If Only, If Only.......

I do not think I will be scrutinized for coming out and saying the Philadelphia Flyers poor play on defense is the reason for them only winning 2 out of their first 7 games. Opposing teams are scoring an average of 4 goals per game against the Flyers, which is not at all. Although scoring was an issue this time last season, it has not been this time around. The boys in orange and black have scored 11 goals in the 5 games they have lost, which includes the shutout against Chicago. In total, they have found the back of the net an impressive 21 times in just 7 games. So I got to thinking; what if the Flyer’s play on defense didn’t stink-on-ice (literally)? How different would their record look compared to what it is now? I decided to have a little fun and find out.

For my little experiment  (if it can be considered that),  I am going to say that on a bad night, a good defense should still only give up around 3 goals a game. If the Flyers were a good defensive team, and only gave up a maximum of 3 goals in the 7 games they have played, they would only have regulation losses against Boston and the Blackhawks (assuming the Flyers still scored the amount they did in each game). We will still count the 4-3 overtime loss to the Duck as a loss because it was decided in a shootout. On the other hand, we will assume that if Philly had a good defense, they would not have given up 3 goals to Montreal in the 3^rd period and that game would have been put in the win column. If this little fantasy was true, the Flyers would have a 4-2-1 (9 points) record, which looks a lot nicer than their actual record of 2-3-2 (6 points).

With the news of Andrew Macdonald and Braydon Coburn both out for 4 weeks with upper-body injuries, things do not look like they are going to get any better on defense. So for now, all Flyers fans can say is “If only, If only……”