Flyers Season is Officially Over

The Philadelphia Flyers closed out their season last night with a solid victory against the playoff bound Ottawa Senators winning 2-1.

Philadelphia caught fire at the end of the season winning their final 4 games and emerging victorious in 6 of their last 7 contests but it was too little too late.

The Senators were fighting for playoff positioning yesterday and ended the game in 8th place in the East meaning they would play Pittsburgh. Ottawa will play their final game tomorrow to determine if they face the 1st place Penguins or the 2nd seed (either Boston or Montreal) in the first round of the playoffs.

With the win, Philadelphia ended up in 10th place in the Eastern Conference, outside of the playoffs, with 49 points. Last night's victory put the Flyers over the .500 mark for the very first time all season, and that's where they'll stay, with a 23-22-3 record.

As far as the rest of the league, Philadelphia is currently in 20th place, meaning they currently hold the 11th pick in the 2013 NHL entry draft. However, this year has a new twist to the draft: all teams that missed the playoffs will be entered into a lottery to see who is awarded with the 1st overall selection. As the 11th to last placed team, the Flyers hold a 1.5% chance of winning the lottery.

Perseverance was the key to final 2 weeks for the Flyers as they never gave up. Even after being eliminated from playoff contention (April 19th), many teams fold, the Flyers instead won 4 straight. And they will use that moving forward.

Steve Mason was another bright spot not only in this game but his entire time in Philadelphia. Mason won his last 4 starts and yesterday may have been his most impressive outing, not just with the Flyers but all season. Ottawa peppered Mason with shot after shot and Mason didn't flinch, making save after save. Picked up on a deadline deal by the Flyers, Mason stopped 43 shots on 44 attempts and won his 100th career NHL game.

Steve Mason, who is 4-2 with a .938 save percentage in games started with Philadelphia, will give the Flyers brass a lot to think about this off-season.

Jake Voracek, who has been arguably the Flyers best and most consistent player all year, finished his season on a high note, scoring the game winning goal for Philadelphia in the 3rd period. Voracek's 22nd goal of the season is his new career high which eclipsed his previous mark of 18 set in an 82 game season; this was Jake's 48th game. He was 1 of only 2 Flyers to play in every game this season, the other being Claude Giroux (Ruslan Fedotenko would have been the third had he not been scratched on the last game).

Replacing Fedotenko was new guy Jason Akeson, who played in his first NHL game becoming the 5th Flyers player to make his NHL debut this season and the 11 player to make his Flyers debut. Akeson started his NHL career off with a bang scoring his 1st career goal in just his second shift. Claude Giroux provided the assist in what was his 200th career helper.

If nothing else, the Philadelphia Flyers went out with some pride as they depart with a winning record and a never-say-die attitude. And with so many young players playing extremely well down the stretch, it will certainly be a very interesting off-season for Philadelphia. 

The NHL Playoffs will get underway on Tuesday. All matchups in the West are determined, while all the matchups in the East will be final after the Boston/Ottawa game tomorrow night. 

The 2013 NHL Entry Draft will commence on June 30th, where the Flyers will draft either 11th (because they finished 20th place), 12th (if a team above them wins the lottery) or with a little luck, 1st (if they win the lottery). The Draft Lottery will take place this Monday, April 29th.