Back in April, THW published a two-part series (East and West) outlining some positive predictions regarding non-playoff teams. The idea was to give fans of those teams a reason to look forward to the future, with the promise that the predictions themselves would be re-evaluated near the beginning of the regular season. That time has […]

All NHL schedules are not created equal. Sure, every team must face each other at least twice per season. You can’t hide from the Anaheim Ducks all year just because you’re based in Buffalo. The NHL is not college football. But success over the course of an 82-game season can be dictated just as much […]

In the first edition of this article, I discussed the eight non-playoff qualifiers in the East. My goal was to highlight a few of their positives and focus on the improvements they can (and need to) make for the 2017-18 season. Now we will begin with the Western Conference portion. The West was a bit more […]

The 2016-17 regular season is officially a distant memory. The Stanley Cup Playoffs are in full swing, and for many hockey fans, this is the most exciting time of the year. It’s also quite stressful, and at times flat-out maddening. But at the end of the day, there is no substitute for the thrill of […]

A popular debate within the hockey community is whether or not teams deserve to accumulate points for losing in overtime. Those in favor believe that overtime is normally indicative of a competitive contest, and that the losing team does not deserve to walk away from the battle with nothing. The opposition contends that nobody deserves […]

Due to the fact that nobody seems particularly intent on running away with the eighth playoff spot in the East, the Philadelphia Flyers are still not out of the picture. Thanks to a 6-3 victory over the Buffalo Sabres on Tuesday, Philly sits just three points back of the second wild card as of Wednesday […]

The Philadelphia Flyers’ February schedule has proven to be just as brutal on the ice as it was on paper going in. Philly has amassed just seven of a possible 16 points this month, creating a two-pronged problem: they haven’t separated themselves from the likes of Boston or Toronto, and they’ve also allowed the dangerous New […]

If you’ve read Part One, then you know the philosophy that drove my selection of forwards for Team USA’s 2018 Olympic roster was a combination of speed and two-way ability. For their defense, I maintained that same two-way philosophy. My selections are based on a list of 17 defensemen that have excelled at the NHL level, […]

The 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea are a year away, but sadly the prospect of NHL players participating does not look especially promising. The most recent meeting of the minds allowed for a glimmer of hope, as IOC president Thomas Bach joined the discussion for the first time, but there are still unresolved issues. […]

The mark of a good head coach is the ability to adapt and adjust to whatever an 82-game schedule throws at him. The up-and-down nature of a long season will inevitably present a series of challenges that must be overcome. A coach’s perception of his team’s strengths and weaknesses in October may not be the […]

If you listened closely enough, as Wayne Simmonds was crowned MVP of the All-Star Game on Sunday night you could hear tens of thousands of Philadelphia Flyers fans screaming an expletive-laden “We told you so.” It wasn’t Sidney Crosby, Alex Ovechkin or any of the other marquee names in the Metropolitan Division posing for pictures in […]

No matter what road the Philadelphia Flyers take leading up to the trade deadline, one obvious need they have is on the left wing. There is a marked drop-off in offensive production among Flyers forwards after their four best (Giroux, Schenn, Simmonds, Voracek). Those four players have combined for 61 goals, which is nearly half […]

The Philadelphia Flyers showed some much-needed signs of life Sunday night, clawing their way back from a two-goal deficit to defeat the New York Islanders, 3-2, in overtime. Philly’s goals came courtesy of Wayne Simmonds, Ivan Provorov and Claude Giroux. Steve Mason was also sharp, stopping 36 out of 38 shots. The Flyers’ hard-fought victory […]