After a five-game winning streak had the Philadelphia Flyers in second place in the Metropolitan Division, a five game losing skid before the all-star break has totally derailed the team's season.
On Sunday, a day that began on a positive note with the induction of Mark Recchi into the team's Hall of Fame ended on a sour one, as the Boston Bruins came to town and dismantled the Flyers by a 6-2 score to continue a plunge in the team's record.
The loss to Boston was preceded by losses to Detroit, Tampa Bay, Ottawa, and Colorado. All of those defeats were by multiple goals, so regression has hit hard and fast for a team that was outperforming its expectations in the month prior.
The good news for the Flyers is that the rest of the division outside of Carolina has struggled as well. At the end of all this, the Flyers still sit in third in the division, which means if the season ended today they would take on the Hurricanes in the first round.
But between the New York Islanders, Pittsburgh Penguins, and New Jersey Devils, each of those teams has more reason to believe its season will get better before it gets worse.
Can the Flyers Hold Off Their Division Rivals?
With Carter Hart away from the team, rookie Sam Ersson has the net to himself. Ersson delivered some very promising early results this season, but has seen his save percentage dip to .898 over the course of this skid.
It might be a bit of an oversimplification, but whether or not the Flyers can continue to defy expectations and hold on to that playoff spot might just come down to whether Ersson can use the all-star break to reset and find his game again.
A hot goalie in February and March is instrumental to making the playoffs, and the Flyers appear unlikely to utilize future assets to help the current roster, not wanting to lose sight of the bigger picture of their rebuild.
If Ersson bounces back and the team can mentally flush the past week and a half away when they return from break; look for the Flyers to prolong their run.
But the other teams will be coming. The Devils will be getting healthier with the return of Jack Hughes. The Islanders have the momentum of a coaching change that was likely overdue.
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The Flyers Still Have Hope For The Future
Despite the losing streak, Philadelphia was able to deliver a great piece of news to its fan base this past week, as the team locked up dynamic winger Owen Tippett to an eight-year contract extension.
The 24-year-old was the primary return in the trade that saw the Flyers send out franchise legend and captain Claude Giroux a few years back, and hitting on such a trade was a major win for their rebuild project.
Tippett currently has 18 goals in 46 games, which puts him on a 30-goal pace. If he's able to replicate that moving forward, the $6.2 million cap hit the Flyers are paying for his services will look like a steal, especially as the salary cap rises.
Another more recent big trade was the one that saw the team send out Cutter Gauthier to Anaheim after his trade demand. The loss of the recent 5th overall pick was a big blow to the rebuild, but the team did well to bring Jamie Drysdale back.
Drysdale has made a big impression in his short time with the team, and the 21-year-old's ceiling as a dynamic, roving offensive defenseman makes him perfectly suited for the modern NHL and a big piece for the Flyers moving forward.
Hot stretches from young core pieces like Tippett and Drysdale could help the Flyers turn this thing back around and to the playoffs, but what they do is just as important for the future as it is for what happens this year.
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