PLAYOFF HOPE IS ALIVE
Just last week the Philadelphia Flyers effectively decided to waive the white flag on the season by trading away impending Free Agent Daymond Langkow for 2 draft picks and a prospect. 4 games and 4 wins later the Flyers find themselves battling for the Atlantic Division 1st place and 3rd seed. With a win tonight against the New York Islanders the Flyers can climb to the summit … at least temporarily.
HOTLY CONTESTED DIVISION RACE
The Atlantic Division is hotly contested with 4 teams sitting within 4 points … Islanders, Flyers, Devils and Penguins … with several games against each other remaining. In the remaining schedule the Flyers will face the 3 division rivals 8 times.
While the Flyers (83 pts) are currently riding a 4-game winning streak it is the Islanders (84 pts) and Penguins (80 pts) who have the easier schedule down the stretch as they will face the comparatively weaker Rangers 4 and 5 times respectively. The Flyers have just 1 game against the Rangers remaining and will face playoff-teams in the remaining 10 games. The Penguins are considered a playoff team.
GM Bo Siemsen ”We face a tough schedule down the stretch. We have struggled badly against the Penguins and Islanders this season … that’s something we need to change if we want to make it to the playoffs. We’ve managed to grind out some low-scoring wins recently and we need to continue to do that. Chris seems to be hitting one of his hot-streaks at the perfect time. He needs to be strong for us if we want to make it to the top-8. I am usually a betting man … but this race is wide open and either one of these 4 strong teams could be the one to miss out on the playoffs … so I dont want to make any risky bets or predictions on this race.”
* Injury update
Mike Commodore’s status has been upgraded to day-to-day. He will not play tonight against the Islanders, but he could possibly make a comeback on Friday when the Flyers face the Pittsburgh Penguins.