4 Big Questions for the Philadelphia Flyers in 2020-21
Despite their assumed success, the Philadelphia Flyers are not a team devoid of questions.
The City of Brotherly Love is just a better place when the Philadelphia Flyers are good.
Sure, this is, was, and will forever be an Eagles town, and even a four-win Birds squad will dominate the headlines over a Philadelphia Union squad that just turned in their best season as a franchise, but that doesn’t mean the Flyers are still held in high regard. No, ever since the days of the Broad Street Bullies, Philly’s lone orange and black-clad franchise has held a special place in a blue-collar city’s heart.
And, in a miraculous turn of events, the Flyers are actually really, really good.
2019-20 marked the first time in a decade where the Flyers scored points in 64.5 percent of their games, and very well could have been the franchise’s first 100 point season if it wasn’t for the league stoppage limiting their season to only 69 games.
But hey, it’s cool; the Flyers still ended up with the number one seed in the East thanks to an exemplary performance in the league’s Round Robin tournament and made it all the way to the second round before being bumped by the New York Islanders in route to their own eventual loss to the Stanley Cup-winning Tampa Bay Lightning.
With another season under their belts under veteran head coach Alain Vigneault, the Flyers are not only favorites to make it back to the playoffs for the second-straight season, but to represent the new East Division in the Eastern Conference Conference Finals.
4. What will Gritty get up to without fans?
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For a time, it looked like Gritty wasn’t going to be allowed at Philadelphia Flyers games this season.
It was bad. Kevin Hayes publicly threatened to sit out the 2020-21 season. Change.com petitions were made to seek leniency from the NHL’s commissioner. It was a whole thing.
While the ruling was eventually reversed, and the Gritster was eventually re-classified as an ‘essential worker’ – presumably along with the rest of the league’s mascots – this season is going to be a weird one… in a lot of ways.
With fans barred from attending games at the Wells Fargo Center for the foreseeable future and the entire atmosphere of what we’ve come to expect from a hockey game very much in flux, how will Gritty operate?
Is he still going to come down from the rafters a la Miley Cyrus and/or Sting? Will he still wear fun costumes like his Wonder Woman suit or maybe a Cupid costume for their dance with the Devils on February 13th?
In a way, this is both the least and most important question surrounding the Flyers this season, and I’ve got to say, it will be fascinating to see how things shake out – especially since the big orange guy has been weirdly silent on social media over the past few weeks. The calm before the storm?
3. Can Alain Vigneault build on his 2020 successes?
In a weird twist of fate that feels like a holdover from 2020, Alain Vigneault is suddenly the longest-tenured head coach in the City of Brotherly Love after watching his Eagles counterpart, Doug Pederson, get handed his walking papers three years removed from winning the Super Bowl.
While Doc Rivers is technically the most tenured head coach in the city, having overseen 1,816 games since making his debut with the Orlando Magic in 1999, he’s only been a member of the Sixers organization since October. The same goes for Joe Girardi over at Citizens Bank Park. Despite having been hired in the same year as Vigneault, he’s coached nine fewer regular-season games and was technically hired roughly six months later.
With Vigneault now effectively a South Philly institution, how will he build upon his impressive first season?
Returning roughly the same roster as the 2019-20 season, the Flyers should conceivably be pretty well-positioned to succeed right out of the gates, especially in the new East Division.
Facing off against a slate of teams they dominated pretty handily in the 2019-20 regular season – plus the Boston Bruins and the Buffalo Sabres but minus the Carolina Hurricanes and the Columbus Blue Jackets – the Flyers should have no trouble running up the score on teams like the Devils, Sabres, and Rangers all the while competing feverishly against top-tier teams like the Caps, Bruins, and Islanders.
In 2019-20, the Flyers had a combined 13-8 record against their new division foes, signifying a very real opportunity for Vigneault’s squad to do some damage in both the regular season and the first two rounds of intradivision playoff hockey.
If Vigneault can continue to optimize his top-six, weather the storm of losing Matt Niskanen, and coach up players like James van Riemsdyk to bounce-back seasons, the Flyers could be the top seed in the East once more and maybe even make their first Stanley Cup Finals appearance since 2010.
