It is hard to get points when you are not playing games

by Joseph Birmingham

Wednesday November 11, 2009 

It is hard to get points when you are not playing games thumbnail

5 weeks into the season and the Flyers are 4th in the Eastern Conference Atlantic but riding a 4 game winning streak.  The main reason they are ranked so low is they simply haven’t played that many games compared to the Rangers or Penguins.  They are currently in the middle of a 4 day layoff.  This is good in that it allows the players to be well rested, but obviously at some point they will have to play catchup.  From past seasons I say it is better to have games played then games in hand.

It is very early, and at this point only Washington has fewer losses than Philadelphia’s 4, with 3, and only the Devils and Sabres have fewer goals allowed than the Flyers 37 with 33.  Philadelphia plays both NJ and Buffalo in the next week, and could have the best winning percentage in the league with wins against Ottawa Thursday and NJ and Buffalo Saturday and Monday.

The Fltyers just announced the loss of Gagne for 6-8 weeks, but other than that they are healthy.  If you had to pick the star player at this point, it would have to be Ray Emerey, a solid top ten performer with a 9-3 record, a .922 save percentage and a 2.27 goals against average.

There have been no offensive standouts, but a lot of typical hard nosed Broad Street Bully play combined with solid goaltending so far.  The real test will come later this year when the schedule makers have the Flyers playing 22 games in a 42 day stretch between 11/18 and 12/30.  That kind of pace can give a team the momentum to pull away from the league, or come apart at the seams with injuries and fatigue.

It is really too early at this point to tell, but I believe the Flyers are poised to produce their 7th 95 point season in ther past 9 years, and that stretch includes the mystery season of 2004-2005 that vanished somehow.  Most true hockey fans have already forgotten that ugliness but with the exception of that year and the ill fated 2006-2007 campaign the Flyers have posted 40+ victories every year this century.

I expect this year to be another good effort, with hopefully better overall results.  Since 2000 the Flyers have done their best skating during the regular season, going only 33-38 in the post season, reaching 2 Eastern Conference finals, with no Cup appearances.  Maybe this will be the year they parlay regular season production into post season confidence.  If the Phillies can reach back to back World Series, certainly it is time for the Flyers to see their first Stanley Cup action since 1997 !  They will be a fun team to watch as the season progresses.

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