And we're back. It was offseason and I had some work committments, but I will attempt to get some more things up here over the course of the season. But enough about that.
The 2014-15 NHL season starts tonight. Sleepless nights, excitement, debates, anger, frustration, and joy all lie straight ahead. However, this also means that it is "preview time", with several larger news outlets and websites attempting to find the definitive answer which teams will make the playoffs, win divisions, and ultimately the Stanley Cup.
And it seems that a number of those outlets have pegged the Flyers to miss the playoffs, the Hockey News being one example. A couple of people such as Jeff Marek even see the Flyers as potentially crashing and burning and getting in on "Dishonor for Connor". And I can't quite get my head around why this is.
Now, I can see some scenarios in which this could be the case. Any team can completely and utterly fail. It isn't exactly some great achievement or requires a special talent to do so. And to be frank, the offseason was middling to slightly negative. Losing Kimmo Timonen obviously sucks ass, and Michael Del Zotto isn't exactly going to replace him. R.J. Umberger is closer to doing so for Scott Hartnell, but not quite.
However, there are also some positives to expect here. Some of the younger talent will be a year older and a bit more comfortable in their roles, hopefully Vincent Lecavalier will finally find his place (or be traded soon, which is still my recommended course of action), and at the very least the Flyers should not sleep through the first month of the season like they did last year.
Overall I would say nothing earth-shattering has really happened with the Flyers and they should be pretty much on par with how they were last year. That team put up 94 Points, after going 4-10-1 during the first 15 games no less and with pretty much the worst possible schedule to end the season. I don't think the Flyers are going to be Cup Contenders this year, but I see no definitive reason that they should miss the playoffs.
The only reasonable explanation I can come up is process of elimination. People think other teams in the Division and conference will be better and supersede the Flyers. The Islanders made waves by acquiring Leddy and Boychuck, people think the Devils won't be as awful in the shootout and Schneider will have a good year, and the Capitals impressed people by bolstering their blue line with Niskanen and Orpik. Plus people figure Columbus is a team still on the rise. But I don't think any of these teams are clearly better than the Flyers. On par with them perhaps, but that predicts a dog fight in which the Flyers have more experience and have at least proven that they can beat others out. History is filled with teams that had "showy" offseasons that amounted to little actual improvement.
So why aren't the Flyers getting any respect? I for my part have no idea.
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