Yeah! The Flyers are on a winning streak. They've won two in a row after starting the season 0-for-9. After taking down the mighty Avalanche, they might not suck after all.
It's still wayyyyyyyyyyyy too early to suggest that they are back on track. Key players are injured, and there is still a lot to figure out. However, it is important to realize there is still about 90% of the hockey season left. There is plenty of reason to believe the Flyers could turn it around.
Here are four reasons why.
Here Come the Kids
Injuries make room for opportunities. Alex Bump, Jacob Gaucher, and Cole Knuble were recalled from the Phantoms. They are hungry and will want to earn a place. It's one thing to have made the roster and sit on the bench. It's another thing to be an active part of the team. Now Daniel Briere and Rick Tocchet can see the worth of these guys.
The best-case scenario is that someone like Bump or Knuble makes it really hard to send them back. If that is the case, could one of the injured vets be ready to be shipped out?
The Pressure Mounts
The more the losses piled up, the more desperate the Flyers became. It's like being a single teen and asking girls out to the prom. The first one or two say no, and you get a little scared. Then you start asking everyone. When one says yes, you can relax a bit.
While trying to secure a win, the players were rushing passes to jump-start the offense. Those would get intercepted, create odd-man rushes, and before you know it, the puck is in the net.
Maybe the lack of preseason games hurt them, but why is that not affecting other teams? Maybe it is the lack of familiarity since so many guys are younger and newer. Add injuries to the list, and these lines need time to gel and get acquainted. But now that the Flyers have won a pair of games, we should be good to go.
Everyone Loves an Underdog
Go back to last year. This team was doing fine at the beginning of the season, and then Tyson Foerster got hurt. That was the first domino to fall, which turned into a flurry of cascading pieces. From just before Thanksgiving to the Olympic Break, this team was skidding out. They went from a virtual playoff lock to becoming a "wait till next year team"...again.
We know how the story goes. They had a whopping 3.8% chance of making the playoffs. They dug in deep, believed in themselves, and the rest is hockey history.
Maybe that's what they needed. It sounds weird, but maybe this group of guys needed to get their backs up against the wall. All summer long, they heard how great they were. Maybe this is the kick in the butt they needed to bring them back to Earth and learn how to play hockey with an edge again.
They thrived on the fact that nobody believed in them. Now, with everyone believing in them, the pressure to do well was insanely high. Now they can relax and start the climb back to the top of the metro.
Give Them Time
There is a large contingent of the roster who are playing in their first or second full year in the NHL. Matvei Michkov is only in his third year. Give them some time to figure stuff out. Michkov seemed to click with Noah Cates and Porter Martone. He also seemed to handle power-play duties with Trevor Zegras well. Maybe this is the start of something.
I'm not ready to crown them...well, anything at this point. There's a big hole they have to climb out of. But if they can keep building off these two wins and gain that confidence back, perhaps some of that special sauce we saw last spring might return. This team might surprise us yet.
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