It’s hard to be upbeat about a 1-7-0 team, but there is at least one player on the Philadelphia Flyers that has more than pulled his weight.
Steve Mason has been superb so far with a 2.37 GAA and .924 save percentage in six starts. Of course, he also has a 1-5-0 record because the Flyers typically only give him a single goal of support.
“He’s been everything to us this year,” Wayne Simmonds told CSN Philly. “He’s standing on his head every single game, keeping us in the game, making every single save he can make and it sucks for him because we’re not supporting him on the other end.”
On the one hand, this could be spun as another negative as the Flyers are squandering Mason’s strong start to the season, but after the goaltending issues Philadelphia has endured in recent years, having that be an area of strength has to be encouraging. After all, the Flyers have no shortage of offensive weapons, even if there’s little evidence of that this season. Should the Flyers’ offensive stars finally wake up, then Philadelphia could start to look like a well rounded team.
For his part, Mason remains confident. He has plenty of experience playing on losing squads and he doesn’t think the Flyers will be one of them in the long run.
Philadelphia is currently in the early stage of an unusual week-long gap between games. They will host the New York Rangers on Thursday.