Despite the bitter taste left by the Flyers' four straight losses to the New Jersey Devils in the Eastern Conference Semifinals, the 2011-12 season was a successful one for the team.
The Flyers made major changes to the roster last summer. During the season, they had to deal with Chris Pronger's potential career ending injury and all sorts of other adversity; all the while incorporating a host of rookies into the lineup.
In the end, they came away with 103 points on the regular season while playing in the toughest division in the NHL (four 100-plus point teams). The loss to a red-hot New Jersey Devils team in round two of the playoffs did not diminish the accomplishment of the Flyers beating a stacked Pittsburgh Penguins team in the first round of the playoffs.
However, the loss to New Jersey reflected an ongoing problem executing Peter Laviolette's preferred up-tempo, two-way attacking style against highly disciplined defensive teams. The Flyers went winless against the Rangers in the regular season, and only beat Boston once. Even against Tampa Bay's suspect goaltending, the opponent's extreme trap gave Philly trouble. The Flyers only got their offense cranked in one game and struggled in the other three meetings. We all saw what happened in the New Jersey series.
Here's the conundrum: There is no such thing as a perfect system. Just because Team A beats Team B in a playoff series and Team C then beats Team A, it does NOT necessarily mean that Team B would also have lost to Team C. It's all about matchups and execution. Every team has weaknesses that can be exploited.
Getting through the playoffs successfully also requires a fair amount of good luck. Every series has a game or two which are evenly played, and those are often the ones that swing the outcome.
Go back to Game 3 of the Flyers-Devils series and watch it in its entirety. I would say that New Jersey was the better team in the first period, the Flyers were better in the second and the game was dead even in the third period. If Philadelphia had executed a little better on the power play in overtime, they skate off with a 2-1 lead in the series.
Alternatively, if not for the disallowed James van Riemsdyk goal late in the second period of that game, the Flyers would have taken a lead into the third period. Had the third stanza played out the same way as it did (which may or may not have come to fruition), Philly would have won 3-2 in regulation.
Incidentally, on the New York Rangers' lone goal last night, Carl Hagelin interfered with Braden Holtby equally or more than Brayden Schenn interfered with Martin Brodeur. The only difference is that Holtby stood his ground when Hagelin entered the crease and slightly brushed into the goalie. Future Hall of Famer Brodeur, who complained about being interfered with on the Flyers' overtime game winner in Game 1, flopped dramatically to the ice and the referees gave him what he wanted.
Even if the Flyers had won Game 3 and re-taken the lead in the series, I'm not sure if they would have gone on to win the series. But I do know that it was a massive missed opportunity. Likewise, the Ilya Bryzgalov gaffe and extremely undisciplined James van Riemsdyk penalty and quick third period power play goal in Game 5 were like a pair daggers to Philly's hearts.
Listen, the more deserving club won the series. New Jersey was the better team in three of the five games; and they controlled the play for significant stretches of all five games. Pete DeBoer's team won the series on the boards and outplayed the Flyers in all three zones for the bulk of the series.
But I still feel in my heart of hearts that if Philly had won Game 3, it would be the Flyers playing tonight to close it out. At minimum, they'd be playing to force a Game 7 in Philly. That game and not Game 5 is one that really haunts me.
At any rate, as we look ahead to the 2012 offseason, I think the Flyers are overall in better shape than they were a year ago. That does not mean there are not some major question marks facing Paul Holmgren. In the days to come, I will touch on each of these topics individually:
* Should/can the Flyers re-sign Matt Carle? If not, can they afford an adequate replacement or even an upgrade?
* How should the Flyers plan for their overall short-term and long-term future on the blueline beyond the Carle question? I
touched on this topic in today's Camden Courier Post.
* Should/can the Flyers re-sign Jaromir Jagr to another one-year contract?
* Should the Flyers sacrifice some offense to add a little more grit up front and improve the defensive prowess of their forward corps as a whole?
* Should the Flyers commit big money and a long-term contract to restricted free agent Jakub Voracek?
*Should the Flyers shop James van Riemsdyk as his new contract extension kicks in for next season?
* Should the Flyers seek a different backup goaltender or should they stick with Sergei Bobrovsky one more season?
* Should the Flyers attempt to move up in the draft? They will currently pick 20th, 21st, or 22nd depending on the outcomes of the rest of the playoffs.
After I complete the blogs on each of these issues, I will do a series of blogs looking back and ahead for individual players on the team. Then it will be time to focus on NHL draft weekend and the start of free agency.
Over the summer, I will do what I did last year, with a series of historical and hypothetical blogs interspersed with current team news and analysis as it arises.
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As of now, it appears that Jakub Voracek will be the lone Flyers' NHL-level player to accept an invitation to play at the 2012 World Championships in Helsinki and Stockholm. After undergoing a physical, Voracek will join Team Czech Republic.
Jaromir Jagr, who played a dominating tournament last year, declined his invitation after a long NHL season this year. Likewise, Kimmo Timonen and Nicklas Grossmann turned down their respective invitations to join Team Finland and Team Sweden.
Both Timonen and Grossmann have injuries. Timonen sustained a knee ligament tear in Game 5 of the first round against Pittsburgh, to go along with a variety of other mid-to-lower body ailments.
Grossmann reportedly will consult with Paul Holmgren and team doctors first before making a final decision about undergoing offseason surgery; presumably to the knee that was injured in a knee-to-knee collision with Pittsburgh's Joe Vitale in the next-to-last weekend of the regular season.
There has been no official word on the status of Claude Giroux, but if he were going to join Team Canada at the Worlds, the announcement likely would have come yesterday.
James van Riemsdyk played for Team USA in last year's tournament. However, he is just coming off foot surgery and had several other injuries this season.
Team Russia has elected not to extend an invitation to Ilya Bryzgalov.
Minor league defenseman Oskars Bartulis is already at the tournament, playing for Team Latvia. The Flyers excused him from the Black Aces last week to join his national team.
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Today is locker clean-out day in Voorhees. I'm sure there will be more injury-related news and other tidbits to come.
I will touch on them in tomorrow's blog.
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