The Flyers need to upgrade their defense if they want to make the NHL playoffs

As the Flyers defense continues to struggle, GM Chuck Fletcher needs to make a deal if the team is going to get into the postseason.

The Flyers need defenseman Phil Myers (5), shown checking Tampa Bay Lightning defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk (22) into the boards during the round-robin tournament in August, to regain the form he showed last season.Read moreAP

by Sam Carchidi

Published March 12, 2021, 12:47 p.m. ET

Too many defensive breakdowns. Too few clutch saves from their goaltenders. Too little engagement on their forecheck.

That’s the abridged version of what has caused the Flyers to lose four of their last six games and fall out of a playoff spot in the East Division.

The latest loss, a 5-3 decision Thursday to visiting Washington, left the Flyers a combined 1-4 against the Caps and Penguins in a 10-day span. They lost both games to a strong Washington team missing the suspended Tom Wilson, one of its top wingers.

“There’s no doubt we have to be better. That’s on me,” coach Alain Vigneault said after the Thursday’s defeat. “My job is to prepare the team and to obviously make sure they know what to expect. ... I am obviously going to have to do a better job next game.”

He then added an addendum.

“At the end of the day, players have the responsibility to get themselves ready to execute and compete,” Vigneault said. “Our execution was off. Obviously, it wasn’t as good as theirs. That’s why they were able to make those plays and capitalize on our mistakes.”

The defensive woes have contributed greatly to the goaltenders allowing four goals per game in the Flyers’ last four losses. In short, opponents are getting too many high-quality chances.

General manager Chuck Fletcher tried to sign veteran Travis Hamonic, a right-hander, before the season, according to a league source. But the physical, 6-foot-2, 205-pound defenseman — a shot blocker who is skilled on the penalty kill — wanted to stay in western Canada and signed with Vancouver (one year, $1.25 million) in January.

Fletcher, it has become clear, needs to acquire a defensive-minded defenseman to stabilize things on the back end. Getting someone with size would help. The trade deadline is April 12, and Nashville’s Mattias Ekholm (6-4, 215; signed through the end of 2021-22) and Columbus’ David Savard (6-2, 230; free agent after this season), a right-hander, are among the defensemen on Fletcher’s radar.

Both players would be major upgrades. If Fletcher can’t get one of them, he might go to Arizona for Alex Goligoski (5-11, 185), a 35-year-old Minnesota native, as a fallback plan that would at least give them a minutes-eater who can play either side.

Teams know the Flyers, who never replaced Matt Niskanen with a reliable defender, are in a bind and that will probably increase the asking price. So the Flyers might have to overpay if they believe an addition will get them into the postseason, where anything can happen.

All season, the defense has had a rotating top pairing composed of Ivan Provorov and (fill in the blank). Provorov has had four different partners in 24 games. None has worked.

Besides missing the retired Niskanen, the defense has taken a step backward because Phil Myers has regressed from his strong 2019-20 season. Myers was benched Thursday but figures to return to the lineup in Saturday’s rematch with the Capitals. The Flyers need the 6-foot-5, 210-pounder to regain the form he showed last year, which led to him signing a three-year deal with an annual $2.55 million cap hit.

Thus far, it’s been a strange season for the Flyers. Very strange.

Despite getting badly outshot in most games, they were extremely opportunistic and started the season 8-3-2, including a combined 4-0 record against Pittsburgh and the Islanders.

Then the coronavirus hit the team.

Hard.

Since then, they are 5-5-1, despite starting to thoroughly outshoot their opponents.

The players are all back from the virus and healthy, but the Flyers have been inconsistent since returning from an 11-day COVID-related layoff. Lately, strong 60-minute efforts have been rare, a throwback to the Dave Hakstol era.

Overall, the Flyers are 6-7-2 against the four teams in playoff spots, and 7-1-1 against the also-rans, with four of their wins against woeful Buffalo.

That’s not a blueprint to earn a playoff berth. It’s also why Fletcher desperately needs to take some pressure off his goalies by bolstering the defense before it gets too late.