As if the horse isn’t beaten to death already, I’ll reiterate: the Flyers’ special teams are horrid. Penalty kill, power play, it doesn’t matter. Both units are under-performing in a big way. Prime example, the Flyers last five games have seen their powerplay go 3 for 17, for a 17.6% success rate. Their penalty kill? 10 for 15 for a 66.7% effectiveness rating.
That simply isn’t going to cut it.
What really catches my eye is the fact that at this point last year, the special teams wasn’t exactly perfect, but it was performing at a much higher level than this year.
The 2017-18 Flyers had the same amount of points as this years club to this point in the season. However, the penalty kill last year sat at 77.8%, which was only 1% behind the league average for the season. Their powerplay? 18.8%, which is only 1.4% off of the league-wide average for the season (20.2%).
This year has seen each unit take a dive statistically. The powerplay sits at 16.2%, down 2.8%, and 4.1% below the league average of 20.35%. The penalty kill? Good lord…
Let’s start with the league average. Thus far in the 2018-19 season, the league average on the penalty kill is 79.65%. The Flyers are sitting at 68.6% so far on the season. The Flyers are a little over 11% away from the league average on the penalty kill. 11%. Eleven percent. Folks, it may not seem like much, but it is, and the team should worried. Extremely worried.
The Flyers rank in the bottom 9 in the entire league when it comes to their powerplay, and tied with the Columbus Blue Jackets for worst in the Metropolitan division. The penalty kill is sitting at 30th out of 31 teams, besting only the Ottawa Senators, and not by much.
The Flyers have had at least one powerplay chance in every game this year, and in 13 games, they couldn’t capitalize on the man advantage. Even worse, the Flyers only have four games this season where they haven’t allowed a powerplay goal. They stymied Vegas in the first game of the year, Columbus, Chicago, and New Jersey.
Last year, the Flyers went 10 games out of their first 20 without tallying a powerplay goal. Amazingly enough, the Flyers had 10 games where they didn’t allow a goal to the opposing team’s powerplay, and were successful in 56 of the first 72 penalty kills.
In summation, last years penalty kill, mediocre. Last years powerplay, slightly below average. This years powerplay, pretty bad. This years penalty kill, ugh.
Mandatory Credit: Eric Hartline-USA TODAY Sports
