Tampa Bay plays the way Tocchet wants the Flyers to play. They're defense first, hard along the boards, quick transition out of the D-zone, maintain the cycle in the O-zone, send people to the net and score dirty goals.
1) TB is deep and experienced, they've traded for a number of starters, only a few players 24-25. And Cooper has been HC for a decade, so they know the scheme like the back of their hands.
2) TB has four top scorers, Point, Hagel, Kucherov, Guentzel.(Raddysh and Cirelli product of scheme, talent around them). That makes them great at finishing and deadly on the PP. None of those four were drafted in the top 10..
3) TB has a great goalie and a reliable backup.
They have always had a big defense, but they're not exceptionally fast team like Colorado. More like FLA with more skill.
Flyers don't matchup, especially with injuries, they're younger, lack depth and have a shaky backup goalie.
Next season, with Foerster and Martone, they'll have two finishers they desperately need.
And hopefully Michkov will get the wakeup call and spend his offseason working his butt off - Kucherov didn't enter the league as a star, he made himself into one with offseason work.
