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The Flyers Are...Entertaining? (PST Episode 538) · The Philadelphia Sports Table | Philly Sports News & Views

• 0:00
  Hey, everybody, it's Jeff. Wanted to let you know. This podcast
• 0:02
  episode was recorded on Wednesday, November one, twenty twenty three, so by
• 0:07
  the time you hear this, some things may have changed, but we hope
• 0:09
  you enjoy the show. All right, everybody, you're listening to the Philadelphia
• 0:38
  Sports Table podcast show, the longest running weekly Philly sports podcast show in the
• 0:42
  world, over ten and a half years strong. We've got a great show
• 0:45
  for you this week. Sixers talk, Eagles Talk, We've got some Phillies
• 0:49
  talk, and yes, some Flyers talk. That's what we're throwing down on
• 0:53
  the table this week. I'm Jeff Warren and I'm here my good buddy Eric
• 0:56
  Leonard. How are you doing, Eric, I'm good man. Thanks for
• 0:58
  inviting me. Even though it's a Flyers show kind of view for the interview,
• 1:00
  you know, I have no interest at all. But man, we've
• 1:06
  got a lot of stuff going on personal lives. Like we just talked,
• 1:08
  I think I cocked it in it twenty two minutes before the show. Holy
• 1:11
  crap. Yeah, you got an election coming up. I'm gonna I start
• 1:15
  coaching in tomorrow. So it's yeah, we're that's kind of our pathways.
• 1:21
  It sounds like for the rest of our lives or until you know my kids
• 1:25
  are grown. But exactly sounds great. Yeah, but that's it's like our
• 1:27
  hobbies. You know, you have a child that's getting ready to drive.
• 1:30
  For God's sake, I remember when your child was born, and now,
• 1:34
  all of a sudden, you have a child that's getting ready to drive.
• 1:38
  I cannot believe that this is happening. I can't believe this is life right
• 1:42
  now. Yeah, my son starts Basketbaltimore, but yeah, bigger stories.
• 1:46
  My daughter goes for a license in to twenty seven days. She has her
• 1:51
  miles under her belt and she's probably gonna pass. And then, oh my
• 1:55
  god, that first time she goes out by herself. I'm just gonna be
• 1:57
  on my phone the whole time. Just text me as soon as you get
• 2:02
  where. I know you're going to Turkey Hill just three blocks away. You
• 2:06
  need to text me soon you get there. Yes, I can't imagine how
• 2:10
  that's gonna be with my daughters. I just cannot imagine how that's gonna be.
• 2:15
  It's got an old man. These first time things are still happening here.
• 2:20
  You know, you have your kids at a certain age, you go
• 2:22
  through all the first all the benchmarks, and then it still happens. It's
• 2:27
  still and I know this is common sense. I know, and I don't.
• 2:30
  You know, they're kids, you know they're gonna have a ton of
• 2:31
  milestones in first But Jesus, this is I don't know. I'm just going
• 2:36
  crazy because this freaking campaign in this race and this election that I'm in right
• 2:39
  now. Can't get too deep into it because if I do, I may
• 2:44
  have to file campaign expense things, believe it or not. But November seventh,
• 2:49
  folks, that'll be the day and we're gonna find out whether or not
• 2:52
  I will become a Northampton County Commissioner. And it's it's been a long twenty
• 2:59
  twenty with regard to this race. It really as man. Yeah, we
• 3:04
  do the show the next night, right, so we'll be able to announce
• 3:07
  win or lose, right for you if I'm still alive. Yes, yeah,
• 3:13
  yeah, Well I hope, I hope you're alive. If you win,
• 3:15
  that would like, does does your wife become the does she take does
• 3:20
  she take the mantle? That's a great questions. Yeah, that's that's a
• 3:23
  great question. I couldn't see Michelle doing that. But It's a really great
• 3:28
  question because there was that weird like when Sonny Bono died from that weird skiing
• 3:31
  accident, didn't his wife become like the senator or the member of Congress.
• 3:37
  Yeah, well, I think there might have been a special election and she
• 3:38
  ran for the seed I think, and she won the special election for I
• 3:42
  forget her last time. I actually forget her name. I can't believe it.
• 3:46
  Who is it? It was Bono Bono? Yeah, yeah, missus
• 3:51
  Bono. All right, let's get to some Philly sports talk. Here we
• 3:59
  saw we've do. Sound like a bunch of old old fuddy dotties. That's
• 4:02
  what we sound like we are. I mean like we're two middle aged,
• 4:08
  late forties men talking about this. That's what the show is like cats.
• 4:13
  All right, well, why don't we get into some sixers talk because we
• 4:16
  got to get into the trade, folks. I can't believe it actually happened,
• 4:20
  you know, I mean, I guess, yes, yes, we're
• 4:25
  talking about it. A couple months ago. I even said, like,
• 4:27
  you know, I'm like, it's gotta happen at some point in October,
• 4:30
  And it actually happened, like right at the end of October. Here James
• 4:32
  Harden, as we know, finally traded. The saga is now over.
• 4:38
  But I I love what happened with this particular trade here, and I honestly
• 4:44
  think the Sixers did as good as they possibly could have. So the Sixers,
• 4:50
  they give away James Harden, PJ. Tucker as well, Philip Petrsev
• 4:58
  as well, but they get Nicholas Batim, roco Is coming back baby,
• 5:02
  Robert Covington, kJ Martin, Marcus Morris, an unprotected twenty twenty eight first
• 5:09
  round pick that's via the Clippers twenty twenty six first round pick via via the
• 5:14
  thunder first round pick swap, and it's two second round picks. Uh and
• 5:19
  in the future as well, and uh it's it's a great it's a it
• 5:25
  was a great trade here too. And I can't believe they ended up getting
• 5:29
  all this Eric It's it might be the best case scenario for this team where
• 5:35
  kind of where they're sitting with the hard situation like that. I have so
• 5:40
  many time, I have so many bullet points here for this for this trade
• 5:42
  is let's get into it. It's kind of a complicated trade when you really
• 5:46
  dig into it. But I got to give kudos to Josh Harris and Daryl
• 5:49
  Morey, because there were there was a there was a scenario, but this
• 5:54
  was just going to go on and on and on, and he was going
• 5:57
  to be on the team but not playing, Yeah, and just be a
• 6:00
  nuisance and and and a complete distraction and not even be with the team.
