Who on here wants the Flyers to win tonight?

[jackhole]

@aziz -Exactly. I'm looking for - 1 goal regulation losses, myself. Score some goals, develop some youth, clarify the goalie sitch.

[OH1FlyersFan]

I always want the Flyers to win. Hate to see them lose. Especially living here in Columbus when I have to hear it from the fans of the lowly Columbus Bluejackets. That said, I totally understand why the Flyers losing would be a good thing.....strategically.

[murraycraven]

Seth Jones pls...

[radoran]

I am physically, mentally and emotionally incapable of rooting for the Flyers to lose.

[RonJeremy]

Our lineup is decimated, we have no chance to win in the playoffs, you cannot compare this year to 2010. . I want us to keep losing so we can draft the kind of defenseman this team desperately needs to anchor the defense for the next 10 years. What's the point of making the playoffs and getting crushed in the first round, and losing out on a defenseman who can help us in the long term. There are no UFA defenseman available, we do not even know if we can trade for a guy like Yandle, so lets tank the season and get that first ever franchise defenseman. It's embarrassing that this team has never drafted one superstar defenseman in 45 years.

[JackStraw]

I am physically, mentally and emotionally incapable of rooting for the Flyers to lose.

This is why alchoholic beverages were invented. Well, one of the reasons anyway.

[TedZep]

have to admit, i'm seeing the bottom of the standings as the goal right now. a playoff berth does nothing,

You and I may never ever agreee on anything. Losing for draft picks is a Penguin mentality that should just never be accepted by Flyers management, players or fans. I understand that some teams, (Pens, Bruins, Blackhawks) managed to win a Stanley Cup by sucking ass for a while, but I cannot possibly root and cheer against my own team to fail for several years to stock up like those teams did. Not even one year.

[aziz]

<br />You and I may never ever agreee on anything. <br />

it's a goal of mine, in fact, ted.

look, most seasons, no matter how much the flyers struggled through the season, I always felt like making the playoffs was the key, and after that who knows. anything is possible. I don't have even a faint echo of that this season. I feel like the very very best the flyers can hope for is to squeeze into the 8 seed, have an overconfident Pittsburgh team self destruct again, and then the flyers get blown to pieces in the second round. absolute best case.

conversely, finishing about where they are now, standings-wise, nets them a fair chance of an impact player for the next 10+ years....which is an resource the flyers have pretty much one of right now.

make no mistake, this is a paper thin team that has been relying on overachieving entry-level players to keep itself anywhere near afloat for the last couple seasons. without some kind of talent-shot-in-the-arm, expect to see more of the same for a long while. the position the flyers are in right now? this is exactly where the leafs were in 2004. a wildly over-estimated group of players beginning to play down to their level, a roster weighted down by bloated contracts to players well past their primes, and completely bare cupboards on the prospect front.

so, I hope for a resurgence of this team quickly, and that will require two things: removal of the bloated contracts to ineffective players ASAP, and a restocking of prospective talent that will be able to contribute sooner rather than later. squeezing into the playoffs to have a nice postseason cup of coffee before being humiliated gets them nothing but a guaranteed 15th overall pick or worse. i'll go further and suggest it would create a false sense of things not being so bad and would ultimately do the team damage over the longer run. patch a hole here, add an aged body there, and poof, we made the playoffs afterall. missing the playoffs and sitting in a decent draft position gets the flyers a good shot at high end talent, and underscores that things need to change drastically with this roster.

so, what is it you want, tedzep? shortterm, highly qualified success that leads to extended mediocrity, or temporary failure that instigates an effective overhaul and has the potential to lead to long term competitiveness?

I get that i'm a bad fan for thinking this little winning streak is going to send exactly the wrong message to management and will deprive the flyers of the one positive for being so ****ty right now, but........

[toughfighter83]

You and I may never ever agreee on anything. Losing for draft picks is a Penguin mentality that should just never be accepted by Flyers management, players or fans. I understand that some teams, (Pens, Bruins, Blackhawks) managed to win a Stanley Cup by sucking ass for a while, but I cannot possibly root and cheer against my own team to fail for several years to stock up like those teams did. Not even one year.

im sick of this team winning because they are going to be no changes now, i want change im sick of the same bs every year with the coach/gm, when is it ever going to change and do fans not care at all about winning a cup because it's not the way, its the same thing every year. you tell me why is that ok?

