Philadelphia Flyers First-Half Breakdown and Analysis

Now that the NHL All-Star break is upon us, it's time to review the best team in hockey: the Philadelphia Flyers. 

Besides losing a couple of tough games, the Flyers have been stellar so far this season. The main reason for their success has been the solid defense and outstanding goal scoring. The orange and black are top of the league in terms of goal scoring with 2.55 goals per game. 

And that isn't even the best part. 

The one stat that baffles me is that the Flyers are playing this well with only the 19th-ranked powerplay and the 12th-ranked penalty kill. 

A couple of Flyers are having great seasons. Andrej Meszaros is living up to his potential and Claude Giroux has blossomed to a star. 

The next few months after the All-Star break are crucial for the Flyers. Complacency is always a concern and needs to be tackled head on. 

Sergei Bobrovsky will need to stay the course and keep his body as fresh as possible for the playoffs. They're going to need him. 

Peter Laviolette has been trying to tweak the lines every game to see what works and what doesn't. Over the last week, we saw the rise of the Giroux-Carter-Zherdev line and it worked extremely well; they had a plus-11 rating against the Blackhawks on Sunday. 

Cleaning up the trash in the front of the net was an issue last season but the problem seems to have been cleared up since then. 

The second half of the 2010-2011 season is all about finishing. The Flyers control their own destiny at this point. They are the top dogs and they own the crown as of right now. It will be up to them to keep it.