Philadelphia Flyers Playoffs: Good, Bad, and the Ugly Part I
Posted 4:53 PM ET | Comments 0
Recap of the Philadelphia Flyers playoff series with the New York Rangers.
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly Part I
The Good:
The Flyers faced an uphill battle almost the whole series or what seemed like it and kept battling back to force a game 7. Although some of these points are negative, the positive points here are the perseverance we would expect from a Flyers club when their chips are down to almost win the series.
Here is what they overcame at times to force the game 7:
*They never lead the series in games
*They scored first in only 2 of the games
*Out shot by 42 shots. 221 to 179 in the series
*Their number one goaltender, Steve Mason, started his first game at the middle mark of the series
*Consistently unable to overcome the Rangers strong side overload defensive zone coverage where the Flyers were outnumbered by one and sometimes two blue shirts.
**I will cover this in the upcoming blogs that the Flyers next year should employ this type of defensive scheme coverage. The whole year the Flyers struggled in defensive zone coverage and this would help considerably.**
Let's start with some players that exceeded expectations:
*Steve Mason built on a very positive regular season and came up big in games to steal games 4 and 6 and almost game 7 which would have been a heist of epic Flyers proportions. Ray Emery as well, in Game 1 and 2, gave stellar performances in which they could have won both games. Although Emery's lack of side to side movement was exposed possibly due to his hip condition. Ray battled well.
*Undrafted free agents Jason Akeson and Michael Raffl. Kudos to the Flyers scouting staff for these finds. Jason Akeson took advantage of Steve Downie being out and scored two goals in the series. Even though he committed a game changing penalty in game 1 of the third period, his passing and offensive creativity were a positive for the Flyers throughout.
*Michael Raffl only had one point in the series but only averaged 12:35 in ice time. It didn't matter what line he played on, Michael Raffl consistently used his speed and size to put pressure on the Rangers and establish a forecheck.
*Luke Schenn who I was critical through the regular season for numerous turnovers and poor defensive coverage had a very good series. Luke was a plus 1 and averaged 17:21 in ice time. To be on the team who struggled in five on five, this was great and showed growing confidence throughout the series. I'm looking forward to next year to see which Luke is the more prominent one. The playoff Luke or regular season Luke who was a healthy scratch during the regular season.
Next Blog: Part II The Bad and The Ugly
By Claude Burgandy and Thanks for Reading
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly Part I
The Good:
The Flyers faced an uphill battle almost the whole series or what seemed like it and kept battling back to force a game 7. Although some of these points are negative, the positive points here are the perseverance we would expect from a Flyers club when their chips are down to almost win the series.
Here is what they overcame at times to force the game 7:
*They never lead the series in games
*They scored first in only 2 of the games
*Out shot by 42 shots. 221 to 179 in the series
*Their number one goaltender, Steve Mason, started his first game at the middle mark of the series
*Consistently unable to overcome the Rangers strong side overload defensive zone coverage where the Flyers were outnumbered by one and sometimes two blue shirts.
**I will cover this in the upcoming blogs that the Flyers next year should employ this type of defensive scheme coverage. The whole year the Flyers struggled in defensive zone coverage and this would help considerably.**
Let's start with some players that exceeded expectations:
*Steve Mason built on a very positive regular season and came up big in games to steal games 4 and 6 and almost game 7 which would have been a heist of epic Flyers proportions. Ray Emery as well, in Game 1 and 2, gave stellar performances in which they could have won both games. Although Emery's lack of side to side movement was exposed possibly due to his hip condition. Ray battled well.
*Undrafted free agents Jason Akeson and Michael Raffl. Kudos to the Flyers scouting staff for these finds. Jason Akeson took advantage of Steve Downie being out and scored two goals in the series. Even though he committed a game changing penalty in game 1 of the third period, his passing and offensive creativity were a positive for the Flyers throughout.
*Michael Raffl only had one point in the series but only averaged 12:35 in ice time. It didn't matter what line he played on, Michael Raffl consistently used his speed and size to put pressure on the Rangers and establish a forecheck.
*Luke Schenn who I was critical through the regular season for numerous turnovers and poor defensive coverage had a very good series. Luke was a plus 1 and averaged 17:21 in ice time. To be on the team who struggled in five on five, this was great and showed growing confidence throughout the series. I'm looking forward to next year to see which Luke is the more prominent one. The playoff Luke or regular season Luke who was a healthy scratch during the regular season.
Next Blog: Part II The Bad and The Ugly
By Claude Burgandy and Thanks for Reading