Where Do These Playoff Bound Flyers Stand?

If it’s on Ray Emery’s creaky knees, it might be up against a wall, to relieve some pressure.

In a battle of backup goalies, Emery and the Flyers wound up outplayed by Tampa Bay Lightning backup Anders Lindback and the surging Bolts, a situation which cost Philadelphia an opportunity to gain home ice advantage in their upcoming first round playoff matchup against the New York Rangers.

They only needed a point, and for a brief moment it appeared they might actually pull it off. Down 3-1 in the third, the club snagged another goal to pull within one with about 8 minutes to go, but then Scott Hartnell felt it best to put the team’s season long disciplinary issues on full display by taking a trip to the box, and the Flyers never recovered from that point on. Steven Stamkos would score a ridiculous power play goal to seal the deal with 6 minutes left. It’s not hard to compliment Lindback for the job he did in net against Philly, his size gives him a rather large advantage. Standing 6’6″, with great range, he covers plenty of net. But Tampa Bay, who is also playoff bound, played a superb defensive game and never really let Philly get a foothold throughout the contest.

This is a tough pill to swallow right now, for a few reasons. Let’s have a look at them and examine the pros and cons of this Flyers playoff chances.

1) Goalie depth

While Steve Mason might be going through a reinvention as the starter, Ray Emery has faded during the course of the year. His hip issues have become more and more glaring, even though he had a nice game recently against the St. Louis Blues, the overall picture is mildly drastic. He demonstrates a visible struggle moving from side to side, and when he has been scored upon this has normally been the culprit. I deeply admire Emery for his warrior spirit, facts are as such, and the team would be better served making sure Mason gets as much rest now while the last two games don’t matter as much in order to be as strong a possible for a playoff run.

He’s going to see a massive workload.

2) Discipline

This is just going to be a problem that just won’t go away. The club has been fortunate that it hasn’t killed them before, but when every game matters, untimely penalties such as the one Hartnell took out of frustration will essentially be nails in the coffin for the Flyers come playoff time. Zac Rinaldo will be reinstated, and I’m crossing fingers that neither he nor Steve Downie, both of whom play very physically, won’t get caught up in any shenanigans that could lead to playoff disasters. The team will have to develop some kind of measured violence this time next week.

3) Full game commitment

Time and time again, the team has shown itself to fall into lulls during the course of games, and most often it’s led to their furious comebacks. Sure, having scratched out a host of third period comeback victories is nice, but perhaps they wouldn’t have had to do this so much if they had kept the focus for a complete 60 minutes. Letting an opposing team control you for entire periods, with lopsided shots on goals tallies is just not good enough for a club with Cup aspirations.

That’s the bad, but it’s not so bad as it sounds. The bright side is the club possesses a wealth of forward scoring depth, something unrivaled in the entire league. Even better? The defense has really come a long way, even if it doesn’t have an all world defender among the group. Kimmo Timonen used to be that guy, but his best years are behind him. Braydon Coburn has flashed some brilliance, and then countered it with equal amounts of ill advised play. Mark Streit has an incredible shot, yet lacks a true defensive technique required to be a top tier 2 way defender. The rest of the group are of the blue collar variety, shot blockers, hitters, grinders. And everyone is already well aware of Mason’s resurrection, something to be admired, honestly.

It has all come together capably, and gives this team hope.

Can the club overcome its shortcomings, and maximize its strengths? Who’s to say. What they can do however, is take the next two games, one of which is against another playoff contender and hated in state rival in the Pittsburgh Penguins, and play both clubs as hard they can. Keep up the hard work ethic, sharpen up a little, and carry it over into the postseason.

We shall see how it plays out, the best part is knowing there will be a postseason for the Flyers once again.