As an addendum to my column at Puck Prospectus on the “Fall of the Flyers”, here are the Philadelphia Flyers’ conventional stats before (left side – below) and after (right side – below) November 24th:
| Philadelphia Flyers – Performance before and after Nov. 24 | |||||||||||
| Name | Pos | GP | G | A | P | +/Sv | GP | G | A | P | +/Sv |
| Mike Richards | F | 21 | 9 | 11 | 20 | +5 | 16 | 7 | 4 | 11 | +1 |
| Kimmo Timonen | D | 21 | 1 | 12 | 13 | -2 | 16 | 2 | 5 | 7 | +2 |
| Michael Leighton | G | - | - | - | - | - | 2.7 | 2.59 | 7 | 90 | 0.922 |
| Claude Giroux | F | 21 | 3 | 12 | 15 | +7 | 16 | 4 | 5 | 9 | -1 |
| Chris Pronger | D | 21 | 4 | 14 | 18 | +13 | 16 | 1 | 5 | 6 | -3 |
| Braydon Coburn | D | 21 | 3 | 7 | 10 | -4 | 15 | 2 | 1 | 3 | -1 |
| Jeff Carter | F | 21 | 9 | 12 | 21 | -2 | 16 | 4 | 3 | 7 | -2 |
| Matt Carle | D | 21 | 2 | 12 | 14 | +18 | 16 | 0 | 5 | 5 | -6 |
| Simon Gagne | F | 9 | 1 | 4 | 5 | +2 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 3 | +1 |
| Daniel Carcillo | F | 21 | 2 | 2 | 4 | +4 | 12 | 1 | 3 | 4 | +1 |
| Blair Betts | F | 13 | 1 | 1 | 2 | +3 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 2 | +1 |
| Danny Briere* | F | 17 | 10 | 6 | 16 | -3 | 13 | 2 | 3 | 5 | -6 |
| Danny Syvret | D | 13 | 0 | 2 | 2 | -3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | +0 |
| O. Tollefsen | D | 9 | 0 | 2 | 2 | -1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | +0 |
| Oskars Bartulis* | D | 7 | 0 | 2 | 2 | -1 | 16 | 0 | 3 | 3 | -7 |
| Jared Ross* | F | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | +0 |
| David Laliberte* | F | 8 | 2 | 1 | 3 | +1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | +0 |
| Riley Cote | F | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | +0 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | +0 |
| Andreas Nodl | F | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -1 | 9 | 0 | 1 | 1 | -1 |
| Jon Kalinski* | F | - | - | - | - | - | 10 | 0 | 2 | 2 | -2 |
| Darroll Powe | F | 19 | 6 | 0 | 6 | -2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -1 |
| Scott Hartnell | F | 21 | 7 | 10 | 17 | +0 | 16 | 2 | 3 | 5 | -4 |
| Ryan Parent | D | 13 | 0 | 2 | 2 | -2 | 15 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -3 |
| Mika Pyorala* | F | 21 | 1 | 1 | 2 | +2 | 14 | 1 | 1 | 2 | -4 |
| Ian Laperriere | F | 21 | 1 | 3 | 4 | -1 | 16 | 0 | 2 | 2 | -3 |
| J. van Riemsdyk* | F | 18 | 6 | 12 | 18 | +7 | 16 | 1 | 1 | 2 | -4 |
| Arron Asham | F | 14 | 3 | 2 | 5 | +0 | 16 | 0 | 2 | 2 | -7 |
| Brian Boucher | G | 2.5 | - | - | - | 0.914 | 11.8 | - | - | - | 0.899 |
| Ray Emery | G | 18.7 | - | - | - | 0.910 | 1.4 | - | - | - | 0.786 |
| *Rookie | |||||||||||
| Stats through 12/26 | |||||||||||
Over the swoon, plus/minus has not suffered as much as scoring for many of the skaters – although it’s fallen precipitously more the likes of Chris Pronger (+13 before, -3 after), Matt Carle (+18 before, -6 after) and Arron Asham (+0 before, -7 after). In fact, the plus/minus of Kimmo Timonen (-2 before, +2 after) and Braydon Coburn (-4 before, -1 after) has improved. Even the much maligned Jeff Carter (-2 before, -2 after) has treaded water.
As covered in the Puck Prospectus column, the Flyers’ offensive production has nosedived from an outstanding 3.48 GF per game to a sickly 1.94 GF per game. As Geoff Detweiler of Broad Street Hockey breaks it down:
“The main thing holding this team back has been offense. They simply haven’t been scoring. They have only scored 28 goals in their last 15 games, and in their last 10 losses, they’ve only scored 9 goals. Only four times in the last 17 games have they scored more than 2 goals. In those 13 games where they have scored two goals or less, they’ve only won twice – both 2-1 wins over the Islanders. That’s a lot of numbers, but it basically boils down to: Since the Flyers can’t score more than two goals a game, they can’t win.”
You have to think the Flyers are better than this. They’ve got the talent; they just need to figure it out again.
I think van Riemsdyk needs to sit for a game or two (the Stamkos treatment) and think about how Laviolette wants him to play. He could yet return a better player.
JVR is talented, you can clearly see it from when he was going strong. The Flyers have a lot of good young skill in Mike Richards, Claude Giroux and van Riemsdyk. Jeff Carter is the one I’m starting to wonder about. I’d think about trading him for “equal value” off his next hot streak.