State of the Flyers

As I see it, there are two burning questions for the Flyers at the moment.  One, should Laviolette be fired?  Two, should Couturier be traded?  The question of if the Flyers should trade to bolster this year's playoff run is no longer a reasonable question; the answer is an emphatic no.

Before getting to those burning questions, let's review the state of the Flyers through a few illustrative statistics.

-The Flyers power play is 6th overall.  After a terrible start to the season, the Flyers power play is now terrific, and operates near 30% at home.  Count this as one problem solved.

-Similarly, the penalty kill has rebounded to 11th in the league, and is a quality unit.  The problem is, the Flyers have been shorthanded 114 times, worst in the league.

-The Flyers collapse when they fall behind.  When the opponent scores first, the Flyers only win 20% of the time, 25th in the league.  When trailing after 2 periods, the Flyers are 1-10 (9.1%), 27th in the league.  Most shockingly, the Flyers are 0-10 when trailing after the first period!

-Unfortunately, I cannot find stats for when teams are tied after 2 periods.  I suspect the Flyers would be at the bottom of the league in points earned in such situations.

-The Flyers are a bad 5-on-5 team, with a goal differential of .8.  That is also 25th in the league. More concerning than absolute goal difference however, is that the Flyers are 22nd in 5-on-5 goal scoring.  An uptempo attacking team should be scoring goals, win or lose.

-I would not have guessed it, but the Flyers do a pretty good job when leading after 2 periods, winning 91.7% of the time.  This is 6th in the league.

-The Flyers actually block a lot of shots; 4th in the league.

-The Flyers are a solid 8-4-1 at home, but are 4-11-0 on the road.

So with that in mind, I will follow with a post on Laviolette this weekend.