The Return

Back from the hiatus of the most disappointing playoff run in Phillies and possibly Philadelphia postseason history. I was enthralled with Phillies all summer, they consumed my life.

And now it's all over.

Back to reality. Back to Silly Ville, broken sticks and stolen pucks. Back to the Flyers.

With the Flyers sitting at 3-3-1 through the first seven games, the perfect word to describe their season so far is probably..."ehh."

There's no reason to panic so far and there's little reason to be overly excited. Here's a little plus/minus of how I rank the Flyers season so far.

Oct. 7 Flyers 3 @ Penguins 2 --> +2
Oct. 9 Flyers 1 @ Blues 2 --> E
Oct. 11 Avalanche 2 @ Flyers 4 --> +1
Oct. 14 Lightning 3 @ Flyers 2 --> -2
Oct. 16 Penguins 5 @ Flyers 1 --> -3
Oct. 21 Ducks 3 @ Flyers 2 --> -1
Oct. 23 Maple Leafs 2 @ Flyers 5 --> +2

So far on the season the Flyers are a -1, which is kind of a disappointment since they had a five-game homestand and only went 2-3-0 over that span.

Much of the Flyers' early season struggles can be pinned on their lack of production on the power play. The Flyers are 24th in the league with the man-advantage, sitting at 9.1%. A number like that is obviously not going to cut it in this league, and with the talent of this team, it's sure to increase.

But how to make that abysmal number go up? Early on in the season coach Peter Laviolette has been trying a number of different players on the power play. He's trying to find the best groups of players on the PP, and I guess there wasn't enough time in the preseason to work that out so he's still doing it seven games into the season. But once he finds that group who gels together the best, the man-advantage will start clicking on all cylinders. It's only a matter of time.