2. Can Carter Hart play his way into a Jennings Trophy?
Carter Hart is not only the Philadelphia Flyers’ best prospect, (arguably) their best player, and easily the key to any sort of championship run that may be in the cards, but at 22-years-old, he’s going to be really good for a very long time.
Sure, some, like the NHL Network, have used the offseason to slander Hart by keeping him off their “top-10 goalies in the NHL” list, but something tells me he’ll be undeniable sooner than later.
By sooner, could we be talking about the first half of 2021?
In 2019-20, Hart had a 91.4 saves percentage on an average of 2.42 GAA. While those numbers aren’t particularly impressive from a macro level, as they rank 29th and 10th overall in the grand scheme of the NHL, numbers don’t always tell the full story.
Sure, Hart had some bad outings last season, with nine contests where he surrendered four or more goals, but he also had 17 games where he allowed one or fewer games, including three shutouts between the regular season and the playoffs.
If Hart can sure up some of his inconsistencies in his third season with the Flyers, it’ll go a long way to keeping the team potent in their second season under Alain Vigneault – which is important, considering Philly’s D will be down a pretty considerable cog after the surprise retirement of Matt Niskanen.
Related Story. Move aside Rocky, Carter Hart is the hero Philly needs. light
Now granted, the Flyers do have options to fill the D1 spot next to Ivan Provorov. Phil Myers has been given the first nod to replace the 34-year-old right-handed defenseman in camp, and the Flyers went out to sign away Erik Gustafsson from the Calgary Flames for $3 million, but neither is going to replace Niskanen, not one-for-one at least.
No, if the Flyers are going to remain one of the best teams in the NHL, make a deep run in the playoffs, and build upon an impressive 2019-20 campaign, they’ll need Carter Hart to play like a Jennings Trophy finalist.
1. How will Oskar Lindblom perform in his first full season back?
Despite only appearing in 30 games for the Philadelphia Flyers in 2019-20, Oskar Lindblom was unquestionably the most omnipresent player on the roster.
After being diagnosed with Ewing’s sarcoma (bone cancer) in December of 2019, few expected to see Lindblom on the ice again for the foreseeable future, but the 24-year-old Swedish fifth-round pick beat the odds, pushed through treatment at an incredible clip, and, against all odds, made his return to the ice in the Flyers’ Game 6 victory against the New York Islanders.
Needless to say, Lindblom’s resilience made him into a (super) hero in the City of Brotherly Love and sold many a jersey when the league released Purple “NHL Fights Cancer” sweaters, but that only goes so far. No, for Lindblom to truly cement his legacy as one of the best players and stories Philadelphia has seen in some time, he needs to bounce back to the 2018-19 form that earned him a three-year, $9 million extension six months into his recovery process.
Now obviously, Lindblom’s return to full time hockey player should be taken at whatever pace is deemed best by his coaches, trainers, and doctors. There isn’t a hockey fan of the Flyers, Penguins, or otherwise who wants to see Lindblom do anything but thrive as he moves forward with his life cancer-free, and anyone who says otherwise really isn’t an NHL fan. If he plays a part-time role or has to take games off here or there, no one will fault him; all that matters is getting the player fans fell in love with before #OskarStong was even a thing back to full strength both off and on the ice.
With that being said, if Lindblom can return to his vintage form and fill out the Flyers top-six as the team’s 1b to Claude Giroux, it’ll make the Flyers an absolute force to be reckoned with.
If Lindblom can go, it’ll allow JvR to fully embrace a third-line triggerman role alongside the Flyers’ cornucopia of distributors and give Alain Vigneault arguably the deepest top-9 in the NHL. That optionality will be vital in an abbreviated season with higher game frequency split over fewer dates.
Getting 20-ish goals from Lindblom will also make Carter Hart’s life a whole lot easier, as he’ll have the requisite offensive firepower needed to weather a three-plus goal performance and still get the win.
Next. Four Big Questions for the New York Islanders in 2020-21. dark
And most importantly of all, getting Oskar Lindblom back to his former glory would prove to little Philadelphia Flyers fans the world over that anything is possible when you put your mind to it, a lesson we all could learn in this day and age.