• 6:05
  And it could have easily went on went in like well into the All Star
• 6:11
  break in February. But to get it, to get this done three games
• 6:14
  into the season is pretty remarkable. Considering my first bullet point, you had
• 6:19
  no other bidders but the Clippers. That's it. I'm always shocked by a
• 6:25
  team that gives up anything when there's no other. There's no other, there's
• 6:30
  no one else, no one else at the table, like who you're negotiating
• 6:33
  with, Like we'll take James hardness that we're going to give you. No,
• 6:36
  I'm leaving the table like that. That's what I would have been as
• 6:40
  a Clippers GM or owner. But I can't believe they gave up pretty much.
• 6:46
  They gave it four players essentially forty one million dollars in expiring deals is
• 6:49
  what it was. Yeah, but I'll go to my second point then here
• 6:55
  that the four players you got are nice rotational players and if you want if
• 7:00
  the deal this is, this is a deal before the next deal essentially if
• 7:05
  you look it on paper. But the players you have and you look at
• 7:09
  the roster now, they have a nice bench, they have a solid starting
• 7:13
  five, a nice bench. They're actually I think they're a better shaped now
• 7:15
  than they were because all they gave up was PJ. Tucker. And that's
• 7:18
  what I was going to ask you. I actually think this bench situation for
• 7:21
  them, And we were coming into this, we were coming into this year
• 7:25
  thinking, Okay, the bench situation is actually not that bad. It's pretty
• 7:29
  good. It's even better now. I think, well, I think we
• 7:33
  did a show a month ago when you were like one of the topics was
• 7:36
  that you're You're like, I like this six Ers bench and I just went,
• 7:39
  no, I don't. I think it sucks. And it's actually legit
• 7:44
  now like Nick Batoom, Marcus Morris, and I think Roko is actually going
• 7:47
  to start and with the current roster because just because it defensively did I call
• 7:53
  him Nicholas Batim? Uh, you said, Nick Batim? Yeah, French
• 7:59
  guy. But that's all right. And they got kag Martin Junior who I
• 8:03
  actually like if they keep him around, I'm okay with that. He's kind
• 8:05
  of he's on a you can probably get him back on a cheap deal.
• 8:09
  But the bench is much better. The starting five is solid, and the
• 8:13
  way Embiid and Maxie been playing. Just in the first three games, I
• 8:15
  know they played two kind of piss pour teams. Yeah, but they should
• 8:18
  be three to Oh they should have beat the Bucks and the Maxi and bid
• 8:22
  two way two way, two man games. Like it's really solid, nice,
• 8:28
  I really and Maxi's kind of gone up another step. He was the
• 8:31
  player of the week for the first week in the NBA. And even even
• 8:35
  if they don't they get they gave themselves some breathing room. They don't have
• 8:39
  to make it another trade now for a superstar whatever, because this team's actually
• 8:43
  going to be pretty good. I think they're probably the third best team in
• 8:46
  the East. In watching the first week and a half of basketball that the
• 8:50
  Nicks and Caves are not like blowing me away. The Raptors and Heat are
• 8:56
  kind of a mess. I think the way the Sixers are currently constructed puts
• 8:58
  them in a solid position to be a top three Eastern team and keep this
• 9:03
  roster in place until the next superstar the next like bad team wants to trade
• 9:07
  away some good assets, and god knows they have Like here, here's the
• 9:11
  best part of the trades. Like they actually like have they actually have a
• 9:16
  treasure chest again, they've picks assets. Yeah, go ahead, No,
• 9:22
  I was gonna say, it's incredible how they had absolutely nothing heading into the
• 9:26
  next heading into this particular draft this past year, they had nothing at all.
• 9:31
  Now, like you just said, it's a it's a treasure chest full
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  of freaking picks and assets. Yeah, and the twenty twenty eight Clippers first
• 9:39
  round are unprotected. Is got to be one of the juiciest picks out in
• 9:43
  the trade market. But that's in all in the NBA. Because there's what
• 9:50
  the Clippers did, is they not only did they go all in, they
• 9:52
  went all all in with this roster. Like this, this is an old
• 9:56
  roster. Three of the players on Harden, Paul George and Kawhi Leonard are
• 10:01
  all free agents next year. They're they're gonna have They're probably going to try
• 10:05
  and bring it back. Steve bamber as a bazillionaire. He doesn't care,
• 10:09
  He'll just sign him. By twenty twenty eight that the Clippers team might be
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  atrocious, which makes that pick like a huge trade asset. Not to mention
• 10:20
  that. If you want to, if you want to hurt your brain,
• 10:22
  go read about the twenty twenty six pick, because there are there's a Houston
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  pick involved OKC Clippers with swaps and top four protections. Chances are that pick
• 10:33
  is going to be the worst of the OKAC picks. But that might wind
• 10:37
  up being like the twentieth pick of the twentieth pick of the draft in twenty
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  twenty six, which is not that far off. It's only two years from
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  the next draft, right right, So like my god, they have forty
• 10:48
  one million in expiring deals, they have these picks again, they have their
• 10:50
  own pick next year. I don't think they can trade that one though,
• 10:54
  But regardless, the future picks they have are just you have plenty enough now
• 11:00
  to go. If I like Zach's if I think Zach Levine could help us
• 11:03
  win, let's go get him. If I think I think Darryl Morries should
• 11:07
  be like, let's wait for the next like unhappy superstar, I think that's
• 11:11
  what he's probably gonna do. And January February comes around that that happens.
