Philadelphia Flyers: In search of faith, hope and clarity

The Philadelphia Flyers are in search of faith, hope, and clarity

Well, folks, faith in a playoff appearance is really gone, after another great effort and out playing their opponent but nothing to show for it the Philadelphia Flyers end their road trip in the state of Pennsylvania at the house that Sydney Crosby built.

The game in Columbus was theirs to be had, along with approximately 30 other losses throughout the season.  With whispers of the team being the epitome of mediocre and the core being accountable for their uninspired play.

I’ve come to the conclusion that if these things were true, then why do the Flyers sit in the top 10 in most advanced metrics, improving quite a bit in 5on5 shot attempts and shot suppression.

Yes, they’re in the bottom five for goals scored on 5on5 but wouldn’t that speak more to the fact that they’re missing that speedy sniper who seldom has scoring droughts?  Yes, a guy like Duchene for Giroux to set up for 40-50 goals a year.

Even though “G” hasn’t been up to his all-star greatness until recently, he’s making plays that just aren’t going in.  At least 4 or 5 prime scoring chances a game he’s been good for, and puck luck can’t account for all the near misses.

I’d say Simmonds should probably have 38-39 goals and ready to hit the 40 goal mark, but he’s not and as much as I love his hard-nosed play, he’s not a true sniper, he’s a grinder with a decent set of hands who benefits greatly from the Captain’s quarterbacking of the power play.

He’s also improved his 5on5 play, but some of these chances he’s missed when on the first line with “G”, would’ve been put in by a true goal scorer, hard work relies more on puck luck than talent does.  Most of this also applies to Schenn except he almost totally relies on “G” and has nowhere near the tenacity and toughness of Simmonds.

Jake is, well…Jake, I think the League has caught on to his tendency to one man show through the neutral zone and they’re clogging it up or waiting till he runs out of steam and ganging up on him, if he can manage to get it back to the point, it ends up in the shins of the opposing team or far off the mark.

Jake showed his frustration last week with that repeated scenario and it was evident.  All in all, I hope the core is kept intact.  Now faith is a different thing.

My first article for the “buzz” was saying how I have faith in the Captain and he would lead the way, and he did…except not everyone followed.

Philadelphia Flyers

As far as the coach goes… lost most of my faith in him the past 3 months, accentuated in yesterday’s game when he could’ve had an extra attacker on with 1:30 left on the clock and the Flyers in the Jackets zone but chose to finally implement it with less than a minute.

Seems minor but he’s had a whole slew of minor ones that have added up to a huge pile.

Now as far has hope goes, there’s plenty on the horizon as our prospects are highly touted, especially on the backend.  I’d also like to hope that coach Hakstol has learned from his many blunders but….Now for some clarity….It’s clear we’re on the right path but our coach could really hamper this team with some of his sophomore mistakes like headstrong benching’s that can stunt a young man’s growth and turn him into a career minor leaguers.

I now see that he’s not the right coach for the age of our nucleus and would’ve  been better suited in a total youth rebuild.

That won’t happen without blowing everything up and going for the next #1 draft pick for the next few years.  So I guess was without total clarity….maybe I should’ve used charity instead….