Flyers facing tough competition in new divisional alignment

With a reported start date on the horizon, the Flyers will have some tough opponents on their schedule.

We have finally made it. With a reported start date of January 13th, Flyers hockey will be back in just over a month. While we don’t know exactly when the team will report for camp, we have an idea of their potential opponents.

The league is expected to separate teams into specific divisions for the season. The goal is to limit the travel a normal year would have. This means the Flyers would play a specific set of teams during the shortened season.

That group has changed a few times and may not necessarily be confirmed this time either. But according to Pierre LeBrun, this is what the league is currently talking about.

If you’re a little confused on where the Flyers are in this grouping, they are the Pha abbreviation that LeBrun uses. That’s certainly a new one. At least he remembered Philadelphia was a team.

But nonetheless, the division is similar to the ones that had been proposed before. The division that will likely be dubbed as the East has its fair share of talent. And most of them are familiar opponents in the typical Metropolitan Division.

So the Flyers know what they’re getting against a large majority of those teams. How exactly did they fare against each this season? We’ll start with the two the Flyers saw the least of this past season.

Boston Bruins

Regular Season Record: 0-1

The pandemic took away the second matchup between the two, leaving the Bruins with the lone victory in this series. Philadelphia did get their revenge during the play-in round en route to sweeping the East for the top seed.

Boston is consistently one of the best teams in the league and would probably be the Flyers’ biggest competition.

Key Moment

Tuukka Rask made 36 saves to earn the shutout and stop the Flyers win streak at nine games. It would end up as both teams’ final game before the pause of the season.

Buffalo Sabres

Regular Season Record: 2-0

The Flyers had a lot of success against Buffalo this season, outscoring them 9-2 in the season series. Their final win against the Sabres was their ninth consecutive win, an impressive run towards the top of the division.

Buffalo will look a bit different this time around, though. While Jack Eichel remains as one of their stars, he will now be joined by Taylor Hall. The coveted free agent chose to bet on himself, signing a hefty one-year contract with the Sabres.

Key Moment

While the second win over Buffalo extended the winning streak for Philadelphia, it was their first matchup that opened the scoring floodgates. The Flyers piled six goals on Carter Hutton, three of them coming in the first four minutes of the game. They ended up breaking Eichel’s point streak as well. To be fair though, Eichel was scratched from the game after warmups.

New Jersey Devils

Regular Season Record: 2-1

The Devils are the first on the list that the Flyers are very familiar with. After being dubbed as having the best offseason, New Jersey had a lot to prove. Unfortunately for them, that offseason success did not translate during the regular season. While the two ended up tied in goals during their series, the Flyers edged out the victory more often.

Key Moment

Carter Hart earned the first shutout of his career after a 4-0 win over the Devils on October 9th. He made 25 saves in the contest, none bigger than his lunging glove save against Hall during a 5-on-3 powerplay for the Devils. Talk about a moment you will never forget. The shutout made Hart the youngest Flyers goalie to earn said mark.

New York Islanders

Regular Season Record: 0-2-1

While Boston is always a tough team, it was the Islanders who gave the Flyers fits during the regular season and then in the second round of the playoffs. They just couldn’t seem to find a way to match their style no matter when they faced them. And even when they had a lead, the Flyers could not keep the Islanders at bay.

They will need to figure out a way to match the Islanders’ style if they want to have a better chance of beating them.

Key Moment

Up 3-0 against New York on November 16th, the Islanders fought back with three third period goals to tie the game and send it to extra time. The tying goal came with just about two minutes remaining. The Islanders edged out the win in the shootout with goals from Jordan Eberle and Mathew Barzal.

New York Rangers

Regular Season Record: 3-0

The Rangers surprised everyone with a late-season run as. they managed to sneak themselves into the postseason. They even ended up capturing the top pick in the draft as well. But the Flyers had their number, sweeping the season series between the two.

Now with Alexis Lafreniere on board, the Rangers are likely to take another step forward in their rebuild.

Key Moment

Henrik Lundqvist took the net as the starting goaltender for the first time since February 3rd, almost a month prior to this game. The Flyers welcomed him back with five goals, three of them coming on the powerplay and one shorthanded. That completed not only the season sweep but a home-and-home sweep of the Rangers as well.

Pittsburgh Penguins

Regular Season Record: 1-1-1

After it seemed as if the Flyers and Penguins would not end up in the same division, we have been given our rivalry back. It doesn’t matter how these two teams are doing when they meet up. Each game is expected to be just as intense as the last. After a blowout loss to open their series, the Flyers kept things close as they earned at least a point in the final two contests.

No matter what, this matchup should continue to have the intensity it always provides.

Key Moment

After losing Carter Hart to injury, Brian Elliott was forced to step into the starting goaltender role. He stepped up big for the Flyers, including a 3-0 shutout of the Penguins before the All-Star break. The team helped him out, putting up the three goals while limiting Pittsburgh to just 19 shots. Malkin and Crosby combined for three of those shots.

Washington Capitals

Regular Season Record: 3-0-1

Washington and Philadelphia spent the end of the season almost neck and neck in the division standings. The pause put the Flyers just a single point out of first place. If it had finished out, there was a good chance that the Capitals would not have been able to hold onto that top spot.

Key Moment

Ovechkin came into the third matchup just two goals away from 700 in his career. It was Claude Giroux that stole the spotlight as he grabbed three points in the 7-2 victory. That gave him 800 points in the NHL. After Oshie tied the game in the first, the Flyers didn’t look back. They scored the next six goals en route to the victory.

So all in all, the Flyers posted an 11-5-3 record against their potential opponents for next season. They found success more often than not and were able to pile up the goals in most of their games. Bringing back a similar team to last season, we should hopefully see a similar amount of success.

Even with a .579 winning percentage and points in 14 of the 19 games, the Flyers will still have their work cut out for them in this shortened season.