The 2009 Stanley Cup Champions: The Philadelphia Flyers

Ladies and Gentlemen Your 2009 Stanley Cup Champions: The Philadelphia Flyers!!

Wait what?

The Philadelphia Flyers? Stanley Cup Champions?  Is that even possible?

Well I am going to tell you that the Flyers have one of the best chances of any team to win it all this year.  From top to bottom they have one of the best teams in the league.  Let's take a look at each position.

Goaltenders: Martin Biron as the starter.  He certainly proved his worth in this year's playoffs and in stopping NHL leading scorer Alexander Ovechkin in the first round, then he played phenomenal and stopped the top seed in the East.  Then he got shelled in the ECF by Pittsburgh letting up 20 goals in five games.  But honestly the Flyers were over-matched in every aspect in the series.  As long as Biron builds on the positives of the first two series and helping guiding a team that went from last place to ECF in one year and in a contract year he should be even better.  Then of course Antero Nittymaki as the backup also plays a key role.  If he plays well in the games he does and support Biron this season he will get contract offers next year if the Flyers do not resign him.  If he pulls an Emery and throws temper tantrums at practices and shows up late this team will die along with his career just like Emery.  Both goalies have to be good on and off the ice in order for this team to succeed.

Defensemen:  Usually a weak point the past few years seems to be a strong suit this year.  Leading the D this year once again will be Kimmo Timonen who was an all-star and rightfully so as he was the team's most consistent D-man.  He played in all but five games for the Flyers.  However he is expected to have much improved help this year.  Right now, excluding Derian Hatcher because it is unclear what his injury status will be entering this season there is expected to be six defensemen fighting for the other five spots.  There is Randy Jones, Braydon Coburn, Ossi Vaananen, Steve Eminger, Lasse Kukkonen, and Ryan Parent.  All six of these players had great years last year.  Jones(27), Coburn(23), Eminger(24), Kukkonen (26), and Parent(21) are all very young so all of them are still growing as players and assuming they all stay could give the Flyers a very solid core of defensemen.  My guess on opening night the top six will be Timonen, Jones, Vannanen, Coburn, Kukkonen, and Eminger.  While Parent continues grow with the Phantoms.  The defense overall is still growing but if these seven defensemen click with one another this D will be very formidable as is there are not weak players on the blue line here.  There have been rumors that the Flyers might be going after a puck carrying d-man though it is unclear who will be traded/bumped to the Phantoms if they do indeed acquire one.

Forwards: Daniel Briere and Simon Gagne are the two expected point leaders on this team.  However this team is offensively deep as any other team right now.  The Flyers currently have eight players who had 30 points or more last year and the return of Simon Gagne, who despite playing in only 25 games due to concussions, had 18 points.  Only Detroit will have more 30 point guys than Philly with nine.  Arron Asham, Steve Downie and Riley Cote also need to contribute though and cannot only expect to be a checking line and they will be fine, they will also need to put pucks in the net as well.  Claude Giroux is also expected to contribute this year too in case of injury.  As long this offense stays consistent night in night out unlike another Philadelphia team who just surrendered first place to the Mets this offense will be scary good.

The Philadelphia Flyers will be the class of the East next year.  From goalie to defensemen to forwards they have the most depth and have younger players who played in the playoffs last year.  The biggest two obstacles for this team will be staying healthy and the Detroit Red Wings.  The Red Wings lost only a few players and reloaded by adding Marian Hossa. However it is very hard for a team to repeat championship in today's sports world.  The last repeat Stanley Cup Champion was the Red Wings 1997-1998.  But I feel a freak thing is going to happen to them and they will not win and it will allow the Philadelphia Flyers to finally break the "curse" on Philadelphia and win a championship.