Flyers 9-game Winning Streak in 2019-20 Revisited
By Colin Newby
The Philadelphia Flyers gave their fans reason to believe they had turned a major corner when they caught fire with a nine-game winning streak from February 18-March 10 in 2020.
First-year head coach Alain Vigneault had his team firing on all cylinders with a ferocious forecheck, a strong defensive system, and a blossoming Carter Hart between the pipes.
Center Kevin Hayes had brought enthusiasm and character to the Flyers dressing room in his first season, and Travis Konecny was steadily becoming a fan-favorite in Philadelphia.
The COVID-19 pause in March 2020 stalled the momentum of a Flyers team that was gelling better than it had in nearly a decade.
Flyers Soaring under Alain Vigneault
The 2019-20 Flyers were streaky from the very beginning. They started with two wins, followed by four losses, followed by another three wins. Their 10-2-4 record during the month of November gave them solid positioning in the Metropolitan Division, but a late December swoon on the west coast left them jockeying for a wild card spot in the Eastern Conference entering the new year.
They bounced back from an overtime loss on January 7 with a turning point victory over the Washington Capitals the following night. They did not lose consecutive games for the next eight months.
In three home and home series, they pummeled fellow Eastern Conference wild card contenders in the Florida Panthers, Columbus Blue Jackets, and New York Rangers in six victories. They separated themselves from the pack and entered the conversation in the top tier of the Metro.
A showing of character against Washington on March 4 brought the excitement to a new height. The Orange and Black fended off the bullish Tom Wilson by squaring up with the Caps winger in two fights and earning a 5-2 victory.
The Flyers were never in contention for the President’s Trophy. They didn’t feature one of the NHL’s most elite offensive attacks. However, it looked like the Flyers had captured the ideal blend of chemistry for a team about to enter the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
On March 12, the NHL stopped its season.
Flyers Win Streak- Fool’s Gold?
The COVID pause stunted the momentum the Flyers had gained late in the regular season. While it initially looked like they would be the hottest team in the NHL entering the playoffs, the unprecedented circumstances essentially forced an entire off-season’s worth of time between the regular season and the playoffs.
They did get past the Montreal Canadiens in the opening round in the Toronto bubble, but they didn’t play with the same level of aggression and intensity as during the early months of 2020. Hart shut out the Canadiens twice, erasing all concerns about a potential first-round upset.
While the Eastern Conference Semifinals against the New York Islanders went the distance to a Game 7, the Flyers never truly looked like they had the upper hand in the series. The Islanders controlled the physical play and outscored the Flyers by eight goals in the series.
Efforts during the 2020-21 season to recapture the magic of the nine-game winning streak became a disaster.
General manager Chuck Fletcher’s aggressive offseason roster turnover kept the majority of the key contributors from the 2019-20 season. The new additions will bring a different mix and a new team identity.
It’s hard to set expectations for the 2021-22 Flyers. The thought that they can fully rebound from the nightmare of the 2020-21 season and come out of the gates with the intensity of the hot streak in early 2020 is unrealistic.
However, the new group could develop that same level of chemistry throughout the season and recreate the same type of momentum down the stretch heading into the playoffs in a season that (God-willing) won’t be derailed by such extreme and unfortunate circumstances.