Better luck next year: The Philadelphia Flyers had it, then lost it

The weirdest team in the NHL this season.

Welcome back to Better Luck Next Year, a series that will focus on each team as they get eliminated from Stanley Cup Playoff contention and the Stanley Cup Playoffs. What went wrong, why it went wrong, what (if anything) went right, and what is next. We continue today with the next team to be officially eliminated from Stanley Cup Playoff contention: The Philadelphia Flyers.

The Philadelphia Flyers were, for me, the weirdest team in the NHL this season.

When it began I had the same expectations for them that probably everybody else had. A weak roster short on impact talent that was going to struggle through a rebuilding season, but probably play very hard as John Tortorella extracted every ounce of productive hockey out of them that he could. They might win more games than expected, but probably not enough to matter.

Then something unexpected happened — they started winning. A lot. And not only did they start winning, they actually had some truly impressive underlying numbers and defensive metrics that made it all seem like it wasn’t a fluke. Maybe they were further along than we all thought? Even more than that, they were kind of fun to watch given their counter-attacking style that produced more rush chances — and goals — than just about any other team in the league.

Following a four-game winning streak in mid-February they found themselves in the third position of the Metropolitan Division with 64 points, eight points clear of the non-playoff teams and only one point back of the Carolina Hurricanes for the second spot and potential home-ice advantage in the First Round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Even if the team was flawed and had some concerns, they at least seemed to have enough of a cushion in place where the playoffs should have become the expectation at that point.

All they really had to do was avoid a total meltdown over the final two months of the regular season.

Let’s talk about it.

Everything that went wrong