If I told you that the last year’s Flyers run to the Eastern Conference Finals was not a surprise at all, I would be lying to you. One year after the Flyers had a massively terribe season, the Flyers made a big bounce back and finished in the NHL’s version of the Final Four. What can the Flyers possibly do for an encore?
According to Flyers GM Paul Holmgren, a lot. The Philadelphia Flyers barely even squeaked into the playoffs by winning their secong to last game on their 82 game schedule. And then grabbed the No. 6 seed in the playoffs by winning game number 82. The Flyers 10-game losing streak they had during the season nearly knocked them out of contention.
Instead of going through a massive roster rebuild, Paul Holmgren decided to go cutting and shopping shortly after the season ended. He cut ties with Forward R.J. Umberger after playing a significant role in the Flyers postseason success. Holmgren also decided to let go defenseman Jason Smith and forward Vaclav “Vinny” Prospal. Sami Kapanen also decided to leave the club and retire. This allowed the GM to re-sign restricted free-agent Jeff Carter to a fresh three-year deal.
Holmgren didn’t feel like stopping there. He also signed Steve Eminger from the Capitals and Ossi Vaananen who played in Europe last season. Depth forwards Glen Metropolit and Arron Asham also were brought on board.
I guess you could call the Flyers “Team Bipolar”. Their great one year, stink the next, and are pretty good the year after. They just can’t seem to make up their minds if they want to be good, bad, or ok. Philly went from 101 points in 2005-06 to 56 in 2006-07 and then bouncing back to a 95 points this past season. I just want to walk up to Holmgren or coach John Stevens or somebody and shake them by their suit jacket and be all like “Dude, make up your mind!” well, maybe not. With a young core that only should be better after last spring's playoff run, that roller coaster should continue to climb.
Goalies:
It had been years since Martin Biron was an unquestioned starting goaltender in the NHL, but he showed he could more than handle a major workload. In 62 games -- the most he played in six years -- he had 30 wins, a 2.59 goals-against average and .918 save percentage.
He was even better in the playoffs, backstopping the tremendous run. He silenced all the haters by winning the overtime clincher in the first round against Ovechkin and company and completely rolling over the Montreal Canadiens as if they weren’t even there.
Antero Niittymaki is, in my opinion, one of the more valuable backup goalies in the NHL. If I were a Flyers fan (I’m a fan of every team, don’t get me wrong.) I would feel pretty confident in whoever John Stevens puts between the pipes.
Defense:
Despite knocking 70 goals off from their 2006-07 nightmare, Holmgren continued to tinker with this unit.
The main reason why Pittsburgh went out in five game to the hated Penguins in the Conference Finals was the losses of Kimmo Timonen and Braydon Coburn, who emerged as the club’s top pairing and were both amazing in the postseason.
In his first season with Philly, Timonen was the consistent, butt-kicker that the Flyers needed desperately. He had 44 points in 80 games, but his contributions went far beyond n
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