Sam Carchidi‘s column on philly.com today started with the following:
Flyers defenseman Kimmo Timonen, a 12-year NHL veteran, said he has never seen a team excel when it limps into the playoffs. But right now, with 12 regular-season games left, the Flyers are limping. Badly.
Now, there is no one in Philadelphia who likes to push the panic button faster than Carchidi, but it got me thinking. Does a team’s level of play at the end of the season have a direct correlation to how they perform in the playoffs?
But before we attempt to answer that question, we must address another subjective question–What is considered “excelling in the playoffs”? Some would deem going to the Stanley Cup finals as a success, while others believe that anything outside of a championship is a failure.
However, for the purposes of this examination, we will consider Stanley Cup winners only, since that is the Flyers stated goal after reaching game six of the finals last season. It is worth noting that last year’s Eastern Conference champions were 4-3 to close the season, but only 5-8-2 in their last 15 games. < ...
Read Full Article at Bleacher Report - NHL
Article written by Mike Pascale
Philadelphia Flyers: Does Late-Season Performance Really Predict the Future?
March 18th, 2011 by Mike Pascale Leave a reply »
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