Over the past few years, the Flyers haven't been the strongest preseason team — after all, the preseason's a time to work out the offseason kinks and let younger players shine on a pro stage.
But under Dave Hakstol, the Flyers (yes, despite Monday's 3-2 overtime loss to the New York Rangers, in which the Flyers blew a 2-0 third-period lead) have looked like a strong team. Just two years ago, the Flyers went through "one of the worst training camps" that Ed Snider had ever seen, but now, there's optimism prior to the start of the season.
"It is nice to have some of the scoring spread out," Hakstol said following the Flyers' 5-2 win over the Islanders on Friday. "If you look at some of the goals we've scored down around the blue paint, whether they're power play goals, or even some of the goals from the point had good net-front presence."
Through five games, the Flyers have scored 19 goals this preseason — tied for second in the league (behind the Rangers), and just one goal behind Detroit for the No. 1 spot.
The biggest impact, however, has been on the power play. They've scored an NHL-best eight goals on the man-advantage, on 22 opportunities — 36.3 percent. It should be noted, however, that Hakstol's not solely responsible for the power play — credit there mainly belongs to Joe Mullen.
While the Flyers have made strides, they still showed signs of last year's club in Monday's loss. They did blow a 2-0 third-period lead (which saw Chris Kreider tie the game with 1:07 to play, and Keith Yandle score on a [debatable] penalty shot). Steve Mason had to turn away 41 saves, while the Flyers mustered 29 on the other end — including a dismal five in the first period. And, of course, the Orange and Black were dealt with a tough loss at Madison Square Garden — a building that the Flyers have won at just once since Feb. 2011. But despite those signs of years past starting to show, Hakstol will look to prove that he can help move a team forward — after all, it was one of the highlights of 11 years at North Dakota's helm.
Of course, there are still two preseason games to go. The team's not out of the woods just yet, and still has several more kinks to work out. But nonetheless, the team has showed a multitude of strengths through the preseason, and is providing (cautious) optimism for when the games start to count.
Rob Riches is a contributor to Flyerdelphia and Sports Talk Philly. Follow him on Twitter @Riches61