• 11:16
  Now you have the assets to do it. And in the meantime, though,
• 11:18
  what why this trade is so good as you actually have a decent roster
• 11:22
  to keep afloat to the near the top of the East. If you make
• 11:26
  that big deal, say the Bucks are not coming together, someone gets hurt
• 11:30
  for Porzingis goes down for the Celtics, which is absolutely possible. All of
• 11:33
  a sudden, you're like back in back in the hunt, whereas like two
• 11:37
  weeks ago, you're like, you heard me on the show on the six
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  Ers six Ers quote preview show. Yes, I was like this team sucks
• 11:45
  and this we're all going to hell. Yeah, Like now it's like,
• 11:48
  wow, this is actually the kind of promising. It does look that way,
• 11:52
  But I really want to dive into a story and report that just came
• 11:56
  out with regard to and and with regard to Daryl, but specifically, you
• 12:01
  know what his role was in this and if he was quote forced into accepting
• 12:07
  this offer, because reports came out that Josh Harris and Clippers owner Steve Baumer,
• 12:13
  they were on the phone, you know, quote ironing out the final
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  details of this trade. And again something that was reported and from legitimate sources
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  as well. But the idea that Daryl Moury was forced into accepting this,
• 12:26
  it makes me. It makes me think, what is his role going to
• 12:30
  be moving forward if this is accurate? And listen, you know we have
• 12:33
  seen it time and time again throughout the NBA where something something so small,
• 12:39
  this little nugget of information gets blown up into something big, and I know
• 12:43
  we're talking about it here. However, I wonder if there's any validity to
• 12:48
  this. I mean, Darryl Mory still here, He's still the general manager.
• 12:50
  Josh Harris apparently still has trust in him with this roster, with this
• 12:54
  organization moving it forward in the future. Nothing would lead me necessarily to believe
• 13:00
  that Daryl Morey is on the hot seat at all here. But I just
• 13:03
  thought the report was interesting. What did you think about it when you heard
• 13:07
  it? I had some mental thoughts. I kind of thought the outline of
• 13:11
  the trade was already kind of in place without some of the details between Maury
• 13:16
  and whoever the Clippers GM is, I'm not even sure. And then it
• 13:20
  went to the owners, who are two of the biggest ego owners in the
• 13:26
  NBA. Yeah, with Harrison Bomber, so I feel like the trade was
• 13:30
  already kind of in place, and then kind of the swinging dick part of
• 13:33
  the negotiation started with billionaires. And I have no doubt that those two have
• 13:41
  like a heavy pr people around them, and maybe they put that story out
• 13:45
  to the We kind of figured this one out. That one surprised me,
• 13:48
  but I did have this in my notes too. You cannot downplay the benefit
• 13:54
  of having if you're the other team on the other side, you know,
• 13:58
  making the trade. You cannot downplay the benefit of having an owner who's an
• 14:03
  absolute bazillionaire and kind of a lunatic and just wants to get stars in the
• 14:07
  building, especially at building that he's building brand new right now. And Steve
• 14:11
  Baumer, I think, because the Clippers have always been kind of the black
• 14:16
  sheep of the LA basketball scene, they have a new arena, you know,
• 14:20
  next next year, and it's I mean, it's state of the art.
• 14:22
  I've already seen some of the pictures and stuff, and it's gonna be
• 14:24
  amazing. But they're never gonna be the Lakers, right right. So Bomber
• 14:28
  is like, well, how about I get four Southern California dudes that are
• 14:33
  quote NBA superstars that all four of them are from Sokel and I can sell
• 14:39
  that, I can put it on T shirts, I can put banners up.
• 14:43
  But meanwhile, it's like, well, but do you have a basketball
• 14:46
  team right? That team is not beating the Denver Nuggets. That team's I
• 14:50
  don't think a team's beating the Golden State Warriors. Don't think the Lakers way
• 14:52
  constructed. It's it's it's one of those most all in moves I've ever seen
• 15:00
  in sports history. Maybe like you are tied to this team. Now you
• 15:03
  have no outs, there's zero all of your picks for the remainder of this
• 15:07
  decade, which is insane. This is only twenty twenty three. They have
• 15:11
  no picks, they're gone, So this has to work. Yeah, I
• 15:15
  don't think it's going to, which highly benefits the Sixers future picks they got
• 15:20
  from them. I love the Steve Bombers there as their owner because I think
• 15:24
  we just took advantage of his enthusiasm and billions of dollars because he's he can
• 15:28
  do whatever he wants right financially, and I think what this deal also does
• 15:31
  too. And I guess to end in the segment unless we want to also
• 15:35
  then get into you know, what we've seen in this short early part of
• 15:39
  the season. But I think what this has the opportunity to do eric is
• 15:45
  keep Joel Embiid happy. I think this trade in general shows Embiid that,
• 15:50
  you know what the organization really is trying to progress with something, you know,
• 15:54
  to make sure that there are assets for the future so that they can
• 15:58
  get a player that is going to compliment him, because you know, at
• 16:02
  the end of the day, if Embiid can continue to dish the ball effectively
• 16:07
  while you know, maintaining that scoring efficiency, the Sixers have a legitimate shot
• 16:11
  at being contenders in this league. And I think opposing teams are going to
• 16:15
  be forced a game plan around around that notion as well, which is going
• 16:19
  to lead to just increased offensive output and specifically from him too. And at
• 16:25
  the end of the day, I think what this deal does is that it's
• 16:29
  going to enhance his ability to do what he should be doing on the court
• 16:33
  and getting a complimentary piece brought in at some point too, and again it's
• 16:38
  more incentive for Joel Embiid to perhaps stay in Philadelphia, and ultimately, aside
• 16:45
  from just the assets that it has given this organization, it's I think it's
• 16:49
  gonna help Joel Embiid long term as well. It's got to be a huge
• 16:53
  upside for keeping em Bead around that you got this done three games end of
• 16:57
  the year rather than with this drag out number one. I'm sure there was
• 17:00
  an I'm sure there was a post conversation with him saying, hey, this
• 17:04
  is just the first move. We we believe in this, we have assets.
• 17:08
  Now we're going to go out and get people to help put around you
• 17:11
  to win this thing. But I will say too, and you know,
• 17:15
  to talk about how how the early part of the season has gone so far.
• 17:21
  I love Nick nurses coaching so far. Yes, he he focuses really
• 17:25
  heavy on defense and distributing the ball, and but he's also smart enough to
• 17:30
  go, you know what, I have Maxie and Embiid. They can score
• 17:33
  like hell. And that's kind of what he did up in Toronto when he
• 17:36
  had Kawi, Pascal Siakam, he had Fred Fred Van Fleet. He's he's
• 17:41
  a smart coach. It's like I'm gonna I'm gonna missige my superstars. He
• 17:45
  only ever had one in his career pretty much. But I'm also going to
• 17:48
  distribute the ball and like and you see that in MAXI now, like he's
• 17:52
  not a superstar, but he's like this, this dude can score. Man,
• 17:56
  like let him let him cook. And I think keeping Maxie in the
• 18:00
  mix of scoring wise and the front office talking to him be saying, hey,
• 18:06
  we made this deal, we are all in, dude, I hope
• 18:07
  you're still with us, and now we have assets to make this even better.