[JackStraw]

Anyone who thinks those of us who would rather see a strong draft than a weak playoff run this year are "bad fans" might want to check out the team prospect rankings on hockey's future. A head's up though, if you're looking for the Flyers you won't find them on the first page. Or the second for that matter. Or on the top half of the third and last page either. In fact you'll find the Flyers ranked dead last.

And if you're a die hard Pens hater you might take note of the fact that not only do the Pens have a better team on the ice than the Flyers right now (regardless of what might happen in the playoffs), they have a better team down on the farm as well.

http://www.hockeysfuture.com/team-rankings/

Edited April 4, 2013 by JackStraw

[Vincent05]

@JackStraw

Exactly Jack. Pre Cap era, Flyers can buy any free agent they want and that still didn't bring us a Cup. Now with the cap it's much harder to put a Cup winning team together thru FA. You need to draft and develop players while having cost control to fit them under the cap. The Flyers need to learn and not to trade young players away for over the hill has been all stars who still command alot of money.

[doom88]

You don't have to suck to win. Have some pride.

Season performance has no bearing on scouting. Coaching is a bigger factor for development. The Flyers are a young team of former prospects turned NHL players. Let them gel together and see what happens.

[Dynamo 47]

Let's be honest here guys. Who wants a shot at the 8th seed or a top 5 pick? They're 6 points outta the 8th seed. I think if they lose tonight they're in deeper ****. I'm pulling for them tonight.

I agree. I do not want to make the playoffs only to be smoked in the first round. I would rather draft in the top 5 and get a damn franchise potential defenseman that we can build around so we continually aren't overpaying via trade or free agency for one.

[aziz]

You don't have to suck to win. Have some pride.

I think this is the thing, though. the flyers *do* suck at the moment. that being the case, I think we'd just as soon they get the payback that sucking teams get in the form of a nice draft pick, rather than overachieve for a couple weeks, muddy the waters, and end up with no upside to the sucking. it's not like we want to see years of last place finishes, but given where they are right now in the standings, how many games are left....screw it, take the pick, make it a good one, fix some things, come out swinging next season.

[brelic]

The other thing that astounds me is how many excellent goaltenders are 2nd, 3rd round picks and beyond. The Flyers just don't seem to draft goalies, period. We have Stolarz, which must be the highest guy we drafted in a long time.

Bishop is a 3rd rounder, Lehner is a 2nd rounder, Mason is a 3rd rounder (yet won the Calder), Rinne is an 8th rounder. Jonathan Bernier is the guy everyone clamours for (1st rounder), yet Quick is the man and reigning Conn Smythe winner (3rd rounder).

Bottom line is that we never even give our guys the chance to play in the NHL. It's like they're filtered out before we even try them out.

So if we can get a top level draft pick or two in this year's draft, it would go a long way to restocking the cupboard and solidifying the future of the franchise.

If we can get a top 6-8 pick, we should take Nurse or Zadorov. Then we should take Fucale with our next pick. The odds of that happening? Slim, I would say.

[JackStraw]

Bishop is a 3rd rounder, Lehner is a 2nd rounder, Mason is a 3rd rounder (yet won the Calder), Rinne is an 8th rounder. Jonathan Bernier is the guy everyone clamours for (1st rounder), yet Quick is the man and reigning Conn Smythe winner (3rd rounder).

Let's not forget the guy in NYC. 7th round pick.

[TedZep]

so, what is it you want, tedzep? shortterm, highly qualified success that leads to extended mediocrity, or temporary failure that instigates an effective overhaul and has the potential to lead to long term competitiveness?

The Flyers are only a couple of seasons removed from playing in the Stanley Cup Finals. If you were going to pick exactly one difference maker in that series, it was Kane scored the series winner and JVR didn't. Now van Remisdyk is gone, traded away just as he enters his prime like so many other Flyers prospects before him. If you can guarantee that management won't do the same to the next potential super star drafted, then maybe. But history has shown the Flyers don't do well with home grown players. Maybe its time for a change, maybe not.

