Flyers Playoff Player Review: Travis Konecny

Despite a strong regular season, Konecny could not help the Flyers on the scoresheet in the postseason.

During the 2019-2020 regular season that saw him record 24 goals and 61 points, best on the Flyers, Travis Konecny had captured the hearts and support of the fan base.  Fans and other organizations wondered alike, had Konecny ascended beyond the role of secondary scorer, transforming into a star?

With the covid shutdown, Konecny would need to wait until August and the playoffs to answer the question. Konecny’s playoff effort responded with a resounding “No!” as the talented winger failed to register a single goal in sixteen playoff contests. Konecny did manage to collect seven helpers despite his shooting struggles.

Konecny was paired almost exclusively with Kevin Hayes, who led the team in points and tied for second on the team with four goals.   It is also interesting to note that TK spent significant time with Laughton, who led with five goals, and Joel Farabee, whose three goals tied for fifth.

While not filling the score sheet, a strong case can be made that TK was doing many of the little things to help the team and contribute in some ways to the offense.

The advanced metric were not favorable to Konecny as he would finish 9th amongst the Flyers’ forwards with a 45.6% percent even strength corsi. This might be of some concern if not for the wide spread corsi deficit than encompassed the team.

Using corsi as a judge of player performance is always a dubious operation, and with Konecny, it is no different. While failing to score, TK’s energy and skill were evident though out the playoffs.

Konecny saw just over 48 minutes on the powerplay, the 4th most among Flyers’ forwards, but failed to record a single point in that time. Konecny is certainly not without blame, one would hope for more production from the team leader in scoring. However, in context, he was not especially bad compared to other members of the dismal Flyers powerplay, he was merely another cog in the low octane machine.

If this had been 2018, Konecny’s performance would have graded out much higher.  But in 2018 TK would have been a depth player, an adjunct scorer.  In 2020 Konecny was much closer to an offensive center piece than a role player. That status garners higher responsibilities and expectations.

A handful of goals from Konency would not have been unreasonable to count on, and it well could have made the difference against the Islanders. Producing no goals in this circumstance was unacceptable.

It may seem harsh to pile on TK, after all slumps happen (16 games?!).  But there was a more disturbing trend.  Not only was Konecny not scoring, he also was not shooting at as a high rate. He averaged less than two shots a game in the playoffs, a 15% drop from his regular season numbers. This indicates a problem beyond a snake bitten player in a slump, Konecny’s game was some how throttled in the playoffs to the point that he was not testing the opponents as he did in the regular season.

Konecny did a lot of little things to help his line mates, making the Hayes line the most effective in the playoffs.  He avoided any major mistakes and was solid in his decision making. But as the team’s most prolific scorer in the regular season Konecny was counted on to score in bunches, and in this  he failed spectacularly.

Ultimately his inability to provide goals, his primary responsibility on the team, negated much the rest of his good play and made this a disappointing playoff season for Konecny.