The Flyers apparently aren’t one of the top 10 teams in the NHL

Remember how the Flyers finished the 2019-20 regular season with the sixth-most points in the NHL? And how they were tied for the second-most points from November until COVID-19 paused the NHL’s season? And how they were one win away from advancing to the Easter Conference Final?

Well, none of that matters, because the Flyers were actually not all that good last season. In fact, according to the experts, the Flyers aren’t even a top-10 team!

Listen. It’s hard to argue against this list. The Tampa Bay Lightning? Obviously a good team. After all, they just won the Stanley Cup! But the Pittsburgh Penguins? The team that somehow got eliminated by the Montreal Canadiens in the play-in round of the postseason? Yeah, the Flyers clearly just can’t contend with that. For Pete’s sake, it’s not like they beat the team Pittsburgh lost to just a couple weeks later in six games.

The Edmonton Oilers? Folks, there’s no way around it. This squad might just be the best team in the history of hockey. Sure, they failed to make it past the Chicago Goddamn Blackhawks in their play-in series, but you know what they have that no other team has? That’s right, baby. Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl. With (*checks notes*) Mike Smith and Mikko Koskinen in net, it’s hard to imagine any team scoring on Edmonton, let alone the Philadelphia Flyers. And with that defensive core? Led by Darnell Nurse and Ethan Bear? The Flyers wouldn’t stand a chance! An absolute juggernaut from top to bottom.

And then, of course, there’s the Washington Capitals. Yeah, the Flyers got a few good bounces against Washington — they outscored the Caps by only nine goals in their four meetings last season. But clearly that was just the hockey gods showing pity for a Flyers team so desperate to play even mediocre hockey. At the end of the day, the Flyers would never stand a chance against the Capitals at their best. And with the legendary Henrik Lundqvist — who’s still incredibly, unbelievably good — now in Washington, all the Flyers can do is just strap on their skates, meander around the rink and hope to God that “The King” shows them an inkling of mercy.

Okay. Now that all that nonsense is out of the way, let’s get somewhat serious.

It appears certain individuals (or groups of individuals) have learned how to get serious engagement numbers from the Philadelphia market — by not including the Flyers on their super special, absolutely 100% correct lists. For whatever reason, despite the Flyers having an objectively outstanding campaign in 2019-20 under Jack Adams nominee Alain Vigneault, they still just don’t seem to get the love they deserve from pundits around the league.

Why is it that the Flyers never seem to get any respect from the “experts” out there? Perhaps it has more to do with sustained success. The Flyers’ 2019-20 season — though very good — was the team’s first truly successful season in a very long time. They won their first playoff series in nearly a decade and hung in there with some of the league’s powerhouse teams for much of the season. But now the Flyers need to prove they aren’t just a one-year wonder. If they want to be considered a top-10 team by the NHL on NBC Sports Twitter account next year, which should clearly be their No. 1 priority, they’ll need to continue their upward trajectory. And then maybe — just maybe — the Flyers will become the top-10 club we know they already are.