Hextall: Flyers can't blame whole year on puck luck
No excuses for the Philadelphia Flyers.
Sitting seven points outside of the playoff picture, the Flyers are on track to miss the postseason for the third time in five years, with nobody to blame but themselves.
After the team rallied to 10 straight wins through mid-December and sat third in the hard-battled Metropolitan Division, Philadelphia has since struggled to a 14-20-5 showing.
The frequent losses have not been lost on general manager Ron Hextall, who likes a lot of his team's game but recognizes that performance isn't complete without results.
"We're doing a lot of the things we should do," Hextall told reporters Monday. "There's some nights it seems where it's puck luck but you can't look at the whole year and say 'puck luck'."
Two top concerns have risen to the surface to explain the Flyers' downward spiral:
Goaltending Woes
Holding an .897 team save percentage, only the Dallas Stars have a worse ratio between the pipes than the Philadelphia duo of Michal Neuvirth and Steve Mason.
Mason is in his fifth season with the Flyers, with Neuvirth in his second. The Flyers brought back both shot-stoppers after they held down the fort a year ago, but neither has lived up to last season's billing:
| Goalie | Season | Record | GAA | SV% |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Steve Mason | 2016-17 | 21-20-7 | 2.76 | .905 |
| 2015-16 | 23-19-10 | 2.51 | .918 | |
| Michal Neuvirth | 2016-17 | 10-10-1 | 2.91 | .887 |
| 2015-16 | 18-8-4 | 2.27 | .924 |
Both were set to become unrestricted free agents at season's end, until Hextall made the curious move to re-sign Neuvirth, who owns an NHL-worst .887 save percentage, while the GM also kept open the possibility of re-upping Mason.
By offering a raise to Neuvirth, which will see his cap hit climb to $2.5 million, the Flyers have tied their hands from making a major addition in the summer, like signing a big-ticket goaltender, such as Ben Bishop, who is likely to test free agency. Despite this year's lack of results, it appears the Flyers will return with the same goaltending hand for 2017-18.
Ice Cold Offense
The Flyers have spent much of this season digging pucks out of their own net, but haven't been around the opposition's twine as often.
Philadelphia's offense has gone missing in the season's second half, with the team's top three scorers all seeing major offensive declines since the Flyers wrapped their 10-game win streak:
| Player | Date Range | Games | G-A-P | P/G |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jakub Voracek | Before Dec. 15 | 32 | 11-22-33 | 1.03 |
| After Dec. 15 | 39 | 6-16-22 | 0.56 | |
| Claude Giroux | Before Dec. 15 | 32 | 9-21-30 | 0.94 |
| After Dec. 15 | 39 | 5-16-21 | 0.54 | |
| Wayne Simmonds | Before Dec. 15 | 32 | 16-13-29 | 0.91 |
| After Dec. 15 | 39 | 13-5-18 | 0.46 |
Jakub Voracek has gone nine games without a goal, last scoring against the Colorado Avalanche on Feb. 28, while Claude Giroux has just two tallies in his last 19 outings. As for Wayne Simmonds, his scoring touch has been a little more consistent, but he isn't finding the scoresheet when not creating his own offense. Simmonds has just one helper in his last 23 contests.
With just 11 games left on the season, the Flyers will need more than some puck luck to right a lost season. Goals from the team's top producers and key stops in their own end is the only fix.