What We Have Learned About the Flyers Through Six Games

We are six games into the Philadelphia Flyers season. Six games in, and the team is 3-2-1 after a brutal stretch of games to open the season. The Flyers have played two road games, followed by four straight at home.

You never want to judge a team based on the early part of the season. Some teams or even individual players take a while to get rolling. It’s not easy to forecast the rest of the season based on the opening weekend. Once you get to that five/six games mark, that’s when you can start learning what teams are going to be.

Again, six games in is still early on. There is plenty of hockey remaining in the season – plenty of time for things to change for the better or for worse.

However, in these six early games of the season, we learned a lot about the Flyers and what we might see more of in the early stages of the year.

Here is what we have learned so far.

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Cates Line Still Flyers’ “Top Line”

The term “top line” should be used loosely when talking about the Philadelphia Flyers. While on the lineup, the top line will most likely consist of three of Travis Konecny, Matvei Michkov, Owen Tippett, Trevor Zegras, or Sean Couturier. The team’s most consistent line is made up of Tyson Foerster, Noah Cates, and Bobby Brink.

That is no change from last season. No, they might not be the flashiest line. They play sound hockey, but nothing out of the ordinary. No, they’re not going to be your top producers (though Foerster has a chance to be in the future). What they are is reliable.

Early this season, you see that trio in the biggest moments of the game. They have shown they can generate offense while also being responsible on all 200 feet of the ice.

Each player has also visibly taken a step forward from last season.

The term “connected” is frequently used when referring to the line. Some (Trevor Zegras) may even call that line the three-headed monster. The Cates line is active proof of how far chemistry can take a line and how significant it really is.

Zegras Adapting Well to New Team

Trevor Zegras, once a bright young star who looked poised to become a face of the league, took a step back in his final two seasons in Anaheim. Whether that be due to injury, wrong usage, or even outright regression, Zegras needed a change of scenery and a fresh start.

The new Flyers forward was kept off the scoresheet on opening night. Since then, he has registered a point in every game.

In six games, Zegras has five assists, two of which came on the power play.

Zegras also just seems to be fitting into his new locker room well, which may seem insignificant. But when trying to have a bounce-back season in a new environment, that is critical.

Zegras is consistently one of the most noticeable players on the ice. You can see him use his creativity and playmaking ability with every shift. The next step for him is scoring some goals, then we could be seeing the return of Trevor Zegras.

Flyers Are Getting Great Goaltending

Here is a sentence I did not expect to be saying so soon. The Flyers have received great goaltending from Dan Vladar and Sam Ersson. The tandem of Vladar and Ersson has the Flyers at 14th in the league with a .901 team SV%. They are 10th with a 2.67 GAA.

Goaltending has kept the Flyers in all but one of the six games early this season.

Sam Ersson has been good so far. He has played in two of the Flyers’ six games. He was in goal at Carolina, where he faced 39 shots, stopping 35 of them, getting the Flyers to overtime against the Hurricanes.

His second start was at home against Winnipeg, where he did not look as strong. Winnipeg got four pucks past Ersson on just 14 shots. Some of them are funky, where it becomes hard to fully fault the goalie. There were some that you’d expect him to stop. The Winnipeg game was the Flyers’ worst as a team.

Dan Vladar, on the other hand, has been nothing shy of excellent. Through six games, I’d even go as far as saying he is the team MVP. The new Flyer is 3-1-0 in his four starts, and has won his last three. Vladar has yet to allow more than two goals in a single game this season. He has a GAA of 1.75 and a SV% of .929.

The team has generally played better with Vladar in net, so that certainly helps. Vladar has come up big on multiple occasions. Though he is not seeing as many shots, he still makes the big save when it matters most.

What was widely considered to be the Flyers’ biggest weakness heading into the season has been a pleasant surprise so far.

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The Defense Isn’t All That Bad

In my eyes, the defense was the Flyers’ biggest weakness coming into the season. Now, I still believe that should be the focus for immediate improvement; the Flyers’ defense has not been all that bad this season.

Even with Cam York out to start the season, the defense held in there and actually played well in the early going, especially against Florida (both). Once York returned, the defense got a big boost.

In the three games since York returned, the Flyers have held the opposition to a total of 54 shots, an average of 18 per game. The irony in it all is that the team that shot the most in that span was Seattle, and the Flyers managed to keep them away from any high-danger areas, where the team that hit the least was Winnipeg, who were forced to keep the puck on the perimeter; they just had their elite shots that game.

As for the pairings, the top four are solid. York and Travis Sanheim are still that workhorse duo, eating minutes and playing well. Nick Seeler is still a sponge, and Jamie Drysdale is showing significant improvement both as a puck mover and, shockingly, defensively (still plenty of work for improvement).

The bottom pair is still a weakness, but between Adam Ginning, Egor Zamula, Noah Juulsen, and Emil Andrae (who deserves to still be here), they have been servicable. It’s also important to remember that Rasmus Ristolainen will be back at some point this year.

While the Flyers’ defense certainly has not been great, they undoubtedly are not as bad as expected.

The Flyers Are a Good Team

Here we go. Could this possibly be an overreaction just six games into the season? Maybe. But the Flyers have proven early that they are not as bad as they were expected to be this season.

The Flyers started their season with a gauntlet. Florida twice, Carolina, Winnipeg, and Minnesota, all in the first five games of the season. Seattle had been playing well before they came to Philly as well. The Flyers ended that stretch 3-2-1, and will then finish the month of October with four winnable games.

Next up, the Flyers are in Ottawa against the struggling Senators, then come home to host the Islanders, Penguins, and Predators.

The Flyers played well against (almost all of) the good, and dominated the bad team. With four less challenging games in October, three of which are at home, this is where we will really see what the team will be this season.

Between all of the things mentioned above, Owen Tippett starting the year on fire, and Sean Couturier looking like his youthful self again, the Flyers have exceeded expectations so far.

There is still a big gap between the Flyers’ current status and being a cup contender. But, I don’t think it’s unreasonable to say that the Flyers, in their current form, are a good team.

Through six games, you can start to see the turnaround of the rebuild.

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