Posts for flyers

In the moment, it looked bad.

Here were the Flyers, wrapping up their fifth game of the season by getting their doors blown off by the Edmonton Oilers.

Carter Hart, the supposed savior at just 21 years old, had a bad night in net in front of tons of friends and family in his hometown.

Brian Elliott relieved him and promptly gave up one goal, and then another. The Flyers trailed by five goals until two late tallies in garbage time made the final score a more respectable 6-3 loss to the red hot Oilers.

Here were the Flyers, coming off two really dominant wins to start the season, losing their third straight game, and finally coming home from their whirlwind adventure that, if you include the end of the preseason, took them from Philly to Boston, to New York, to Lausanne, Switzerland, to Prague, back to Philly, to Vancouver, to Calgary and finally to Edmonton in a span of 24 days.

An optimist looks at their 2-2-1 record and says, “Hey, not bad considering the crazy travel.” A pessimist says, “Inconsistency on the Flyers? Why am I not surprised.”

I was more in the pessimist camp watching the game against Edmonton. I mean, Connor McDavid is the best player in the league and all, but did they really need to allow him to have a five-point night?

And how do you get behind by five goals one night after sleepwalking through an entire game in Calgary?

It was typical Flyers frustration for sure.

But then I woke up at the crack of dawn, sucked down a cup of joe, and after reviewing my notes, came to the realization that this wasn’t all that bad after all.

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Donald Brashear served up knuckle sandwiches during an NHL career that began in 1993 and ended 2010, a stint that included four years with the Philadelphia Flyers.

Now he’s serving up coffee and other goodies at a Quebec City Tim Hortons, which is like a Canadian Dunkin Donuts.

The story is written up in Le Journal De Quebec, so it’s in French, which means I’m giving you le crappy Google translations here:

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Alain Vigneault’s first real test as coach of the Flyers comes today.

That’s because his team, a team that appeared to be playing a different brand of hockey through the first three games than anything we had grown accustomed to in the mediocrity of the past seven years, had a relapse in Calgary, losing to the Flames 3-1.

An optimist can sit here and make an excuse for the Flyers – after all, it was their fourth game in four different time zones and all, and the travel has been brutal.

But lets be real for a second. They had two days off between games. They didn’t skate Tuesday morning. The flight from Vancouver to Calgary is a brief one. Using travel as an excuse for bad play in this instance isn’t acceptable.

It would almost be OK if the Flyers messed the bed tonight in Edmonton because of travel. Back-to-back games, end of a road trip, blah, blah, blah.

But that’s not what happened (yet, anyway). Instead, the Flyers were ambushed by a superior Calgary team who has visions of Stanley Cup glory this season dancing in their heads.

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Happy season opener, Flyers fans.

Ahead of the puck drop in Prague, you should know that you have not been forgotten. We have not forsaken you or the team you’ve loyally supported for many years now.

When I say, “we,” I’m talking about the Philadelphia sports fan who does not identify as a hockey diehard. I’m talking your typical Eagles fan, a casual ‘four for four’ guy, or even fringe folks who watch big five basketball, soccer, and other sports that occupy a place on the fringes of the Delaware Valley sporting spectrum.

If you feel like you yourself exist on the periphery, that the Flyers don’t get enough respect or media coverage in 2019, you’re probably right, but you should understand that this is just a natural occurrence that affects every franchise. This is the cyclical nature of sport, where teams hit peaks and valleys in popularity that directly correlates to wins and losses. The Sixers struggled immensely though the Process years, then finally righted the ship, and now they command significant attention. The Phillies won a World Series, then fell off hard before going out and signing Bryce Harper, which resulted in a boost to attendance and TV ratings. Round and round we go, as RATT’s Stephen Pearcy once sang.

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This is a nice honor for the late Ed Snider and the foundation he created.

This Saturday at noon, Philadelphia’s mural arts program and the Ed Snider Youth Hockey Foundation will dedicate a new mural titled “Snider Hockey, Inspiring Our Youth.”  The artwork is going up at 10th and Snyder Avenue in South Philadelphia and here some details via press release:

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Alright, so this was not expected:

Injury update: Forward Nolan Patrick is listed as week-to-week and will not be ready to start the season. pic.twitter.com/1DKnbO1o3q

— Philadelphia Flyers (@NHLFlyers) September 26, 2019

That explains what’s been going on for the last few weeks, a period of time that was SHROUDED in mystery. Patrick was only listed with an “upper body injury” and nobody really knew what was going on. He apparently also deleted his social media accounts during that period.

Obviously you’re not putting him on a plane to the Czech Republic with this kind of issue. The next step is… I dunno. The Devils game is October 9th, five days after the Blackhawks game in Prague.

Patrick was the #2 pick in the 2017 draft. He’s played 145 games and scored 26 goals while adding 35 assists.