So another season of Flyers hockey is upon us. It looks to be a fairly promising season again for the Flyers. During this season preview, we’ll overview all of the positions, as well as make predictions for the upcoming season.
Flyers Offense
The off season acquisitions adding Kyle Calder and Geoff Sanderson, can only be looked at as a huge win by Bob Clarke. Overall, you lose Handzus, but in the new NHL, players like Handzus’s role are quickly becoming diminished. The Flyers possess the perfect balance of grit, poise, and finesse on offense. This, of course, starts with the Gagne – Forsberg – Knuble line, which will most likely combine for around 115 goals this season. Next, you have the interesting Calder – Carter – Richards line, which is showing some strong signs of being a 80+ goal line this season. Beyond that, you have the solid role players like Umberger, Kapanen, Nedved, Robitaille, and newcomer Boyd Kane. Overall, the Flyers offense will not be a handicap at all for the upcoming season.
Flyers Defense
I’ve preached it all summer, and it doesn’t look like Bob Clarke reads this site. The Flyers need more SPEED on defense. I don’t care if Clarke thinks Hatcher improved over the offseason, he’s still one of the slowest defensemen in the league. Mike Rathje is still having health issues, and that just makes him slower. Other than that you have Pitkanen, Meyer, Jonsson, Gauthier, and maybe Baumgartner. You can expect the lack of scoring ability and speed of this Flyers defense to perhaps cause them a deep run in the playoffs.
Flyers Goaltending
Controversy? We couldn’t be the Flyers without a goaltending controversy. Regardless of what ‘Frank Nitty’ and Esche tell you, it is a bother to have your goalie partner be an equal and not a backup. However, don’t look for this to be a handicap until late in the season. I think Hitchcock should play it as he did last year, and not announce anything until the start of the playoffs. For the regular season, the goaltending situation will be a huge positive for this club.
The Division
The division looks fairly week overall. Don’t look for the Penguins to do much more than go .500, while the Islanders and Devils look to be sub-500 clubs. The problem club in the division appears to be the R-R-R-R-R RANGERS. (Yes, it was that hard for me to say it). They have a solid club, and will most likely be challenging for a low playoff spot.
Predictions
I’m not saying this because I’m a Flyers fan, but when I look at the division it appears to be fairly certain that the Flyers will win it and lock up the #3 spot in the conference. Make no mistake about it, home ice advantage is key and the Flyers will make it to the 2nd round of the playoffs, where I see them losing to a team such as Carolina, whose defense is way more potent than ours.
Overall, I look forward to bringing you the season as it happens, along with Mike. Stay tuned to FlyersFanCentral.Com for the latest Flyers news, game previews, and post game reaction all season long!
just wanted to comment real quick, i tried to be as broad as possible and not take most recent activities into account, this is meant as a whole season preview
While I still believe the Flyers will make the playoffs, I’m leaning towards them finishing in the bottom 5 rather than the top 3. As you said yourself, this teams defense is just too slow.
Now obviously you have at least two teams from this division making the playoffs, I’m curious who your other team is? While I agree the defense is week, the only reason i have them at 3, is because I beleive they win the division – Which ia automatic top 3. In real life, I was thinking 5 or 6, with the Rangers at 7 or 8.
Obviously the other team will be the rangers, whom I believe will take the division. They suprised us last year with some good young talent and chemistry. This year they’ve added some more talent and their chemistry looks good once again through the preseason. The flyers remain slow on the blueline.
Devils, Flyers, Rangers I think will all be in playoff contention from the Atlantic Division. Also might want to throw in the Penguins, I think they might still be in the running for the 8th spot late in the season.
I think it will come down to injuries and momentum. The Flyers in the first half of last season was a totally different team from the second half and injuries were a big part of it.
With the injuries the Flyers are starting out with already I am also thinking about they will be in the middle of the pack again this year.
I was thinking that New Jersey is going to finish ahead of Philly despite their cap problems. Mainly because of Forsbergs injury history. I shouldn’t discount Shanny signing with the Rangers and the likelyhood of Henrik repeating his awesome performance.
TSN just predicted the division going Rangers, Devils and then the Flyers. I’m not the only guy who thinks this. They still are a lock for the playoffs. After that, who knows?