Phanatic Hockey Editor
After one minor move at Monday's trade deadline, Flyers general manager Paul Holmgren has elected to dance with who brung him as the club attempts to once again reach the Stanley Cup Finals.
The numbers are impressive as the season winds down to its final 20 games: A 40-16-6 record for 86 points, which is good enough for tops in the Atlantic Division (by five points over Pittsburgh) and best in the Eastern Conference (three points up on Boston, the Northeast Division leader).
Philadelphia has also been embroiled in a race for the NHL's best record, now trailing Vancouver (40-16-9) by three points. The Flyers, though, have two games in hand in the quest for the Presidents' Trophy which means home-ice advantage for all four rounds of the postseason.
Warning signs are now on the horizon after such a quick ascension to the elite of this 30-team track meet.
An overtime home setback last week to an injury-weakened Phoenix Coyotes. Another listless home loss to an inferior Toronto club on Thursday. A power play mired in the lower third of the NHL. A general manager, for the second time in three years, publicly decrying the attitude of his players.
Adversity? Sure. Self-inflicted mostly. Pressure? You bet. Reason to panic? Let's hold off on that for a bit.
The last team to win the Presidents' Trophy and take home the Stanley Cup was the Detroit Red Wings, in 2008 and 2002.
Let's face it, Mike Richards, Kris Versteeg, Chris Pronger and Brian Boucher are who they are, but they are no Steve Yzerman, Brett Hull, Niklas Lidstrom and Dominik Hasek.
Despite a balanced attack which has kept Peter Laviolette's charges at the top of the league to this point, doesn't it seem like everything's been a little too perfect?
Last year's regular season was probably too bad to be true. Injuries, intrigue, coaching changes, a desperate stand to make the playoffs. A 41-35-6 finish that belied the talent within that suddenly turned into playoff magic.
This year, it seems too good to be true as the pitfalls have been minor, but telling. When all other obstacles have been eliminated, trouble comes from within. It is indeed difficult to keep motivated for six whole months for a return shot at the Cup. Attention flags, effort wavers, and slumps occur. It's a fact of hockey life.
There's a fine line between the two ends. Don't believe it? Ask the Boston Bruins and Washington Capitals, whose dream seasons in 2009 and 2010 exploded into early postseason heartbreak.
Although Holmgren beamed earlier in the week about improving his team through addition, you'd be a fool not to recognize something has been lost. Two things actually -- Simon Gagne and Ian Laperriere -- valued veteran leadership on the forward lines.
But what remains is obviously getting the job done, now with another Cup winner added in Versteeg.
Given this recent blip in the relatively-smooth path the Flyers have taken to the top of the league so far, comparisons to past Orange and Black teams are apt.
Looking back to the magical season of 1979-80, the one in which the club put together a near-unreachable record 35-game unbeaten streak and went 48-12-20, you see that even this legendary squad had its troubles.
Before starting the run, they lost a 9-2 game in Atlanta. They suffered bewildering late-season home losses to Montreal, the Islanders, Vancouver and the Rangers. They were pounded like veal cutlet in Boston. Their power play clicked in the low double digits the whole year.
Bob Clarke in later years admitted that the Flyers' 22-11-10 finish after The Streak was over was a better indicator of the team's true makeup.
Despite steamrolling the NHL for three-quarters of the year, Pat Quinn's charges completed the regular season just 3-5-5 and lost the Finals to a hotter Islanders team that finished 25 points back in the standings but hit their stride in April.
Another parallel trotted out this year has been that with the 1986-87 season, a Cup Finals club under Mike Keenan's watch.
Armed with the fiery rookie Ron Hextall, a 50-goal scorer in Tim Kerr and Mark Howe anchoring the second-best defense in the NHL, the Flyers exploded to a 31-11-3 in mid-January, surpassing even Edmonton for best record.
However, long-term injuries caught up to the young stars, and it finished just 15-15-5 the rest of the way.
Thanks to a murderous 16-games-in-28-day stretch in March, there were puzzling blowout losses at the Spectrum to the Rangers, Kings and Red Wings, along with a 9-5 home defeat to the Islanders in the final regular-season tilt which drew the public ire of then-GM Clarke. Three gruelling victorious rounds wound up in a gallant Game 7 defeat to the dynastic Oilers.
The common factor in both? White-hot starts to both seasons which saw frustrating fizzles at the end and ultimate defeat in the final round at the hands of foes who were fresher and healthier.
While there's no harm in enjoying this sweet, sweet ride, the Flyers will inevitably come upon an opponent who just wants it more. That's what happens when 25 of 30 teams are hunting for 16 playoff berths, and that's what happens when one of those catches fire and faces a team ripe for the plucking in the early rounds.
That this down period occurs now instead of in October or November/December as it has in the last two seasons is something to worry about, but would you rather it happen now with so much of a cushion built up or in May when every loss puts you closer to the edge?
One more burning question is, can Laviolette's temperament and the leaders on the club strike enough of a balance to keep everyone in line and events in perspective long enough to correct things before April 9?
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