One thing has become abundantly clear for the Philadelphia Flyers after their first seven games of the 2014-15 NHL season: the team’s defense just isn’t good enough as it is presently constituted for this team to be a true Stanley Cup contender. This creates a difficult dilemma for general manager Ron Hextall and the rest of the team’s management.
The numbers are fairly straightforward, even though we are still early in the season. Through seven games, Philadelphia has allowed 28 goals. The team’s GAA is 3.71, which ranks it 28th in the NHL—ahead of only the Arizona Coyotes and Edmonton Oilers.
The Flyers are also allowing an average of 30.9 shots per game, which ranks them 21st in the league. This means that the Flyers are likely giving up a lot of quality scoring chances, something that does not bode well for the team.
The Flyers goaltending has not been outstanding, but it hasn’t been bad for the most part either. The true issue lies with the team’s overall defensive play.
On paper, Philadelphia has enough offensive talent on its roster to keep up with almo ...
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Article written by Brad Kurtzberg
Problems on Defense Create Dilemma for Philadelphia Flyers
October 22nd, 2014 by Brad Kurtzberg Leave a reply »
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