The Philadelphia Flyers failed to make the playoffs in 2013 and they lost in the first round this year. At the same time, the fact that they even advanced to the 2014 postseason was an accomplishment given their 1-7-0 start.
“Coming out of that hole that we did, that shows a lot of character,” Vincent Lecavalier told CSN Philly. “And I believe we can play with the elite teams. Losing Game 7 was tough, but we could be won that game and moved on.”
Lecavalier isn’t the only one who believed that the Flyers had it within them to win Game 7 of their first round series against the New York Rangers. It underscore that this is a group heading into the summer with, as captain Claude Giroux put it, the belief that they’re “not very far” off from achieving great things.
“I think, obviously, it’s easy for me to say, ‘yeah,’ but I really believe in this group,” Giroux said. “If you ask anybody on this team, they probably think the same way.”
Which is important because the Flyers are likely to undergo tweaks over the summer rather than a significant makeover. The team’s only major unrestricted free agent is 39-year-old defenseman Kimmo Timonen. Even if they don’t re-sign him, the Flyers have roughly $64.5 million committed to 17 played for the 2014-15 campaign, per Cap Geek, so adding a big name player would be somewhat complicated.
The Flyers’ front office has shown a willingness to make bold moves in order to reinvent the team while staying cap compliant in the past, but with their current core still relatively young and seemingly on the upswing under coach Craig Berube, they might not feel the urge to do so this time.
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