Poulin20

3 hours ago, CoachX said:

the only smart move the Flyers have made since 1975 was signing Jon Sim. He's the only player to overturn instant replay

Jon Sim Jon Sim Jon Sim 

Ok ok I know we missed the playoffs but tonight’s loss does have a silver lining as it triggered the below…

To the golf course, 2023-2024 Pittsburgh Penguins, We welcome you!!!!!

9 hours ago, OccamsRazor said:

 

Just looking back I just had to laugh at this thread is still going after going on almost 13 years is crazy.

 

This has to be the longest running thread here right? Anyone here know?

 

What a bunch of knuckleheads we have here.

 

Don't ever change!!!

 

 

Haha so glad you like it!  It’s been so long I forget who came up with the idea to begin with on the old board.  It may have been me or someone else.  Regardless I did my part to make sure it ported over here when we moved and to bump it now and then on Philly.com and here.  I’m thrilled both this and We Welcome You! (Created by Bakanekimiwa) made it here and live on today.

Sadly I have to make an entry:

Our 2023-2024 Playoff run, by the Philadelphia Flyers with a foreword by the Kate Smith statue in exile. 

22 minutes ago, IllaZilla said:

Not if Bettman has anything to say about it.  He’d lay in front of the moving vans to keep that franchise in Phoenix. 

That would be great!  We could finally get rid of him!

2 hours ago, icehole said:

I'm starting to lean towards him not being the guy. I think that if he had that core of players that were stars and have been in the league 10 years, maybe he can be that guy. But he won't last that long to find out.

 

It's a shame though. He's my favorite coach since Lavi, and probably my second favorite flyers coach of all time behind Lavi. Flyers have had some unlikeable coaches. Speaking of Lavi, I don't know if he can make it to the end either. He has a good start on teams but flames out quickly. I wouldn't be surprised if the Rangers flame out early this year.

I loved him too and Lavi even said that he has a shelf life the day he got hired by the Flyers.  Keenan was my all time fav but he was another one who wore out the players.  That was likely hastened by the emotional turmoil caused by the death of Pelle.  Even Iron Mike was moved to tears.  “We lost Gump” was his famous line to his surviving players in the hospital as he cried.

9 minutes ago, FD19372 said:

No, it would NOT have been different. The one time we beat the Penguins, we had an almost equal amount of talent. We needed more talent to beat them on a consistent basis (and win CUPS..which is the ultimate goal, isn't it?), not more play like that..which would've gotten Flyers players suspended, and made us into a "goon squad". I want to beat them on the scoreboard.

Agreed, remember the Pens had been bad for years and were tanking for a few to get “The Flower”, Chernobyl baby (Malkin) and then were awarded horse teeth in a secret lottery after they threatened to go to KC.  We had some good players from all our years of middling but it never was going to match their star players who were a tier above ours.  That 2012 defeat of the Pens in the playoffs was delicious I have to say and was probably the last thing I truly enjoyed as a STH, it was all downhill after that. 

5 hours ago, icehole said:

I love Torts, but is he the right guy right now?  I think he got this team further than most other coaches would have.  But can a young team keep up with his style of coaching? Is Gauthier still in the flyers system if he isn't coach? Would the flyers be bigger sellers at the deadline?

 

I feel like if they hired some young players coach, they would probably be irresponsible out on the ice, but these younger players would play looser and blossom. Coots could be captain out of training camp and everyone would love and respect his two way game. They'd be a bottom 10 team, have a few more assets from trades throughout the season, and maybe Gauthier would still be here.

 

Torts is a great coach who younger softer players can't or won't play for in 2024.

I think he is the right guy if you have a team ready to win now but maybe this was the wrong time for someone like him for the current squad.
 

 With what he demands and gets out of players he is like a rising tide that lifts all the boats.  Unfortunately this rising tide put the dinghies and rowboats we have currently onto the rocks and they are taking on water.  If had some more ironclads I think Torts would be the right guy. 

19 minutes ago, flyer4ever said:

Playing defence in the modern NHL game is EXTREMELY difficult. I am reluctant to cut bait with any of them. Honestly. My first move is buh bye to the coach. I would like to see a season of seasoning for these young guys both in the show and the AHL with some proper coaching from a development perspective, not from a run them into the ground perspective. Staal and Johnson gone, Seeler gone.

As for the forwards, Tipett, Foerster, Poehling, Hathaway keep. Adios to the rest. Some have value, some not. Nine firsts and seconds in the next 2 drafts. Should be able to find a couple of 3rd or 4th line guys picking 15th or later.

Goalies should be fine unless they keep the coach. In that case better get a veteran or 2. 

If you haven't sensed my sarcasm, I have zero faith that the GM does anything that indicates a proper rebuild. If the playoffs was the goal this deadline, why didn't he get a goalie at the deadline? This season has just been more of the same old dysfunction in Flyer junction. #1 goalie gone. #1 prospect gone. Lottery pick in the draft gone. Time for golf.

I tell ya, you guys are doing my wallet a big favor as these first posts make me not even want to explore a partial game plan for next year .

15 minutes ago, OccamsRazor said:

 

If a team was ever to back into the playoffs we are looking at them...

 

https://youtu.be/Kw0XnQPQbL4?si=NVPK8rDXUi5lb2vA

1 minute ago, OccamsRazor said:

 

Yep Danny needs to have a good plan in net...not sure what it is anymore...

