Depth Carrying the Flyers Through the First Two Weeks
As per usual, the Flyers have been a bit of a roller coaster ride through the first few weeks of the new season.
Starting off with the solid 2-0 start before dropping their next four games. They’ve been very good, very bad and everything in between. But that’s been pretty normal for this team over the years.
What has been unusual is how the Flyers are getting production and from who. It’s usually been Giroux, Couturier, Voracek, JVR, and to a lesser extent, Shayne Gostisbehere.
Outside of Couturier, all have struggled. So far, Giroux and JVR have been held without a goal although they’ve certainly had their chances, especially van Riemsdyk. Voracek has been held without a point in five of the first seven games and Gostisbehere has just one point to his name so far.
So how have the Flyers even managed to get off to a 3-3-1 start?
Their depth.
A definite change of pace for a team that has been extremely top-heavy over the past few seasons, the Flyers have been getting great contributions from their second and third lines.
Most notably, their second line has dominated. The trio of Oskar Lindblom, Travis Konecny, and Sean Couturier are the teams’ top three scorers, combining for 21 points through seven games.
This line has been so effective, that they’ve stayed together on the powerplay and produced two goals in Monday night’s win against Vegas.
Overall, they have dominated puck possession with Lindblom and Couturier being so effective in battles along the boards while Konecny has seemingly taken his offensive game to the next level.
Much like he was last year with Giroux and Konecny, Couturier is the driving force of this line as his 200-foot game is one of the best in the NHL without question. Coming off back-to-back 30-goal seasons while being one of the best defensive centers in the league, anyone on a line with him will benefit greatly.
While it is certainly a concern that the Flyers haven’t been getting much production from their top guys, it’s still a welcome sight that the rest of the team has been able to pick up the slack which has been a problem for this team in the past.
If the Flyers are going to get back to the playoffs this year, they will need Giroux and Voracek to produce more offensively and they are still too good for that to be a concern over an 82-game season.
James van Riemsdyk might be the most snake-bitten player in the league right now as he leads the Flyers with a whopping 35 shots (11 more than anyone else) but has no goals to show for it.
It’s very likely that these trends from the Flyers’ top players don’t last for much longer and if the rest of the team can keep up some of their production, the Flyers could potentially be a potent team offensively.
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