It will be a new-look Philadelphia Flyers team that takes the ice Thursday night against Steven Stamkos and a Tampa Bay Lightning team that proved themselves the class of the NHL's Eastern Conference last year. Gone are head coach Craig Berube, defensemen Kimmo Timonen, Nicklas Grossmann, Andrew MacDonald and Braydon Coburn - now with the Lightning. In their place are former college bench boss Dave Hakstol and a handful of stop-gap blueline bodies like Yevgeni Medvedev and Radko Gudas. Gudas reportedly won't suit up against the Lightning and despite the deep defensive changes the Flyers return almost the exact same forward corps, plus former first-round pick Scott Laughton. One of those returning Flyer forwards, Wayne Simmonds, spent this offseason dealing with the frustrations of a lost 2014-15 campaign. Simmonds says now, on the eve of the outset of the 2015-16 NHL season, that it's just fuel for the fire.
"It feels like it's been an eternity," Simmonds said recently, via Jeff Neiburg of the Philadelphia Daily News. "Going home early, not making the playoffs, you sit on your couch and try not to watch the other teams play. You end up watching them play. For me, it makes me want to strive to get to that next level even more, watching someone else raise the Stanley Cup when that's really what our team's goal is."
"It sucked watching it, but it's going to make us work that much harder."
A 33-31-18 record last season resulted in Berube's ousting and spurred Flyers GM Ron Hextall to ship out as many aging, overpaid defenders as he could. Getting good value for Timonen and Coburn ahead of the NHL trade deadline was smart. Getting rid of Grossmann and the contract of Chris Pronger was a coup. Putting MacDonald on waivers was difficult, but a necessity that allowed them to keep Laughton and Brandon Manning.
Will the new Flyers defense and, hopefully, stronger forward group - thanks to Laughton's addition and Hakstrol's defensively sound, up-tempo system and practice approach - be better off this season? Preseason prognosticators don't think so. As Neiburg notes the Flyers are 40:1 to win the East. Only three teams are considered longer shots. The Lightning, who ice one of the conference's deepest lineups, are 4:1.
Even with Stamkos' ongoing contract negotiations, the Lightning are expected to again be one of the best teams in the league, thanks to Tyler Johnson, Nikita Kucherov, Victor Hedman and Anton Stralman. The Flyers? They'll be considered lucky to claw their way into the postseason.
But for a player like Simmonds who seemed to take a big step forward the last couple of years despite the team falling apart around him - Simmonds potted 28 goals and 50 points last year after managing 29 goals and 60 points in 2013-14 - it's a new season, which means new possibilities. The Flyers are likely at least a couple of seasons away from serious contention, but this year will be a litmus test of sorts for Hakstol and Hextall's group.
And that test starts Thursday against one of the strongest teams in the NHL.
