Still Waiting

So a new blog post from me has finally come.  A first victory for the Flyers this season, has not.

Flyers fans, ever the patient bunch, are likely tempted to jump off a bridge right now.  The start of 0-2-2 is very worrying, but I won't declare them an awful team just yet.

My main fallback on this point is that, as I ran the numbers last year, between November and March 26 the Flyers were the 5th best team in the NHL.  This team is basically the same squad, minus Timonen and Hartnell.

The Flyers took a lot of flack in the offseason as they appeared to do nothing but make themselves weaker.  They traded Hartnell, and Timonen went down with a devastating injury.  In addition, Steve Mason is still not well respected around the league as an above-average starting goalie.

Four games into the season, the critics were right.  With #HartnellDown the team has no quality LW, Mason looked shaky, and the defense was inept.  Last year a slow start was forgivable due to Giroux's injury and the coaching change.  This was why I was willing to look at the standings from November 1 on and wipe away October.  The Flyers do not deserve that leniency this year.

An alternative view of things is that the Flyers can only win if Giroux is playing at an MVP level and the power play is pouring in goals.  Last year, the Flyers had the worst 5v5 goal differential of all playoff teams.  This year the power play is looking solid, although they still haven't really found a replacement for Hartnell's high slot role on the number one unit.  That is a long term worry, but the big thing is the 5v5 play has gone from average to awful.  They'll never be a juggernaut there with this roster, but they have to get back to average, and that fact may hinge upon Giroux finding superlative form.


Miscellaneous Notes:
-Simmonds is currently playing at a level that I never saw him reaching.  5 goals in 4 games, and showing an offensive poise I didn't expect.  He's always been a streaky scorer, but I daresay this is more than a hot streak with a few consecutive bang-in goals.

-The Schenn brothers have been very disappointing.  Luke Schenn is staring at a league worst -6 rating, and Brayden has not made an offensive impression.  Personally, I think Luke's +/- reflects a lot of goals that I wouldn't blame him for, and that Luke could be a serviceable player with the right partner in the right role.  As for Brayden, I am running out of patience for him to emerge as an impact offensive player.  That he lasted less than 2 games on the wing with Giroux and Voracek is his failure.

-Bellemare has looked pretty good to me.  He skates smoothly and thinks fast, which will get him far.  Like Raffl, he needs a few dozen games on the 4th line to fully adapt to the NHL.

-Lecavalier has also looked impressive to me.  I also thought he looked pretty good at the beginning of last season and showed some chemistry with B. Schenn before injuries really ruined his season.  It's bad timing for him to get injured now, although taking a shot off the foot shouldn't create the same kind of lingering injury that the bad back did to him last year.