Donnellon: Flyers just are not that talented
HE WON'T SAY IT, but it's there, in the undercurrent of every answer he gives about his foundering Flyers. Ask Dave Hakstol anything, frame it as fiercely or as friendly as you want, and his unblinking answers inevitably will laud effort while underlining missed opportunity and the minutia that separates games this time of the year, especially those low-scoring ones among the league's have-nots.
HE WON'T SAY IT, but it's there, in the undercurrent of every answer he gives about his foundering Flyers. Ask Dave Hakstol anything, frame it as fiercely or as friendly as you want, and his unblinking answers inevitably will laud effort while underlining missed opportunity and the minutia that separates games this time of the year, especially those low-scoring ones among the league's have-nots.
Here's what he means, each time: The Flyers are not nearly as talented a team as many fans think or wish them to be, and the fact that two of the stars they leaned on so heavily during their unlikely run of a season ago - Claude Giroux and Shane Gostisbehere - are just now beginning to resemble even a sniff of their old selves only makes this more so. But the coach, still supported by the general manager who coerced him from a cushier college job, is loath to say that, perhaps fearing that the one thing they are capable of, and have given him - effort - would dissipate as a result.
Clearly, we can at least say this about the Flyers after 68 games played: They are drowning in a sea of have-nots. They have no pure goal scorers, no game-changers, no shutdown defenseman, no stand-on-your-head goaltender who can steal games because to do so on most nights would require a shutout.
Put Steve Mason or Michal Neuvirth on Pittsburgh, or Chicago, or even Monday night's opponent, Columbus, and they would avoid much of the hyperanalysis their play garners here. But they are not on those teams; rather one that has scored 63 fewer goals than the league leader, Pittsburgh. This disparity is made even worse when you consider the Flyers played the first two months of the season among the league's top-tiered in scoring. It is made worse when you subtract, too, that 10-game winning streak in which they scored three goals or more in eight of those games.
What happened to that team? Nothing. No injuries to key players, specifically scorers. Nothing. And that's the problem. It maxed out then, during a period when other NHL teams are sorting things out, slotting players, figuring out their personality.
"Nobody thought during that winning streak that we would be here," Jake Voracek lamented just hours before Monday's 5-3 loss against Columbus at the Wells Fargo Center. "But we are here."
Contrary to the current angry analysis of many of their fans, these Flyers are not soft. You wince a little when the latest goat is Brandon Manning with his ill-placed stick, knowing how much he went through in front of friends and family in Edmonton, knowing how much he fought to get to this level, and how much fighting he has done once here.
But that's exactly the point. The Flyers are overflowing with guys who worked their butts off just to reach this level they are competing at. They don't have another gear, which is clearly evident in the disparity between goals scored and allowed at even strength. Three left wings, Michael Raffl, Pierre-Eduoard Bellemare and Roman Lyubimov, had played in 165 games collectively before Monday night - and had combined for 15 goals. It's not that Matt Read doesn't want to score. He was a 24-year-old, undrafted college player when he signed with the Flyers. When Hakstol speaks, as he did Monday, about "getting to the net better against Rask and take his eyes away a little bit more and find a way to get one extra," it's like asking Dorothy to go kill another witch.
It's hard to get to the net better when you're working so damn hard just to keep the puck in their zone. The Flyers had plenty of chances against Toronto, didn't get much help from Neuvirth on Thursday. They had a five-on-three early against Boston and came out with nothing there.
"Good teams find a way," Voracek said. "No matter what."
"We're not getting away with anything right now," Hakstol said. "We've got to make sure we do everything as well as we possibly can."
He's been on that theme, too, for a couple of months now, makes it sound as if it's the plight of every team playing for the postseason. Hardly. It's the mantra of the have-nots, and no matter how it goes over these last 14 games, we should remind ourselves that, for the most part of most games, this team is doing everything as well as it possibly can be expected to.
Oh, yes, try to remember this, too: Many, if not most, will not be around when this team's grand plan to join the haves is implemented with all those draft picks coming through.
@samdonnellon