Now that the ugliness that was the 2014 Philadelphia Phillies is over, the city is looking forward to its fall sports. The Eagles are 4-1. Single game tickets for the Philadelphia 76ers went on sale this morning. (I’ll see all you fine folks at the Wells Fargo Center for opening night against Miami, by the way.)
In that same building, the Philadelphia Flyers will be dropping the puck for the regular season. Not tonight, of course. Tonight, they’re in Boston kicking off their regular season. If you want to argue semantics with me, feel free. Have your moment.
If you’re as concerned about the Flyers at the beginning of this season as you were last season, that’s a natural feeling. The team started very slow, fired Peter Laviolette, and hit their stride after all of that mess. Now, this is Craig Berube’s team — unless the team starts slow this season, too. It may not be for too long if that happens. It’s worth noting that Las Vegas Sports-books have Craig Berube billed as the third-most likely coach to be fired (+400).
Berube took over a team that started 0-3-0 and transformed them into a team that finished 42-27-10. He and his squad were bounced by the New York Rangers in the first round in seven games, but there was promise headed into the offseason. Berube resurrected a season that was almost lost, and there was big news on the horizon in the front office.
On May 4th, Paul Holmgren ascended to the role of team president — the position vacated by Peter Luukko in December of 2013. That set the stage for one of the bigger names in Flyers history to take his rightful place at Holmgren’s side — kind of like when Anakin Skywalker did so with Emperor Palpatine in “Revenge of the Sith”, but this move actually breeds life and hope into a society.
Ron Hextall, the Flyers’ franchise leader in games played by a goalie and wins, assumed the role of general manager after being the assistant GM since the summer of 2013. The appointment was immediately met with jubilance because the fan base was a wee bit jealous of Hextall’s run with the Los Angeles Kings front office that culminated in a Stanley Cup win in 2012 and that team becoming one of the dominant teams in the Western Conference.
“I’m extremely excited about this new opportunity to manage the Philadelphia Flyers,” Hextall said in his first press conference as GM. “I look forward to working closely with Paul in our new hockey structure and working towards our ultimate goal of winning the Stanley Cup.”
Needless to say, the fan base is looking forward to what you do with a team that has a lot of talent, a lot of youth, but still has some questions at various spots on the ice.
One question that is not even up for discussion (nor should it be) is the captaincy. It’s Claude Giroux. Period. End of discussion. Ever since the Giroux two-piece combo of laying out Penguins star Sidney Crosby followed by scoring the opening goal of that same game, he’s the captain. He leads by example, and he’s growing and maturing as a player. Last year, Giroux finished third in the Hart Trophy voting after compiling 86 points (28 goals, 58 assists). In his last two full seasons (not counting the strike shortened season), Giroux has been on the cusp of a 100-point season. This could be the year he finally gets there if certain things go right on his line.
Jakub Voracek will likely continue to be Giroux’s “right hand man” so to speak — because Voracek plays right wing — but there will likely be a change on the left. One of Hextall’s first moves as GM was the controversial trade of fan favorite Scott Hartnell. (My friend Renee is still a little upset about this, by the way.) In return, the Flyers got R.J. Umberger and a fourth round draft pick. Umberger likely won’t be on the first line with Giroux and Voracek because he’s probably better served on a line with Jason Akeson and Wayne Simmonds.
Brayden Schenn may be the one who graduates to the first row of the classroom. Last season, Schenn scored 20 goals for the first time in his career, and there’s thoughts in the organization (and me, personally) that Schenn could blossom this year and finally have his breakout season at the tender age of 22. Schenn’s physicality and forechecking ability could prove highly beneficial on a first line that had some of that in Hartnell, but not with nearly as much youth or tenacity as Schenn showed last year playing wing.