 

We haven’t had a viable plan in net since 1987 

Well, at least the Phillies won, there’s that

5 minutes ago, Samifan said:

Seems weird beating a 6’7” goalie up high over his blocker on two goals 

Isn’t that just the Flyers luck? Curse of Pelle lives on.

2 hours ago, flyerrod said:

It would not break my heart to see Fedotov do to the Sabres what Hasek did to the Flyers for years……

I wish nothing but bad luck on the Sabres organization.  I was living there when Pegula took over and the fans thought all that money would lead to cup after cup.  That was so ironic since they kind of relished being the small market hard working team image and hated the Flyers for, among other things, being rich and big market.

I tried to tell them money didn’t win us any cups.  Now they are bearing that out.  I’m thrilled the Canes and Sens beat them in 2006 and 2007 and they really haven’t been competive since and I hope the Flyers crush them tonight.

2 hours ago, AlaskaFlyerFan said:

IT’S A WALRUS!  RIDICULOUS!

 

31 minutes ago, CoachX said:

This I why Im glad I am a Flyer fan, and totally love all other Flyer fans. We want a rebuild. We get one. Then we want wins. Wins make us want playoffs. But Flyer fan criticize those that want playoffs because its a rebuild. Then we want losses to get higher picks. But those losses lead to criticism of players and coaches. Those losses bring us back to hoping for more to get higher picks. But then we play well in a loss to a really good team and we are hoping more wins come from the remaining games. And in all of this we want the coach who appears to be responsible for this team being competitive, and on the right track, to move on so we can get another coach.

 

Im pretty sure its this constant flip flop of wants that molded my personality and has led to me having three ex-wives. And here all along I thought it was just because I was hard to get along with

I’m pretty sure we all feel this way as fans because we haven’t had a GM who knew how to build a winner since Keith Allen.  My favorite teams of the 1980s were built by Allen and then were slowly eroded / evicerated by the parade of fair to bad GMs since.  To be fair the GMs since Allen were good at acquiring flashy players and talent at times but were lousy at building a team that could win in the long run.

That is actually what they hired Hextall for but then they pulled the plug on him early and frankly as time goes on it doesn’t look like his picks are panning out as planned anyway.

My hope with the current management is that they are looking long term to build a winner the proper way.  It’s way to early to judge if they will be successful but similar to Hexy their hearts are in the right place and we are going to have to wait and see about how their long term plan unfolds. 

1 hour ago, BobbyClarkeFan16 said:

I don't care if they make or don't make the playoffs.

 

If they didn't make the playoffs, it's a higher first round pick that can be used to acquire or draft a young center.

 

If they make the playoffs, it's going to be an eye opener for some of these younger players.

 

Either way, I look at it as a win/win for the franchise.

I agree 100% with this.  I also have a sense that with the current management they are not naive to the fact that they are not yet a cup contender so whatever happens I don’t expect they will mortgage the future to “win now” even if they make it and then go on a little run. 

14 hours ago, flyerrod said:

I am developing an Andrew MacDonald level of hate for Sandstrom. Cechmanek’s corpse would be more effective as goal tender……I am 57 years old and crippled and could possibly carry an .829 save percentage. 

Wow an A-Mac reference!  Now there is a guy I haven’t thought about in a while!  Thanks for reminding me of that horror show.

As April fools is coming up let’s go down memory lane and read together this April Fools piece written about A-Mac!

https://brotherlypuck.com/2021/04/01/andrew-macdonald-was-the-hero-we-needed-and-we-were-too-blind-to-see-it/

An actual Flyers victory vs Boston, We Welcome You!

4 minutes ago, GratefulFlyers said:

 the Flyers rarely start well in afternoon games ...

Reason #2817 why I don’t miss having season tickets.  I felt like the day was wasted and was in a foul mood over the loss on top of that 

15 hours ago, Samifan said:

Will that squad have their Captain back in the lineup? 

Anthony Sanfilippo is reporting yes they will on “X”

12 hours ago, Samifan said:

Yep, been here about 18 months now. Don’t miss the snow and cold of Western NY or Sabres fans

That’s exactly how I felt when I left Tonawanda and moved back home to Philly area in 2008 and got my Season Tix.  I’m sure I discussed that at length back then on Philly.com 

Sabres fans were some of the worst and most abusive toward me and the Flyers and I cheered every one of their losses when they lost to Stars in the SCF, Canes in 2006 ECF and Senators in 2007 ECF.  They have basically sucked since. 

This is starting to remind me of the Eagles “gauntlet” from this past season. 
 

BTW while we are on the topic of Pelle and the Porche.  My kid had a game at the Flyers practice facility in Vorhees NJ, so while they were dressing and warming up I made a pilgrimage to the site of Pelle’s demise.

The Sommerdale school is long closed down and boarded up and looks like a haunted house.  That horrible wall is still there along with the steps he crashed into.  I sat there at the impact zone (that corner in the attached photo) and while I didn’t cry I did get very emotional and thought about Pelle the rest of the weekend.  It brought back a flood of memories and that gnawing feeling of “what if”? / “if only”!  I mean if he had hit the wall he would have sideswiped it and bounced off and had some injuries and paid a hefty fine for DUI.  But he had to ram into that opening where the stairway is. 

I wasn’t prepared for how much visiting would grip me and affect me to be honest.  It was surreal.

17 hours ago, OccamsRazor said:

 

Well since this happened in 2018 not surprising.

Good point