Four teams played their 60th game of the season Thursday. One of those squads was the Philadelphia Flyers. Here's the details on Philly's season so far.
Philadelphia Flyers: 33-20-7, good for 73 points:
For all the hand wringing about Philadelphia's goaltending situation, and even without Chris Pronger for most of the season, the Flyers are doing just fine. They are currently in fifth place in the Eastern Conference, and are a near lock, if not an actual lock, to make the playoffs. While overtaking the Rangers for the Atlantic seems unlikely, they do have an outside chance, and a home ice advantage in the first round is definitely in the cards. They also have a plus-15 goal differential, which is good. What isn't good is the fact they are 3-6-1 in their last 10 games, and they are only 1-5 in shootouts.
Excellent play from Claude Giroux has been leading this team on offense, as he is third in the league in scoring with 70 points, and he has done it in 56 games. Scott Hartnell leads the team in goals with 28, and he has 56 points. Jaromir Jagr has shown that he can still play at an NHL level, as he's tallied 16 goals and 42 points in 51 games. Nine players on this team have at least 30 points, showing the depth of scoring on this team.
Two of those players are blueliners, as Kimmo Timonen has 34 points and Matt Carle has 30 points. Now that they have Pavel Kubina on their blueline as well, their defensive corps gets even better. Kubina isn't Pronger, but he's still good, and they added Nicklas Grossman as well.
Of course, goaltending has been an issue. Ilya Bryzgalov has solved nothing, as he has seen him numbers absolutely plummet this season. In 40 starts and 42 games, he has a .899 save percentage. That is baffling, and it is unlikely to see him bounce back too much the rest of the way. Sergei Bobrovsky hasn't been much better, as he only has a .900 SV%.
The Flyers have a great offensive team, which is good, because they are probably going to have to win games by offense. If they were getting better goaltending, this could be a Cup contender. Instead, while I think they won't finish worst than sixth in the East, there is a good chance they lose in the first round.
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