It’s October: Why are the Flyers already an afterthought?
By Mike Gambill
As a fan who enjoys multiple sports, the month of October is truly a special time of year. Last night I could watch an NFL game, MLB playoffs and still watch some NHL games to cap the night off. The NBA is ramping up its preseason, college football is going strong and what could be better, right?
The City of Brotherly Love has lots of excitement buzzing around in mid-October and rightly so. The Phillies salvaged a dumpster fire season and turned their fortunes around with the firing of Joe Girardi and hiring bench coach Rob Thomson as the interim manager. Gone is the interim title for Thomson and the Phillies are neck-and-neck with the Atlanta Braves in the NLDS after sweeping the sentimental favorite St. Louis Cardinals in the NLWCS.
To add to the excitement, the Philadelphia Eagles are the only undefeated NFL team and look to be on a roll as the 2022-23 season progresses. There’s a sense of genuine excitement in the air for the start of the NBA season with the 76’ers coming off a loss in the Eastern Conference semi-finals last season and an anticipation of a deep playoff run. I honestly haven’t heard this much talk about the Sixers since a guy named Julius Erving played for them (no offense to Dr. J, he’s still my all-time favorite NBA player.)
Am I missing anything? Oh yeah, the Philadelphia Flyers. The Broad Street Bullies and the Legion of Doom are now little more than a casual afterthought not only in the mind of sports fans around North America but in the city of Philadelphia itself. Yes, there are the hardcore fans who will never give up on their Flyers but let’s be real for a moment. The Philadelphia Flyers are a franchise in search of an identity and they need to find it fast or they will only be identified as irrelevant.
Why have the Flyers skated so far to the bottom of the NHL?
The move to become bottom feeder in the National Hockey League has been a gradual slide downward for the Flyers. This organization was once a proud and fierce franchise who epitomized an angry, violent sport and the Flyers became synonymous with the word fear in the hearts of their NHL opponents. The Broad Street Bullies inspired that fear wherever they played in the 1970’s and early 80’s on their way to winning consecutive Stanley Cups in 1973-74 and 1974-75.
Even the next generation Flyers created their own identity with the famed “Legion of Doom.” Okay, they didn’t win any more Stanley Cups but the days of Recchi, Lindros and LeClair hark back to when the Flyers were universally respected if not despised a bit like their predecessors. While the Legion of Doom didn’t bring home large silver trophies to Philadelphia, they brought success to the ice and Flyers fans stayed loyal and true.
After last season, the Flyers couldn’t scare a bunch of five year old kids at a birthday party. Let’s be totally honest at this – the Flyers have moved to the bottom five of the NHL and their only goal right now is to see how high they can go in the NHL Draft. Attendance dropped off to 84.7% capacity at the Wells Fargo Center last season which is a testament to Flyers fans and not the team for putting people in the seats. In defense of the Flyers, Covid-19 did a real number on spectator sports and we are just now getting back to some level of “normal” so attendance figures from the last couple of seasons are probably skewed to reflect the pandemic’s hold on public events.
Will the Flyers be able to change course this season?
That’s the million dollar question right now and it depends upon how you define the word success. I’m sure new head coach John Tortorella hasn’t promised the Flyers front office with a Stanley Cup win this season; if he did, he’s crazier than I thought. Success for a professional sports team can be measured in increments and this year’s Flyers are fighting for two things – relevancy and respect.
Say what you want about John Tortorella but at least he’s trying to build a fire beneath the Flyers bench and get these guys to play like their hair’s on fire every night. The Flyers may make something of this season with a healthy dose of physical and mental toughness – two keys that John Tortorella demands in his players and coaches alike (I would like to think he demands the same out of the fans as well.)
If the Flyers can develop an identity for themselves, maybe there’s a chance that they escape the bottom five and surprise everyone this year. Remember, the Phillies were being flushed down the baseball septic tank around Memorial Day and where are they now? Long time fans know that sports encourages hope and prayer and with a lot of both, the Flyers could make something of the 2022-23 season.