What Went Wrong: Flyers, CBJ

Our What Went Wrong series has already covered the six worst teams of 2014-15 and as climb the ranks, we're moving past the squads that entered this season with modest expectations and to ones that had genuine hope. With Buffalo for example, the title 'What Went Wrong' feels inaccurate because they never looked like a team capable of competing at the NHL level in the first place.

Now we're getting into squads whose campaigns can be classified as genuine tragedies. Many of them might not have entered the season as serious Stanley Cup contenders, but there was reason to believe that they were capable of doing so much more than they ultimately accomplished.

Be sure to check out Part One, Part Two, or Part Three if you haven't already.

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Philadelphia Flyers

The Flyers entered the season with legitimate reason for optimism. They had a disastrous start to the 2013-14 campaign, but gradually turned around under coach Craig Berube. So as long as they learned from their mistakes and better prepared for the season during training camp, it seemed reasonable to believe they would be a playoff contender.

Of course, it didn't work out like that. The Flyers weren't a disaster, but they never had a particularly strong stretch. Their longest winning streak was four games (Jan. 20-31) and that left little room for error.

They also finished with a modest 2.58 goals per game despite a monster year from Jakub Voracek. We'll examine specific cases when we start looking at the individual players, but the short version is the Flyers had promising youngsters that were projected to step up, but didn't. Goaltender Steve Mason also spent a few stints on the sidelines, which cost the Flyers as backup Ray Emery proved to be a significant downgrade this season.

In the end, Philadelphia finished with a 33-31-18 record and booted Berube. With that all said, let's take a look at some of the players that defined the Flyers' 2014-15 campaign:

Kimmo Timonen - First off, I'll state the obvious: Timonen obviously isn't to blame. The fact that he had to deal with blood clots is terrible and was beyond his control. In fact if anything, I would say he deserves credit for coming back from that. But it's also true that Philadelphia's defense has been a problem for years and Timonen was a big part of what made it serviceable. With him gone, the Flyers' patchwork blueline was a significant problem.

Vincent Lecavalier - Lecavalier's 2013-14 campaign with Philadelphia went poorly, but his 2014-15 season was a disaster. He was frequently made a healthy scratch and was only used averaged 12:38 minutes per game even when he did play. Coach Craig Berube arguably took more heat for his use of Lecavalier than anything else, but whether or not you want to blame the bench boss or the player, the reality is the same: Lecavalier's $4.5 million cap hit was money wasted.

R.J. Umberger - If Flyers GM Ron Hextall thought a change of scenery would spark Umberger, then he was mistaken. Philadelphia gave up Scott Hartnell to get Umberger and a fourth round pick and there's no question as to who won that trade in the first campaign of that deal. Hartnell had 28 goals and 60 points in 77 games with Columbus in 2014-15. Umberger had nine goals and 15 points in 67 contests.

Brayden Schenn - There were certainly worse players on the Flyers than Schenn, but he's worth highlighting because of how his progresses has stagnated from an offensive perspective. The 2009 fifth overall pick had 18 goals and 47 points in 82 contests this season, which isn't bad, but it doesn't measure up to the high expectations that were thrust upon him earlier in his career. The Flyers needed more offensive depth to back up Jakub Voracek and Claude Giroux, but Schenn wasn't quite able to fill that role. Neither was Sean Couturier for that matter, but we're giving him a bit more of a pass because he's a year and change younger.

Columbus Blue Jackets

Columbus is an easy team to evaluate because the cause of its struggles is clear: Injuries. The Blue Jackets entered the 2014-15 campaign a lot of promise, but they just couldn't stay healthy.

To put a number on it, the Blue Jackets had 508 man games lost, which is both the franchise record and the highest of any team this season. Only two of their players - Ryan Johansen and David Savard - participated in all 82 games and just seven reached the 70-game mark. By contrast Detroit, which finished around the middle in man games lost, had five players that participated in all 82 contests and 13 that reached the 70-game milestone.

Even still, Columbus had its moments and its most notable stretch came at the end of the season. Starting on March 6, Columbus went 16-2-1. It was too late to salvage the campaign at that point, but it gave the Blue Jackets a reason to enter the summer with a sense of optimism.

Sergei Bobrovsky - The Blue Jackets are a team that significantly depends on its starting goaltender to lead the charge and Bobrovsky wasn't able to do that in 2014-15. He was inconsistent in the first half of the season and also missed some time due to a fractured finger and later a groin injury. Bobrovsky finished with a 2.69 GAA and .918 save percentage, which isn't terrible, but it was a clear step backwards from his successful 2013 and 2013-14 campaigns.

Boone Jenner - Like Timonen with Philadelphia, Jenner was the victim of circumstances beyond his control. He missed 11 games due to a broken hand and later missed roughly three months with a back injury. He was initially projected to spend the season on the Blue Jackets' top line, which illustrated how much hope they had for Jenner going into his sophomore campaign and when he was able to play, he was solid. He finished with nine goals and 17 points in 31 contests. Keep him in mind because he might breakout in 2015-16 if he can stay healthy.

Ryan Murray - Taken with the second overall pick in the 2012 NHL Entry Draft, Murray has already dealt with more than his fair share of injuries. Knee problems in particular have been a problem for him and that's part of the reason he was limited to just 12 games in 2014-15. He has a ton of upside and hopefully injuries won't end up being the story of his career.

Brandon Dubinsky - Few injuries hurt the Blue Jackets' more than Dubinsky's groin injury and later concussion. He was a big part of Columbus when healthy, scoring 13 goals and 36 points in 47 contests. He also had a 5v5 Corsi For of 52.2%. Whenever he wasn't on the ice, the Blue Jackets' Corsi was a rough 47.2%. To put it another way: His presence made this team significantly better and they didn't have that luxury nearly as much as they would have liked.