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The Flyers Want to be Just like the Phillies, and to do so, it All has to Start from Within

October 28, 2023
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Now that baseball season is over, I can concentrate solely on hockey – for the next four-and-a-half months anyway.

And lo and behold, I jump back into the blogging version of the fray with the Philadelphia Flyers in the midst of a very good start to their season, a season in which they’re trying to emulate the Phillies.

No, they do not have visions of a run to within one win of the Stanley Cup Final. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. But they do aspire to do things that the Phillies do in connecting with their fans, and some of that can be done right away as the rebuild kicks off.

For example, they can start by being more likeable and watchable.

Through seven games, they have definitely checked that box.

For example, on Thursday night they hammered the Minnesota Wild 6-2 at a pretty well-attended game at the Wells Fargo Center. That win excited those fans, who will likely come back and cheer for their Flyers again. It also helped them improve to 4-2-1, which currently has them sitting in second place in the Metropolitan Division, one point behind the first place New York Rangers.

Their plus-6 goal differential is tied for seventh-best in the NHL. Considering they finished last season with the seventh-worst record in the league, that’s a quick flip.

Now, let’s not get too far out over our skis. The Flyers got off to a hot start last season, and how’d that turn out?

GM Danny Briere and coach John Tortorella continue to remind us that there is going to be a point in the season when growing pains will be on display. They continue to use the term “rebuild” even while the team enjoys early season success.

While I can tell you that when all is said and done, the Flyers will probably be comfortably in the draft lottery come the end of the 2023-24 season, there is certainly a different feel to this team.

There’s a togetherness. An internal vibe. It’s not the Phillies type of vibe that captivated the city since October of 2022 – it’s got a long way to go to reach that status – but the lengthy journey has begun and the compass is pointing in the right direction.

The biggest change was shaking up the locker room culture. This was what Tortorella has been tasked with the most.

Yes, he needs a buy in for his system to become successful at the highest level. He has been able to get that buy in in three of the four cities he has coached prior to coming to Philadelphia, but at no point was the team he was coaching in as much disarray as the Flyers franchise was when he arrived in town.

Tortorella knew he had a heavy lift with the roster he was being dealt, but I’m not certain he had any clue to the level of dysfunction at the highest levels that he was going to be thrust into once he got here.

Those wounds are being closed now. They aren’t all gone, but Briere, President of Hockey Operations Keith Jones, and CEO of Comcast Spectacor Dan Hilferty are providing the salve.

That has allowed Tortorella to do what he does best – and that’s coach up his team.

The Flyers lack a lot of high-end skill, but in the span of a year, Torts has reshaped his lineups to include a team filled with lunch pail-carrying, work boot-wearing laborers who don’t punch out early on the time clock to beat the traffic home.

These players, who have embraced the underdog mentality of the city, stealing the dog masks first made famous by the Eagles during their 2017 Super Bowl season, awarding one to the player of the game who then has to start barking at his teammates, all while wearing a black chain around his collar, like a junkyard canine, are believing in what Torts is preaching.


It’s evident in the way they play.

“The biggest improvement with our club right now – and it will be tested because we haven’t gone into a losing streak yet – is I think the room is together. That’s the biggest improvement from last year. I don’t think the room was awful last year, but our room needed to change. That’s what helps you in those situations. We’ll find out more when we lose two, three, four in a row. It’s going to happen. We’ll find out about people in those situations, but right now they’re together.

“There’s a belief and belief is a very strong thing. If we can keep that type of mindset, we’ll stay competitive.”

In other words, they’re playing over their heads, it’s just that they don’t know it.

A perfect example is a player like Travis Sanheim, who scored a goal in the win Thursday and now has eight points in seven games to start the season.


It’s not like he’s suddenly improved his skillset and is becoming the top end defenseman the Flyers always hoped he could become. No, it’s simply a buy-in.

Last season he was in the coach’s doghouse, but this season he seems to be taking the “if you can’t beat him, join him” approach. In other words, he resisted Torts last season, for whatever reason, and this season he has chosen to ride-or-die with him.

“I was up his ass all year long last year,” Tortorella said. “He was in trade talks – all that stuff. And his skill level hasn’t changed. His skating hasn’t changed. What’s changed is his mindset. He has shown us right from day one that he is going to take control. And he’s done it. I’m happy for him. I know it was a miserable year for him last year, but I’m happy for the way he’s handled himself.”

And it’s infectious.

Bobby Brink, who was the training camp darling that has gotten off to a hot start, talked about how together the room is at the end of his interview with me last night:


As proof, the entire team waited at his stall for him to come into the locker room after his postgame TV interview. and greeted him with a chant of “BOBBY! BOBBY! BOBBY!” before Cam Atkinson knighted him with the dog mask.


It’s this kind of culture that will one day get these Flyers players into a similar echelon as the Phillies with Philadelphia fans.

“The fans and everything that they’re doing at the Phillies games are exactly what we want to have occur at the Flyers games,” Jones told ESPN. “We want to be them at some point.”

They’ll need to eventually have that top end talent to get to that point. They’re excited about Cutter Gauthier, who should arrive after his NCAA season is complete. And every fan in the city who paid attention is pumped for Matvei Michkov, who is under contract in Russia through 2026, and then is eligible to come over.

But they need more than that.

Until then, there’s a lot of good talent in this organization that can make up the rest of the supporting cast. And fans should enjoy watching Tortorella mold them.

Will he be the coach who is behind the bench when they finally get to the point where they are in the conversation for the Stanley Cup? Who knows? But he can definitely blaze the trail that will show them the way.

The post The Flyers Want to be Just like the Phillies, and to do so, it All has to Start from Within appeared first on Crossing Broad.

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