NHL Analysis: Flyers Flying High In Philly

As we reach the All-Star break for the 2010-11 NHL Regular season, there is one team that’s shone above all the rest in the Eastern Conference — the Philadelphia Flyers.

With 33 wins, 71 points and a roster stacked with top-end talent, the Flyers have emerged as arguably the team to beat this season. And considering they were within two games of winning the Stanley Cup last season, they could be the team to beat this postseason as well.

Much of Philly’s success goes to its amazing depth at forward. The team is led by captain and leading scorer Mike Richards, who has 17 goals and 30 assists in 50 games this year. Amazingly, though, Richards wasn’t chosen for the All-Star game — rather, Philly sent its second- and third-leading scorers (Claude Giroux and Daniel Briere), a testament to how deep they are. The aforementioned three aside, Philly also boasts Jeff Carter (a former 40 goal scorer that already has 23 this year), James van Riemsdyk (the 2nd overall pick in 2008 behind Chicago superstar Patrick Kane) and a series of tough, gritty, checking forwards in Scott Hartnell, Dan Carcillo, Jody Shelly and Blair Betts. Simply put, Philadelphia has the most well-rounded group of forwards in the NHL, bar-none.

On defense, things are equally as deep. Veteran presence and future Hall-of-Famer Chris Pronger leads a group that can roll six deep on any given night — he’s the best of a group that includes offensive defenceman Matt Carle, young shutdown man Braydon Coburn, Andrej Meszaros — one of the annual league-leaders in plus-minus — and Kimmo Timonen, the veteran Finnish blueliner that’s lethal on the PP.

The real question for Philly as the “second half” of the season nears in the goaltending position.  Unheralded rookie Sergei Bobrovsky has played the majority of the games this year, but he’s incredibly inexperienced and could be in for some rough nights as the playoffs near and intensity grows. He’s backed up by able veteran Brian Boucher, but Boucher has always been an injury-prone netminder that’s never established himself as a No.1. Can these two provide enough stable puck-stopping to push Philly to the Cup Finals again? If they can’t, the Flyers do have an ace up their sleeve in Michael Leighton, currently playing with AHL affiliate Adirondack. Leighton led the Flyers to the Cup Finals a year ago, going 8-3 with a 2.46 goals against average and .916 save percentage.

If the Flyers do ever need a boost, Leighton could be a sleeper pick as the guy to provide it.