• 18:11
  And we brought in some veteran guys to to kind of supplement the roster
• 18:15
  until we make that move. I think, I mean, there's really no
• 18:19
  downside of this trade. It's all upside. And again, I can't fathom
• 18:26
  Jeff, like, you know, I would love to run a team someday.
• 18:30
  I'm never going to, you know, but I just I can't imagine
• 18:34
  going to the negotiation table and being like, well, now I've got you
• 18:40
  where I want you, and you're like, no, you're the only person
• 18:44
  here, like it's yourself. Because that's really what the Clippers were doing in
• 18:48
  this situation. It really is astonishing, it really is. But I mean,
• 18:52
  you were I mean just talking about you know, what we've seen on
• 18:55
  the court so far this year, and again, you know, they kicked
• 19:00
  the crap out of the Trailblazer. Trailblazers. We know they're not a good
• 19:03
  team, but it was really great to see the dynamic between Maxie and Embiid
• 19:08
  in this early and given the situation that was surrounding this team as well,
• 19:14
  and they were out there or just balling it out, able to get it
• 19:18
  done. I mean, Joel Embiid is what fined fifteen thousand dollars for stupid
• 19:22
  for the stupid DX? Now thirty five grand? Oh, thirty five grand?
• 19:26
  Is that what it was? Okay for the stupid DX? That gets
• 19:29
  so old? I hippily you pulled that out anyway, It's awesome, I
• 19:33
  know, but still it's it's been fun to watch the team on the court.
• 19:40
  It really has. Yeah. And he the first game I thought he
• 19:45
  looked a little disengaged shape, which he usually does in the beginning of the
• 19:48
  season. The last two games, man, he's looked like he's having fun.
• 19:55
  Maybe he knew something that this trade might be happy. I have no
• 19:56
  clue, but he has looked really re engaged and really he's in an awesome
• 20:02
  situation. The Sixers are, I would say, because you've got a mini
• 20:06
  superstar in Maxie who has no ego yet he hasn't signed the big deal,
• 20:10
  so he is still trying to prove himself right. That is a perfect scenario
• 20:14
  when you have a superstar on possibly the verge of saying I don't like it
• 20:18
  here, So he's the perfect guy for that. You have Tobias Harris,
• 20:22
  who's playing really well, who's on an expiring deal. He's at the he's
• 20:26
  at the end of the rope for him. He's he has one more big
• 20:29
  contract coming, not big, but like just just to cash out his career.
• 20:34
  So he's going to be on his best behavior and playing his ass off
• 20:37
  and not trying to steal any minute or like trying to take any shine off
• 20:41
  Embiid. This really is like the perfect in Melton too. That's the thing
• 20:45
  with this team. They're all expiring deals like next year. The only guaranteed
• 20:48
  deal is Embiid. Every other player including James Springer. You could actually wipe
• 20:53
  off the books next year if you wanted to. I mean, Maxie,
• 20:56
  no way. But that's where that's where you're at find financially and just where
• 21:00
  some of these players are in their career. It's actually the perfect scenario to
• 21:04
  keep him beat around because they're not they're not gonna like, there's no bullshit,
• 21:08
  They're not gonna be James Harden going or won't we do you No,
• 21:11
  they just want they just want to play and make money next year. It's
• 21:15
  actually like, I don't know. I can't believe. I went from like
• 21:18
  I was just gonna say this is gonna burn in hell. I was gonna
• 21:22
  say, I'm actually positive about two weeks ago you were shit on your shoes
• 21:26
  out of luck, and now you're like singing a different tune. Dude,
• 21:30
  we're Philadelphia fans, and I was just protecting my exactly exactly all right.
• 21:37
  Well, before we head to our break, we wanted to talk about this
• 21:40
  Philadelphia Eagles team as well, and just started real quick talking about you know,
• 21:47
  I mean, well, the fact that trade deadline came and and went
• 21:51
  at this point and there were no last minute type of things, big moves
• 21:56
  that the Eagles made. However, as we know before for this past Sundays
• 22:00
  game against Miami Dolphins, Eagles acquired Kevin Byard from the Tennessee Titans, and
• 22:08
  I gotta tell you it was absolutely needed. We've been talking on this podcast
• 22:11
  and several other podcasts out there, been talking about the fact that this team
• 22:15
  just absolutely needed some defensive backfield help. Bayard has twenty seven interceptions since being
• 22:22
  drafted by the Titans in twenty sixteen. He was named a first team All
• 22:26
  Pro in twenty seventeen and twenty twenty one, and finished the twenty twenty two
• 22:30
  season with one hundred and eight tackles and four interceptions. He has forty seven
• 22:33
  tackles in six games this season, the first six games that he played this
• 22:38
  season. So yes, he's thirty years old, but he really gives the
• 22:42
  Eagles some veteran leadership and just some really really good safety playing skills. Eric,
• 22:49
  it was a fantastic move overall. It's just another one of those deals
• 22:53
  in a long line of like sneaky good deals by Howie. Yeah, and
• 22:57
  for something. The Titans just seem to be revolving door for us, just
• 23:02
  going just take their players away, which is fine. I love it.
• 23:07
  I mean the A. J. Brown deal basically lost the Titans GM his
• 23:11
  job, you know, and I maybe we'll take it. Maybe we'll get
• 23:15
  the next guy's job taken away. I don't know it was, you know,
• 23:18
  Tommy Tennessee whatever his name is, But I what what a deal,
• 23:22
  right, like they got him for nothing, and it's smart because like what
• 23:27
  we saw some of the other deals that happened, like right at the deadline,
• 23:30
  they teams giving up second third round picks for players that who knows they're
• 23:36
  going to help, right, I'd rather get those guys like you already have
• 23:40
  a great team, just plug in like the holes you have, not even
• 23:44
  holes, just like let's just beat this position up. Let's just beat this
• 23:45
  position position up here. And he's so good at that, and uh,
• 23:51
  they're in a great spot. And I'm glad they didn't make some like gigantic
• 23:55
  like trade where they traded like like the Bears for Montes sweat trade we talked
• 23:57
  about for the show, Like yeah, second round pick for a defensive end
• 24:03
  is on the inspiring deal of his contract? What are you doing? Like
• 24:06
  how he doesn't make those moves it was a GM makes when he's desperate and
• 24:10
  he might lose his job someday, Like how he doesn't do that because he
• 24:12
  has security and he knows what hell he's doing. Yeah, absolutely, we'd
• 24:15
  love to know what you're thinking about this Philadelphia sports table at gmail dot com.
