8* — The seed the Flyers have in the Eastern Conference Playoffs this year. Right? I mean, okay, they have the seventh-best point total, but they’re being forced to play the top seed in the first round, so they’re the eighth-seed, as it goes in my book. This is exciting for folks like me who have little to no lives who realize that the Flyers have never before been the #8 seed.
The Flyers have been every other 1-7 seed, though, and they’ve won series (what an uninstinctual plural noun, screw you English) from every number. As you’ll see, it hasn’t mattered all that much, and there’s been just about zero correlation between seeding and success for the Flyboys.
Here are the Flyers’ best efforts by seeding since 1994, when the format switched to being the 1-8 seedings.
#1 — Conference finals in 1995 and 2000. Two heartbreakers against the Devils, who honestly I forget still exist most days.
#2 — Second round in 2011. Not their best, but was the middle part of a swell three-year streak of second round appearances.
#3 — Stanley Cup finals in 1997. Their best seed, also the number they rode to a Conference Final game 7 in 2004.
#4 — Second round in 2003. Cechmanek. Weird times.
#5 — Second round in 2012, after easily the weirdest series in recent Flyers history against the Penguins.
#6 — Conference finals in 2008. Included an opening round win against the Capitals, which was fun.
#7 — Stanley Cup finals in 2010. Out of nowhere, not clinching to the final weekend, their best effort this century.
#8* — TBD 2016.
Looking back to when the playoffs were in divisional format previously, back in the Patrick Division days, the Flyers were only the bottom #4 seed once, in 1989. That year, they beat the top-seeded Capitals in the first round before beating the #2-seeded Penguins (who beat the #3-seeded Rangers in the first round) to reach the conference finals. That’d be a neato script to reboot now that we’ve recast all the roles identically.
Go Flyers. Please win.
