What Happened to the Flyers?

While Philadelphia is a “4 for 4” city celebrating the four professional teams (and occasionally the Union) it’s clear that the team that’s usually fourth in the pecking order are the Flyers. The Phillies are in the thick of their 162 game season, the Sixers are pushing for a potential NBA Finals run and the Eagles are close to starting training camp after an eventful offseason.

Fair or not fair, in order for the Flyers to get citywide attention for a town that will spend all day talking about a single Eagles player on radio, they have to look like major contenders for Lord Stanley’s Cup. And as of right now, they haven’t been.

The Fly Guys are currently sitting back at home and watching the usually exciting NHL playoffs continue, just a year after reaching Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Semi-Finals against the New York Islanders. At the time of that series they seemed to have the brightest future out of all the Philly sports teams. After winning the 2021 season opener we even tweeted this:

Two months later and we tweeted this out

And finally a month later we tweeted this:

Instead of running it back to make another deep playoff run, the Flyers finished the shortened regular season with a 23-25-8 record and didn’t even make the playoffs. Fans thought last year was the beginning of a better era for Philly hockey, but 2021 turned put to be a disappointment not unlike most seasons in the past decade.

What happened to the Flyers? Certainly the shortened offseason and hits with COVID-19 on players in the year’s beginning didn’t help. It interfered with the team’s chemistry and the lack of talent put them in a slump. Even when the players did come back after quarantining the team never got their groove back.

The team’s defense also suffered with the retirement of Matt Niskanen, and his absence has been noticeable. The team finished 31st in league defense with 197 goals given up. And obviously there is the alarming struggles of goalie Carter Hart. In case you’ve been living under a rock for the past two decades, the Flyers have been in a never-ending search for a franchise goaltender. Last year it looked like they finally found the guy in the kid Carter Hart, as his performance in the playoffs was a big reason why they made it as far as they did. This season however Hart took a major step back, going 9-11-5 with a 3.67 GAA and .877 SV% in only 25 starts. While it was a massively disappointing season for Hart, he is still only 22 years old and has plenty of time to hone his craft as a goalie.

The best-case scenario for the Flyers this season is that it’s an anomaly to a great run of success. The circumstances and short preparation time for the season isn’t a full blown excuse, but is a valid explanation as to why things didn’t click. The real test for the Fly Guys begin next season when COVID will mostly be a non-factor and arenas practically be full. Hopefully this will be the group of players who will put at end to the 1975 jokes. At least they’re easier to swallow than no Super Bowl jokes.

By Mike McCarrick | June 8, 2021
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