radoran

You took a long ways to get back to what I said in the first place. All of the things are factors in all of the games. Rags lost to the Pens and Isles in the last 10 days. Late season division games against teams pushing for the playoffs while you're pushing for a team record in wins. Again, any given night. Back on the bubble.

After how many more Cups?

It's honestly that any given night a professional hockey team can beat another professional hockey team. It's doing it 16 times in four seven game series that's the trick...

Everything's great. Rebuild back on schedule - ahead even. Beat the Caps and make the playoffs. Good sign.

They will be the first franchise to not have the name of the city in their name. They will be THE DONNER PARTY Where LTIR goes to retire

Incompetence, indeed! Save $2.5M in Y1, costs $1.7M in Y2. It would not surprise me to see him on the roster next year...

Which is, well, at the very least, weird given that it was a "must win" game for the playoff push from the much ballyhooed "new culture" of the locker room. And they basically quit on each other and the coach. We've seen Flyer legends canned for such things. I really hope that they see this sign for what it is and not an "unfortunate problem that happened due to injuries and the eclipse".

To your point, I've got to imagine a lot of guys who gave a lot this year to get where they were aren't going to have the same depth of drive all of next season that they did this year. Much like a "Cup hangover" without the Cup. You can get guys "Miracle on Icing" which is great, but also one game. The Brooksian other side of that is "they might win nine". Talent wins Stanley Cups. It always has. It always will. Four seven playoff game rounds is a massive mountain to climb and arguably the most difficult tournament in professional sport. There is no way to shortcut this reality. You don't have to build "a good team" - you have to build a team that will beat four other teams' good team in four seven game playoff rounds. Anyone who thinks the Flyers are anywhere near this possibility should contact my realtor about this nice bridge on lower Manhattan that heads out to one of the boroughs... Beautiful views of the harbor.

Exactly the type of guys the Flyers would have run out of town on a rail after their ELC was up and traded for a washed up crap defenceman for six weeks. You're only delaying the inevitable. Again, me not disagreeing. Just saying all this extended drama about a 4th is dust in the larger windstorm. Losing the 4th is nothing compared to signing a roster player for four years.

He signed the contract while on IR. No, really. They signed a 30-year-old journeyman waiver wire pickup to a FOUR YEAR CONTRACT while he was ON INJURED RESERVE. He's played five games since then. The Flyers have lost all of them. But he's averaging around 19 minutes of ice time and he's blocked 16 shots! While the Flyers have given up 28 goals.

He didn't. Kaprizov signed after they canned Fletcher. Fletch didn't even sign him. I obviously don't disagree. I just think the wailing and gnashing of teeth from folks who also think the franchise's inability to develop players mirrors their inability to develop COVID without a mask sucking on a used ventilator tube in a NYC hospital in August 2020 is, shall we say, somewhat overblown? By all means, blow on. Lather. Rinse. Repeat.

I mean, like your Pageaus, Copps, Nyqvists... Fantasy waiver wire types I know you hang you hat on Erik Gustaffssoonnn and Johnny Hockey. You should see how many years they don't have a 4th... https://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/draft/teams/dr00007439.html

I don't think it's "the players" or "the coach" - I don't think he's a good enough coach to take a team with "good to great" talent to the next level. And the Flyers are no where near "good to great." He had two legit Hall of Fame scorers (VLC/MSL) and a probable HOFer in net in Khabibulin when he won in Tampa. I gave you his results since. He will not, at this rate, have similar talent in Philadelphia. His coaching style asks too much for too long from too many players. It leaves them drained before the playoffs even start. This isn't the first time this has happened. It's a good reason why he has been out of the first round once in the past 10+ years and no further. This isn't "a surprise" and I'm not "piling on" after they flamed out. It's been said about him by me and many others. If you want your middling bubble playoff team to be the best middling bubble playoff team out there, he's your guy. I don't believe he - or virtually anyone else for that matter - could win four seven game series against superior talent with hard work, grit, and determination.

Whatever will they do without the next Maksim Sushko, Connor Bunnaman, Mikhail Vorobyov, Tye McGinn, or Taylor Leier? That's the 235 games the Flyers have gotten from the 4th Round in the past 15 years. Your last "impact" fourth rounder was Radovan Somik in 1995. No, really. They lost a 4th Rounder. The horror. The horror. The problem is "making a playoff push" and "being ahead of schedule" in YEAR ONE of the "rebuild". YEAR ONE. "Doing it the right way".

I stopped paying a while ago. Then bought a game (Tippett's hatty) at the end of last season and it was fun. My wife likes the time out. We've gone a couple of times this season, one was the Gritty Section, which is not a place to "watch a game" but was really fun. And that's great, if you're looking to be entertained. It's a fun game. I started liking Finland not because they won in 1980, but because they lost (obviously). People came back because they bought into the idea that this was going to be different. If we want to be a fan of a mismanaged middling bubble playoff team with a highly talented Russian superstar winger, we could just go to the Wild forum. They missed the playoffs, too.

Oh, c'mon now, we had the greatest player in the world knock him on his ass and then score a goal - in the playoffs(!) - and that guy went on to become so successful and overwhelming as an influence on the league that his greatest achievements were the John Scott All Star Game MVP, the longest tenured captain in the history of the franchise, and a seven-time Toyota Cup three stars winner. The impact of that hit limited Crosby to three Cups, two Ross, two Hart, three Lindsey, two Messier, two Richard. and two Conn Smythes. As well as being named to the All Decade Team for the 2010s (second All Decade Team 2000s), and a five time winner of the A.T. Caggiano Memorial Booster Club Award (no, seriously). So, he really showed him. Hit him again...

At this point they still don't need anyone over the age of 25. They're stuck with some, but they won't win a Championship with them.

Is he, though? A Cup 20 years ago, a Conference Final 12 years ago, 3 (total) division titles (the last, again, 12 years ago), one playoff round win in the past decade. In 20 years behind the bench, he's been out of the first round five times. He's missed the playoffs 9 times (going on 10). What am I missing? Torts can motivate a lesser talented group to play above their heads for a short period of time. He's a "good" coach. He didn't magically get better when he donned orange and black. And we're watching the fabled "culture" that he "rebuilt" get blown out 15-6 by teams that stopped sniffing the playoffs two months ago. And it wasn't even that close.

It's like the guy who apprenticed under Bob Clarke's apprentice has the same tendencies that they did...

you would think your "definitely a playoff team" would be able to TCOB with bottom feeders like Montreal and Columbus in "a playoff push". Instead they lose 15-6. To Columbus and Montreal. And we're "further along than we thought" and the "culture" is fixed and we have FALLEN IN LOVE WITH JOURNEYMAN WAIVER WIRE PICKUPS WHO ARE ESSENTIAL TO OUR CULTURAL REBUILD. It's insane.

Drysdale shouldn't be on the ice "for a playoff run" he should be sitting down and getting fully healthy for next year. He's a moment away from a career ending shoulder injury. This whole "playoff push" thing was the predictable disaster it has become. And this team's insistence upon shoving guys back onto the ice as soon as humanly possible for them to skate without falling over hasn't served them well - EVER. Lather. Rinse. Repeat.

I call this "end of season goals"

Or the goalie's best friend when facing the Flyers - a crest on his chest to target...

I'd be shocked if they did, too. So, Chicago has three Cups this century and just added their second #1 overall amongst a boatload of high round picks. The Flyers... might make the playoffs this season and have a potential superstar that might come over in two years with a couple mid to late firsts... We'll pin this and see where these franchises have been in five years, shall we? (I am aware of the buts and the reasons and that draft picks don't always and etc... We'll see where this goes over the next five years, eh?)