As some of you know, in another part of my life, away from sports and strategic consulting, I spend some time doing stuff in a theatre.

Whether it’s actually acting on stage, or directing shows, which has become more of my wheelhouse in recent years, I find it a great escape to play in the world of make believe for a few hours in the evening a few nights a week.

There are times when I’m not in the theatre where I wish I were in the world of make believe as well – and I can say that pretty much any night I am forced to watch the Philadelphia Flyers play hockey these days falls into that category.

Setting a franchise record 13-game winless streak will do that to you.

I actually have a theatre colleague who is a Philadelphia sports fan who likes to come up with titles of plays or musicals that best describe the seasons the current Philly teams are undertaking.

Several weeks ago, when the Flyers fired former coach Alain Vigneault and his top assistant Michel Therrien and were in the final games of a 10-game-winless streak (the first one, not the current one), my colleague suggested this season was Les Miserables.

We had a good laugh. The only way for me to top it was to poke fun at the people running the organization, and said it’s more like, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.

But now things have regressed so much. Another winless skid, this one reaching 13 with no end in sight. They’ve now lost 24 of their last 29 games (5-18-6). This is all-time bad. We highlighted the upcoming schedule. It might not get any better any time soon. Captain Claude Giroux called it rock bottom in Buffalo. Then they lost two more. Hell, they might not actually hit rock bottom until after Giroux is traded.

There’s still a long way down to go. Maybe all the way down to Hadestown? (Yeah, that’s another theatre reference. Don’t worry, I’ve got one more)

I’m still stuck on this No. 13 though. It sticks out like a sore thumb. Mostly because winless streaks don’t really get this long in the modern NHL. With salary caps leveling the playing field and the creation of the 3-on-3 overtime and with a shootout, it’s really hard to have winless streaks that extend much beyond 10 anymore. In fact, there have been exactly 40 winless streaks of at least 10 games in the NHL since the NHL went to a salary cap and eliminated ties. Of those, 21 have been exactly 10 games. Meaning, only 19 have been longer, and this is one.

But the Flyers are starting to get into rarified air. Here is a list of winless streaks in that time that are longer than what the Flyers are currently mired in:

  • 2009-10 Carolina Hurricanes (14 games)
  • 2010-11 New York Islanders (14)
  • 2014-15 Buffalo Sabres (14)
  • 2020-21 Buffalo Sabres (18)

That’s it.

When you are starting to get into conversations where you are getting compared to the Buffalo Sabres, you know things are bad. Something truly baaad is happening in Oz.

But losing 13 straight, this is no longer about frustration. There’s a whole other level of emotional angst and anxiety that is kicking in. It’s certainly not apathy. Anyone who watched Mike Yeo answer the first question after the loss to the Stars will see that’s not the case:

But it’s a whole other level of emotion – it’s the “we don’t know what to do next” bit of panic. It’s something that takes them back even further, to when they were kids and forced to make what they thought were big life-changing decisions, that in reality weren’t that important.

But that’s where they are.

It’s an anxiety widely expressed in the musical, 13. 

Yes, an apropos title, considering the circumstances. And while the musical is about the anxiety that comes along with becoming a teenager, and not dealing with a winless streak in hockey, it still fits the Flyers – like a slipper as pure as gold.

The titular song, also dubbed “13,” has a swath of lyrics that certainly fit these Flyers:

“… Now I’m stressed and life is a disaster. And I’m cracking from the strain, going totally insane. And I’m just about to turn, just about to turn, just about to turn 13! Everything Switches. (13!) Everything turns around. (13!). End up in stitches. (13!) Hideaway underground. (13!) Can I get through it? (13!) Life has changed overnight. (13!) How do I do it? (13!) Nothing is going right. The best and the worst and the most and the least and the crazy and the scary and I’m standing on the edge!”

Yes, things have gone so far down the rabbit hole for the Flyers that rather than sit here and bash them repeatedly night after night I have resorted to the convention of using comparisons Broadway musicals to help us get through it.

Only 39 more games to go – or the same number of lashings provided in “Trial Before Pilate” from Jesus Christ Superstar.

Stop!

If you want them, here are a few things from the loss to the Islanders Tuesday:

  1.  Keith Yandle officially set the record for consecutive games played in the NHL. It’s at 965 and counting. Congrats to Yandle for a really difficult accomplishment. Now, he really shouldn’t be a topic of conversation for the Flyers moving forward. Yes, he needs to stay in the lineup until a young defenseman (Egor Zamula?) is NHL ready or until Ryan Ellis is able to play (looking more and more like that’s not going to happen), but otherwise he’s irrelevant at this point.
  2. Claude Giroux scored another goal. He has 15 this season. Some will argue keeping Giroux in the lineup is detrimental to the Flyers. What if he gets hurt? He keeps them too good and we want as high a draft pick as  possible now. I will argue that Giroux continuing to play and continuing to shine makes his value increase as we approach the trade deadline.
  3. Gerry Mayhew also scored again for the Flyers. He’s been the standout among all the AHL guys who are playing. But let’s not get overexcited. He’s fast, yes, but there’s a reason he’s 29 and hasn’t stuck in the NHL to this point. He looks like a Delco Sunday Softball League player sneaked into the team and is having the time of his life, and no one is noticing because, well, most people don’t know who these players are anyway. Good for Mayhew for playing his ass off to see if he can stick as an energy guy once the team is healthy, if ever. But it’s never going to amount to much more than that.
  4. Martin Jones continues to hurt his value with less than adequate starts in goal. Chuck Fletcher would be better suited to take what he can get for Jones before Jones plays his way out of the interest of teams who need help in goal.
  5. The Flyers have had one power play chance in the last six periods. Sometimes, with the way you play, you have to create your own opportunities. Obviously, the Flyers are not doing that. At all.

Kinkead: I’d just add that my top musical is probably West Side Story

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