At a little over a quarter of the way through the season, the Philadelphia Flyers sit at 14-7-3, good for 4th in the division and the first wild card playoff spot. Thus far, this record has exceeded expectations many had for the team going into the year. However, if you look beneath the surface, everything is not as it seems.
The team’s inability to regularly secure a win within sixty minutes of hockey is a major concern at the quarter mark of the season. While the Flyers have won 14 of their 24 games thus far, only half of those wins have been in regulation. What’s even scarier is that of the 7 games they’ve won after regulation, only 2 of those wins have been in overtime – the other 5 have all been in the shootout, which is a league-high. Getting the wins is great, but there are only so many times the Flyers can hope to be bailed out by Trevor Zegras in the shootout. Sooner or later, it’s going to catch up to them. In addition, 9 of their wins have also been come from behind wins, which is the most in the league. They have scored first in only a third of their games so far (8 games), which is tied for last in the league with Buffalo. While it is admirable of the Flyers to battle back and find ways to win, it is paramount to their future success this season that they begin to regularly start games on the right foot and get the first goal.
Don’t get it wrong – it is important that the Flyers continue to win. The two points they gain are crucial, no matter how it happens. But, in a conference where so many teams are neck and neck in the standings, it’s still anybody’s game. They have to find ways to win convincingly and in regulation in order to separate themselves from the pack. Not only that, but regulation wins is the first tiebreaker used for determining playoff spots. If the Flyers are tied in points with another team come late April, they could find themselves on the outside looking in for a franchise-record sixth consecutive year. They cannot continue to play behind the proverbial eight-ball in games. They need to start coming out hot and have more time playing with the lead. They also can’t bank on just surviving regulation to pick up points in the standings and crossing their fingers they make it to the shootout. The Orange and Black need to find a more sustainable way of winning if they want to keep up their hopes of making noise in the postseason.
By: Katie Bogan (@cl4udegiroux)
photo credit: nhl.com
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