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I’m Setting the Flyers vs. Penguins Playoff Narrative and There’s Nothing the Fake News Yinzer Media Can Do About it
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Flyers playoff hockey is finally back, and everybody with a pulse should be stoked. How can you not be? It’s been five full seasons since the team went to the postseason, and that was during the pandemic, playing bubble hockey without fans in the building. The drought goes down in the history books as a half decade, but juice-less COVID circumstances make it feel like a lot longer than that, because we haven’t actually been able to enjoy the full experience since 2018.
Now it’s Penguins vs. Flyers in the first round, and the boorish Yinzer media is already debasing the timeline:
Honest to God, I don’t care one bit about the series odds, or the better team, or whatever. We all know the Flyers are a rebuilding team. Just getting into the postseason was a big deal, and therefore they are playing with house money. You can call me “soft” but I don’t give a shit, because it’s incredibly refreshing to go into a playoff series without the crushing weight of expectations that we’ve experienced with the Eagles, Phillies, and Sixers over the past half-decade. Even the Union, too, if you’re a soccer fan. They went in as the #1 seed last season and flamed completely out. This is the complete opposite of the nail biting and heart-clutching we’ve done in recent years, and these circumstances aren’t common in Philadelphia.
So here’s the narrative, and don’t let the irksome Yinzers convince you otherwise:
- The Flyers are the young and exciting team with a bright future. They’re turning the corner and have nothing to lose. No matter what happens, they’re going to take a ton of experience from this series and carry positive momentum into the offseason.
- The Penguins are a bunch of crusty old dudes on their last legs. They’ve already reached their ceiling and they ain’t winning another Stanley Cup. Sidney Crosby is 38, Evgeni Malkin is 39, Erik Karlsson is 35, Bryan Rust is 33, and Kris Letang is 38. That’s four of their top five point providers right there. There’s zero chance that team gets by the Canes or Sabres if they advance. It’s largely the same core that missed the playoffs the last three seasons, and what’s particularly sad is that their last playoff series win was eight years ago, playing against Dave Hakstol’s Flyers. The Penguins are closer to the nursing home than another Cup.
And even then, why not the Orange and Black? They’ve been one of the NHL’s best teams since the Olympic break. They’re playing their best hockey at the right time and carrying a lot of juice into the playoffs. There’s gonna be a whole lot of JAM in the building, and it’s not like they’re opening against the 1997 Red Wings. The Flyers got a pair of shootout wins against Pittsburgh this year, and while the other two games weren’t competitive, one of those losses was on the second night of a road/road back-to-back in which Alexei Kolosov started in net. So you wouldn’t take much from that game at all. Both teams are going to be in good health going into this series and we’re gonna get a fair contest here, hopefully 6 or 7 of them.
Bottom line is that this is a series between two teams at opposite ends of the spectrum. The Flyers are on the come up. They’ve got zero weight on their shoulders and a lot of energy in support. All of the pressure is on the Penguinos, who are geriatric and dangerously close to being completely washed. This is their swansong. Malkin is out of contract after this season. Crosby and Karlsson have one more year. Letang is closer to 40 than 35. There is a legitimate opportunity here for the Flyers to put the final nail in the Penguins’ coffin, and if that happens, we will create an environment so toxic that the entirety of the Commonwealth will be designated a Superfund site.
Pittsburgh fans and media know this is the storyline. DON’T LET THEM CONTROL THE NARRATIVE.
Kevin has been writing about Philadelphia sports since 2009. He spent seven years in the CBS 3 sports department and started with the Union during the team's 2010 inaugural season. He went to the academic powerhouses of Boyertown High School and West Virginia University. email - k.kinkead@sportradar.com