There’s no denying that the Philadelphia Flyers have struggled mightily with their special teams play this season. The problems on the penalty-kill were somewhat expected as the team didn’t really make any moves to help improve their shorthanded performance, but the power-play is a much different story.
After finishing 15th in the league in power-play percentage last season, now former General Manager Ron Hextall made a big acquisition this past offseason to try and make the average unit better by signing forward James van Riemsdyk to a five year deal. 20 of van Riemsdyk’s 54 points point the year prior came on the man advantage and his addition was supposed to make the top unit more lethal while also adding more depth to their ever-struggling second unit as well.