Flyers Will Be Fun To Watch But Expect Little Else
PHILADELPHIA, PA (CBS) — In Claude Giroux and Jakub Voracek, the Flyers have one of the best one-two combinations in the NHL this season.
Unfortunately, there's a major drop off after those two, on a team that finished 33-31-18 last year and most likely won't make the playoffs for a third-straight year this season. The Flyers are so thin after Giroux and Voracek that they could even possibly finish at the bottom of the Metropolitan Division, battling for that spot with the New Jersey Devils.
Expect goaltender Steve Mason to get little help from defensemen Mark Streit and Nick Schultz. And expect the Flyers to not get anywhere until they're able to scrape off players like 35-year-old Vinny Lecavalier and under achieving Luke Schenn.
As for the rest of the division, with the exception of the Devils, the Flyers are light years away from Pittsburgh, the New York Islanders, New York Rangers, and even the Columbus Blue Jackets. It's a division that could also produce a Stanley Cup champion in the Washington Capitals.
Hope is there, however, for the orange and black. Defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere will probably be up within the first two months of the season, and quite possibly Travis Konecny sometime late in the year.
In the meantime, the same team that finished out of the playoffs and was 21st in offense (2.59 goals-per game) and gave up the 9th highest amount of goals in the league (223, tied with Colorado) is back. That doesn't bode well for a rebuilding team in what promises to be a long winter on the Philly sports landscape.
