The older you get, the more you are cognizant to the fact that time flies by. As a kid, I felt that years last forever. Now, I can see that the year warp speed on by. If you ever want a quick reminder of that fact, turn on a classic rock radio station. It isn't just playing Led Zeppelin or Lynyrd Skynyrd anymore. Nope, it's playing the Foo Fighters and Red Hot Chili Peppers now; and not just their old stuff, but stuff from the 2000s and 2010s. Yeah.
With that in mind, every Flyers fan knows that the team is mired in a five year long playoff drought. Their last trip to the postseason was the infamous "Bubble Playoffs' in 2020 as the world was gripped by the COVID 19 pandemic. A fall to the Islanders in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals ended their run. And yeah, it's been five years. That's longer than a presidential administration. This means if you had a kid in the spring of 2020, they are probably starting kindergarten this year. Time flies.
Which got me thinking, who's left? After all, the Flyers have fired two head coaches since then and are just getting ready to start their third. (Hmmmmmm... three coaches in five years... could that be part of the problem?) There has been a lot of turnover since 2020 on the team; more than you probably realize. Which Flyers have actually played in a playoff game as a Flyer?
The 2020 Flyers roster holdouts
There are just three of them. It shouldn't be much of a surprise to you; Sean Couturier, Travis Konecny, and Travis Sanheim. They are the last remainers of that playoff run. The Flyers jettisoned Scott Laughton, Joel Farabee, and Morgan Frost this past offseason, cutting that group by half.
This is the Sean Couturier who finally won his Selke Trophy after scoring 37 goals and winning 59.7% of his faceoffs.
This is the Travis Konecny who broke out as an all-star with 24 goals and 61 points, but would be much maligned by head coach Alain Vigneault for "disappearing" in the playoffs; lead to a rupture in their relationship.
This is the Travis Sanheim was trying to still put it together during his third professional season and was putting up potentially career high numbers before the world shut down.
Five years later
These are not young guys anymore. They are the veterans that need to lead this particular Flyers team forward. They are also the last guys on the team to have played a home playoff game in Philly in 2017-18, with Sanheim and TK as youngins. They need to be the guys who the team can look up to bring the Flyers back to glory.
The last, and only time, the Flyers were mired in a playoff slump like this was from 1989-90 to 1993-94. When that streak broke, it begat one of the greatest periods in Flyers history where they went to the playoffs every year from 1994-95 to 2011-12, save for one year. That time also saw two Stanley Cup appearances and five losses in the Eastern Conference Finals. Who knows? Maybe the team is on the verge of another Renaissance. We'll just have to see.
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