There is one reason to believe the Flyers can snap out of their trance and go on a long playoff run, and it was not their needed but joyless victory over the New York Islanders Saturday night.
It is Chris Pronger.
Since the big defenseman broke his hand a month ago, the Flyers have won six games. They have lost 10, including four shootouts and two overtime games. Worse, they have played without the edge, the heart, the urgency that will be absolute necessities when the playoffs begin this week.
No Pronger, no chance for the Stanley Cup. If that theory seems simplistic, it probably is. The rest of the Flyers, from captain Mike Richards to goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky, should, by all means, feel free to prove that theory wrong. They haven't done much in the last month.
With the division title and the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference on the line against a dead team, the Flyers blew their quick, two-goal lead. The Islanders scored to tie the game at 3 in the first period and coach Peter Laviolette immediately yanked Bobrovsky.
That is not how a team with championship aspirations springboards into the postseason. Laviolette had anointed the 21-year-old Bobrovsky his No. 1 playoff goalie. In his last two starts, in games that mattered, he lost in overtime and got benched late in the first period.
So much for riding a hot goaltender into the playoffs. Surely, Laviolette's hope was that naming Bobrosky the starter would give the rookie a jolt of confidence. He needs Bobrovsky to rise to the occasion the way Cam Ward did for him the year Carolina won the Cup.
Maybe he will, but he certainly didn't Saturday.
The Flyers' strength at the other end was supposed to be their depth. They don't have a singular superstar like Alex Ovechkin or Sidney Crosby. They're supposed to come at teams in waves, creating matchup nightmares over the course of a series.
Saturday, and for much of this recent late-season stumble, the Flyers have had one line playing at a high level. Danny Briere, Scott Hartnell, and Ville Leino produced three goals and three assists. Hartnell's second goal, on a nasty shot from an awkward angle, gave the Flyers a 5-4 lead late in the second period.
They held on for a win that locks them into the No. 2 seed in the East. They will play Buffalo, the team that beat them Friday night in overtime.
