The Philadelphia Flyers haven’t been good in a while. A long while. The last time they went to the playoffs, the world was shut down due to the COVID pandemic. And despite being the hottest team when the NHL world entered the bubble, the Flyers fell in the second round when they decided to stop scoring.
The bleeding goes back farther than that. They haven’t made it past the first round of the playoffs since the 2011-12 season. The playoffs used to be our birthright. We were always there. It was an understood automatic….like the robins coming back in the spring or fact that somehow, someway the Toronto Maple Leafs will find a way to screw it up in the playoffs. You knew it would happen. And now….the cupboard is barren. Since 2012, we’ve pretty much been in a wasteland of nothingness.
This is where the scary part comes in. Is there an end to this nightmare? Some teams have good spells and bad spells. The New Jersey Devils were dominant for about 20 years. Then they stank, and now they are young and getting good again, if they can shake off the injuries. There is another team out there that we should also pay attention to: the Buffalo Sabres.
Buffa-NO!!!!
For those born before the year started with a “20”, we remember that the Sabres were pretty decent. Before they become the Cleveland Browns of the hockey world, in the 1990s, they were good. With players like Michael Peca, Miroslav Satan, Matt Barnaby, and Dominic Hasek, they were competitive and made a Stanley Cup run in 1999. The Flyers and Sabres had a nice rivalry going there for a few years as the two teams faced off five times in seven years, with Philly winning three of those contests.
However, the Sabres struggled economically. Between 1999 and 2011, Buffalo appeared in the playoffs just five times, but made it to the conference finals twice. After the Flyers knocked them off in 2011, they have not returned to the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
This is the danger. Buffalo is always in a state of perpetual rebuild. They have had some good players on that team: Ryan Miller, Ryan O’Reilly, Jack Eichel, Sam Reinhart, etc. And yet they can never make the playoffs. They’ve sniffed it a few times, but can’t break through.
They have had the talent. They've had the opportunity. They cannot capitalize on it. Every time they seem to start getting better, somebody wants off the team or the team trades away top-tier talent for more future assets. Rinse, wash, repeat. Sound familiar?
Why This Is Important
As Flyers fans, we’ve been in a desert as arid as can be when it comes to the playoffs. We got nothing on the Buffalo fans. That team has just completely given up. It’s heartbreaking as the fans and that city deserve more. We can’t let that happen here.
So, how do we break that streak? How do we ensure that the Flyers won’t be the next Sabres?
First, we need to draft smartly. The 2010s were not exactly kind to the team draft-wise. Either they need better scouts, stop drafting “project” players, stop drafting players with injury histories, and/or not reach for players who can be drafted later
Secondly, this team needs to become attractive to free agents. Sign the right players, but don’t overpay just to have someone. This also means not putting the team in such a salary cap bind that we barely have enough money for the waterboy.
At the same time, we need to be cognizant of team chemistry. Just because they are talented doesn't mean they are going to be a good fit for the team. If they are a "bad teammate" or uber-egotistical, they might not be good for here. We don't need locker room distractions. It's better to have good role players than have a superstar who is a jerk.
Next, we have to handle prospects correctly. We can’t bring them up too soon and then burn them out when they don’t perform well. Conversely, we can’t keep giving chances to guys who just can’t cut it. This is a hard line to walk.
You don’t want to hang onto a Matt Read or Morgan Frost too long hoping that they will get better when they won’t, but you don’t want to give up on a guy like Patrick Sharp when you haven’t given him the proper time to develop. Not sure how to balance that out, but when you know, you know.
Finally, this team needs to get their edge back. Some of the guys over the last 10 or so years have seemed comfy with playing mediocre hockey. After all, they’re getting paid. What’s the big deal? If you don’t want to win, don’t want to hustle, or don’t want to give it your all, then you don’t deserve to wear the orange and black. Simply enough.
I don’t want players who are talented, but don't care. I want a guy like an Ian Laperriere who took a puck to the face or Oskar Lindblom who tried his hardest to come back from cancer to play again. I want guys who want do give everything they got.
If you want to get out of this doldrums, that’s how it has to happen. Daniel Briere, Keith Jones, and the rest keep saying trust the process. We’ll, we’ve seen how well that’s worked for the 76ers over the last 15 years too. Now, they are back to starting all over again. I don’t want to trust the process. I want to get back to winning.