The Flyers are a perennial playoff team, and as the Kings and many other teams have proved in the past, just getting in can be the first step to glory. ONE prospect isn't going to put the Flyers over the top, and I refuse to suffer through an eight year playoff drought like the Maple Leafs just to be solidly mediocre.

The Flyers farm is weak... because all the young talent is on the big club already. I think you will spoil them if you accept losing as a way of life. I certainly don't accept it.

Keep in mind that the Flyers have the second highest franchise winning percentage in the history of the NHL. I got used to it.

[aziz]

@TedZep

I have no desire to see 8 years of this. I just have checked out enough this season that a high draft pick is, to me, a better outcome than 5 playoff games.

and no, one prospect won't put them over the top, but...a pronger/weber/lidstrom kind of guy can make a huge huge difference. certainly more than a brief appearance in a single post season would.

also, no, don't want the team to accept losing, but I *do* want management to see that they have made a big honking mess of things. the illusion of small success in the playoffs last spring had the flyers go into the summer thinking they were pretty ok. pretty ok enough to risk a couple key players on a couple big gambles, and hey, if they didn't work out, no big. because they made it to the second round, all was well. we made it to the best-of-eight, we're in the top tier, so what if we lose a defenseman or two, thin out the offense? we'll still be in good shape, just look what we did.

no. I want Holmgren and snider to do a post-mortem on this team with the theme being "we screwed up bad, keeping this same crap up is only going to make things worse." not, "hey, unlucky, we got some things done and everything will work itself out."

[JackStraw]

The Flyers are only a couple of seasons removed from playing in the Stanley Cup Finals. If you were going to pick exactly one difference maker in that series, it was Kane scored the series winner and JVR didn't.

Except that you can't just pick one difference maker. Chicago won (imo) because they were deeper on D than the Flyers. Now, without Pronger and Carle, and with Timo a few years older and nearing retirement, that difference is even greater than it was then. Kane vs JVR was not the difference in that series.

[jammer2]

Nice, so the fans that want us to win can puff out their chest and declare we didn`t tank...as the Cup drought slowly rolls through another year. We are the friggin Leafs. We make the playoffs, it sets up another year of middle of the pack garbage. As the generational talents go to other teams. Let the cycle continue. Maybe next year we can just eek into the playoffs again.....YAY!

[pensuck]

If the season ended today we'd have the 8th or 9th pick.

Just sayin...

[jammer2]

@pensuck Yep, so the last 3 wins have taken us out of positon to draft the *real* help we need. Big difference in this coming draft from 8th to top 5...its the difference between superstar and just ok. But....YAY...we won!!

[radoran]

Nice, so the fans that want us to win can puff out their chest and declare we didn`t tank...as the Cup drought slowly rolls through another year. We are the friggin Leafs. We make the playoffs, it sets up another year of middle of the pack garbage. As the generational talents go to other teams. Let the cycle continue. Maybe next year we can just eek into the playoffs again.....YAY!

The Leafs haven't qualified for the playoffs since the 04-05 lockout. Flyers are a lot of things. Leafs not among them.

There is simply not a time I "want to root for the Flyers to lose." Doesn't happen.

I'm not heartbroken at this point if they lose, but I watch a game and I root for them to win.

That doesn't make me a Leafs fan. I don't own a Yugo or park it at the Lexus dealer while cleaning the rest rooms.

[pensuck]

@ jammer

Don't count them out yet:)

I'm really torn here. I can't root for my team to lose. On the other hand I'd like to see them draft a STUD. We're definitely not catching Fla. They are just terrible. Colorado/Calgary is pretty bad too. 4-6 is up for grabs.

[jammer2]

@radoran I think its the start of us becoming the Leafs. I dont think the Flyers will make the playoffs, but this little winning streak, takes us away from the good picks, gives false hope and sets us up for the cycle to continue. Exactly what the Leafs have been doing since the JR goal. We are becoming them.

You need IMPACT players to become elite, you get them 2 ways, high draft picks or trade your current core to get them.