Your assessment of what failed the team this year??? And the last decade under G’s leadership?
- Fopa21

Some really great teams the last decade right?

Bill Meltzer: Musings and Quick Hits: Exit Day, Phantoms, Alumni and More
- bmeltzer

Thank you for this very honest end of year assessment. IMO you wrote what we all saw happening this year. This was once a very proud franchise and I hope the management has the courage to stay the course on the young talented players allowing them to grow into the league. At the same time I believe the veteran leadership needs changing! The example you gave on 93 not buying in and back checking, shifting too long, are extremely bad examples for the younger players. I also believe they need to take a long hard look at 28 not trading him but moving on to another captain. It would be a tough conversation to take that away and still keep him engaged but I believe they need a captain that has tougher standards for his group. They seemed to be easy to play against and didn’t have the pushback to fight after a bad period or game a more forceful captain might bring out in the team.

Bill, Great job! I hope you continue your work for years to come! It’s a pleasure reading your work!

All the mock drafts I see have Ghost being taken
- xShoot4WarAmpsx

Mock drafts have to be one of the most idiotic things that people waste their time with

Some really great teams the last decade right?
- ClaudeFather

No one would mistakenly classify the teams as great. However, you can not argue that a lot of them underachieved just like this season can you?

...I could come up with equal arguments on why the Kraken should take JVR and why they should not...could do the same for Jake, Ghost, and NAK. My point is that the Kraken will do what is best for them and the Flyers should do nothing to influence the process. Losing anyone of those 4 players has pluses and minuses for the Flyers, but none of them should require us to push the needle in any direction. I also have seen very few non-Flyers based mock drafts that have the Kraken taking JVR to get to the cap floor. What JVR brings is very one dimensional. If they are not going to play that kind of hockey or that type of system, JVR is not a good fit for lots of reasons. The coach they select will be important in all of this.
- JW98FlyerFan

Who will they get? I’m going to be shocked if they don’t have someone in place at least a few weeks before the ED.

Who will they get? I’m going to be shocked if they don’t have someone in place at least a few weeks before the ED.
- NC Flyers Fan

Speculation is Tocchet

Please tell me what that means??? It means he’ll have played more games with the organization than anyone else. All time leader in points with a legacy of .500 teams 👏
- Fopa21

The expression is odd.
Does this mean you became pale or the post was without color?
Or am I just TOO white?
Conundrums......
Maybe next week.
- Pompous

A guy like you, I am sure, is aware of the idiom "blanch in horror", so I guess I was shortening that.

All the mock drafts I see have Ghost being taken
- xShoot4WarAmpsx

Ah I see.

Speculation is Tocchet
- CRUSH IT LIKE ME

I could see that.

NYC is a cesspool. Everything about it sucks.
- PLindbergh31

Everything?

I confess to having mixed feelings about it. I love the energy and the spirit, and I love the public spaces and the culture and how they can afford to maintain it. I love the rush of energy I get when I get off the train in Penn Station.

But in the last 30 years, the city has become like Dubai. Only the rich live there, the poor travel to serve them, and the tourists come and gape at everything. It no longer symbolizes the proletarian spirit of "you can make it": it does now only to fools.

It wasn't like that when I changed coasts. There were a lot of bookshops scattered all around, lower East Side was the center of a bohemian culture.

Now its all money, crassness, money, crassness, money. A distilled version of America.

EDIT: talking about Manhattan, technically, and down from Columbia (excluding upper Harlem).

Team issues:
1. Leadership needs a change not good enough
2. Provy to many minutes not a true #1
3. Sanheim to many minutes a 4 at best
4. Myers to many minutes a 5/6 at best
5. No true sniper
6. To soft of a team

No one would mistakenly classify the teams as great. However, you can not argue that a lot of them underachieved just like this season can you?
- Fopa21

A playoff bubble team for a decade under achieved , you don’t say. Best chance when we lost to rangers in 7, god rest his soul but Razor couldn’t move side to side and got the first 3 games that series.

