The Philadelphia Flyers 2021 season was…strange… to put it delicately. They played a schedule that was both significantly shortened and extremely condensed, leaving almost no time for practice. They played in front of empty buildings half the year, and had several of their games postponed because they caught some kinda virus that’s going around.
In such a–dare I say– unprecedented season, it should come as little surprise that the Flyers put up some REALLY odd numbers. Like, statistical anomaly, couldn’t put up numbers this bad if you tried type of stuff. Let’s a take a look at some of those numbers, and see what they tell us about our beloved Broad Street Bullies.
Slow Starts
The Flyers had a very strange habit this year of digging themselves early holes, and then either finding a way to pull off a miraculous late-game comeback, or completely folding the tents and losing by five or more goals.
It actually didn’t start this way though, as throughout their hot start to the season in January and February, the Flyers were enjoying hot starts in games fairly often. Throughout their first 23 contests, the Flyers actually managed to grab the first goal 15 times.
From there, however, their trend of giving up the first goal started, and really kicked into another gear in April, where they surrendered the first goal in a remarkable 10 STRAIGHT GAMES. Given the rate at which they scored first for the season (41%), the statistical chances of them giving up the first goal in 10 straight? 0.51%
When all was said and done, the Orange and Black managed to score first in 23 games, of which they managed to win 14 and lose 9. They gave up the first goal 33 times, and in those games they tallied 11 wins and 22 losses.
Their slow starts didn’t start and stop with the first goal though, the team really struggled in first periods on the whole. Through their first 18 games, the Flyers actually managed to end the first period with a lead eight times and trailed after one in only four. Again, that trend completely turned around at the beginning of March though, and by the end of the month, the Flyers had managed to put themselves in a hole at the first intermission a whopping 16 times and entered the break leading just 10 times for the season.
All told, in their 56 contests, the Flyers led just 13 times at the break, but trailed just over double that, at 27 times. Their goal differential in first periods was a cool -22, which is a real shame, because when leading after one, they were an impressive 10-2-1, as opposed to a dismal 7-17-3 when trailing.