If There's One Play That Perfectly Summarizes The Philadelphia Flyers Men's Professional Ice Hockey Team, This Is The One
Alright so here’s the deal. I don’t know how to feel this morning. Obviously I’m pissed off that the Flyers suck. But I just don’t feel super negative today because the Sixers bounced back against Chicago and Markelle Fultz hit a 3 in the NBA. If it weren’t for the Sixers last night, I probably would have woken up this morning ready to shred the Flyers to shit for that defensive performance last night. But I’m just not in the mood to be that negative right now. Plus it’s Friday. So what we’ll do is we’ll just let this disaster of a “play” from Christian Folin not only serve as a summarization of last night’s game, but also for the entire Flyers organization in general. This is what this team has become. I hate to say it but Ed Snider is rolling in his grave right now. He would be so ashamed of this team and the fact that it doesn’t seem like the organization is ready to blow up the entire thing proves that they don’t care. Ron Hextall should be embarrassed. Dave Hakstol should be ashamed. The players should feel like they’ve let a lot of people down. But I don’t know. Guys can talk all they want but as long as there are no actual changes being made, from the outside looking in it just seems like they don’t care.
And don’t get me wrong. I still 100% believe that this is a playoff team. Despite having absolute garbage cans like Christian Folin in the lineup, this team is still too talented to not make the playoffs. We’re only a couple weeks into the season. They’ll start to piece it all together over the next few weeks. It won’t be the prettiest season ever but I’m sure that they’ll find themselves in a playoff position in early April. They won’t win a series or anything but they’ll still be there. So I’m not saying that this team should blow it all up and tank for Jack Hughes or anything like that. But the goalies? Some of the bottom defensemen? The coach? Somebody needs to go here soon because clearly it ain’t working right now. This is what the Philadelphia Flyers have allowed themselves to become.
I said it earlier this morning. This “play” from Christian Folin is obviously reprehensible. But what’s just as bad is the fact that it was a major mistake by Folin immediately compounded by another major mistake by Calvin Pickard to not come up with a save there. Josh Anderson isn’t Sidney Crosby. He’s not Patrick Kane. That wasn’t a backhand shot that was impossible to stop. It was a weak goal let up by a leaky goalie who was having a bad night. I understand he was put in a brutal position by Folin tripping over himself but it was only a 1-goal game at this point. There were still 5 minutes left in the game and the Flyers could have easily scored again to tie it up and at least push a road game to overtime. But Folin forgets how to skate, Pickard forgets how to see, and that goal right there is completely deflating. Not only does it make it a 2-goal game now, but it takes all of the gas out of the Flyers. You can’t bounce back from a goal like that.
But that’s just what the Flyers do. They constantly shit down their own throats and make life so much harder for themselves than it needs to be. They beat themselves seemingly night in and night out. They have top level talent on the team like Giroux, Voracek and Gostisbehere. They have a roster built to win games in the NHL. But there are still too many idiots who take that top level talent and shit all over it. The Flyers still have a ton of fat to trim. And you can’t let the top guys off the hook that easily either. Giroux needs to be a fucking captain and start dictating the energy and effort for this team because it’s clearly not coming from anybody else. Provorov needs to deal with whatever he’s dealing with right now and figure it out fast because he looks like he’s broken out there so far. Guy can’t even complete a D-to-D pass right now without flubbing the puck and getting it picked off. The coach? We all know that Hextall won’t fire him so I can’t even blame Dave Hakstol anymore. It’s not his fault he still has a job. It’s all on Hexy. So the top guys deserve blame. The dolts on the team will continue to fuck up but only because they’ve been put in that position by the organization. It’s just bad right now.
And the worst part of all? You turn on sports talk radio in Philly today and the general emotion for the day is happy. Everybody is happy that the Sixers won last night. Everybody is looking forward to the Eagles this weekend. Nobody is talking about how disappointing the Flyers looked last night because nobody cares anymore. This used to be a great hockey town but the Flyers are taking that away from us.