Ivan Provorov
The Flyers continue the preseason on home ice, facing the Washington Capitals on Wednesday night.
The NHL Draft has come and gone, blink and you missed free agency. The final piece of the Flyers offseason outlook is to focus on line combinations for the upcoming season.
On Wednesday, you saw that the current regime is incapable of handling a rebuild. They insisted upon an aggressive retool for a fast fix, not the necessary rebuild needed. Now it’s time to start that rebuild anyway, but focus on the front office that has so clearly set the Flyers back.
Last week, the hockey world was rattled by the firing of Barry Trotz by the New York Islanders. As the Flyers coaching search continues, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported in his 32 Thoughts column that Trotz is a “top candidate” of the Flyers.
It wasn’t all that noteworthy to hear players speak of the frustrations of the season, the losing streaks and such that made this a historically bad season for the Flyers. There were a few players that addressed it in a way that rang through louder than others.
The Ottawa Senators scored three times in the third period to hand the Flyers one final loss on the season by a score of 4-2, giving the Orange and Black a 25-46-11 record to finish the season.
For the Flyers, multiple young players helped snap a six-game losing streak in a 6-3 win over the Montreal Canadiens.
A three-goal period got them in front, and after the Flyers tied it up early in the third, two more goals sealed the Flyers’ fate in a 5-3 loss to the Ducks at Wells Fargo Center on Saturday night.
Auston Matthews scored his 51st goal of the season and Morgan Rielly had three points as the Leafs finished off a 6-3 decision on Saturday night at Wells Fargo Center.
The final 15 games for the Flyers will serve as a chance to evaluate. They will provide a look at some new faces entering the lineup in the last couple of weeks and maybe even a new face or two to come down the road. It is a way to take inventory going into the offseason – what does the team already have and what does it need even more of on the roster moving forward?