Briere said the team overachieved up until January 6 and underachieved since then. He believes the reality is somewhere in between.
The reality is closer to the .600 team before January 6. They have to move away from Errson and his league worst save percentage. At least this year, it’s one awful goalie instead of three. They need another guy there. They also need another top 4 Dman.
Vladar : .939 in October, followed by .894 in November, .905 in December, and .876 in January.
Which of those months is not like the others? His season hasn’t been as great as it seems in the moment. The Flyers went 6-9 in Dec, well below .600 the month before January. The Flyers were boosted by early season wins and OT Loser points and a crappy division where most of that time the difference between first and last was about 10-12 points. They were “underachieving” well before 1/6/26 it just took awhile for momentum to catch up to them. The Flyers aren’t a team that looks to fix things that anyone can see are broken when they are winning which is one of the reasons why things snowball.
Vlad had a .929 last night, well above his season average of .904, and needed every save. He will need to continue to do this for the next 4 months for the Flyers to have a chance.
Adding players? If you are talking about possibly making a run at being a playoff bubble team, maybe, but as far as becoming a real contender they aren’t any closer than they were 3+ years ago. Could the bar be set any lower?