It would be fantastic for Schenn to repeat what Wayne Simmonds did last year and have his big Flyers breakout party (29 goals, 31 assists). What made Simmonds particularly stand out from all the rest last year was 15 power play goals — third in the league behind Washington’s Alex Ovechkin and Joe Pavelsky of the San Jose Sharks. It’s just easy for this town to love Simmonds because he continues to produce as he gets more and more responsibility, and his “lunch pail” mentality just helps him thrive that much more. (It also helps that he’s a bit of a bad-ass.) He’s not flashy. He’s not a diva (see Ovechkin, Alex or Crosby, Sidney). He just does what he does — crash the net, put his big body in front of it, and cause havoc. He does it well, and he’s a stabilizing force.
It’s hard to use words like “stable” or anything that has to do with defense because that’s where the Flyers’ biggest question mark is. After learning that veteran Kimmo Timonen would probably miss the entire season with blood clots (a condition that may ultimately cost him his career), Hextall and the front office had to scramble to improve (or at least patchwork) the defense.
Luke Schenn is still a bruising force for the D, and Mark Streit was a welcome surprise after coming over from the Islanders for chump change. The Flyers dipped into the Islanders roster even further with a late season trade for Andrew MacDonald. MacDonald has had a full offseason and training camp to learn precisely what his responsibilities are, but the rest of the defensive unit (Niklas Grossman, Braydon Coburn — who was good enough on the penalty kill last season, but not god-like or anything, and newly acquired Michael Del Zotto) doesn’t exactly give you that warm feeling of comfort that at least an average defense would give you. Don’t get me wrong. The Flyers defense is definitely average, but this is the unit that gives you the most worry heading into this season. The best case scenario is Schenn and MacDonald making a leap, Streit continuing to be himself and Del Zotto reverting back to what made him a stand out for the Rangers, and everyone else just not making catastrophic mistakes. Then, and only then, will I not have a feeling of rising anger towards the back end of the ice.
Now that we’ve got that out of the way, let’s talk about how stable the goalie was last year …
… which was as shocking to me as it was to everyone else. I know. I know. That’s a bad joke in poor taste.
(Dodges rotten tomato.) I said, “I’m sorry.”
(Dodges snowball.) Hey! We already get enough crap for throwing snowballs. Let’s not start a new trend, ok?
Steve Mason was actually pretty stable last season which was a pleasant surprise. Mason was a top-15 goalie in terms of save percentage (.917) and a very reputable 2.50 GAA in 61 games. Mason was rewarded with a pay raise ($4.1 million from $1.5 million), so bring on the unfair expectations. Asking Mason to turn into Tuukka Rask or Semyon Varlamov would just be silly. If what Mason provided last year is precisely what he is, take it. Take it with a smile on your face because Rangers fans need to be honest with us and themselves. If Steve Mason doesn’t get a concussion on April 12th against the Penguins (literally five days before the playoffs started), the Flyers win that series. You know it. I know it. The American people know it.
Aside from the Eagles, no team is celebrated with the fervor and passion as the Flyers in this town. The Phillies left us with a sour taste in our mouths (understatement) after this disastrous season, but there are plenty of reasons to visit the Wells Fargo Center this winter.
The “Ice Girls” have returned after the disastrous experiment that was the “Ice Boys” — which was further exposed by noted Rangers fan Keith Olbermann. (Thanks for that, Keith, by the way.) Now that that ugliness is over, we can pay attention to the people actually playing the sport … at least until they score a goal because there’s so much hatred about the Flyers goal horn (the one featuring Fall Out Boy) — which I actually like, by the way. There’s no reason to change it. Nothing will ever top the “Doop“, anyway, so what is everyone complaining about? The basic argument is over something that is not even a minute in length most of the time, anyway. Stop this nonsense. There’s hockey to be watched.
There should be a new sense of hope for our boys in orange and black because they’re on the upswing as opposed to the downtrend. This team is young, talented, and is on the verge of becoming a dominant team in the east under the leadership of new GM Ron Hextall. Winning the Stanley Cup this year isn’t a requirement. I’d be perfectly happy with more forward steps, solid contention in the Metropolitan Division, and continued ownership of the Consol Energy Arena in Pittsburgh (where the Flyers are 10-1-1 since the building opened).
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