Everyone Pump The Brakes
It isn’t a huge surprise, to me at least, how this season ended up once the injury bug ravaged the Boys of Broad Street. Travis Konecny is the latest victim as of yesterday with a lower body, right after a stellar performance against St. Louis. He is joining Scott Laughton, Sean Couturier, Nate Thompson, Ryan Ellis and Samuel Morin. All of these players bring something absolutely needed and removed from the Flyers play lately and has been the biggest cause of this failure of a season.
For the most part, this team is fighting night after night but coming up short after usually giving up the lead. When you lose players like Kevin Hayes, Ryan Ellis, Sean Couturier and Scott Laughton, nothing good will follow. This newly former 4th line of Zack MacEwen, Patrick Brown and Max Willman has been a silent treat that goes unrecognized by the typical Flyer fan. Zack MacEwen and Max Willman both scored against the Avs Friday night, Patrick Brown lit the lamp vs the Blues the previous game literally showing, all three of these players on the 4th line have been pulling their weight and deserve a little credit no? This is just an example of the “Goal Scorers” are not scoring and the grinders and new additions are picking up the pieces. Adding on, Hayden Hodgson scored his 1st NHL goal and point in his 1st NHL game coming in with a bang.
Obviously, this wasn’t the season anyone predicted but in my eyes, seeing players like Hodgson, Tippett, Willman and hopefully Wade Allison getting some NHL experience, shows promise for the future. Trust me, I am in no way trying to defend this season in any way, shape or form but there are some positive things to take from a negative season. No one can deny, that when Coots, Laughts, Thompson, Ellis and if we’re lucky Sam Morin return, we’ll finally get the season we expected. As for this season, don’t take the seatbelt off, I’m sure more bumps are on the way. Do we make some more additions in the off-season? Does Giroux come back after his cup run with Florida? Was it actually true that Chuck Fletcher closed the door on G due to his lack of interesting in any other team but Florida? The games doesn’t stop when the season’s over but let’s get it done with and then deal with that in the summer yeah? Don’t forget to join Gummy Wayde and myself, Sundays at 1:30 pm EST on twitter and Facebook for our weekly episode of Flyers Alley as we discuss all these topics and more.
Stay Dashing Delco!
Photo creds - David Zalubowski
Jesse Bell - Flyers Alley/ Olde City Sports Network
