2007–08 Philadelphia Flyers season



The 2007–08 Philadelphia Flyers season was the Flyers' 41st season in the National Hockey League (NHL).

The Flyers began the 2007–08 season with the intention of putting the disaster of the previous season behind them. In June, the Flyers made a trade which sent the first round draft pick they had acquired in the Forsberg trade (23rd overall) back to Nashville for the rights to negotiate with impending unrestricted free agents Kimmo Timonen and Scott Hartnell. Both were signed to six-year contracts. After much speculation as to whether the Flyers would trade the 2nd overall pick in the 2007 NHL Entry Draft, the Flyers stayed put and selected New Jersey native James van Riemsdyk.

The Flyers wasted no time in addressing their free agent needs. On July 1, the Flyers signed Buffalo co-captain Danny Briere to an 8-year, $52 million contract. Continuing to revamp their defensive core, Joni Pitkanen and Geoff Sanderson were traded to Edmonton for Oilers captain Jason Smith and Joffrey Lupul. Smith was named Flyers captain on October 1st.

The season began in the image of the Broad Street Bullies era, with multiple-game suspensions handed out to 5 separate players, the most serious being 25-game suspensions to Steve Downie and Jesse Boulerice for two separate incidents. A 7-3 start in October and a 9-3-1 January run had the Flyers near the top of both the division and conference standings. But a disastrous 10-game losing streak in February reminiscent of such a streak the previous season nearly derailed the Flyers' season. An 8-3-4 run in March coupled with two huge wins over New Jersey and Pittsburgh over the final weekend of the regular season put the Flyers back in the playoffs as the 6th seed and a 1st round matchup with Washington.

After taking a 3 games to 1 lead over Washington, the Capitals won Games 5 and 6 to force a Game 7 in Washington. Coming back from a 2-0 deficit, the Flyers won the series in overtime on Joffrey Lupul's powerplay goal. The Flyers then drew a matchup with heavily-favored Montreal in the 2nd round. Despite being outshot the majority of the series, the Flyers upset Montreal in 5 games and advanced to the Eastern Conference Finals for the 1st time since 2003–04 to face Pittsburgh. Before the start of the series, the Flyers suffered a fatal blow when it was learned that Kimmo Timonen was out with a blood clot in his ankle. Coupled with a gruesome facial injury to Braydon Coburn in Game 2, Pittsburgh ran roughshod over the Flyers' depleted defense and jumped out to a 3-0 series lead. The Flyers won Game 4 at home to stave off elimination, and although Timonen returned for Game 5, Pittsburgh finished off the Flyers in 5 games.

Skaters
Note: GP = Games played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points; PIM = Penalty minutes

†Denotes player spent time with another team before joining Flyers. Stats reflect time with the Flyers only.

‡Traded mid-season

Bold/italics denotes franchise record

Goaltenders
Note: GP = Games played; TOI = Time on ice (minutes); W = Wins; L = Losses; OT = Overtime/shootout losses; GA = Goals against; SO = Shutouts; SV% = Save percentage; GAA = Goals against average

Transactions
The Flyers were involved in the following transactions before and during the 2007–08 season.

Draft picks
Philadelphia's picks at the 2007 NHL Entry Draft in Columbus, Ohio.

Farm teams
The Flyers were affiliated with the Philadelphia Phantoms of the AHL and the Wheeling Nailers of the ECHL. The Phantoms, with Craig Berube returning as head coach, finished second in their division and won their first round playoff series against the Albany River Rats in seven games. They lost in the second round to the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins in five games. In their first and only season as the Flyers ECHL affiliate, the Nailers finished last in their division and missed the playoffs.