What was once a promising season of the Flyers being one of the biggest powers in the Eastern Conference is now an utter fight for playoff berth. The orange and black have only eight games remaining, all against Atlantic Division opponents. This stretch of games will determine whether the eighth place Flyers will be playoff contenders or early Phillies fans.

Last night the Flyers seemed to have some pep in their step for the first time in a long time. Philadelphia athletes have long been known to reflect their city’s blue collar attitude and work ethic during their play. This is something the city took great pride in for a very long time but something the Flyers had lacked in the past couple of weeks. What was the spark that ignited the flame last night from the Flyers? It’s tough to tell with this bunch. The inconsistency in effort has perhaps been the most consistent thing all season (aside from the injury bug). Maybe it came from pressure from the front office. Maybe the return of Mike Richards took a couple of games to set in. Hell, maybe the Flyers were inspired by the words of Barack Obama’s speech from Philly yesterday. Who knows what made the Flyers say “YES WE CAN,” but they did. Now, to continue to the trend will be the team’s toughest task all season.

The Devils have been almost unbeatable for the Flyers (1-6) this season. Until that pesky goaltender Marty Brodeur retires, the Devils will continue to give the Atlantic Division fits (although after he does, what will be left of the Devils?). They haven’t fared much better against the Rangers (2-3-2). They need to find a way - and fast - to beat their division rivals from New York City and Newark.

The biggest improvement the Flyers need to make is in their defensive zone. They have continually struggled to break out of their zone or even to clear the puck out of the zone and get a line change. Opponents are sneaking their way into the crease and having time to do whatever they want in front of the goaltender. Take for example the untouched Ilya Kovalchuk who parked it right in between the hash marks and nearly tied the game with seconds remaining in the third period last night. While offense has been paltry lately, that will come back in due time. But if the Flyers can’t win on the defensive end they will not even have a chance at the playoffs. They are 28th in the league allowing 32.2 shots per game.

Allowing that many shots a game, the Flyers are bound to give up a goal or two. It is tiring to see the argument that the Flyers need to have one of their goalies stand out and all himself to be named the number one goalie. Goaltending isn’t a big issue for this club. For the most part, both Antero Niittymaki and Martin Biron (8th best goalie with 1530 saves) give their team a chance to win each time they take the ice. Yes, both have allowed a few soft goals over the course of the season but how can you not while allowing so many shots on net. At some point the defense has to play well defensively and not try and compensate for the lack of goals by Flyers forwards. A bit too much emphasis has been put on the defensemen’s ability to move the puck and not enough on staying home and clearing the porch.

Offensively it’s quite simple. The Flyers have six players with 20+ goals (Prospal, Carter, Knuble, Briere, Richards, Hartnell) . If at least one of those six guys doesn’t step up (lately it’s been Jeff Carter) and start to score on a consistent basis, this team is toast.

The orange and black have largely been a questionable team this season. This home stretch of the 2007-2008 season will tell us exactly what kind of a team they really are.

Remaining Schedule:

vs. Friday March 21 7:00 pm
vs. Sunday March 23 7:00 pm
@ Tuesday March 25 7:30 pm
@ Friday March 28 7:00 pm
@ Saturday March 29 7:00 pm
@ Wednesday April 2 7:30 pm
vs. Friday April 4 7:00 pm
vs.Sunday April 6 3:00 pm