PhHN+
Carchidi: What If Flyers Are As Bad As They Look in Preseason?
We all realize it’s only the preseason, and the Philadelphia Flyers are experimenting and using a lot of young and inexperienced players.
Still, a scary thought keeps creeping into my mind.
What if the real season is like this?
What if injured center Sean Couturier ends up missing most of the season?
What if the power play is as bad as it has looked in the first four preseason games?
Well, if that all happens, the Flyers will certainly be in the running for super-prospect Connor Bedard, a center known as the Can’t-Miss Kid.
Time Has Arrived
*This is a free preview of PHN+, our exclusive paywall content. For subscribers, all content is ad-free. Subscribe today!
The Philadelphia Flyers have two preseason games left, and it’s time for the offense to show a pulse, even if these games mean less than the price of gas in 1970 (36 cents per gallon).
It’s time for the Flyers to put together their expected opening-night lineup — or close to it — on Sunday against the host Islanders. It’s the first preseason game in which new coach John Tortorella will be behind the bench.
It’s time to find out what the Flyers have. Or don’t have.
It’s time for the attack to produce more than one goal a game, their average in their 1-3 preseason.
The Flyers’ offense has been virtually nonexistent. Too many one-and-dones. Too little traffic in front of the net. Too much shooting from the perimeter.
Too little cohesiveness on the power play, which is clicking at 6.7% (1 for 15).
Fans Need Hope
Selling tickets was always going to be difficult after the lousy product displayed during the last two seasons. That meant the Flyers have one playoff series win over the last 10 years.
In addition, the injuries, and an offseason in which little was done in the free-agent and trade markets have made plenty of tickets available for 2022-23. The less-than-inspiring exhibition games haven’t helped, either.
Yes, it’s only the preseason. Yes, it’s going to take a while before Tortorella’s systems are digested. So far, conditioning has been Torts’ main goal in training camp.
Still, it would be nice to see several of the Philadelphia Flyers’ promising prospects show there’s a glimmer of hope, show they can be part of the Great Road to Respectability.
If that road one day includes Bedard as a navigator — or one of a handful of generational players in the 2023 draft — it won’t be as long and bumpy.
5 Observations: Flyers Can’t Find Net in Latest Loss; Felix Sandstrom Injured
Rangers Snap Flyers’ Point Streak; Philly Falls 6-1 in New York
Flyers Game 49, Metro Showdown; Lines, Notes, and How to Watch vs. Rangers
Flyers Playoff Odds Improve; Still Much Better than Penguins’ Chances
Aleksei Kolosov and Olle Lycksell Loaned to Phantoms, Richard Back up for Flyers
OPINION: It’s Not Time to Hit the Panic Button for the Flyers
Has Morgan Frost Found a Home?
Flyers Practice: Abols Called Up, Poehling Update
Morning Rush: Poehling Elbowed; Jett Gets the C; Avalanche Trade Chatter
Bobby Brink Starting to Reap the Rewards of the Cates Line Success
SUSPENDED: Tsyplakov Gets 3 Games, Laughton Gets Fined
Are Flyers Playoff Contenders? We Examine in Latest Podcast
Flyers Podcast: Lots of Positives, But Ryan Ellis Was Mistreated
Will Flyers get a shot at drafting Shane Wright? Here are the intriguing prospects
Tyson Foerster injured on scary hit into end boards
This is no surprise after they did nothing in the summer to bring in scoring ability. It looks like they will have to play a very tight checking, defensive oriented style to have a chance to be competitive. In the Boston game, I thought they did that pretty well for most of the game against many Bruins’ regulars. It’s encouraging that the penalty killing has been good although it’s only preseason. Hoping to see some younger players develop into solid regulars this season. I think that’s about all we can hope for.
Well said!
Sam. Is there anyway to get rid of the Spam comments that pop up in each article.
We are working on it. I agree: They are sooooo annoying.
Tortorella will be gone by midseason. He’s either going to quit when he realizes this team has no hope, or the Flyers fire him as it all blows up. It will be a metaphor for the last decade.
When you are being paid $4 million per season, you don’t quit.
NO WAY are they going to Fire Tortorella; no matter how Bad things get. Hopefully; Fletcher will be the one whos gone by this time next year. The future GM; regardless of who he is; has one hell of a mess to clean up after Fletcher is gone. What Fletcher has done in Reality is chain the entire Organization to a Cap Hell for the next several seasons.
1 series playoff win in a decade? A total disgrace.
What is the organization’s feeling on Carter Hart? Worries that he can stay healthy and show some consistency?
The Flyers are going to be Putrid this season. Theres no way around it. But they have no one to blame but themselves. It had to happen sooner or later. Lousy Drafts for the last Decade; signing mediocre players on the downslope of their careers to mega deals will sink ANY organization over a period of time. They should have taken this Rebuild right down to the studs; and been Honest with the Flyer Fans. Thing i cant figure out is that they had the top rated Minor League program in hockey just a couple of years ago. NOW; all of their Picks are slightly better than average: What happened?
I’m convinced that the curse of Ken Dryden lives on. There’s a huge conspiracy against the Flyers among the professional hockey community to tank the franchise as punishment for embarassing the great Canadian game. The Flyers alumni that take the helm are compromised and blackmailed with disturbing images of them cavorting with Brodeur, Domi, Barnaby, Carcillo, and other unpleasant figures deep in the bowels of the PrismComcastSpectacorWellsFargoWachoviaFirstUnion complex. Lifeless bags of flesh like Fletcher are brought in to bury the franchise in cap hell with catastrophic personnel decisions just after they dug themselves out. Poor Hextall. Even Leon Stickle was in on it. We are now in the humiliation phase with Tortorella as coach who dashed the hopes of the great Primeau run in 2004. If your’e starting to put the dots together, Lecavalier coming here and sucking the wind out of the franchise was also part of the plan. You’re supposed to notice the irony.
Don’t buy it? Perhaps you forgot about the worst year in franchise history resulting in being saddled with JvRLoL while Patrick Kane goes on to win multiple cups and put Snider in his grave.
It’s just incomprehensible how one proud franchise with so many resources and so much support can be so consistently and maliciously incompetent year after year, even after icing teams that flirt with competitive SC runs.