MELTZER'S MUSINGS: FLYERS ALUMNI AND MORE
1) Today's blog was originally going to be about the upcoming NHL Expansion Draft, but that topic and others will hold until tomorrow. Yesterday, I was at the Wells Fargo Center for a content planning meeting with the Flyers Alumni and Flyers. There is a lot of exciting stuff coming up leading up to and after the NHL Draft, over the summer (especially Development Camp) and into next season.
The 50th Anniversary season is over, but elements created during it will continue onward. Most especially, the
Flyers A-to-Z biography series will continue to be polished and updated as a living document of team history and a way to honor each and every player to wear the uniform. Within the next year or so, the Flyers all-time roster of players appearing in at least one regular season (or playoff) game for the team will hit number 600. I don't recall the exact count at the moment but it's currently in the mid 590s.
I am very proud to announce that I will be working with the Flyers again next season as well as continuing on as the content manager for the Flyers Alumni Association (webpage, social media, game programs for special events). Simultaneously, I am staying here full-time at HockeyBuzz in both daily Flyers blogging and behind-the-scenes roles. The Dallas Stars blog will also become more active again as major events happen in the offseason and next season begins.
With the Flyers, I will be working in the same capacities that I did for them during the 50th Anniversary season of 2016-17 season. All that will change a bit will be the content subject matter focus from celebrating franchise history to emphasizing the contemporary and previewing the future. There will always, however, be a backdrop of team history and identity flavoring my work.
In addition to writing regular feature articles for the Flyers website, I will continue to write Flyers Magazine (the game program at Wells Fargo Center) and contribute game presentation information (such as the pre-game "fast facts" that appear on the Arena Vision screen around pregame warmups), write the trivia question that appears in each Flyers television broadcast on CSN Philly and TCN and contribute additional information to the media guide that Brian Smith assembles each year.
2) During yesterday's meeting, Joe Watson popped in for awhile, holding an ice pack to his ailing shoulder. The previous day, he'd participated in a golfing event and was proud to announce that his group won.
One day this summer, I will devote a blog to tell some of my favorite stories from the Alumni trip to Russia earlier this year. For now, I will say that one of my favorite parts of the trip was talking with Joe Watson each morning after breakfast time about the current Flyers' games the night before. To say that he still passionately roots for the team and has opinions on who is and isn't properly honoring the crest's identity is to put it mildly.
No one, not even the late Ed Snider until the day of his passing, cares more deeply about not just the win-loss success but the identity of the Flyers than Joe. He vehemently believes in things being done a certain way, on and off the ice. Be on time, give it your 100 percent focus and devotion and you are fine in his book. Otherwise, stay the hell away from the team.
Here are two personal stories about Joe, not related to the Russia Trip, about Joe. I think they illustrate his undying passion for the team and for the "once a Flyer, always a Flyer" identity that he so fiercely upholds.
Last season, per usual, the Flyers Alumni hosted their Alumni Golf Invitational sponsors in a game-night suite as a thank you event. I was asked to come take some photos to post on the Alumni social media pages on Facebook and Twitter (@FlyersAlumni).
The Alumni mixed and mingled with the guests. Light conversation and smiles abounded. Everyone was having a good time. Joe, however, kept peering down intently at the game unfolding on the ice. As the Flyers fell behind the Buffalo Sabres, 3-0, in the second period, Joe grew agitated, muttering in disgust at the home team's performance. Then he composed himself and rejoined the guests around him during the next stoppage. Eventually, the Flyers came back to win the game. Joe was ebullient.
During the final weekend of the season, the Flyers hosted the Columbus Blue Jackets in the penultimate game. The Flyers (courtesy of Brad Marsh) provided club box tickets for Cory Mickey and his family. Cory is the son of the late Larry Mickey, who played briefly for the Flyers in the early 1970s. On my way to stop over to say hello to Cory during the first intermission, I saw Joe and mentioned that I was on my way over to greet his old Flyers teammate Larry Mickey's son.
"Well, for Chrissakes, bring him over here," Joe said.
So I did. Retrieving Cory, our path back to where Joe Watson was standing was blocked by security and a slew of people gathering around now-former vice president Joe Biden. Finally, I told a security guard we were trying to see another Joe -- Watson, not Biden. The security guard nodded and directed us through the jam-up but, by now, intermission was almost over.
Joe Watson was still there, though. He vigorously shook Cory's hand (Joe can just about crush your hand with his handshake grip) and regaled him with stories about playing against his dad and their short time together playing for the Flyers. Specifically, he told a story about how Larry Mickey was great at lightening up the boredom of waiting to board airplanes by successfully pulling off the "dollar bill on a string" prank on unsuspecting travelers in the terminal and on the plane (this was before the days of chartered flights when teams traveled commercial flights).
By the time we said our goodbyes and I got back up to the press box, it was about six minutes into the second period. There had been a goal (by Columbus) scored, so I had to ask NHL.com's Adam Kimelman to get me caught up on what I'd missed. I didn't mind, though. It was cool to see Joe so happy to make acquaintances with the son of someone who was his teammate 46 years ago for all of 14 games, and to have a related story on instant recall.
That's Joe Watson. He's one of a kind.
3) Bob "the Hound" Kelly is another Flyers Alum who holds deep in his heart what it means to be a Flyer. Back in March, I visited the Flyers Alumni in the locker room before the team's game against the Penguins Alumni at Santander Arena in Reading. Bob "the Hound" Kelly mentioned to me that the game would be his final "official" one in a playing capacity, apart from a semi-private annual game between the Alumni and a team representing the Willis Towers Watson company. The previous month, Flyers legends Bob Clarke and Bill Barber played in their final Alumni game during the 50th Anniversary game at the Wells Fargo Center against the Penguins Alumni.
I have to admit that it made me a little sad, since the Broad Street Bullies era Flyers were such a big part of my childhood. The Hound, however, had a very practical outlook.
"I never wanted to play forever, and this is how it should be," Kelly said. "When we have these games, to the fans who come out in Reading or Philly or wherever, it's an event more than a hockey game. But the people also want and deserve to see a good show on the ice. The 80s guys are now getting to be the 'old guys' on the ice. The 70s guys like me? Listen, tiime waits for nobody. You just get to a point where your body tells you that you can't do this anymore, and you can't ignore that forever."
Hockey in general and Flyers hockey in particular are still very much deep in Kelly's heart, which is why he is so good in his role as the Flyers' organization's "Ambassador of Hockey." Truly no one else in the organization gets out in the community as much as Kelly does. He goes anywhere and everywhere with the same gusto he did in taking pride of forging his playing niche as one of the most tenacious forecheckers and willing scrappers the organization has ever had.
Kelly is also the driving force behind the annual
Flyers Alumni Fantasy Camp in August, now in its third year. Each year, the participation demand has outpaced the available number of spots. The first two camps sold out well ahead of the camp, and this year will be the same. A few days ago, Kelly noted that only two open spots remain for the camp in August.
However, camp participation is a big-ticket luxury that Kelly and the other Alumni are well aware that many who would otherwise love to go simply cannot afford. Toward that end, there is also one camp spot reserved for the winner of a
Toyota-sponsored sweepstakes to attend for free.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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