October 13, 2015
In what has been a rare occurrence for the Philadelphia Flyers, they have embarked on a second consecutive NHL season without the brash and optimistic talk about winning the Stanley Cup.
The first three games of the season provided a rousing three-on-three overtime loss in Tampa, a horrendous loss in Florida and a gritty 1-0 win in the home opener rematch with the Panthers. The next step is Wednesday night’s game against the defending Cup champion Chicago Blackhawks when fans will get to enjoy a pre-game ceremony honoring popular defenseman Kimmo Timonen.
It will be a bittersweet evening for the fans that got to enjoy Timonen’s efforts while in Philadelphia, but who in order to finally get his name on the Cup had to leave for Chicago. It wasn’t that long ago that the Flyers were playing Chicago in the Stanley Cup finals, but that fork in the road has veered off into far different directions.
Make no mistake; the Flyers are the type of team that is going to need some constant tinkering by the head coach to win games every night. There will be no cruise period for this team because, in order to get to play in the postseason, the Flyers will have to navigate through a very tough Metropolitan Division.
The Blackhawks remain atop the NHL while the Flyers have now accepted their status as one of those middle-of-the-pack clubs. The only way there will be much talk of winning it all will be if goalie Steve Mason stakes a claim as one of the league’s best and both Claude Giroux and Jake Voracek compete for the scoring championship.
Even if that all that happen, there is the issue of an extremely mediocre defense and a rookie coach, Dave Hakstol, navigating through his first NHL season. Hakstol will quickly understand that the NHL is a far different animal than college hockey and his long tenure at NCAA powerhouse North Dakota won’t count for much in the professional ranks.
The good news for Hakstol is that he isn’t expected to drive his team into a deep playoff run. In fact, if the Flyers simply reclaim a chair in the playoffs the season would likely be viewed as a success.
But even that will not be easy.
Hakstol is going to get a quick study on what it takes to simply get a team to compete from night to night in the traffic jam of an 82-game NHL season. In the matter of just three games he first saw Mason get trounced in Florida before the goalie was forced out of the lineup with a personal family emergency.
Hakstol has also seen his team call a short team meeting after only the second game of the season and he has been forced into a few lineup changes to put some voltage in the team’s effort.
Make no mistake; the Flyers are the type of team that is going to need some constant tinkering by the head coach to win games every night. There will be no cruise period for this team because, in order to get to play in the postseason, the Flyers will have to navigate through a very tough Metropolitan Division.
The very hard truth of the matter is that the Flyers don’t match up well with the New York Rangers, New York Islanders, Washington Capitals or Columbus Blue Jackets. You can actually make a case for any of those four teams to reach the Stanley Cup finals.
The saving grace for the Flyers is likely to come from the other half of the conference, where the Boston Bruins will probably continue to decline, the Toronto Maple Leafs are in a total rebuild under Mike Babcock, and the Detroit Red Wings could struggle with Babcock’s departure.
What you are left with is a Flyers team that will probably be in a battle for one of the final two wild-card spots and in a battle like that there cannot be many lost points in any game from October through April.
Hakstol has been given a team that will need to be pushed and prodded to accumulate points, and he will have to be proactive from the very start to have a chance at the playoffs. Already, Hakstol has replaced Luke Schenn with Radko Gudas and swapped Sam Gagner for RJ Umberger because of injury.
Hakstol will also have to deal with the issue of Vinny Lecavalier as a healthy scratch for long periods of time, while trying to get the most out of players such as Sean Couturier and Matt Read, and live with some mistakes while defensemen Evgeny Medvedev gets accustomed to the North American game and rink size.
This is hardly what you would call a turnkey roster.
Hakstol will have to learn on the fly a variety of in-game situations like line matchups and must figure out a way to keep his two stars away from the opposition’s top defensive pairing. The Flyers can not survive long without big numbers from both Giroux and Voracek, and although Hakstol’s preference might be to roll four lines – that won’t work with this team, especially on the road.
Giroux and Voracek have not exactly been offensive monsters in the first three games, with no goals between them (Voracek has no points). Sure, it’s early, but it will get late very quickly if those two don’t produce and Hakstol will need to get them on the ice at the right times.
In the future, the Flyers have a pipeline of young defensemen who should add great value to the club’s chances for the first Cup in forever but in the meantime, it will be a struggle. Unlike the Sixers, who live in an NBA world where the only way to really get better is a total tear down and rebuild, the Flyers could be able to keep their heads above the playoff water level in the NHL. But in order to do so, the coach will have to push about a million buttons from now through April.
Welcome to the NHL Dave Hakstol, and here’s hoping you are a very quick study.
