PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The Philadelphia Flyers have puzzled and frustrated fans this season. President of Hockey Operations and General Manager Chuck Fletcher says he takes ownership of that.
"It starts with me," Fletcher said in a video conference just about halfway through the season. "I’m responsible for the overall direction of the team and from hiring the coaches to bringing in the players. But, at this point in time, everyone’s accountable ... for where we’re at in the standings. Having said that, we’re still in the middle of a playoff battle here."
And they’re doing that in this most unusual season, featuring COVID-19 safety protocols, mostly empty arenas, and more games per week than they traditionally play.
Asked whether the Flyers have overrated some of their younger players, Fletcher acknowledged they haven't played as well as they would have liked.
He said game results matter, and their goal is to make the playoffs, "but long-term, there’s been different challenges this year that you normally don’t face. Some players have handled it better than others. Some teams have handled it better than others, but I think you want to be a little bit careful over-analyzing the results of the season."
At this point, Fletcher said he doesn’t plan on the Flyers being "sellers" prior to the April 12 trade deadline.
True, heading into Thursday night the Flyers have gone 4-8-1 in March and dropped eight of their last 11 games and nine of their previous 13. However, trailing the Boston Bruins by two points for the final spot in the East division, they are still hopeful about making it to the playoffs. The troubling thing is the Bruins have played three fewer games because some of games have been recently rescheduled.
While Fletcher recognized the Flyers' inconsistencies, he brought up a silver lining. He believes they have played two of their best games in the past week: a 4-3 win at the New York Islanders, in which they coughed up a 3-0 lead in the third period but managed to win thanks to a late Oskar Lindblom goal; and a 2-1 loss to the Islanders at Wells Fargo Center in which they played well throughout regulation but allowed New York to tie the contest in the third before winning it in overtime.
Fletcher says he is confident that struggling 22-year-old goaltender Carter Hart can turn things around as he did last season, adding that many great goalies in the past also went through growing pains.
The Flyers have given up way too many goals this season, and Fletcher didn’t hide from the fact that the club hasn’t found a suitable replacement for retired defenseman Matt Niskanen.
"Matt was a great player for us, and clearly we didn’t fill the void. That type of player is really difficult to find. But as good as Matt was for us last year, it’s a pretty massive variance in the goals against. It’s a team-level effort right now and, again, we’ve had nights where we’ve defended really well. That’s what we have to get back to."
Defense in front of Hart and fellow goaltender Brian Elliott has been one of the team's biggest weaknesses, if not the biggest. It must improve if the Flyers are going to have a chance at getting to the postseason in the very, very competitive East Division.
"We’ve had a lot of inconsistent performances from a lot of our players ... and I think the makeup of our group probably is not right. I think that’s a fair comment," Flecther said. "I think our back end, like the rest of our team, needs to get better. But overall, our team defense has been a collective effort. We just haven’t been good enough in any aspect of the game yet."