Flyers' Season Down To This Week

The team that The Hockey News predicted would win the Stanley Cup is fighting just to get into the playoffs. The Flyers haven't won two in a row since early March. They lost yet another goaltender to injury -- Johan Backlund, making his first NHL start, left the 4-1 loss in Pittsburgh on March 27th after two periods when he aggravated a groin injury. Brian Boucher has been so inconsistent that they signed a guy playing in Switzerland for the last 5 games of the season, but that guy -- Sebastien Caron -- is ineligible for the playoffs. The Flyers followed that Pittsburgh loss with a resounding 5-1 win over New Jersey. The Devils, having lost 5 of 6 to the Flyers this year, are the one team they might have a chance against in the playoffs.

Of course, the Flyers first have to get into the postseason, and that win over the Devils and three whole days off (an anomaly in the Olympic-compressed schedule) led to a hideous loss to the New York Islanders. The Flyers had beaten the Islanders 15 times in a row before Thursday night. Although their effort was much better the next night, they lost 1-0 to Montreal, a team they're in direct competition with for the final Eastern Conference playoff slots.

After tonight's games, Montreal is in 6th place with 86 points and 3 games left. Boston is 7th with 84 points and 4 games left. The Flyers and New York Rangers are tied with 82 points each and 4 games left, and Atlanta has 81 points but just 3 remaining games. Since the Flyers have 38 wins to the Rangers' 36, they currently own the tiebreaker for the final playoff slot. Conveniently, the Flyers and Rangers meet on Friday and Sunday, the last two games of the regular season. Most likely those games will decide which team gets in.

While I was skeptical that they could make a serious Cup run, the Flyers were supposed to be a lot better than they are now. Instead, they had to change coaches mid-season and they're still struggling to get into the playoffs, they have serious goaltending questions (both for now and next season), they're extremely hamstrung by the salary cap and their minor league talent is lacking -- no one they call up when they need a replacement seems to produce much. Oh, and in the 2010 entry draft they don't have any picks in the first two rounds. This is not an organization primed for success right now.