Now that the Flyers season has been over for three days, and instead of preparing for a Game 7 which would have been Wednesday night, the Flyers have already had their break-up, exit, cleanout day, there has been more time to reflect on the season.
There are really so many talking points that it was difficult to narrow this down to one individual focal point. We've learned so much about this team in the past six months, where they have come, how far they have to go and there are a lot of narratives that deserve a discussion.
Here are the observations and what we learned from the Flyers season and playoff appearance.
There is No Goalie Controversy
This has been a long-time talking point throughout the year. While Steve Mason had a few bumps in the road that can certain bring into question his ability to be a No. 1, what both goalies did for the Flyers is admirable. Michal Neuvirth kept the Flyers somewhat in things for the first half of the season while Mason dealt with injury and confidence.
When Neuvirth went down with an injury, Mason stepped up big time. Both goalies saw workloads representative of No. 1 goalies over different stretches. The Flyers made the playoffs because of Neuvirth's first half, Mason's stretch run and made a series out of things against the Capitals thanks to Neuvirth's stellar three games in net.
Neuvirth should be dubbed the No. 1 going into next season for that, but there's no reason to kick Mason to the curb either, especially if there is a comfort level and understanding for both goalies to remain fresh and take some pressure off of the other.
Don't Blame Playoff Exit on Claude Giroux
There's no denying that Claude Giroux was almost a non-factor point-wise in the Flyers first-round series loss to Washington. But this is not about a player who lacks leadership or fails to come up clutch. Give credit to the Capitals. They spotted weaknesses in Jake Voracek, who did note his foot affected his performance in the series, and were able to nullify a Flyers team that by the end of the series was one-line deep.
Giroux gets to shoulder so much of the blame for his role. But when you face the obvious choice for the Vezina this season and as a team can only score five goals on him — the sixth came into an empty net — then it's not just one player's fault.
Listening to Barry Trotz at the end of that series gave you an idea just how much Washington put a focus on taking Giroux and Shayne Gostisbehere out of the series. They targeted two players and forced the remaining 18 to beat them. The fact that among the rest of the players, notably Voracek, Wayne Simmonds and Brayden Schenn, there were almost no points to speak of, shows you just how effective the Capitals defended this series.
The Flyers Made the Playoffs Ahead of Schedule
This is a two-parter. We're starting with the positive.
The Flyers making the playoffs was an added bonus to this season. Go through the year as a whole. The Flyers were 5-8-3 after a Nov. 12 loss to, who else, the Washington Capitals. At that point, there was more talk about lottery picks than postseason hopes.
The Flyers got slightly better over the next month or so, but when the New Year hit, they were still 15-15-7 with a total of 37 points through 37 games. In the final 45 games, the Flyers went 26-12-7 and finished the season with 96 points. That gives you an idea of the sprint to the finish, which even through its course, had moments of doubt.
The Flyers had a three-game losing streak from Feb. 6-9. They were 23-20-9 upon entering Game No. 53 of the season. In their final 30 games, the Flyers went 18-7-5, earning 41 points in a two-month span.
And the best part is that this wasn't supposed to happen this season.
This is a credit to Dave Hakstol and Ron Hextall. The Flyers have a lot of the right players in place and Hextall's choice for head coach of the future players was proven right in year one. The challenge of repeating such progress comes up in the second season for many of these players, and there will be more most likely that are getting their first taste of the NHL in 2016-17, but the Flyers were leaps and bounds better this season than last season, and that's a great start for their future, especially since it was done in a "rebuilding" year.
The Flyers have a Long Way to go too
If making the playoffs was the bonus, then watching the playoffs was the realization that the team is not there yet in terms of being a major contender. The prospects and their success remain to be seen, but right now, there is a lot of hope. Having positive hope and optimism for the future is only good until these players show up and we see what they have.
The Capitals really controlled the play during that series. Physically, it was a grind, and the one factor that so many looked at to play into the Flyers favor didn't factor in at all.
A lot of people thought the Capitals crazy run of success throughout the season and subsequent early clinching date to make the playoffs would leave them struggling to kick things back into gear now that the games suddenly held greater meaning again. Physically, this series was a grind and for a team that had spent everything they had just to make it, the Flyers were burnt out.
The Flyers need a lot of work in the special teams department to keep up with a team like Washington. Losing players like Sean Couturier and Michael Del Zotto for the playoffs didn't help matters, but it still doesn't necessarily equate to the main reason the series was lost.
Consistency was still an issue this season. Discipline was a problem. At the end of the season, the Flyers power play was non-existent and the penalty kill struggled against a mighty power play on the other end that exposed the Flyers flaws and forced them to make adjustments too little too late.
There was a lot to like with this team, but the main reason we saw such problems in that series a lack of experience and a lack of depth. After the five players on the top power-play unit, who was truly relied on for goals in the series? You weren't going to see Matt Read or Sam Gagner go off on some scoring tear just because Giroux, Voracek and Simmonds were shut down and factored out.
This goes back to the point where Giroux shouldn't shoulder the whole series. For as much of a non-factor as he was, things change when you can force a defense to make it a point to shadow someone else. The Flyers didn't have that kind of depth. It is why the Capitals second-round series against the Penguins will be that much harder.
Down the stretch, the Penguins have been rolling to win after win because they haven't relied on scoring from Sidney Crosby or Phil Kessel or Evgeni Malkin. When your third line is scoring as much as your first line is, that's a team with incredible depth. So many of the Flyers better "goal-scorers" of the season got their goals by being placed in situations where they normally would never be playing or by getting late-time, empty-net goals that held meaning, but are not of high difficulty scoring-wise.
Unfortunately, when you get past the five players on the top power-play unit, you find four other players with 10 goals or more that didn't exactly get those totals by being skilled scorers. Michael Raffl and Sean Couturier are about the only two that qualify in this spot as players who you would expect to see some regular offense from.
So in addition to special teams, the overall physicality and demanding nature of the season, the Flyers depth is what has really cost them down the stretch this season. The Flyers need another natural goal-scorer. They have capable players in Simmonds and Schenn, who combined for 61 goals this season, but they need more consistency from those players while providing another talent to add to the offense.
Overall, it was a great season that made it farther than most could have ever imagined. But to sustain that success, the Flyers need a lot more help and talent to reach the next level.
Kevin Durso is managing editor for Flyerdelphia. Follow him on Twitter @Kevin_Durso.
