Last season, the then-overachieving Flyers advanced as far as the Eastern Conference Finals only to be stonewalled by the Pittsburgh Penguins. This season, the Penguins once again stymied the now-underwhelming Flyers, albeit much earlier in the post-season. Blame the offense; blame the defense; blame the goaltending, but there is enough blame to go around as to why the Flyers were ousted so early in the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals.
Carcillo vs. Talbot
In Game Six of the series, with the Flyers up 3-0, Flyers' forward Daniel Carcillo fought the Penguins Maxime Talbot. At that very moment, the pendulum of momentum swung from the Flyers to the Penguins. The Flyers may deny this, but the fight served as a rallying point for Pittsburgh. With a 3-0 lead, it is hard to believe Flyers' coach John Stevens would order Carcillo to fight; most likely, this was something the NHL's penalty minutes leader initiated on his own. To the Penguins, to initiate a fight with a 3-0 lead in the game must have seemed like an attempt to pile it on. And instead of burying the Penguins, this fight seemed to inspire them, and simultaneously sucked the life right out of the Flyers.
Injured Jeff Carter Held to One Goal
This past regular season, Jeff Carter was second in the NHL with 46 goals. In the series against Pittsburgh, Carter had one goal in six games, and was a -2 to boot. Carter is arguably the Flyers top goal scorer and among the best goal scorers in the league. He does a lot away from the puck, but without his scoring touch, and no one else in the lineup consistently picking up the slack offensively, there was no way the Flyers could win the series against Pittsburgh.
And now we know why Carter was so ineffectual; according to general manager Paul Holmgren, Carter was playing with a separated right shoulder. Holmgren stated that Richards suffered the injury when he slid into the boards in Game Three, but the injury will not require surgery. And Carter was not the only injured Flyers' forward. Captain Mike Richards, said Holmgren, was also injured, with torn labrums in both shoulders that will require surgery.
Fleury's Goaltending
The old adage in hockey is that you can ride a hot goalie right into the Stanley Cup Finals, and Marc-Andre Fleury is playing as well as any goaltender still remaining in the playoffs. He turned away 45 shots in Game Four, and made several improbable saves throughout the series, and that clearly energized the Penguins. Fleury's counterpart, Martin Biron, was, at times, equally as good, but was erratic, particularly in Game Six. For the Flyers to have beaten Pittsburgh, Biron would have had to played as Superman-like as Henrik Lundqvist did in the Rangers series against Washington, and as Lundqvist eventually showed, it is almost impossible to play without any room for error night in and night out.
Flyers' Off-Season Moves
The Flyers will almost certainly bring back Biron, an unrestricted free agent. But to do so will push them even closer to the salary cap, even with it likely to increase, albeit slightly, next season. So look for the club to possibly shop a big salary to free up cap space, and forward Daniel Briere might be the casualty. The Flyers might try to move him and the six years remaining on his contract, but if that proves unlikely due to his no-trade clause, they may look to shop someone else like a Joffrey Lupul or Randy Jones to lessen their payroll.
The Flyers seemingly backed into the playoffs with a 4-5-1 record in their final ten games, and watched their post-season home ice advantage slip away during that stretch. With that in mind, perhaps the bottom line for the Flyers may very well be that they are a club with a lot of talent, and one that perennially makes the playoffs, but as they stand now, they are simply not good enough overtake other dominant Eastern Conference clubs, Pittsburgh being one of them.
Michael Spagnuolo - Hello - my name is Michael Spagnuolo. I have worked for several years behind the scenes with two NHL teams, and I have also played ice ...
