Oh, Flyers fans. I am FIRED up about this one. It takes a lot of nonsense, tomfoolery, and debauchery to get me going out of my shell but here we are.
This morning, I saw something so outrageous, so egregious and so ass-backwards that I couldn’t help myself but write this one. So, let’s get started.
Could you imagine living in a world where a team’s top 6 forwards in Claude Giroux, Jake Voracek, Kevin Hayes, Sean Couturier, Travis Konecny, and JVR combine for an overwhelming 13 goals in 15 playoff games? HA only in Philly, right?
But even worse, imagine BLAMING THE BOTTOM SIX for the Flyers playoff struggles? WHAT. The richest men in a country can blame the coal miners for the struggles of a nation too, right?? HOLY HELL.
Oh Heavens, I get it. Sometimes people’s emotions get the best of them and they like to misguide anger at the people who don’t deserve it. But to put those failures and losses on the backs of their bottom six?? Those are the guys who continued to outplay their position early on in the playoffs. It’s not their fault they had no support from $8.275mil, $8.25mil, $7.142mil, $7.000mil, $5.5mil and $4.33mil.
For those that struggle with math, like me (after 3 hours of rigorous typing into the calculator), that equals $40,500,000 from those top 6 forwards. FORTY MILLION FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS!!
$40,500,000/13 playoff goals = A BIG F***ING PROBLEM. (Real Answer: $3.12mil per goal)
I think the biggest misconception about this Flyers team in the playoffs has been the unreasonable reliance/expectation on their bottom-6 scoring. During the Round Robin, that’s all they had and we continued to expect NAK, Raffl, Laughts, Beezer to perform way above expectations.
— Johnny (Flyers) Hockey (@FlyersJohnny) September 1, 2020
YOU CANNOT EXPECT YOUR BOTTOM SIX TO WIN YOUR PLAYOFF GAMES.
Listen, it’s a team game. But when some people on the Flyers twitter machine have the audacity to blame the bottom six guys…I mean, really? The guys who win face-offs, fore-check, block shots, grind on the boards…are those really the guys to blame there, fellas?
The three most struggling Flyers (G, JVR, Niskanen) have scored the 3 goals tonight. Hockey Gods, if you're listening, it would be a darn shame if Travis Konecny got one too.
— Johnny (Flyers) Hockey (@FlyersJohnny) September 2, 2020
Narrator: Travis Konecny did not score.
The front office has a lot of work to do this off-season and bringing back bottom six guys like Nicolas Aube-Kubel and Tyler Pitlick would be extremely beneficial to this team.
Do not think for one second that those overachieving bottom six guys let them down in the playoffs.
Follow me on Twitter @FlyersJohnny
Photo Credit: NHL.com
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