Regardless of how the playoffs ended up for the Flyers on Saturday night — a four-game whitewash by the Carolina Hurricanes — in the big picture, progress has been made across the board.
Picked by many to finish at or near where they did last year in the regular season – namely the bottom of the Metropolitan Division – the team exceeded expectations by winning 18 of its last 25 games to make the Stanley Cup playoffs for the first time after a five-year drought.
It’s the way they accomplished this which made it all the more impressive.
They did it by showing faith in a free-agent goaltender (Dan Vladar), a bunch of kids (Porter Martone, Denver Barkey, Alex Bump, Emil Andrae to name a few) and a couple veteran free agents (Christian Dvorak, Luke Glendening).
And perhaps most significant of all, they hired a familiar face, Rick Tocchet, to coach this outfit.
It all adds up to what figures to be a bright future for a team which just endured one of its toughest stretches in franchise history.
Tocchet came into the job knowing he had a lot of necessary pieces to get this thing turned around. It’s a credit to him he was able to assemble all the parts and make it function successfully.
“I think the growth is really encouraging for me,” Tocchet said at Friday morning’s skate at the Flyers Training Center. “From training camp until now. There were certain pockets of the year where you look at the information they’ve been given and I say, ‘Man, look at the growth!’ ”
Veterans such as Sean Couturier, Travis Sanheim and Travis Konecny have all experienced “comeback” seasons. They’ve responded to Tocchet’s leadership with leadership of their own.
This is what Tocchet was hoping for when he was hired by general manager Daniel Briere to get the team turned around.
Aside from the failure of the power play, everything else seemed to be pointing in the right direction.
For Tocchet, he’s been preaching consistency since Day 1. With the exception of a rough patch in January, the Flyers have shown resilience and usually bounce back after a rough performance.
“I don’t see guys having four, five bad games in a row,” he said. “You might have concerns about a young team (seventh youngest in the NHL at an average age of 26.9 years), but it’s been a pretty consistent group for a young team all year.”
The numbers bear that out. The Flyers as a team finished a plus-7. Now that might not seem like a really big deal but consider that in the years 2020-23, the Flyers were minus-45, minus-38 and minus-20.
This season, young guys led the way. Noah Cates topped the list with a plus-26.
“I give them a lot of credit,” Tocchet said.
Back in training camp, did Tocchet ever imagine it would work out this well?
“The mandate was rebuild,” the coach said. “But there was more. Can we get players who can play to the next level, play the right way? Like a Jamie Drysdale, can he find another level?
“You look down the list, like (Owen) Tippett. A lot of guys have played better this year than last. It’s a good thing. Again, I’ve got to give the players credit for it.”
Nick Seeler is one of those veteran players who can hold the much better stats up to the lightbulb and see the improvement.
“We have a young core and it’s been huge for us since the Olympic break (in February),” Seeler said. “They’ve been playing so well for us. They’re a big part of our group.”
Hockey in Philadelphia is clearly on the upswing. How fast the Flyers reach their full potential should be fun to watch.
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