Home Ice No Longer an Advantage for Flyers

By David Strehle
NHL Hot Stove Managing Editor

Home ice has been one of the trademark advantages for the Philadelphia Flyers through the years.  Just look up the 1975-76 season and see what the team accomplished.  In 40 games, the Broad Street Bullies went 36-2-2 - garnering 74 out of a possible 80 points – while scoring 205 goals, and yielding just 79.

Now that is what you call dominance.

Those were the days of Bobby Clarke, Bill Barber, Reggie Leach, Bernie Parent, and company.

While the parity the League enjoys nowadays will likely prevent those types of numbers from ever occuring again, there still needs to be some kind of fear put into opponents when they come into your building.

That has not been the case since late last season, as home for the Flyers has not been so sweet.

The club stumbled badly down the stretch last year, especially on home ice.  The Orange-and-Black won only three of their last 13 (3-5-5) regular season contests at the suddenly not-so-friendly confines of the Wells Fargo Center. 

The skid dropped Philadelphia from contending for the Eastern Conference title, and nearly cost them the Atlantic Division crown.  If not for rallying on the last day of the regular season to defeat the visiting New York Islanders, 7-4, the Pittsburgh Penguins would have claimed the division championship.

But the team didn’t fare much better in the playoffs, as they sported a 2-4 record in front of the home fans when it mattered the most.

Part of the perceived problems with team chemistry led to Mike Richards and Jeff Carter being dealt, and forwards Claude Giroux and James van Riemsdyk being given more responsibility and leadership roles with the club.

Ilya Bryzgalov was brought in to man the Philly crease by order of Ed Snider, as the area between the pipes had been a sore spot for far too long.

A change of faces, a new mix with which Peter Laviolette can work.  

But this season hasn’t been much better, as the Flyers have won just two of their first six (2-3-1) games on home ice. 

That makes the club’s record an awful 7-12-6 (playoff totals included) in the past 25 contests on home ice since being blanked, 1-0,  by Jonathan Quick and the Los Angeles Kings on February 13th, 2010.

There is another game that stands out from last season that underlines the decline of Philadelphia’s play at home.

If the November 18th 8-7 home defeat at the hands of the Tampa Bay Lightning was possibly any indication of the trouble that lied ahead for the team over the remainder of the year, then last night’s 9-8 embarassment against the Winnipeg Jets should set off all kinds of bells and whistles for both Paul Holmgren and Laviolette.

While much of the Flyers’ early-season struggles – including those at home – have been blamed on the tremendous amount of new faces – and the amount of rookies in the lineup - brought in over the summer, and the need to find some sort of a team chemistry.

It should be noted that a majority of the mistakes that are being made time and time again are by the club’s veteran leaders, while the rookies have actually been pretty solid.

Many say the ongoing goaltending woes are due to ”The Curse of Pelle Lindbergh“, so could the Flyers’ play at home be something along the lines of “The Curse of the Spectrum”?  The horrible showing at the Wells Fargo Center began right about the same time that, right across the parking lot, the site of the franchise’s greatest triumphs met its ultimate demise via the wrecking ball.

Coincidence?  Maybe, maybe not.  But it seems like for right now, this club could use a nice, long road trip to sort some things out.

If you have any comments or questions, you can email the author at dstrehle@nhlhotstove.com.  You can also follow him on Twitter – @David_Strehle