Assessing Pros And Cons Of The Flyers Post-Season Options

There is a week of regular season hockey remaining and the Philadelphia Flyers are locked in a tight playoff race. Will they make the playoffs? Will they choke it all way? I don't know, but this post will assess the pros and cons of every outcome for the Flyers season, as frankly, there are pros and cons to every remaining outcome.

Choking And Missing Out On The Playoffs

Pros: You mean there are pros to a choke job? Yes. Sure it will be embarrassing and I don't want to see it, but let's face facts, despite the pre-season predictions by the Hockey Almanac, the Philadelphia Flyers are not a Stanley Cup team. On average in the post-lockout league, it takes around 93 points to make the playoffs (this goes for both conferences). Should they win out, the Flyers will max out at 90. That's still 3 points short of what it normally takes and this Flyers team winning 3 more in a row is realistically highly unlikely. This team never developed a chemistry together, as of the moment have 4 playoff goalies with the only one known outside of the Flyers contingent being Brian Boucher (unless you have heard of Johan Backlund, Jeremy Duchesne, and Michael Lee Teslak). I'll have a bit more on Boucher when I look at the pros and cons of the Devils, but really, this is not a threatening team in the playoffs.

Cons: Duh. Like I said, even if a team has no chance of winning it, you still want to see your team in the playoffs, if for no other reason than to have your suspicions confirmed. And even though it is highly unlikely to happen to the Flyers, if they can get hot, the Eastern Conference is not exactly uber-threatening this year (read: it sucks), who knows what can happen.

Now that we've gotten the not-making playoffs situation, the following will be the pros and cons of all of the possible first round match-ups for the Flyers.

New Jersey Devils

Pros: Ask Flyers fans which match-up they like best, and almost all of them will say New Jersey. The pros to this series are really simple in that the Flyers dominated the regular season against the Devils, taking 5 of the 6 games against them. The Devils are a team not as hot as they were in the beginning of the year, Martin Brodeur is not getting any younger and the Devils continue to overuse him like it was his earlier years. Now I know you don't need a Vezina caliber goalie to take this thing, but you need a goalie who won't make dumb mistakes. Fatigue, overused goalies make dumb mistakes. Frankly, the Devils are the only team I have pure confidence that we can beat should we make the playoffs. And then there is the Flyers goalie Brian Boucher. 10 years ago, he played the Devils in the playoffs and even though that series ended in the biggest hockey heartbreak I have ever felt and the worst sports moment I have ever seen live in person, that does not change the fact that earlier in the series he made the greatest save I have ever seen a Flyers goalie make (cue Steve Levy and Darren Pang!)



Cons: Regular season success against a team does not always equate to post-season success against said team. Just ask the Montreal Canadiens. In the 2007-08 regular season, the Habs were 4-0 against the Flyers. Then their conference semifinal playoff series came along and Carey Price turned into the Carey Price we all know today and the Flyers won the series 4 games to 1 in a series that could have just as easily been 4-0. The Flyers are capable of a complete offensive breakdown and who says Martin Brodeur can't channel his play of 10 years ago in an inspired effort for New Jersey. The Devils also have one of the top scorers in the world in Ilya Kovalchuk. He has under-performed since coming to New Jersey but who is to say he does not break out in the playoffs like he is very much capable of?

Pittsburgh Penguins

Pros: Like I said, the Flyers are not winning the Stanley Cup this year. That being said, a successful first round knock out of the Pittsburgh Penguins would be just as good. They got us in the 2008 Eastern Conference Finals and the 2009 Eastern Conference Finals. Revenge would sure as well be sweet, especially seeing as the Pens would be losing to a team not likely to win the whole thing. And it's not like the Flyers have gotten their butts kicked by the Pens all year long. They have played close games this year.

Cons: Most of those close games have been just that for the Flyers, close calls, good efforts, and oh, we'll get 'em next times. The Flyers have beaten them this year, but the Pens took the season series and face it, when it comes to post-season hockey, Sidney Crosby has our number. He does not lose to the Flyers in post-season hockey. And as sweet as beating the Pens would be, could you imagine the laughter from Pens fans if they eliminate the hated Flyers 3 years in a row? It would be unbearable.

Washington Capitals

Pros: Even though the Caps have the most points in the league, you almost have to pro-rate the Southeast Division, as let's face it, outside of Washington, that division is terrible. The only other team in that division still in the playoff race is the Atlanta Thrashers and they are 3 points out of 8th with 3 games left and games against the Penguins, Devils, and Capitals to close out the season. Thus begs the question, are they really that good? Of the 8 Eastern Conference playoff teams, are tied with the Penguins for having given up the most goals in the regular season (222). If the Flyers offense can play consistently well for that series, it might be as much of a laughter as one would initially think. Then again, I think you can say that about any time heading into the post-season against Washington.

Cons: Scoring 5 goals on Washington will do you no good if the Caps are going to score 6 goals on you. Again I say, you don't need a Vezina caliber goalie to win (though against a team like Washington, it certainly would not hurt), but you need solid defensive play and you need a team to play well in front of that goalie to give someone like Brian Boucher as much of a chance as possible. For some reason, the Flyers have not played well in front of Brian Boucher this season. They have made him a scapegoat amongst the fans when most of the goals he lets in have been unstoppable. And the most notable ones that were his fault occurred at a point in time where the goals made the game 4-0 and 5-1 in favor of the Islanders. That being said, Boucher may have to make some spectacular saves if the Flyers want to win a series with Washington. And even if Boosh can make great saves, this series will come down to how the Flyers play defensively and let's face it, the Flyers defense has been inconsistent all year long. Boosh will be handcuffed and an unfair scapegoat in this series.

Buffalo Sabres

Pros: The Sabres are not a team that scares a lot of people, but should they? They are fighting for a 2-seed and have one of the top goalies in the sport on their team. But why are they constantly being overlooked? The lack of a real star is certainly possible. Not being in a big market is another. Admittedly I have not seen a lot of the Sabres this year but does I have seen them play the Flyers this year and when watching them, I just get the sense that this team is not going to do anything this year. Does anyone feel like this Sabre team is going to win it all? The Flyers have been a team that plays well against good, big-named goalies but struggle against the young goalies. Seriously. Vesa Toskala actually shut the Flyers out once this year. Anton Khudobin made his NHL debut with the Wild against us and won 2-1. Jeff Deslauriers of Edmonton shut us out. Ryan Miller is certainly in the category of the former. Does that would not bode well for most teams bode well for the Flyers?

Cons: When Ryan Miller's back is against the wall, it does not matter how good you are against good goalies, the guy can flat out play goaltender. We saw it in the Olympics and if he is not burned out, we'll see it again in the playoffs. And Buffalo may not have huge offensive superstars that are heard about everyday in the hockey world outside of Buffalo, but they 223 goals this year, which is good for 4th among Eastern Conference Playoff teams and 5th overall in the Eastern Conference, so it's not like these guys are offensively anemic.

While highly unlikely, the Flyers can also play the Ottawa Senators in the playoffs. But due to it's unlikeliness and the fact that Donovan McNabb has just reportedly been traded to the Washington Redskins I won't get into breaking that one down now.