As if we needed any more reminders about how far away the Flyers are from being a competitive hockey team, last week Trevor Zegras has to go out there and rub this in our faces too:
Look, the Flyers have already been mathematically eliminated from the playoffs and there’s nothing left but to play out the string. That being said, while there are prospects and fringe players vying for positions next year, there really isn’t much for the veterans to gain from these remaining dozen games other than “don’t get hurt.”
We are going to (and should) lose a majority of these remaining games. Why not try to have as much fun as possible and do cool stuff like this?
Like, for real Flyers, there isn’t any real reason left to play and there is nothing to lose. So, why not just quit the charade and just go full YOLO?
The only one stopping the players from doing fun-Zegras-esque moves are the players themselves. It’s not like Michigan-ing pucks is a hard thing to do. Check it out:
This whole rant/tangent/brain dump is sort of tongue in cheek. This season has been long and with no clear path for this team to significantly improve, we could all use a little levity.
So, while the Tyson Nash’s of the world can kick rocks, I’m not really suggesting that the Flyers just throw the games out the window and only attempt trick shots…but I’m also NOT not suggesting that it would be super fun to watch.
The point is that when I watch Zegras do this once a month, it really makes me miss Claude Giroux because he was not only the identity of this team, he was the only one who would score awesome and fun goals. On a deeper level, this season has made it abundantly clear that the Flyers need high-skilled players to make high-skilled plays just as we saw Toronto’s Austen Matthews, Mitch Marner, and John Tavares be like, ‘nah, we’re calling game.’
Whatever this team looks like next year, it will need more high-level skilled plays from its top players to be able to compete in the modern NHL. Since I know they are all avid readers of BSH, hey Joel Farabee, Travis Konecny, and future Flyers first round pick, do more cool stuff like this!
… or else our continual loop of “being 3-5 years away” will be un-ending.
