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It has been a long, hard dry spell for the Philadelphia Flyers. This is a franchise that was once one of the headliners in the NHL, but those days of the Broad Street Bullies are nothing but ancient history. The current version of the Philadelphia Flyers haven't been to the playoffs since the Covid year of 2019-20.
The last time the Flyers actually earned a spot in the postseason in a legitimate year was 2017-18, and that ended up with a first-round defeat in the Stanley Cup playoffs to the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Prospects for the current season were not strong during the preseason. While there was hope that the Flyers would show some improvement and play with more discipline under veteran head coach John Tortorella in his second year with the team, the chances of the Flyers earning a spot in the playoffs appeared remote.
Those assessments have not changed as the Flyers have 15 games under their belt. They have been somewhat better than expected at 7-7-1 and there have been some pleasant surprises.
Could the team step it up from this point forward and make a legitimate run at a playoff spot as one of the top 8 teams in the Eastern Conference? It's possible, but key players like defenseman Travis Sanheim and forwards Travis Konecny, Joe Farabee and Cam Atkinson will have to take charge of the team and demand more consistency than has been shown to this point in the year.
Several impressive performances in the early part of the year
The Flyers opened the season in a somewhat surprising fashion by winning 3 of their first 4 games. They beat the Columbus Blue Jackets on the road to open the year, and after a loss to the Ottawa Senators they came home to beat the Vancouver Canucks and the Edmonton Oilers.
The Canucks have been one of the 4 best teams in the early part of the season and they Flyers were the first team to beat them. The Oilers were one of the Stanley Cup favorites as the season got underway, but they have had a disastrous start to the season. Perhaps Philadelphia's 4-1 victory had something to do with it.
The Flyers just completed a 3-game West Coast road swing. That trip started with an embarrassing 2-1 loss to the San Jose Sharks, who were winless at the time. However, instead of getting thrown for a loop by that kind of defeat, the Flyers rebounded with impressive wins over the Anaheim Ducks and Los Angeles Kings
The wins over the Canucks, Ducks and Kings are 3 of the team's most impressive performances of the season.
Travis Sanheim has been a huge surprise on the blue line
Sanheim is at the top of the scoring list for the Flyers, and that's a major surprise to this point in the year. The defenseman has 2 goals and 12 assists while averaging nearly 26 minutes per game on the ice.
The 27-year-old Sanheim has never scored more than 35 points in a season, so his offensive performance has been well above his previous levels. With 14 points in 15 games, Sanheim is on track to score more than 70 points this season.
Nobody expects that level of production to last through the year, but it's clear he has ability that had not come to the surface in previous years. Sanheim was a first-round draft pick in 2014, and he has the size and skating ability at 6-4 and 222 pounds to be a consistent impact player.
One of the other surprise players for the Flyers has been right wing Travis Konecny. There is no doubt about Konecny's talent level and he has been a player who has scored 30 or more goals 3 times in his career, including the last 2 seasons.
Konecny has 9 goals and 4 assists to this point, and if he were to keep up his level of goal scoring, he would finish just under the 50 goal mark.
That in itself would be a surprise since 37 is his career high, but the biggest development is that he has been in the lineup for all 15 games. Konecny played just 60 games last year, and hasn't played a full schedule since the 2018-19 season.
The Flyers need Konecny in the lineup on an every-night basis.
Flyers need more out of disappointing Tyson Foerster
Tortorella's top line this season includes center Sean Couturier, left wing Cam Atkinson and right wing Tyson Foerster.
Foerster was a first-round draft pick in 2020, but this is his first full season with the Flyers. He was called up for 8 games last year and delivered an impressive 3 goals and 4 assists.
However, even though he skates on the top line and is on the first power play unit, his only contribution to the score sheet has been 3 assists.
At 6-2 and 203 pounds, Foerster has the physical gifts to do much more. The Flyers need him to start increasing his production immediately.
