Flyers Power Rankings: December Heroes
By Dan King
December has not been a bad month for the Flyers.
The Flyers have points in five of seven games this month, after an abysmal end to November, which saw the Orange and Black lose eight of their final nine games that month.
The team’s success of late (if you want to call it that) has come from the reawakening of some dormant secondary scorers on the offensive side.
Heading into tonight’s match-up with a young, talented and relatively successful Florida Panthers team, here are my Flyers Power Rankings for the month of December. All of the top five listed here should continue their success in the final game of the home stand tonight.
5) Luke Schenn: My colleague Andy Dudones wrote a great piece for this website last week about the Flyers needing Luke Schenn back on the ice. Schenn has since returned to the Flyers lineup and has been one of the best defensemen on the ice. In his last three games, Schenn has a plus/minus of a plus-1 and most importantly the Flyers have won two of those three games, only losing to a very good Tampa Bay team. Schenn is easily at his best when he plays a physical style of hockey, with his 6-foot 2-inch frame, he is most certainly capable of doing so. Craig Berube is clearly beginning to notice Schenn’s success of late, as No. 22 has seen his ice time jump to about 20 minutes per game in his last two.
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4) Brayden Schenn: Luke’s little bother may not always jump out at you on the stat sheet, but his game goes much beyond that. Certainly it helps that Schenn has had a scorer’s touch in many Flyers’ wins this season, whether in the form of goals or assists. However, his versatility is his best attribute and he’s put that on display of late. Schenn has been great on the second line and throughout his time in Philadelphia has been great when playing with Wayne Simmonds; he has also been a valuable special teams player, filling in wherever he is needed; he dishes out great physicality, even as one of the smallest Flyers on the ice; and lastly, he has played incredibly disciplined hockey this season, with only 13 penalty minutes.
3) Scott Laughton: I’ll admit, I haven’t seen a ton of the rookie, living outside of the Philadelphia market and all, but what I have seen has been very promising. Laughton is the type of player that seems to always supply the hustle, heart and grit that are expected from a player in the Flyers organization. He’s been good on face offs this month and as we all know by now, he recorded his first career goal against New Jersey on Dec. 11.
2) Wayne Simmonds: I should probably call this “1A” instead of “2” because the Wayne Train has been rolling this month for the Flyers. Statistically he’s been the best Flyer scorer this month and he has done all the intangible things (as he always does) to help this team win some games. There is no doubt that this guy has found his comfortable spot in front of the net on power plays over the past few years and he has made that a goal-scoring home for himself this month.
“Along with Brayden Schenn, has been the catalyst for the resurrection of secondary offense for the Flyers”-on Sean Couturier
1) Sean Couturier: This kid has the potential to be one of, if not the best, two-way forward in the NHL. While supplying great defensive work on the opposing teams’ top forwards, Couturier has also scored a point in all but one game this month and along with Brayden Schenn, has been the catalyst for the resurrection of secondary offense for the Flyers. Couturier’s impact has been greatly felt this month on the likes of Wayne Simmonds, who has been fantastic throughout December. Discipline has been another strong spot for Couturier this month, his only penalty for the entire month of December has been a fighting major against San Jose.
There are my Flyers Power Rankings for the month of December, if you would change anything to these rankings leave me a comment or hit me up on Twitter. I would most certainly expect to see all five of these players to perform well tonight against the Panthers. If these five can keep things going the way they have, the Flyers could very well be on their way to turning this once bleak season around.