Philadelphia Flyers Week in Review – Not the Start we Expected

The first week of the 2014-15 NHL season started out on a difficult note for the Philadelphia Flyers.  They opened the season with a 2-1 loss to the Boston Bruins where they played quite well against a team that is expected to contend for Lord Stanley’s Cup.

The next night saw the Flyers drop a 6-4 game to the New Jersey Devils where they fell behind early, came back, but were not able to pull out a victory.

The third game of the week saw the Flyers fall to the Montreal Canadiens in a 4-3 shootout loss which saw the Flyers collapse in the 3rd period after jumping out to a 3-0 lead.

Last night saw the Flyers fall behind early to the Anaheim Ducks, in what has become commonplace over the last few years, rally to tie the game before falling once again in the shootout.

I will take a quick look at the first two games and skip the third for the most part, since I chose to watch the Phantoms opener against the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins.  A game that the Phantoms won convincingly 5-2.

Starting with the game against the Boston Bruins the Flyers played a solid game.  The fourth line of Zac Rinaldo, Jason Akeson, and Pierre-Edouard Bellemare were the most impressive.  They used their plus skating ability to move the puck up ice and disrupt the Bruins offense with the exception being Zac Rinaldo penalty early on which led to a goal.

With the role of the slow, physical enforcer on the decline fourth lines across the league will be looked at to provide energy and grit without resorting to dropping the gloves and the fourth line did just that.

The effort was solid for the entire game and despite falling short the game gave fans hope coming into the season opener.

The second game saw the Flyers start slow falling behind 3-0 before clawing back to tie the game at 3 before ultimately falling 6-4. 

Much has been made of the play from the line of Luke Schenn and Michael Del Zotto, who were a minus five and minus four respectively, but not enough talk has been focused on the play of Claude Giroux, Jakub Voracek, and Michael Raffl who were all minus four each. 

Through the first four games the top line has not been effective enough.  The Brayden Schenn experiment was ended quite fast and they seem to be out of position at times.

On Saturday night, I missed most of the Montreal Canadiens game, choosing to catch the season opener for the Lehigh Valley Phantoms as they took on the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins. 

The Phantoms won the game easily 5-2 with a number of players filling the score sheet.  They looked like the sharper team from the drop of the puck and easily handled a Penguins team that appeared out of sync.

Of particular note Mark Alt and Robert Hagg were by far the best two players on the ice and the top defensive pairing.  Chris Vandevelde is an early favorite to be called up if GM Ron Hextall deems it necessary to call up a forward.

Highly touted defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere played a good game, but he showed why he needs a year of seasoning at the AHL level.  Standing at only 5' 11" and 170 pounds Shayne Gostisbehere needs to adjust to a faster pace, playing against guys weighing 50 pounds heavier than him, and the mental aspects required to succeed at this level.

There is one small area that needs adjusting; playing until the end of his shift.  On one occasion Gostisbehere skated from end to end with the puck dumping it in deep to a forward.  Instead of taking a hard stride and turning around the face the play, he took three small strides with his back to the play.  If his deep forward lost the puck Gostisbehere would have his back to the play, giving the defense the chance to skate or push the puck past him for a break.

Notes:

A quick observation from watching the first two games is that the Flyers need to play less like a team on the ice and become more selfish.  Over the years when the team is not scoring they have a penchant for making that extra pass. 

The Flyers need to stop taking that extra pass and look to shoot more.  While they are getting a more than acceptable amount of shots the quality could be much better.  When the shot totals are tallied post-game how many quality chances do you remember? 

In terms of Braydon Schenn, it appears as though the LW experiment on the top line opposite Claude Giroux and Jakub Voracek has come to a strange end during the New Jersey Devils game.

While it is odd that the experiment would be cut short so fast his replacement, Michael Raffl, was a disaster logging a -4 in only 8:28 of even strength ice time.

While it may appear that they are playing well; an elite player in Claude Giroux centering the top line they should be doing much more.  In short, the line should be dominating opponents.  Instead, when they are on the ice and they appear to be just playing acceptable hockey.

In terms of overall play the Flyers going into Tuesday night's game, the Flyers are the second least penalized team in the NHL.  An emphasis on discipline is shown with a faster skating team that continues to play physical yet understands the lines drawn on the ice.

Zac Rinaldo, in particular, is playing a more restrained game using his natural plus skating talent  to provide energy to the fourth line.

In fact the fourth line has been the best line this season without scoring many goals.  They are skating, hitting, and playing with discipline while not putting themselves in the penalty box proving that the Flyers do not need a pugilistic line to be effective.

Wayne Simmonds is the best player on the Flyers right now.  His hot start is making a strong case for him to be inserted alongside Claude Giroux instead of Jakub Voracek.

Mark Streit, on the other hand is clearly showing his age early on this season, moving slower, but still able to handle the responsibilities on the top defensive pairing.

Steve Mason appears to be reverting back to Columbus form.  He has let in a number of goals that should have been stopped.  A low start or mean reversion is disconcerting after last year’s breakout.

I think it would be for the best if the following changes were made to the lines.

1.  Michael Del Zotto needs a better partner than Luke Schenn on defense.  His speed is sorely needed on the back line and a better partner would strengthen the overall defense.

2.  The pairing of Jakub Voracek and Claude Giroux should be broken up with Voracek pushed down off the top line.  Last night’s lack of effort from Voracek in the shootout when compared with the effort shown by Claude Girous is disconcerting.  Wayne Simmonds right now appears to be the best partner for Claude Giroux. 

The Flyers need a better goal song, again.