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The Most Shocking Stats From a Disastrous 2021 Season

By Seth Humeniuk

Apr 22, 2021; New York, New York, USA; James van Riemsdyk #25 of the Philadelphia Flyers skates off the ice after scoring a goal in the second period against the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden. Mandatory Credit: Elsa/POOL PHOTOS-USA TODAY Sports
Apr 22, 2021; New York, New York, USA; James van Riemsdyk #25 of the Philadelphia Flyers skates off the ice after scoring a goal in the second period against the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden. Mandatory Credit: Elsa/POOL PHOTOS-USA TODAY Sports /
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Conclusion

“So what do we learn from this tire-fire inside a dumpster-fire of a season?” you may ask. Honestly, when looking back at some of these numbers, as well as overall nature of the season, I think you have to write a lot of this stuff off as a fluke.

Is Carter Hart really gonna have numbers that are worse than Ilya Bryzgalov in the 2012 playoffs next year? No, probably not. Are they gonna go two calendar months without a multi-goal victory again? Statistically, it’s very unlikely.

While I recognize that this team played pretty poorly this year, I do think they got a bit of a worse fate than they deserved in the end. They actually did a pretty good job in the shot department all year, as they ended up ranked 10th best in the league in shots for, and 11th best in shots against.

There’s not really a consensus about what exactly constitutes a “high-danger chance,” but I did write an article examining chances from the high danger area between the goal line and the lower hash that I call “The Triangle.” I found that during their games in March, their worst stretch defensively, the Flyers still managed to a 47% share of the “triangle” chances, but due to a combination of bad luck and poor goaltending, were outscored on them by a rate of more than 2-to-1.

While I recognize that this team played pretty poorly this year, I think these stats show that they got a bit of a worse fate than they deserved in the end.

There’s a positive and negative to all these numbers. The negative is that they’re so bad they’re among the worst ever posted and border on statistically impossible. The flip side of that, is that if they’re really that bad, then they statistically HAVE to be better next year. Who knows, with a couple new voices and a little regression toward the mean (in a good way), maybe this team can return to the playoffs next year.

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