Travis Konecny, Claude Giroux and a comparison of Flyers’ top scorers to other NHL teams
The Flyers' top players have one more chance to make an impact or it'll be a long offseason of what-ifs.
The Flyers insist they are close to a breakout. A bounce here or there is all they need. Unless those bounces start coming Tuesday night, the only breaking out they’ll be doing is with their suitcase for the flight home from Toronto.
It’s the big guns that are killing them. They have fewer goals among their top five regular-season scorers than any team that reached the conference semifinals. And fewer points, by a significant margin.
Here’s a look at each team’s top guns and how they’ve produced in the first two playoff rounds. (To make things even, we threw out the round-robin and qualifying series.) Stats are through Sunday’s games.
Flyers
Top five regular-season scorers with their point totals in 10 games: Travis Konecny (2 points), Sean Couturier (6), Jake Voracek (7), Claude Giroux (5), Kevin Hayes (6). Total points: 26 (nine goals).
In four games against the Islanders, Konecny, Giroux and Voracek have zero goals and two assists. They’ve combined for 30 shots on goal.
Hayes and Couturier have two goals and an assist each in this series.
Konecny has one goal in 16 traditional playoff games — 19 if you want to throw in the round robin.
Giroux has one in his last 23 playoff contests — 26 counting the RR.
Islanders
Top five regular-season scorers with their point totals in nine games: Mathew Barzal (7 points), Brock Nelson (7), Anders Lee (6), Josh Bailey (9), Jean-Gabriel Pageau (6). Total points: 35 (17 goals).
The Islanders top five are outscoring their Flyers counterparts 15-8. New York has eight goals and seven assists in this series from their big guns, compared to four and four from the Flyers.
Jean-Gabriel Pageau, acquired at the trade deadline, is included among the Islanders top-five scorers. His 42 total points during the regular season (40 with Ottawa) would have placed him fifth on the Isles.
The Islanders get it done with defense. They give up an average of 1.67 goals per game, and are the only team still playing allowing less than 2.00 per.
Pageau leads the league in all postseason plus/minus at +13. Teammates Nick Leddy (+11) and Josh Bailey (+10) also are in the top five.
Lee’s six points are all goals, including three in this series.
Tampa Bay
Top five regular-season scorers with their point totals in nine games: Nikita Kucherov (14 points), Brayden Point (13), Victor Hedman (6), Alex Killorn (4), Anthony Cirelli (4). Total points: 41 (16 goals).
Pretty top-heavy with Kucherov and Point leading the way.
Does not include Steven Stamkos, the Lightning’s second-leading scorer during the regular season, who has not played in the playoffs because of an undisclosed injury.
Hedman, probably the most lethal defenseman still playing, had three goals in the first four games against Boston.
Boston
Top five regular-season scorers with their point totals in nine games: David Pastrnak (9 points), Brad Marchand (12), Patrice Bergeron (6), Torey Krug (5), David Krejci (9). Total points: 41 (12 goals).
Pastrnak missed the first three games of the first-round series with an injury.
Boston entered Monday with eight goals in the first four games against Tampa. Marchand had four of them. Pastrnak, Charlie Coyle, Jake DeBrusk and Nick Ritchie had the others.
A Bruins loss in overtime of Game 2 turned around the series. Boston lost Games 3 and 4 by a combined score of 10-2 and looked disinterested i both.
Dallas
Top five regular-season scorers with their point totals in 10 games: Tyler Seguin (7 points), Jamie Benn (11), Miro Heiskanen (12), Alexander Radulov (9), Roope Hintz (7). Total points: 30 (16 goals).
The Stars entered Monday with 19 goals in the first four games of their series with Colorado. Nine came from their top five scorers, which helped Dallas jump out to a 3-1 lead.
Seguin, who won a Cup with Boston in 2011, has always been mediocre in the playoffs.
Denis Gurianova, Dallas’ only 20-goal scorer during the regular season, had a team-high eight entering Monday.
Colorado
Top five regular-season scorers with their point totals in 9 games: Nathan MacKinnon (18 points), Cale Makar (12), Andre Burakovsky (8), Gabriel Landeskog (10), Mikko Rantanen (12). Total points: 42 (18 goals).
They’re playing a different style of hockey out West. The first four games of the Dallas-Colorado second-round series had 34 goals, compared to 20 for the Flyers-Islanders.
MacKinnon’s 18 points are the most among NHL players for the first two full rounds of the playoffs. His eight points against Dallas are as many as the Flyers’ top five has against the Islanders. All six of those players entered Monday trailing their series, 3-1.
Vegas
Top five regular-season scorers with their point totals in 9 games: Max Pacioretty (7 points), Mark Stone (9), Reilly Smith (9), Jonathan Marchessault (6), William Karlsson (5). Total points: 36 (16 goals).
Nine of the 15 goals against Vancouver have come from the top five.
Pacioretty had a pair of goals on Sunday to help the Golden Knights take a 3-1 series lead.
Vancouver
Top five regular-season scorers with their point totals in 10 games: J.T. Miller (11 points), Elias Pettersson (13), Bo Horvat (7, all goals), Quinn Hughes (7, all assists), Tanner Pearson (4). Total points: 42 (18 goals).
Top five’s been OK against Vegas, but they’re getting no help elsewhere. The Canucks have scored eight goals in four games against VGK, six coming from Horvat (3), Pettersson (2) and an empty-netter from Pearson.
Tyler Toffoli, acquired at the trade deadline from Los Angeles, might have cracked Vancouver’s top five scoring leaders during the season by playing with more skilled players. He’s missed most of the postseason with injury, but has two goals in the last three games against Vegas.