So Voracek was the only regular not to have postseason media availability? hummm...

You don’t suppose it was anything to do with the early media incident this year. Was he there for the coach and GM exit interviews?

A playoff bubble team for a decade under achieved , you don’t say. Best chance when we lost to rangers in 7, god rest his soul but Razor couldn’t move side to side and got the first 3 games that series.
- ClaudeFather

This years team under achieved?? Come on. No one thought they were a bubble team heading into this season. Stop

This years team under achieved?? Come on. No one thought they were a bubble team heading into this season. Stop
- Fopa21

First it’s the whole decade now it’s just this year, I know your type too well. He was one of the few guys that played well. Sorry every single young guy sucks outside of Farabee.

Bill,
This is THE best write-up I’ve read from you (and you’ve written a ton of incredible pieces in the past). Every time the word Covid came up in the presser, I cringed. No one—fans especially, whose own lives have been impacted or turned upside down—will give the Flyers a pass due to Covid. The team as a whole is soft, turnover-prone, and lacks stable defensemen. A sniper would help, too. Fletch gets paid to address all issues...if he can’t find a way....next!

Voracek played the best two-way season of his NHL career last year. Really busted it on the back check, weak-side coverage , shift discipline buy-in and helping clear the D-zone, although he didn't get much attention for it. That was not consistently the case this year. He had a lot of company.
- bmeltzer

What’s frustrating is he is very capable of playing that way. Like you said he did it the whole year last year. I hate him

A playoff bubble team for a decade under achieved , you don’t say. Best chance when we lost to rangers in 7, god rest his soul but Razor couldn’t move side to side and got the first 3 games that series.
- ClaudeFather

There is a reason why G could barely/not make team Canada during the stretch of time 3-5 year period when he lead the NHL points. His peers know what he is as a hockey player

There is a reason why G could barely/not make team Canada during the stretch of time 3-5 year period when he lead the NHL points. His peers know what he is as a hockey player
- Fopa21

Sweet dude

Everything?

I confess to having mixed feelings about it. I love the energy and the spirit, and I love the public spaces and the culture and how they can afford to maintain it. I love the rush of energy I get when I get off the train in Penn Station.

But in the last 30 years, the city has become like Dubai. Only the rich live there, the poor travel to serve them, and the tourists come and gape at everything. It no longer symbolizes the proletarian spirit of "you can make it": it does now only to fools.

It wasn't like that when I changed coasts. There were a lot of bookshops scattered all around, lower East Side was the center of a bohemian culture.

Now its all money, crassness, money, crassness, money. A distilled version of America.

EDIT: talking about Manhattan, technically, and down from Columbia (excluding upper Harlem).
- PT21

I grew up in the NYC shadows (10 miles from Times Square). I never got the appeal. I'm a suburbs kind of guy.

So Voracek was the only regular not to have postseason media availability? hummm...

You don’t suppose it was anything to do with the early media incident this year. Was he there for the coach and GM exit interviews?
- NC Flyers Fan

The last two are mandatory, I assume.

Team issues:
1. Leadership needs a change not good enough
2. Provy to many minutes not a true #1
3. Sanheim to many minutes a 4 at best
4. Myers to many minutes a 5/6 at best
5. No true sniper
6. To soft of a team
- Fopa21

A lot of this is true. I let Giroux finish out his contract and then move on. I think Couturier would make a fine Captain.

There is a reason why G could barely/not make team Canada during the stretch of time 3-5 year period when he lead the NHL points. His peers know what he is as a hockey player
- Fopa21

What was he? A bad hockey player? Despite, as you said, leading the league in points in that 3-5 year period?

Do not count out Braun being chosen. He’s better than ghost or hagg (way cheaper than ghost). Would bring a solid vet into a new expansion team environment. The more I think about it the more I think it could be him.