Flyers find their groove

Greetings Flyers faithful

Philadelphia at the game 30 mark

The Flyers have found some consistency over the Holidays. The boys from the city of brotherly love went 7-3 in their last ten. The first twenty games, saw a very inconsistent team take to the ice each night, you just never really knew what you would get. The last ten games have the Flyers play .700 hockey.

Recap of the last 10 unreported games

462 New Jersey Devils (4) vs Philadelphia Flyers (6)
451 Philadelphia Flyers (3) vs New York Rangers (2) - OT
431 Philadelphia Flyers (3) vs New York Islanders (5)
426 Ottawa Senators (3) vs Philadelphia Flyers (5)
400 Philadelphia Flyers (3) vs Dallas Stars (2) - SO
394 Carolina Hurricanes (5) vs Philadelphia Flyers (3)
369 Columbus Blue Jackets (3) vs Philadelphia Flyers (5)
346 New Jersey Devils (1) vs Philadelphia Flyers (7)
330 Pittsburgh Penguins (3) vs Philadelphia Flyers (1)
320 Philadelphia Flyers (4) vs Carolina Hurricanes (2)

Gm Bourque 

" Its been a nice turn around and we have been playing the kind of hockey we thought we were capable of playing. There are still nights when we seem to lose focus and the flood gates open. There are Divisional games we just have to win, if you look at the eight playoff teams in the East, five are from our division,with us just sitting outside, a good hockey team is going to miss the playoffs for sure,we are just trying to make sure its not us."

That is a true statement, the Flyers are in ninth spot and playing .700 hockey in their last ten, but if you look at the teams ahead of them in their division specifically they are simply just keeping up:

Carolina-8-1-1 in their last 10
NY Islanders-8-2
NY Rangers-7-2-1
Pittsburgh-7-0-1
Washington-6-3-1

As impressive as a 7-3 record is, it comes at a time when the whole division is playing excellent winning hockey.

Coach Gretzky

" We can only control our play and compete at our highest level and for the most part we have been doing that, but those head to head divisional games are the games you need to have,otherwise you just don't make up ground, we are only just past the first third of the season,there is a lot that is yet to unfold, but it never gets easy in this division,each year a new team or two rises and a couple fall,to be a consistent playoff team year in year out,you cant afford long periods of poor play or let, we have dug ourselves a little hole,we need to climb out of it, and the last ten has been a good start."

It may seem like the Flyers have struggled a bit but its worth while pointing out that the Flyers have three players in the top 20 in scoring league wide: Conner McDavid-number 8 with 36 points, Dustin Byfuglein-number 13 with 34 points Henrik Zetterberg-number 14 with 33 points. The Flyers also have to get their back up more minutes as to not put the team in a tenuous position later in the season when they will need Crawford.

Well Happy Holidays ya'all...out for now...peace to the world