The Philadelphia Flyers are prepping for a season in which they continue to prove their doubters wrong. After making the playoffs last season and reaching the second round, there still aren't many in the NHL world giving them the chance this upcoming campaign. For the most part the Flyers are running it back with the same roster as last year, as they hope to make it back to the playoffs and make it back to the Stanley Cup Final for the first time since 2010.
As the Flyers prepare for the upcoming season, they need to fine tune their game and work on areas of weakness that doomed them. One that really stands out is the power play. The Flyers struggled with the extra skater advantage during the regular season, finishing dead last in power play percentage, while only scoring three power play goals on 36 opportunities in 10 playoff games. It's been that bad, and it effectively ended their season.
Let's just say that the Flyers know they must be better this season.
Rick Tocchet and Jamie Drysdale know Flyers need to improve power play this season
While speaking with reporters, Tocchet was asked about how he got the Flyers prepared to improve the power play. Tocchet gave an example of the Vegas Golden Knights and how they play on the power play, and came to the realization that the Flyers are doing the same things, but not as consistently. Tocchet said that's one area where he takes blame.
"And then the reads, that's the one thing we have to stay on top of as we start September. Is it a box, is it a top down, what happens if the flanker defensive D is too high, what are we looking to do? We have to get better at that, because I think last year the reads were a little off," said Tocchet. "And I blame myself a little bit, i'm going to pound a lot of this at them early on. I don't think we did it as much last year, I don't know why I didn't maybe the new guy on the block and I was worried about five-on-five but we really have to hone in on the details of the power play."
Tocchet wasn't the only one who discussed the power play's struggles. Defenseman Jamie Drysdale, who is on the top power play unit, says they know they have to be better than they were last season.
"I don't know how else to say it, we were at the bottom, it has to be better, we'll win more games and I think we have the talent, so it's just execution and being in sync and doing it at the end of the day," said Drysdale.
Flyers' success hinges on improvement on power play
This is the purpose of training camp, to ensure they don't make the same mistakes as the year prior. If the Flyers want to have another successful year, they can't waste extra skater advantages. Teams like the Carolina Hurricanes and Golden Knights had top 10 power play units during the regular season, and made it all the way to the Stanley Cup Final. Imagine how things could have gone had they made teams pay for taking penalties?
Instead, finishing dead last with a 15.7 percent power play success rate in the regular season, seriously hindered their chances of winning extra games. Who knows, maybe they wouldn't have needed to make a late season push for third place in the division?
Maybe that can all change this season. Porter Martone thrived in a short amount of time with the team, and fans are hyped about what he can do with a full season of work. Then, there's the hope that Matvei Michkov can put a down 2025-26 season behind and take that much-needed next step forward and put more points on the stat sheet. If those two pan out, it could do wonders for the Flyers' power play.
With the Flyers really only making minor additions this offseason, the pressure is on for the team that made it to the playoffs last year to use it as a learning experience to ensure they can make it much further in the postseason.
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