The Philadelphia Flyers enter their bye week coming off a brutal weekend in which they lost both inter-conference games by a combined score of 11-3. The Boston Bruins on Saturday and the Washington Capitals on Sunday outskated, outhustled, outworked and simply wanted the game more than the Flyers did. Right now, the team is simply not playing well enough, there is no sense of urgency, and quite simply, the effort is not there. Here are a couple (of the many) areas the Flyers are currently struggling with, and what may help.
Illness
Defense:
This is the obvious one. The Flyers team defense has been terrible, allowing 144 goals on the season. Tied for last in the league (with Winnipeg and Dallas), yhe team obviously does not have the personnel to be at least an average defensive team. They have only two NHL defenseman on their roster and they are in their first and second year. Ivan Provorov and Shayne Gostisbehere are the two in question (despite his coach benching him for two games, which is absolutely ridiculous). Radko Gudas and Brandon Manning may be serviceable 5th and 6th defenseman on a team, but after that, it gets shaky at best. Mark Streit is 38 and in the final year of his contract and Andrew MacDonald is barely an AHL defenseman at this point. He somehow has secured his spot despite all of the defensive zone turnovers (I think the six year $30 million dollar contract that runs through 2020 has something to do with it).
This is the obvious one. The Flyers team defense has been terrible, allowing 144 goals on the season. Tied for last in the league (with Winnipeg and Dallas), yhe team obviously does not have the personnel to be at least an average defensive team. They have only two NHL defenseman on their roster and they are in their first and second year. Ivan Provorov and Shayne Gostisbehere are the two in question (despite his coach benching him for two games, which is absolutely ridiculous). Radko Gudas and Brandon Manning may be serviceable 5th and 6th defenseman on a team, but after that, it gets shaky at best. Mark Streit is 38 and in the final year of his contract and Andrew MacDonald is barely an AHL defenseman at this point. He somehow has secured his spot despite all of the defensive zone turnovers (I think the six year $30 million dollar contract that runs through 2020 has something to do with it).
Prescription
Bring up the kids.
The Flyers are not going to make a big splash and mortgage the future by making a trade that only helps short term and the players the Flyers want to trade (MacDonald & Read), no one wants. Travis Sanheim and Sam Morin should be up with the big club. They will be able to gain valuable experience that will only help their long term development. If Gostisbehere can be benched, why can’t Streit, MacDonald or Manning.
The Flyers are not going to make a big splash and mortgage the future by making a trade that only helps short term and the players the Flyers want to trade (MacDonald & Read), no one wants. Travis Sanheim and Sam Morin should be up with the big club. They will be able to gain valuable experience that will only help their long term development. If Gostisbehere can be benched, why can’t Streit, MacDonald or Manning.