• 24:18
  We'd love to read your email here in the show and respond to it.
• 24:22
  But sticking with the Eagles really quick. You know, it's amazing the
• 24:26
  Eagles this past week held the NFL's number one offense to just seventeen points,
• 24:30
  one offensive touchdown, and two hundred and forty five total yards. I mean,
• 24:34
  that's basically unheard of, especially when you're down a starting safety and a
• 24:38
  nickel corner in this league. But you know what, that wasn't the conversation
• 24:42
  really this past week. It wasn't the conversation that people wanted to have.
• 24:47
  You know, especially in the media. Everyone's talking about the brotherly shove or
• 24:52
  the legality of the push push once again, and we haven't necessarily talked about
• 24:56
  it in too much detail on this show, but we're gonna get into it
• 25:00
  this week. Look, it's annoying for other teams because they can't stop it,
• 25:04
  but the fact of the matter is that it really kills me that defensive
• 25:08
  coordinators like Jack del Rio down down in Washington are saying, you know,
• 25:14
  I'd like to personally see it eliminated, not just because they run it better
• 25:18
  than anybody, but I don't think it's a football play. It's a rugby
• 25:22
  play. You know what, Jack, shut up? I am so tired
• 25:26
  of this particular narrative. The Philadelphia Eagles implemented a play in in professional football
• 25:36
  where they technically, you know, only need to go nine yards because that
• 25:41
  last yard is basically a given at this point because they have perfected this play.
• 25:47
  The New York Giants tried running this play weeks ago their rookie center and
• 25:52
  tight end. They were injured while trying to execute the play in the first
• 25:55
  quarter. It was the game against the Seattle Seahawks, and they failed to
• 26:00
  hear it. Tons of teams are failing to convert this eric. But look,
• 26:06
  I don't think it's completely unstoppable. It's like, stop the play.
• 26:08
  Stop the play. If you don't like it, just stop it. And
• 26:11
  it's not that, you know, quarterback sneaks are unstoppable. Quarterback sneaks only
• 26:15
  have a thirteen point four percent success rate so far this year, according to
• 26:22
  Kylen Kaylor of The Athletic I mean, that's a relatively high mark, but
• 26:26
  it obviously doesn't point to anything being unstoppable. So this narrative that the brotherly
• 26:34
  shove needs to be eliminated. And look, the owners tried talking about it
• 26:38
  earlier this year too. They were basically split on whether or not to ban
• 26:42
  this particular play. And I mean, do I think something is gonna happen
• 26:47
  at some point down the road, probably because there's a lot of butt hurt
• 26:51
  owners out there, and they of course they have all the money. But
• 26:56
  I think I think people really need to stop the narrative with this. The
• 26:59
  Eagles have actually perfected a play like nobody else in the NFL. Eric they're
• 27:03
  using it to their advantage. They're advancing the football on a football field.
• 27:07
  It is a football play. I don't understand why people say it's not.
• 27:11
  It needs to stay around at least in my opinion. What are your thoughts
• 27:15
  here? Well, Number one, Jack del You're you're a loser multi time.
• 27:22
  I mean, how many head coaching jobs do you have? Just bombed
• 27:25
  out? Yeah, there's nothing sadder than a like an just an Also like
• 27:30
  a guy that how many how many coaching jobs? How many assistant coaching jobs
• 27:34
  has he had? That he just like you, you coach the defense of
• 27:38
  the Washington Comes and like you have an opinion at this point, I dude,
• 27:44
  like shut up like that. Yeah, anyway, he's screw him.
• 27:51
  This place. The controversy around it, like really strikes me is just bizarre
• 27:56
  because the NFL like loves its history. You know, it's always this game
• 28:00
  trying It's always a game trying to like go forward, and you see in
• 28:03
  the passing stats and like all the offensive stuff happening. That's always trying to
• 28:07
  but also tries to have one foot in history and that the tush push,
• 28:11
  brotherly shove, whenever, whatever you want to call it. Hearkens back to
• 28:15
  like in nineteen forties style of football that like I don't know why it's why
• 28:19
  would it be deemed I legal? Like it's a running play essentially, and
• 28:23
  I could see teams back then doing it like Harvard versus Yale nineteen forty five,
• 28:29
  like running this like they probably ran this play first down for God's sake,
• 28:33
  because it not how to play football back then. But I never understood,
• 28:36
  like, what what is the controversy with this play because he's being pushed
• 28:40
  or well here, this is what I love is that folks are complaining that
• 28:45
  it's going to cause injuries. Okay, these are the these are these are
• 28:48
  the same folks complaining about the play causing injuries. Yet I don't hear too
• 28:55
  many complaints about the NFL instituting an eighteen game regular season a few years ago.
• 29:00
  You know, I mean extra games on the schedule, you know,
• 29:03
  extra extra, extra hitting and stuff like that. You know, I give
• 29:07
  me a break. These are the same assholes that you know that don't complain
• 29:11
  about the eighteen eighteen game extension right of the games. Yeah. And also
• 29:18
  they're the same, you know, the same guys that whispered or like say
• 29:21
  to every buddies on Sunday, it ain't like it used to be, you
• 29:23
  know, And then they go on YouTube and watch like insane headhunter hits of
• 29:29
  the nineteen nineties, you know, like just like love those videos just because
• 29:33
  their team can't do it. We're the only team that can't do it because
• 29:34
  we we had to do it the best offensive line of football. It's the
• 29:40
  This is like one of the weirdest like controversies for me because, like I
• 29:45
  said to me, it's it's it harkens back to the old old style of
• 29:48
  football in the in the current like climate of like like this huge offense and
• 29:53
  forward passing. Yeah, I think it's kind of cool. I think it
• 29:56
  kind of like like it kind of reminds you, It kind of minds reminds
• 30:00
  people of like what football used to be. But I think because the injury
• 30:04
  thing is bullshit, absolutely, and I think because only one or two teams
• 30:07
  can do it, they have a problem with it right exactly. We'd love
• 30:11
  to know your thoughts again, Philadelphia Sports Table at gmail dot com. Let
• 30:15
  us know you're thinking about the tush push the brotherly shove. We'd love to
• 30:18
  read your email here on the show and respond to it. We are going
• 30:22
  to be going to a break, but first and foremost, if you are
• 30:25
  new to listening to us, subscribe on whatever podcast platform you are on,
• 30:29
  and if anything ever happens to your podcast feed, you can head on over
• 30:32
  to Philadelphia Sports Table dot com. We've got all of our shows over there,
• 30:36
  and you don't have to just shoot us off an email about the Eagles
• 30:40
  or the Sixers what we were talking about earlier in this show. We'd love
• 30:42
  to hear from you on anything in the world of Philly sports again, Philadelphia
• 30:47
  Sports Table at gmail dot com, and follow us on the socials as well.
