Flyers

Flyers the Latest Resilient Philly Sports Team Powered by Vibes – But is that Enough?

By Anthony SanFilippo

Published: Dec 5th, 2023 · 12:55 PM EST

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Resilience. Vibes. And now, balls.

These have become buzz words tied to Philadelphia sports a lot in the past year.

You’ve had two playoff runs for the Phillies where their resilience and their vibes were off the charts. They added in their own version of showing they have balls with their base hit celebration taken straight from Major League 2.

Then there were the Eagles, who relied on vibes and balls to go the Super Bowl following the 2022 season and have been thriving off their resilience in all but two games so far this season and are going to need a lot more of it if they are to go one step further and win the Lombardi Trophy for the second time in seven seasons.

Now there’s the Flyers. Yeah, I know, they’re still off a lot of people’s radar, and I understand why. But they’re playing with the same three ingredients night in and night out, and just came off a home-and-home sweep of the hated Pittsburgh Penguins, capped off with a 2-1 win in OT Monday night on a goal by the most resilient of players, Sean Couturier.

COOTS DOES IT AGAIN. #PITvsPHI | #LetsGoFlyers pic.twitter.com/Ak2eAUO8Fc

— Philadelphia Flyers (@NHLFlyers) December 5, 2023

They are far from a complete team. They lack high end skill. They lack high-end defense. Their power play is dreadful. They’ve been getting great goaltending from Carter Hart all season, and Sam Ersson in his last few starts, and that’s what’s keeping them in games, and then they’re finding ways to win with moxie and chutzpah.

Coach John Tortorella openly said his team has balls, which is why they won the first game in Pittsburgh on Saturday, 4-3 in a shootout.

So I decided to ask Travis Konecny about that after the game last night, and here’s what he said:

Not afraid to make mistakes. Be one step ahead of the game. That’s playing with balls in John Tortorella’s mind.

And hey, it’s working. The Flyers have only scored 11 actual goals in the last seven games (two more count for the team as a result of winning the shootout), and yet, they are 3-3-1.

They’ve climbed back into a playoff spot, in third place in the Metropolitan Division, two points ahead of both Washington and the New York Islanders, although both teams have games in hand.

The Flyers are entertaining. They play a brand of hockey that’s fun to watch again. And their locker room is really tight knit these days. Torts keeps talking about it and hammered it home again after the game Monday to reiterate why his team is finding ways to win games they always seemed to lose in previous seasons.

The real test for the Flyers is coming. The next 30 days are light on games but not on travel. They play nine of the next 12 on the road. Two of those nine road games are on back-to-back nights.

In the next nine games, they don’t face a team who currently has lost more games then they have. Then they get three teams that are scuffling now, but all at the end of a long road trip.

The combined record of their next 12 opponents is 144-115-24, with a +37 goal differential.

And some of the teams with a negative goal differentials are more dangerous because they got off to slow starts but have started to play much better of late, namely Washington (who were 7-2-0 in their final nine games of November before getting spanked twice over the weekend), New Jersey (who won 3-of-4 , including beating the Flyers in OT), and Edmonton (who have won four in a row after a coaching change).

Carter Hart played his best game of the season against Pittsburgh, which is saying a lot since he’s been really good all season, ranking third among all goalies with at least a dozen starts in goals against average (2.55) and save percentage (.913).

If someone could let Carter Hart know his wallet was turned into the lost and found. pic.twitter.com/2wScNXxnXT

— Father Daughters Talk Flyers-Mike (@JerseyMike_FDTF) December 5, 2023

But a goalie can only do so much. The Flyers need to score more. Period. They are scoring just 2.88 goals per game, which is tied for 22nd in the NHL and is a bit misleading as since October 30th, it’s even worse (2.58) in a span of 17 games.

And they’re going to face some high powered offenses in the next month. Nine of those next 12 games are against teams in the top half of the league in scoring, six of them are against teams in the top 10, five in the top five.

It’s going to be a challenge.

This team deserves your attention because they have the genetic makeup of what fans want in their sports teams in Philadelphia. They are a generally likeable bunch to watch play. They are going to give max effort.

In a month, we’ll have a much better idea if they are capable of getting everyone excited for something unexpected this season, or if this season is just another step in the rebuild after all, albeit a very good one.