Flyers Should Find Inspiration From Divisional Rival

When you look at the Hurricanes, they had a great youth movement that has panned out. Brind’Amour has helped to mold a strong group of young players. Either through trades, free agency, or drafts, Carolina has built a team of the following players that are all under 25: Sebastian Aho, Andrei Svechnikov, Martin Necas, Seth Jarvis, Jesperi Kotkaniemi, and Max Domi. Teuvo Teravainen, Vincent Trocheck, Nino Niederreiter, Jaccob Slavin, Brett Pesce, Brady Skjei are all under 30.

When you look at this team, they don’t have a lot of superstar power, outside of Aho and Svechnikov. However, this is a deep, deep team. Every line plays tough. Every line can score and play well two ways. Their defenders are not all-stars, but Slavin, Pesce, and Skjei are rock steady and reliable.

The Flyers have a very strong youth movement right now. Cam York, Joel Farabee, Owen Tippett, Morgan Frost, Noah Cates, Carter Hart, Travis Sanheim, Konecny, Ivan Provorov, and Oskar Lindblom are all under 25.  This is a young group that has star potential that needs someone, a coach or veteran player, to guide them into something higher.

Special Teams are Special

An Achilles heel of the Flyers the last few years has been power plays. The Hurricanes finished 13th overall with a power play success rate of 21.98%. The Flyers were dead last at 12.55%; almost a full percentage point away from the next worst team. On the penalty kill, the Canes led the league with an 88.04% rate. The lowly Flyers were at 75.74%; good for 26th place. Sebastian Aho had 13 power play goals, to put him in a tie for 15th place. Nobody on the Flyers cracked the top 25 players.

For the last few years, special teams has been a problem for the Flyers. No answer has been found and in the the playoffs it has hurt them (Remember when we used to make the playoffs regularly?). Good teams make other teams pay for penalties. Good teams can also kill off opposing power plays.  This is something the Flyers need to fix.

Final Thoughts

Making a big splash in free agency is always sexy, but many teams that do that don’t really do enough to get there. Sometimes you have to build from within. The Hurricanes are doing it now. The Tampa Bay Lightning and Boston Bruins did it over the last 10 years and were very successful doing it. More importantly they add complimentary pieces to add to what they already have. That’s why they have sustained success year after year.

The Hurricanes have a system that works well for them. They find the sort of players that will gel with what Brind’Amour is building. The players are very happy with what has been building here. Five years ago, this was not the case. Brind’Amour has turned this once floundering team around and did it really quickly. The team has an identity, rally around each other, has weathered penalties, and still performs at a top level .

For the Flyers, they have some key pieces in place. They need a coach who can create a sense of team first here. There is a strong core of which to build around. OR, maybe the young players they have are not as good as they think they are. If that is the case, sell high and get yourself a core of players that you know can play well together as unit.

Carolina hockey is back. The last time I saw a game in Raleigh was when the Flyers were there and Aho had his first career hat-trick. The Flyers had like eight shots through the middle of the third period and were blown out (of course!). This was in the days before COVID was a thing. But the fans there are rowdy and fun like I never saw them before.

As a Flyer fan, I can appreciate a good, loud crowd of avid fans. It’s all I ever knew growing up. But the fans in Raleigh are invested because the team is invested in itself and is performing at a high level.  In interview after interview, you are seeing pending free agents like Trocheck and Domi talk about how much they really, really want to stay in Carolina.

That is desperately needed in Philly. It starts with a strong coach. That coach builds a team in their image. That team succeeds no matter what is thrown at them. The fans rally around the team. If the Flyers can follow in the footsteps of what has happened in Carolina, they can have a level of success that they haven’t seen in at least 10 years.