Don't Cry Because It's Over, Smile Because It Happened. Your 2015-16 End Of The Season Flyers Recap
There’s no two ways about it. That sucked. The ride the Flyers took this city on to get into the playoffs was fun as heck. Staying alive for 2 more games despite going down 3-0 in the series gives myself and Flyers fans everywhere optimisn in the direction this team is headed in. But after falling 1-0 and only scoring 6 goals in the whole series, the 2015-16 Flyers season has come to an end. We’ll call them over-achievers for how horribly they started the season, we’ll call them resilient for never giving up, but at the end of the day.. well they just weren’t an exceptionally great hockey team. Which is fine. They weren’t supposed to be exceptionally great this year. They have a rookie head coach, a GM only in his 2nd year and one of the most impactful players on the roster was a rookie defenseman. There’s nothing the Flyers have to be ashamed of at this moment but it still sucks regardless. So here’s how we’ll do this. We’ll have a couple quick points on the series, then a couple quick points on what the Flyers need to do this offseason and then we’ll all hit the links together from there.
^Click play and try your best not to cry in public today.
On Claude Giroux and Jake Voracek’s Disappearance
Jake was hurt. You know that, I know that, I think we all know that. Jake was not playing at 100% for a while now and I get that every team is playing through injuries but you could tell that Voracek just couldn’t really push it at all this series. As for Claude Giroux, well here’s the thing… Sean Couturier going down with his injury was the death blow to the Flyers. Without Couturier there to take the defensive responsiblities from the top line, Giroux had to play the majority of his 5v5 minutes against Backstrom Ovechkin Oshie. And during those 5v5 minutes, they held that BOO Line off the score sheet as much as possible. You have to understand what a difficult assignment it is to send Giroux out against that line and expect him to not only A) keep them off the scoreboard but B) get himself on the scoreboard as well. The way his line played against the Capitals top line is a huge reason why this series even went to 6. But at some point or another, you need your best player to take on that responsibility and put the team on his back. Giroux gets paid $8.275 million and Flyers fans boast him as one of the top players in the world. Being asked to take on that task and taking over at least a game or two is just something that comes with that territory. Claude Giroux is a great hockey player. He doesn’t disappear in the playoffs like most of the eggs on Twitter would have liked you to believe this year. Go check his numbers, sit on a dick and then come talk to the rest of us if you actually think that way. But credit to the Caps, they were able to do everything they could to make him irrelevant in this specific series. Just realize that a huge piece of the “Giroux Went Missing” puzzle was the fact that Sean Couturier was actually missing.
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On Steve Mason And Michal Neuvirth
I don’t care who you have in net, you’re not going to win a playoff series if you only score 6 goals in 6 games. You could have the lovechild of Martin Brodeur and Patrick Roy in between the pipes and you still lose that series 9 out of 10 times. Anybody who is putting the blame on goaltending in this series is a certified mouth breather. Did Mason have a rough go at it in games 2 and 3? Of course he did. But I’ve said this at least a dozen times already, this team doesn’t even sniff the playoffs if it weren’t for his performance in the last month and a half of the regular season. For some strange and bizarre reason, Steve Mason and Michal Neuvirth work the best when they’re splitting games. Give Mason the majority of them but try to make it about as 50/50 as it gets. Because in short spurts, the two of them have the ability to steal a few games for you. Once either of them starts to get too many starts in a row, you see their inconsistencies come out. I’ll go to my grave saying Steve Mason should still be the #1 goalie of this team and after that game yesterday, I kind of hope I go to my grave sooner than later. But each goalie deserves a world of credit for getting the Flyers to where they got to and scoring 6 goals in the entire series is just pathetic.
Where To Go From Here
Now that this season is over, it’s time for Sexy Hexy to go to work. The team’s #1 priority at this time should be to re-sign Brayden Schenn. He’s an RFA come July 1 and coming off a career year where he made $2.5 million. The Flyers are going to free up plenty of space by buying out the last year of RJ Umberger and getting Lecavalier, Luke Schenn, probably Evgeny Medvedev and possibly Sam Gagner off the books. I would be shocked if Brayden’s next contract isn’t somewhere around the 4.5 range. They gave Couturier 4.33 until 2022 and as long as Brayden Schenn is a team player, which I think he is, I’d expect a pretty similar contract.
When I think of what the Flyers top 9 looks like next season, I think Giroux Voracek Simmonds Couturier Schenn Raffl Laughton Cousins and Konecny. And I’m still holding out hope that Hextall and Hakstol throw their humongous dicks out on the table and find a way to bring Drake Caggiula to Philly. So I don’t know where that leaves guys like Matt Read and the 4th line. I think those untouchables on the fourth line did a ridiculous job this series and the entire year for that matter. But I just can’t see all 3 of them coming back next year with how the lineup is shaping up. Especially when there are even more kids like Aube-Kubel just waiting in the pipeline as well for a couple more years to come.
Defensively I think we all know what is coming. I don’t see the Flyers being able to move Mark Streit in the offseason but I’ll still hold out hope that maybe he can get dealt at next year’s trade deadline. So heading into this season, I’d shit if we saw Streit, MDZ, Gostisbehere, Provorov, Sanheim and maybe Gudas as the team’s top 6 defensemen. Brandon Manning, while I’m sure is a nice enough kid, can take a hike. Medvedev can go back to Russia. Andrew MacDonald can hang out in Lehigh Valley again. It’s time for the Flyers to Make Defense Great Again and the only way they can do that is to just get young on the blueline. Bring up Morin as well, keep whatever is left of Schultz in the mix and all of a sudden this starts to look like a unit that doesn’t make me want to gag myself with a spork. We’re going to see a very different Flyers team next season with the core staying the same. I’ve said it all year long. They’re just one or two pieces away from completing the puzzle and now that this season is finally behind them, they can take that next step.
Overall Season Grade
Here’s what I wrote in the Flyers season preview blog which was appropriately titled “Just close your eyes and pray for the best”
Now for the most part, everything I said there was spot on. It’s just that I reversed the order. The last month of the season, they figured it out and were able to make that final push for the playoffs. But once they got in, they were severely outmatched by the Caps and that much was extremely evident. But the fact is that they over achieved this season and under a new head coach with tons of question marks on the roster, they were able to get themselves into the playoffs and put a ton of confidence in that locker room. Because of that, I can’t be that upset with this season. I’ll be honest with you, I’m sick and tired of counting seasons that don’t end with a Stanley Cup as “successful” seasons. But this year was fair from a failure. They overcame the odds, silenced plenty of doubters and showed that they are a team that is going to be dangerous for a while. Overall, I think I give this year a C+/B-. You can’t count getting knocked out in the first round of the playoffs anything higher than a B. You can be proud of a B- though. It’s something to build upon and now the bar gets set higher heading into next year. Baby steps, people.
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Thanks again to everyone who followed along all season. Writing these recap blogs has been a pleasure and I really appreciate all of you for stopping by to read all of them. Even you, crosbysbrain, you trolling son of a bitch. “”Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.” – Dr. Seuss” – @BarstoolJordie