopes that the team would be able to get back to the level the team achieved during the 26 games leading into the league's four-and-a-half month stoppage for the Covid-19 pandemic.
For starters, the power play was AWOL for the duration of the playoffs with the exception of a 3-for-7 outburst in Game 5 of the Montreal series. The team was 4-for-50 going into Game 7 of the Islanders series, finishing 0-for-13 against the Islanders. Meanwhile, after a strong start to the postseason on the penalty kill, the PK turned out to be erratic when it mattered the most.
It is remarkable that the team was able to make it to Game 7 of the conference semifinals without regular-season leading goal-scorer and point-getter Travis Konecny scoring a single goal the entire 17-game run during the postseason (he had 7 assists). Team captain Claude Giroux scored just one goal in the playoffs (seven assists). Kevin Hayes (four goals, nine assists) was the lone Flyers to tally double-digit points in the playoffs.
This year's playoffs were very unusual by virtue of the long delay before they started and the strangeness of living and playing in the Bubble. As such, it would unwise for the Flyers -- or any team -- to overreact based solely on the playoffs. That said, the playoffs revealed some matchup weaknesses that the Flyers need to correct. They have a dual need to get both faster and physically stronger; it's not easy to find players who boast both traits.
In both the Montreal and Islanders' series, the Flyers showed they are vulnerable to an aggressive forecheck. New York had success is setting up plays from behind the net, and Philly also had issues coping physically with some of the bigger Islanders forwards, such as Anders Lee. The sheer depth of the Islanders' forward lineup -- where they could get goals from any of the top three lines and the fourth line could create momentum and offensive-zone starts for the first and second lines seemed to wear down the Flyers.
In the days and weeks to come, my blog space will be devoted to discussing the array of items that are on the to-do list in an unusual off-season; not the least of which is how the Flyers (like many teams) are going to be able to improve their team with a flat salary-cap ceiling. We'll also do a run-up to the 2020 NHL Draft and a post-Draft review.
In today's edition of Flyers Daily, which is the first part of a two-part episode looking at what happened in the playoffs and how the team can move forward, Jason Myrtetus and I focused on the Islanders' series and then took some listener-submitted questions via Twitter. Part 2 will be devoted entirely to listener questions. To listen,
click here.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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