How the Flyers have had early season success

After being the first team to lose against the San Jose Sharks a few weeks ago, the Flyers won 5 games in a row with 3 of those wins away from home.

They are, as of now, in a playoff position since they are second in the metropolitan division.

This was supposed to be a rebuilding year. How is this possible?

How to explain the Flyers’ success

With the power play being low, the Flyers are finding ways to score a lot of goals. This can be explained by the performance of key players, like Travis Konecny but also players that start to produce as they should like Owen Tippett with 7 points in his last 5 games.

The Flyers’ defense is also very solid. Sanheim continues to stay strong and one of the Sean Walker is playing hard. He is one of the biggest surprises the Flyers had this season. Head coach John Tortorella talked about it during an interview, a lot of people thought he was just a “dumping contract” but he is proving everyone wrong.

Also, regardless of injuries, the veterans, Sean Couturier, and Cam Atkinson are putting up some points. It’s safe to say that generally, even without any “superstars” the Flyers players are playing well and are finding ways to produce.

Upcoming stretch for the Flyers

The Flyers will have big weeks coming up. They will have 7 matchups against metropolitan teams in a row. That means it will be interesting to see where the Flyers will stand after the final game of that stretch that will happen on December 4.

After that date, watching the Flyers in the standing will be more accurate to see or not how close they are to a playoff spot. It’s important to say this because watching where the team is during Thanksgiving might not be appropriate in the Flyers scenario.

Also, that doesn’t mean that it’s important to see if the Flyers will make the playoffs or not because it’s not the goal of the season. The Flyers want to grow as a team and focus on developing young players for the future (even if some young players sit). Although, even if the playoff conversation isn’t relevant in a rebuild, rebuilding doesn’t mean losing on purpose or not playing hard in games: no matter what, players want to win. However, the possibility for the Flyers to have more success this year might be explained by the fact that firstly, some veterans are back and secondly, young players are taking big steps.

Personally, about the playoff hope, I don’t think the Flyers will make the playoffs this year, because first, they miss some pieces which is completely normal but also, I don’t see the Flyers being able to stay competitive and win games consistently all year long. As Torts said, the team will have some down and struggles are coming. But the most important thing is that the locker room is better than last year per him. In that case, it will help when they will be in those struggles.