Questions Surround Philadelphia Flyers as Playoffs Loom

Barring a dismal finish to the season, the Flyers will be back in the postseason, but simply getting there means nothing in a season where expectations were so high after last year’s surprising march to the conference final. 

Having lost three of their last four contests and with a very tenuous hold on fourth place in the Eastern Conference, the Flyers have hit a rough patch heading into the playoffs.

It’s not quite the 10-game skid they were experiencing at this time last year, but it still is disconcerting. Here are the biggest concerns they face as the playoffs approach:

Third- and fourth-line play

We all know that the Flyers forward group is very deep, with six players having scored at least 21 goals at this point of the season. But are the third and fourth lines good enough to key this team to a long playoff run?

Claude Giroux is presumably the third line center for the rest of the year and will be leaned on a lot more than the Flyers would like. Arron Asham is playing well of late, but is a prototypical fourth liner, not a third liner. 

Dan Carcillo is a similar type of player as Scottie Upshall, but always leaves you with the lingering fear that a dumb penalty is just around the corner.

Darroll Powe has done a good job of proving himself as a fourth line center, but with just 47 NHL games played, he lacks the experience you would like. Losing a proven player like Glen Metropolit from this group hurt more than anyone realized it would.

Riley Cote has made no progress at all and brings little else to the lineup besides thuggery.

He spent most of last year’s playoffs in the press box but will probably be forced into action this year because the Flyers are so thin beyond their regular lineup.  But I don’t know that the team would even trust him with four minutes a night in a playoff game. 

The key to the whole forward group is Danny Briere. Will he be able to take a regular shift or will he simply be a power play specialist and fourth liner for the rest of the year? 

He has looked a little better recently but still has a long way to go to catch up to the speed of the other players.

Defensive presence

Too often there are opposing players camped out in front of the Flyers net without having to pay the price. Kimmo Timonen won’t be clearing the crease, and nobody is afraid of Randy Jones or Matt Carle. 

Ryan Parent is still finding his game, and Braydon Coburn, while possessing the tools to be a Chris Pronger-type defenseman, has regressed somewhat this season.

Andrew Alberts, as bad as he looked after initially joining the team, has actually been the most reliable physical presence on the blueline this year.

The real story here is how much the team misses Derian Hatcher. There, I said it. The guy took a beating while he was in town, but he was a lion in front of the net and you had to be aware of him at all times. His semi-retirement has left a gaping hole.

Toughness vs. recklessness

The Flyers are the most penalized team in the league, which is something you can live with if you are seemingly intimidating opponents and wearing them down the way Anaheim did when it won the Stanley Cup two years ago.

But too many of the Flyers’ penalties are for undisciplined roughing calls and retaliatory penalties. Witness the way that Sean Avery got under their skin this past weekend.

Or witness the way that teams are able to play a game of keep away long enough to force the Flyers into hooking and holding infractions like Detroit did on Tuesday.

Teams are frequently able to earn power plays against the Flyers with offensive pressure while the Flyers can’t seem to outmuscle their opponents for the puck.

The Broad Street Bullies weren’t very disciplined either, but they forced opponents into mistakes and used physical play to win hockey games.

These Flyers are now clutching and grabbing their way to the penalty minute leaderboard and don’t pick smart times to get physical.

Notice that I did not list goaltending among the list of concerns, as Martin Biron has stepped up his play recently, a bad Pavel Datsyuk goal on Tuesday notwithstanding. If Biron is able to find the kind of game he did last postseason, he can make up for many of the team’s shortcomings.

The Flyers still have 13 games to turn their bad momentum around and claim home ice for the first round. Beyond that, who knows what will happen in the playoffs.

It could be a disappointing first round exit to a hot team, but a bounce or two the other way and things could be vastly different.

In the Eastern Conference especially, teams are so tightly clumped that the Flyers could very well end up going deep again and capitalizing on their season of promise.