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Detroit Red Wings Villains: 2015 Philadelphia Flyers

By Gwen De Young

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Over the next 30 days, Octopus Thrower profiles every Detroit Red Wings “villain” in the NHL. Today we take a closer look at the Philadelphia Flyers. We had Gus from Broad Street Buzz to help us out.

Team Name:

Philadelphia Flyers

Division:

Metropolitan

FanSided Foe:

Broad Street Buzz

Games Against Them:

January 17th at home, March 15th at Philadelphia, and April 6th at home.

Last Year’s Results:

The Red Wings were 1-2 last season against the Flyers.

Head Coach:

Ron Hextall

Watch out for these guys:

Gus told us to watch out for these players;

Claude Giroux – Giroux is coming off a bit of a down year. He struggled with inconsistency last season and constant changes to his linemates. This season, with a new head coach in Dave Hakstol, he’s looking to overcome those issues and be able to have a much better season.

Jakub Voracek – Unlike Giroux, Voracek is coming off a season where he put up a career high in points. Coach Hakstol’s system in college focused on getting the most out of all players and playing consistently, which, like Giroux, Voracek needs to build off last season. If he can avoid going five to six game stretches without a single point, look for Voracek to be in contention for the scoring title again.

Sean Couturier – Couturier has been touted as one of the best defensive forwards in the game, yet this is not all the Flyers, or even Couturier, want from his time on the ice. Couturier’s role on the ice this season will be more offensively minded, which the Flyers hope will lead to having two solid scoring lines.

Yevgeni Medvedev – Medvedev is a veteran defenseman from Russia the Flyers signed this offseason. He’s a great puck moving defenseman that will bring stability to the mediocre defensive corps of the Flyers. His presence in the lineup should help the Flyers with their terrible transition game, and ultimately win more games.

Farmhands worth Noting:

The best prospects the Flyers have are all defensemen. The best overall is Ivan Provorov, the 7th overall pick from this year’s draft. He will be competing for an NHL roster spot this training camp at the age of 18, but cap and roster restraints may hinder his efforts even if he does play great. Another two to watch are Samuel Morin and Shayne Gostisbehere. Morin is making his pro debut on the Lehigh Valley Phantoms, while Gostisbehere is essentially going to have to repeat his “first” season as he tore his ACL last season a couple of weeks in to the season. Both defensemen are both great prospects for the Flyers, and their availability to be called up at any time will be interesting, especially after the trade deadline.

Goaltender:

Steve Mason will continue to be the starting goaltender, with newcomer Michal Neuvirth backing him up.

Sieve or Savior?

Yes and no. He was very good last season, but the Flyers still couldn’t get wins for him. If his solid play continues, then all the Flyers need to do is play more consistently on offense for it to have a decent impact on their wins.

8 Quick Thoughts about the (none of these should be taken seriously)

4 Things We Respect About You:

  1. Your teams always fight and that is always cool.
  2. Winning back to back cups, that takes some skill.
  3. You introduced us to the wonderfully amazing llya Bryzgalov and him describing the Solar System as “humangous big”.
  4. That 3D version of your logo you had back in like the 02-03 season that you brought back in 06-07 were pretty cool.

4 Things We Hate About You:

  1. On a personal note, I hate that you got Ivan Provorov in this years draft and I really wanted him to fall to us.
  2. You’re Philly and as a Steelers fan myself, well I just can’t like that.
  3. Your fans get to watch cool fights, we don’t get that as often.
  4. Some of your fans… Well they are kind of crazy.

Playoff Threat Level (1-10, 1 being minimal)

I would say maybe a 1-2. I don’t think the Flyers will be too much of a problem for the Red Wings come playoff time. I think the Flyers will have a hard enough time with their own division that the Red Wings aren’t even on their radar and they shouldn’t really be on ours either.

Final Thoughts

Gus had this to add about the Flyers;

It should be interesting to see if new head coach Dave Hakstol can get the Flyers going in the right direction immediately this season. His system in college was highly regarded, and he is known for being an expert at developing young players. As the Flyers get younger and younger, especially at defense, it will be exciting to see how he works with the young prospects coming up.

Next: Why Jimmy Howard will succeed this season

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