A Winning Habit
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Montreal Canadiens: Five Teams That Prove NHL Teams Can Go From Last to Playoffs

By Ken MacMillan

NEW YORK, NY - OCTOBER 05: Nathan MacKinnon (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NY - OCTOBER 05: Nathan MacKinnon (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images) /
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UNIONDALE, NY – MARCH 28: Danny Briere. (Photo by Paul Bereswill/Getty Images)
UNIONDALE, NY – MARCH 28: Danny Briere. (Photo by Paul Bereswill/Getty Images) /

2007-08 Philadelphia Flyers

The 2006-07 Philadelphia Flyers are one of the weirdest teams of the salary cap era. They were great in 2005-06, finishing the regular season with 101 points. Then, they nearly slashed their point total in half and ended the 2006-07 season with just 56 points.

They had a great young core with Jeff Carter, Mike Richards, Simon Gagne, R.J. Umberger and Joni Pitkanen on both teams. They also had great veterans like Peter Forsberg, Mike Knuble, Michal Handzus, and Sami Kapanen but it didn’t work at all for one year.

But then it did again. The 2007-08 Flyers not only made the playoffs, but they went on a run to the Eastern Conference Final. You might remember them beating the Canadiens in round two on the strength of Umberger becoming a superstar for two weeks and trade deadline pickup Vinny Prospal being unstoppable.

Prospal wasn’t the only pickup, as Daniel Briere signed with the Flyers in the offseason, and the Nashville Predators traded them Scott Hartnell and Kimmo Timonen for a first round draft pick.

Timonen, Hartnell, Briere and newcomer Joffrey Lupul played big roles on that playoff team. So did Martin Biron who was brought in to play goal after Robert Esche and Antero Niitymaki struggled in the 2006-07 season.

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