• 30:51
  We are on Twitter at Philadelphia pst, follow Eric at Brick Paul,
• 30:55
  you can follow me at Jeffrey Underscore Warren, and we are on Instagram as
• 30:57
  well search us out there. Let's take a quick break to pay some bills.
• 31:02
  We'll be back in just a bit. All right, folks, We
• 31:04
  are back. And last week Eric lenn and I were doing the show,
• 31:11
  and it was a rough, rough start to that particular show because it was
• 31:17
  just basically he goes, yea, God bless him. He goes, I
• 31:22
  just don't want to be doing this right now. He goes, I just
• 31:25
  don't want to be doing it right now. Talking about the phillies. Yeah,
• 31:30
  he was at my house. I think it was last Thursday, Yeah,
• 31:33
  the day after the show, and I was like, how the sugar
• 31:34
  is? I had nothing? All I get about the phillies he did?
• 31:41
  He goes, He goes, I don't want you to take any offense to
• 31:44
  it. Please, listeners, don't take any offense to it's no offense to
• 31:45
  the show. I just he goes, I just don't want to be doing
• 31:49
  this right now. Actually laughed and I was just like, oh man,
• 31:55
  because it's like, of course it was a heartbreaker. Of course it was.
• 31:57
  You know, we've all been talking about it, we all have the
• 32:00
  feels about it and stuff, but you know, I think you know,
• 32:02
  it was important too for us you know, digesting the loss of the NLCS
• 32:08
  for this Phillies team. The fact of the matter is the window is not
• 32:13
  closed on this team for a potential championship, maybe even next year. The
• 32:16
  windows not closed. I mean, the core group of these guys are going
• 32:21
  to be back next year. But it leads into a discussion we wanted to
• 32:25
  have this week about Bryce Harper and where in the field Bryce Harper is going
• 32:30
  to play in twenty twenty four and beyond, because you know, we know
• 32:34
  he can play the outfield pretty well. This year he proved that he can
• 32:37
  play first base really really well. Maybe he plays a combination of both.
• 32:42
  How does this all affect Reecee Hoskins as well, who is coming off his
• 32:45
  ACL injury. And look, Reece Hoskins might not be a guy who's going
• 32:51
  to be playing ninety percent at first base, you know, and maybe Bryce
• 32:55
  will come in. Maybe it's only maybe, seriously, maybe Reece Hoskins only
• 32:59
  plays like sixty percent of games or so, and Reese Hoskins, I'm sorry,
• 33:02
  and Bryce Harper takes the other forty Who knows what's going to happen,
• 33:06
  But I think Bryce Harper and his ability his baseball ability in IQ is so
• 33:13
  tremendous, Eric that it's such an asset to this team in the field that
• 33:20
  you know they can bring Reese back on a one year deal, on a
• 33:22
  one year proven deal, and you know Bryce Harper can still be there to
• 33:27
  kind of like fill fill in the gaps here and there. I just think
• 33:30
  it's going to be interesting to follow this particular storyline as to what's going to
• 33:35
  happen with this Phillies team in the outfield and even in the infield. Yeah,
• 33:40
  Reee Hoskins return, his return to the team next year. I'm sure
• 33:45
  he's coming back for a one year deal. I'm not sure his contract status,
• 33:47
  but I'm sure he's going to come back next year. But that that's
• 33:52
  going to push someone out, which also like sets off a series of dominoes,
• 33:58
  Like where does Harper play then in the field. He he came back
• 34:00
  from injury and God bless him, man, Yeah to go to be like
• 34:04
  I'm going to play first base after Matt bad injury at age thirty one?
• 34:07
  Like what a like incredible man, like you like wow, But like,
• 34:16
  but hoskins return is a problem for the lineup and like where where do we
• 34:21
  put people in the out in the field, like does that push does that
• 34:24
  push marsh out? Where does that push Rojas out? And do you stick
• 34:29
  Marti? And center? Does? Does Castianis go to left? Does Harper
• 34:35
  go to right? Does? And then Hoskins plays first? And then do
• 34:37
  you platoon Harper and Hoskins first? And or whenever Hostins can't play because he's
• 34:44
  still like coming back from the a cl Yeah, there's a lot of a
• 34:46
  lot of weird decisions to be had, especially and then especially where do you
• 34:50
  play Harper in the field considering he's going to be thirty two next season?
• 34:54
  Like do you really want him playing first base at thirty two? Considering like
• 34:59
  what a violence wing or he is and still incredibly incredibly athletic, Like I'm
• 35:07
  not sure where to put him in the field, Like right right then you
• 35:09
  could like you could talk about putting bomb at first, but who who the
• 35:13
  hell do you put it third? I don't know. It's I'm happily,
• 35:17
  I'm happy I'm not the GM for the Phillies because that's a that's a tough
• 35:20
  one. I'm not sure where to put them. I think there's options though,
• 35:22
  too. I mean I think I think you kind of hit the nail
• 35:24
  on the head there. I mean, if Bryce Harper is going to play
• 35:28
  right field, perhaps Nick Cassianis goes over to left, and then you've got
• 35:31
  you know, Kyle Schwarber. Just get them out of the outfield. He's
• 35:35
  terrible in terms of his defense. You know, he could just be the
• 35:37
  d H at that point and and and I'd be completely completely fine with that.
