The Philadelphia Flyers spent the majority of the regular season at the top of the Eastern Conference. But from March on they only won seven of 20 games to close out the season, a stretch many attributed to the team coasting as they await the playoffs. The Flyers still finish second in the East and won the Atlantic Division. As the playoffs approached, their lackadaisical approach and inconsistent play continued, which led to a seven-game opening round against the seventh seeded Buffalo Sabres, followed by a sweep at the hands of the Boston Bruins. The Bruins outplayed them from the opening faceoff of the opening game and never looked back. Much of the blame for this collapse can fall on GM Paul Holmgren, who decided not to tinker with the goaltending duo (Michael Leighton and Brian Boucher) that took the team to the Stanley Cup Finals a year ago. That plan was flawed from the beginning, as neither of those netminders are seen as starting goalies in the NHL on any team. True, Holmgren’s options were limited because of salary cap issues, as the Flyers spent right at the $59M salary cap limit this season. But could more have been done to alleviate the pressure of the cap? He dealt long-time Flyer Simon Gagne and his $5.25M salary to Tampa Bay in the offseason to free up some room, and used that room to fit in the acquisition of Andrej Meszaros on the blueline, who was their best defenseman in the playoffs. But it has to be questioned why Holmgren chose to replace Gagne by spending $2M on Nikolai Zherdev. The 26-year-old played a season in Europe after mercurial stops in Columbus and with the New York Rangers, and the enigma produced a mere 16 goals and 22 points this season, and 3 points in the playoffs; not worth the $2M spent on him. Add that $2M to the $1.55M awarded to Leighton after his Cinderella run in the playoffs, and that is a solid $3M that could have been used on signing a starting goalie in the offseason like Antti Niemi, Evgeni Nabokov, even Antero Niittymaki. Either of those two would have been enormous upgrades, and would have formed a formidable pairing with solid rookie Sergei Bobrovsky (28-13-8, 2.59GAA, .915SV%). Bobrovsky ultimately faltered under the pressure of his first playoffs, being yanked in each of the first two Buffalo games and losing the starting gig; he had a 3.23GAA and .877SV% in 6 total appearances. That is why a veteran with a more proven track record would have definitely helped them. Obviously injuries played a huge part in their playoff collapse, with the huge back-end stalwart Chris Pronger only appearing in three games and averaged a mere 13:55 per contest – far off his usual 22:30 from the regular season. The Flyers also sorely missed sniper Jeff Carter. Carter missed the first two games of the Boston series, and was a shadow of his sniping-self overall, producing just 1-1-2 in six games after netting 36 in the regular season. Holmgren has a lot of work to do to make sure this doesn’t happen again, as Philly already has nearly $59M committed to their roster next season (the salary cap figures to be around $61-$62M). Bobrovsky and Leighton are signed in net, but burying Leighton in the minors, where he spent the majority of this season, would add an additional $1.55M in cap room. On defense, seven players are already signed, so this appears to be their deepest asset pool if they wanted to deal from depth to improve elsewhere. Up front, Briere, Carter, Richards, van Riemsdyk, Versteeg, Giroux, Hartnell are all returning, with Ville Leino being the only notable unrestricted free agent – and they probably cannot afford to keep him. It wasn’t just goaltending and injuries that hindered their postseason advancement though, they lacked what the elite teams still remaining have: a bonafide shutdown line to match up against the opposition’s top line. Philly has offense in abundance across their top three lines, but their fourth line was primarily grinders and fighters, but players who were not seen as top-end defensive forwards or faceoff men. Giroux was the only Flyer among the top-20 in faceoff wins in the postseason, and he is best used as a top line centre, not defensive and faceoff specialist. Addressing the above areas – shutdown forward line with a faceoff specialist, and additional starting goalie – will not be easy because of Philly’s salary cap limitations, but if GM Paul Holmgren wants to put his squad in a better position next spring, as well as keep his own job, he needs to fill these needs with some creativity. Nick is RealGM’s NHL Feature Writer. You can reach him by email nick.obergan@realgm.com or on twitter @NickObergan