The 2023-24 Philadelphia Flyers season was supposed to be that of a rebuilding team. An expected bottom-ten finish and another miserable viewing for the fans. But that hasn’t been the case. The team exceeded all expectations set forth for them and have held on to a playoff spot for a vast majority of the season. But as they’re high stepping towards the end zone hoping to make their first visit to the postseason since the 2020 bubble, they are about to get tackled at the one yard line.
Seven consecutive losses to a mixture of talent, including critical playoff races against the Islanders and Sabres and some of the worst in the league like the Blackhawks and Blue Jackets have removed the Flyers not just from their third seed in the Metropolitan Division, but from the playoffs entirely as of Monday morning.
There’s still a race to be had with only four games remaining on the schedule, including a game 82 showdown against the Washington Capitals, but the trend the Flyers have been on lately leaves little hope they’ve got enough in the tank to reignite their playoff hopes.
So what exactly went wrong with the Flyers? Well fans on social media have been pointing fingers in various directions, but the reality is, this team rode a perfect underdog story all season long, overcoming odds and masking some pretty noticeable problems through hard fought victories, but that has no longer been the case. They’re a tired, beaten down bunch and every flaw the roster has is fully on display and being taken advantage of by opponents every single game.
The lack of offense the team was able to produce has been an ongoing problem for quite some time, and really it’s what did them in.
Only two players have hit the 50-point plateau, being Travis Konecny and Owen Tippett (the latter not eclipsing it until the 76th game of the season) and their leading scorer has 65 points, which is ranked 54th in the league. They, in part, sacrificed offense to play a sturdy defensive style, but the truth is they just don’t have the capable players to score with regularity.
They’re sitting 26th in the league in Goals For with 222 and GF/PG with 2.85. Not to mention the fact that their powerplay is about to finish dead last in the league for a third consecutive season.
The fact the team hasn’t been able to score has somehow turned around as the goalie’s fault, and while they’ve had problems of their own, It’s hard to win games if the rest of the team doesn’t hold up their end of the bargain.
During their seven game skid, the Flyers scored a single goal in three of those games, and only scored three or more twice. It’s the kind of abysmal production where Sam Ersson could make 40 saves a night and still lose.
Now to focus on the goaltending, it tells a tale of misery on its own. The team collectively has a league-worst save percentage dating back to January 20, at an atrocious .861%.
Carter Hart leaving was probably the biggest death nail to the Flyers’ season. Even though his numbers weren’t mind-blowing, a .906 save percentage is significantly higher than Ersson or any of the rotation of backups has produced. It feels icky to praise Hart, but it’s just a fact he was very good at what he did professionally and the team hasn’t been the same without him. That January 20 date was just three days after Hart’s last game with the Flyers.
The team failed on all fronts. The well oiled machine that Tortorella was watching over at the beginning of the year couldn’t last. And the coach has become more and more unhinged as the season progressed in an attempt to keep the train on the tracks, but did he end up doing more harm than good? His 82-game playoff format left everyone tired, beaten and broken. Giving their all in October and November is good viewing from the fans, but an impractical pace for a team to maintain for six months. And his aggressive coaching style has led to some public spats with his newly-named captain Sean Couturier (and many others), which ironically enough, was right before the shit hit the fan and flung itself all over the room. Was there a correlation? It may be too early to tell, but Torts went from life on easy street to being under a microscope pretty quickly.
So how do the Flyers fix their mess? Well, the good news is that a catastrophic collapse like this should trigger offseason change. They can’t pat themselves on the back after overachieving and rest on their laurels of making the playoffs… if they don’t actually make the playoffs.
It’ll be Danny Briere’s first real test as general manger to rise to the occasion and make meaningful change. He has done a decent job wheeling and dealing thus far, but hasn’t necessarily done anything major yet to take a big step forward towards icing a competitive roster.
Briere’s version of a “rebuild” is a bit of an undulating mass rather than a firm, defined strategy, so maybe he’ll be more apt to take the necessary changes in stride more so than Hextall and his mentality of “staying the course no matter what” did, but given it’s been nearly 15 years since the Flyers organization made a notable high-caliber addition to the roster, the skepticism can’t be shaken until action is actually taken, through no direct fault of Briere.
The Flyers should be in line for a busy summer. Their on-ice collapse has basically left themselves no choice but to adapt quickly. The recent failings of the past versions of the team in similar situations (2018 and 2020) brings a worrisome PTSD vibe about whether the front office is up to the task, and the current roster situation they’ve put themselves in isn’t great, but it’ll be Briere’s chance to earn real respect and put his stamp on the team, and if the Flyers ever want to get out of the mud, they better hope the Bri-era is better than his predecessors.
By: Dan Esche (@DanTheFlyeraFan)
brotherlypuck.com 
Lack of skill
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