• 35:43
  But there's options here. And again it's why I think that, you
• 35:45
  know, this window isn't closed on the team. As heartbreaking as this NLCS
• 35:50
  was, and man, they were on fire so much or early in this
• 35:54
  early in this postseason. But I don't know, I've just have and hope
• 36:00
  already for twenty twenty four. I really am Listen. As a longtime little
• 36:05
  league coach, you always have one kid on the team that you stick in
• 36:08
  right field the whole game and the gloves his gloves on the wrong hands sometimes,
• 36:15
  and that's your Kyle Schwarber. You do not want him in the field
• 36:19
  whatsoever. So let's just let's just cross that off the list right now.
• 36:22
  Right, he's a DH. We did not want him out there, right,
• 36:24
  Yeah, I mean, thank god the DH is here. I know
• 36:30
  Lean would stab me in the throat for saying that, but like, thank
• 36:32
  goodness, because you can't. You don't want to have a Kyle Schwarber Like
• 36:37
  can you imagine being Thompson be like Schwarber? God, damn, where the
• 36:39
  fuck exactly? Sky? Yes? Yeah, you know. I shot off
• 36:44
  a tweet during the postseason where I was like, could you imagine watching this
• 36:47
  postseason here, this Phillies postseason with Aaron Nolan in the batters box? Like
• 36:53
  could you imagine that? Like I'm getting so used to now seeing the DH
• 36:58
  and the NL that it's so comforting right now. It's like we spent all
• 37:02
  those years watching crap and just momentum just taking a dump, you know.
• 37:09
  Ah, God, it was just so great to just not have pictures in
• 37:15
  the batter's box. Now. You don't want to see Zach Wheelers is flailing
• 37:21
  at nine mile power FasTIS? No? I don't know. All right,
• 37:29
  Well, we are going to get to our last story here that we wanted
• 37:31
  to get into before before we get to what we're throwing down on the table
• 37:35
  this week, which we've got a ton of Flyers talk coming your way.
• 37:39
  But we wanted to segue into that flyers talk and Hockey Talk. We thought,
• 37:45
  you know, in the world of sports, you know, we thought
• 37:47
  it would likely happen during a football game, and it almost did with DeMar
• 37:52
  Hamlin last year. But now with Adam Johnson his death, Uh, the
• 37:57
  NHL, it's a it's a very time like being a hockey fan for myself.
• 38:01
  It's just it's it's incredibly sad that this tragedy had to happen where where
• 38:07
  a player skate goes over the back of the neck of a player, cuts
• 38:10
  them to the point where where they end up dying. And it's interesting to
• 38:16
  think about. We've talked about technology on this show a number of times,
• 38:22
  how sports progress, how how equipment needs to progress with the times with all
• 38:29
  sports as well. And it's going to be interesting to see whether or not
• 38:32
  the NHL will implement any sort of new neck protection mandates for teams. I
• 38:38
  know, I think the Pittsburgh Penguins minor league system is actually going to be
• 38:43
  implementing some of this in the near future from what I read. Anyway,
• 38:47
  it's just it's amazing like it and it always amazes me too. Why does
• 38:52
  it take a tragedy to move the needle on player safety within sports? In
• 38:54
  general. It just it it amazes me. And I know the answer to
• 38:59
  that because owners are greedy. You know, it all comes down to money,
• 39:02
  and it all comes down to you know, okay, you got to
• 39:05
  make sure the product is going to be all right if we're gonna be making
• 39:07
  bucks in the future. But again, you know, we we were so
• 39:12
  sorry to hear as so many that Adam Johnson's passing happened, especially the way
• 39:16
  that it did playing a sport. So I don't know, I wonder,
• 39:21
  you know, if this is going to move the needle on player safety eric,
• 39:22
  you know, within hockey, and it's I don't know, it's something
• 39:27
  that we're gonna certainly be uh certainly be keeping tabs on for sure. You
• 39:30
  know, you just talk about the owners. The fans don't get a pass
• 39:34
  either because they secretly, deep down love this shit. Not what happened to
• 39:38
  Adam Johnson. But like the hard hits we talked about it and the els
• 39:43
  like they don't get an they don't get a pass either. But this this
• 39:47
  strikes me as like what's going to happen is especially with hockey. I talk
• 39:52
  about the talk about the the tush push and like old old time football.
• 39:58
  Hockey is so like in trended, like the guy of the enforcers to not
• 40:02
  get rid of our history of tradition yet, and this is the number one
• 40:07
  sport. I could see being like, that's an awful tragedy. We're not
• 40:10
  changing a fucking thing, and that's that's sad to say, considering what happened.
• 40:15
  I saw the video. It's horrific, man, But I could just
• 40:20
  see them being like, no, this was a league that didn't have masks
• 40:24
  on their faces for how many years? The shields the shield shield for ages,
• 40:30
  and I don't think this is going to change a damn thing in the
• 40:34
  NHL for sure, because they're just trying to hold on. I'm not trying
• 40:40
  to downplay hockey. I know I'm the anti hockey guy in the show,
• 40:44
  but like, financially, like they're always like kind of in fourth place and
• 40:46
  like they're not going to do anything to be a detriment to the financial side
• 40:51
  of things. So I can't imagine they're going to make it shouldn't be a
• 40:55
  big deal, but for some reason in that league it probably will be a
• 40:58
  big deal. I don't think they're going to make any ages. What what
• 41:00
  happened was just horrific. And I think, like one thing here involved is
• 41:07
  like what's gonna happen to the guy that did it? Like that that's one
• 41:10
  weird sidebar of this. This kind of not controversy, but like what happened
• 41:15
  because I saw some videos and I saw a tweet thread at where like this
• 41:17
  guy kind of is known for lifting his leg up and it's like, is
• 41:22
  he going to like get manslaughter charges or something like like and if that happens,
• 41:28
  like what precedent is I know this is like way down the road,
• 41:30
  but like what what precedent will that said? If like he gets charged with
• 41:36
  some kind of crime for this? And it's like if I'm a hockey player,
• 41:38
  I'm like I don't I'm not gonna like I don't want any part of
• 41:43
  that crap. Yeah, So like will that change behavior? I doubt I'm
• 41:46
  just going down a different path. But like it's just an awful situation.
