Was Flyers season a success?
Daily News Flyers blog
Was Flyers season a success?
When evaluating a season that does not end in a championship, the question invariably boils down to: Do you consider this season a success?
At first glance, it is easy to consider the Flyers’ 2011-12 campaign a success in the big picture, given the strides made by rookies, the abundance of scoring depth, and the flakiness of their goaltending.
For me, I have a tough time saying it is a complete success, just based on the opportunity squandered.
To listen to Kimmo Timonen describe it, after the Fleyrs beat the Penguins in the first round, he considered every remaining team as very “beatable.”
The Rangers have needed seven games in both of their first two rounds. Washington has trouble scoring at times. And the Devils finished below the Flyers in the standings.
Once the Flyers rid the playoffs of the Penguins, their path to represent the Eastern Conference in the Stanley Cup final was clear and well established. Perhaps that is why the Flyers ended up falling in the second round.
The point is that there aren’t going to be many opportunities like that, where the best team in the tournament is knocked out in the first round.
Here are a few random opinions on the season:
PAUL HOLMGREN:
“I think we had a decent year. I am disappointed we are not playing. When you start the year, your goal is to win the Stanley Cup. The fact that we are sitting here talking today, I am disappointed. I am excited about how our team is going to look next year. That is what I am excited about.
“We knew we had a good group of young guys. I think the coaches did a good job of putting them in situations and giving them roles that keep them excelling. To their credit they did. For [Sean] Couturier to play the role he did in the playoffs as a shut down centerman and make plays gives you a glimpse of what he is going to do in the future. It is pretty neat.”
MAXIME TALBOT:
“Talking from experience, I can definitely look at this year as a great step for this organization. Meaning that, when you look at all the rookies on this team that played in their first playoff game, I can go back 6 years ago with the Pittsburgh Penguins, and you look at the core we had that year and we got totally beat against the Ottawa Senators who went on to the Stanley Cup Finals, they were just too good for us we lost in the first round, five games and it went really quick. So you look at the chance we had playing against Pittsburgh 6 games and then losing that way against the Devils with high expectations, so it’s disappointing but at the same time it stings. What we can take from that is big for this team.”
CLAUDE GIROUX:
“We made a lot of changes. At the start of the season I think yes. Like I said, we have a lot of young players and guys care for each other. We have a good group of guys here; guys want to play for each other. Like I said, we come to the rink every day and we are happy to be here. That is obviously a pretty good step.”
SCOTT HARTNELL:
“I think it was a great season. There was obviously a lot of change, coming in here with new faces, the young guys and you never know how that’s going to turn out kind of like my first year here in Philadelphia. It was Danny B, Kimmo, Jason Smith, Lupul, all those guys were new guys and the chemistry that we had right away was great and the same thing happened this year. So, looking forward I like our chances of our guys getting some experience on them and having bigger and better years.”
PETER LAVIOLETTE:
“I think that there’s always an adjustment period for players when they come in here to a big city. The thought of this group, or the majority of this group moving forward leaves a real positive taste in everybody’s mouth. There’s really not much else you can do, you can’t talk about would haves or could haves, it just leaves that hollow feeling right now. But moving forward, it’s a positive outlook.”
Your thoughts?
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- And they didn't break in a new goalie. They flopped with an experienced $52,000,000 goalie who was to solve 30 years of goal tending problems.
— phillyborn4 - Great season. Identified need for defense coach and goalies coach. Bryz, to build a franchise around and we got the kids to do it with.— LaCroix,Nolet,Gendron
- Aw. Poor babies.— Tom Pandolfo
- The season was a success. Yes, the SC is the goal, but must be realistic. Especially without Pronger, Mezzaros, JVR for most of the season. Address the defense, get some RH shots for the PP and again try to get younger. Hoepfully move Bob for defense.... Tampa Bay?— JimP
- How can it NOT be a success? Playing 12 different rookies throughout the year; 6 regular-shifters, in every playoff game. Losing the captain for the year, which most experts feel, was huge. A new goalie, who admittedly, got rattled by the intense scrutiny of the Philly media and fans. The emergence of "the best player in the game." The addition of valued vets like Grossman, Jagr, and Talbot. A bright future, for a team that NO ONE expected to even make the playoffs. And oh yeah- the playoffs. The annihilation of the little fat short birds that can only waddle...that was success enough. Of course it was a success. Especially bidding farewell to Cindy Crysbaby.— JosephL
- Go ahead. Call it a success. The Eagles would. Maybe if they had competed against the Devils, you could call it a success. To call it a success implies some satisfaction, and no one should be satisfied with how the year ended. Perhaps it was a success based on pre-season expectations, but you have to be discouraged about how they laid down and died.— antjam0507
- i honestly think that the judgement of this year's team has to wait until we see if LA hoists a cup. what they've done is take our two former "stars" and slotted them into appropriate positions in their lineup. neither wears a letter on their chest. neither is expected to do too much. both may very well be hoisting a cup.
this speaks to our system and how we evaluate our own talent. richards was never captain material. but man, i would have loved to have had him as our second line center this year, relegating briere to more special teams time. carter is soft and always will be, but i'd love to have him in place of any number of forwards who showed little to no fight against the devils.— tockeyhockey - Not expected to do too much? Richards works the power play and penalty kill. Hardly roles of low expectation.
— icarus - based on the pre-season chatter, I thought the franchise goalie was the last missing piece.
— ekw555 - no— kenny.328.usa
- I'm really tired of the sugarcoating placed upon the Flyers prospects of winning the Stanley Cup this seasons by the philly.com correspondents. The Game 4 score of 10-3 in the Pitt series was just as much a clear indication of this team's defensive woes as the 3-1 season ending loss to the Devils. It's not who you beat in this league that defines you it's who you are.— BNess1980
- awful goalie...We HATE him and he hate us, Linbergh curse again.
end of story.— xtrem1337 - Success takes more than just making the playoffs, but not winning the championship isn't automatically a failure. They didn't go down fighting, so it can't be called a success. I can't stand that the devils won via the same clutch and grab interference that was supposed to be gone, but the Flyers rolled over far too easily to it.— Pelti
- Just finishing off Crybaby and his crew made my season! Way to go boys!!— dogman5