• 41:50
  And I love that you ended the show with this topic like the end of
• 41:53
  the first segment. Yeah yeah, sorry right in the first segre like wow,
• 41:59
  like I usually end with like it's your favorite stadium, Like yeah,
• 42:05
  well, I just you know it's I mean because we're gonna be got We're
• 42:07
  gonna be talking about the Flyers in just a bit here. I thought it
• 42:10
  was a good segue for us. But I think I think there needs to
• 42:14
  be some sort of balance too, because I think there are certain equipment that
• 42:17
  you know, just understanding hockey, you know, over the years, certain
• 42:21
  players out there, they like to have certain equipment. Some don't like to
• 42:24
  have it, you know, like they it's just part of like hockey culture,
• 42:29
  you know, how these guys were raised in the sport. Some like
• 42:31
  to play with a certain mass some some don't like to play with shields,
• 42:37
  you know, some don't like to do that, you know, some some
• 42:39
  It just depends on the player too, And I think there needs to be
• 42:43
  some sort of healthy balance. You know what that balance is, I don't
• 42:45
  know. I do not know, and I'm not going to claim to know.
• 42:49
  You know, there are other experts out there, but I think there
• 42:52
  needs to be some sort of balance. And I think when it comes to
• 42:55
  the Tomorrow Hamlin situations, uh, and just player health in general as we
• 43:00
  progress, there just needs to be balanced. And that's kind of where I
• 43:05
  come out on this here, if that makes sense, And hockey is getting
• 43:09
  the most stubborn here of all the sports. And when you look at the
• 43:14
  DeMar handling situation, what changes did the NFL make like where they're really may
• 43:20
  like any changes at all? No? Protect those Yeah, hit harder,
• 43:23
  you know, I don't know. I don't know. Yeah, I'm not
• 43:28
  seeing much of a change with either sport, but hockey for the most part.
• 43:31
  Yeah, all right, Eric, I'm gonna let you go, buddy.
• 43:35
  Do you have any final thoughts here before we go into our next break
• 43:37
  here and before we get to what we're thrown down on the table. No,
• 43:42
  but next week. I'm excited. I like to do the show next
• 43:45
  week. Okay, Yeah, I'm down because I want to talk about the
• 43:47
  election for you. Okay, And I'll let you know how my first week
• 43:52
  at coaching goes cool. Could be interesting. There's always a story with it,
• 43:57
  especially with the parents. We won't get into that. We had a
• 44:01
  lengthy discussion before this show about parents and sports. Yes, Oh my gosh,
• 44:07
  I gotta say. I gotta say this like, it's been nice my
• 44:12
  daughter having the break from gymnastics, it's been nice. I will say that
• 44:15
  Jeff I had a great break between baseball and basketball. It was like three
• 44:20
  months, four months awesome, and then yeah, well a bit of a
• 44:23
  confrontation last week. Didn't even start coaching yet and already had a confrontation with
• 44:29
  the parents, like I why do I do this? Yeah? Why do
• 44:32
  I care? All right, buddy, I will let you go. Folks.
• 44:37
  We're gonna take a break right now when we come back. We got
• 44:39
  a lot of Flyers talk. Let's take that break now, all right,
• 44:44
  folks, we are back Philadelphia Flyers. There's some there's some interesting stuff going
• 44:47
  on the ice again. You know it's early in the seat. Oh you're
• 44:51
  still there. Oh my gosh, folks, he's still there. Pull back
• 44:54
  the curtain. I'm always sure when he does these guys, just so you
• 44:59
  know. Yes, all right, let's get to my interview with our guest
• 45:02
  this week, Chris Maher from mahar Media and the Flyers Warm Up Pregame podcast.
• 45:08
  He's going to join us to look at this Flyers team here. Let's
• 45:12
  get to what we're thrown down on the table and now on the table.
• 45:19
  And it's great to have back on the podcast joining us from the Chris Maher
• 45:22
  Show and also the Flyers Warm Up Pregame podcast. You can find out everything
• 45:28
  he's doing all over at Maher Media Company, and I think it's Maher Media
• 45:34
  Company and we have the one and only Christopher Maher. How you doing,
• 45:37
  buddy, Hi, Jeff Hori Man, Thanks for having Yeah, man,
• 45:40
  it's great to be able to talk Flyers with you, be able to talk
• 45:43
  to you about this team in particular. But first and foremost folks, if
• 45:46
  you're not following Christopher on Twitter at Understore, Chris Maher, he is a
• 45:51
  great, great follow And uh yeah, man, I just wanted to get
• 45:54
  into this Flyers team with you because we've been I mean, we've been seeing
• 45:58
  some decent stuff from this team thus far this season. I mean it's not
• 46:02
  the total bag of garbage that a lot of us I think we're expecting to
• 46:07
  see. I mean, if we go back in time, we go back
• 46:08
  to maybe August, when we're thinking about, you know, okay, who
• 46:12
  are we going to see? What are we going to see? We know
• 46:13
  what kind of team this is. We know this rebuild is going to be
• 46:15
  going, probably going a certain way. I don't think we've seen, or
• 46:20
  I think we have seen certain aspects of this team that have kind of surprised
• 46:23
  us, right, Yeah, I think so I mean I think there's been
• 46:28
  I think there's been. You know, if you look at the entire month
• 46:30
  of October, there's good games and bad games. Yeah, there's good moments,
• 46:35
  there's bad moments. That's kind of how it's gone. I mean,
• 46:37
  it's EBB been flowed and I think there's been some surprises, some disappointments.
• 46:43
  There's been some not too many stories right now where you're kind of if you
• 46:46
  kind of compare it to last year, it's like no one's really gotten Benae
• 46:50
  to Mad Game or anything that, you know, anything like that. Yeah,
• 46:53
  connect Yeah, hazy Connecting had that last year. This year, I
• 46:59
  mean, the only really think has been Frost. I mean they kind of
• 47:00
  kept it out of the media and stuff with with things like that. Not
• 47:04
  too much has been you know, really crazy outside of the support alligator that
• 47:09
  was brought in the other night. Yeah, but no, I mean I
• 47:14
  think just you know, for the team on the ice, I think there's
• 47:16
  been some good moments, and I think where I look at it is,
• 47:20
  you know, they've had some good games in net, the d has been
• 47:22
  been pretty solid. They still can't score on the power play, which has
• 47:27
  been an issue for god knows how long years. Yeah, yeah, thankfully.
• 47:30
  I mean they haven't really dealt with too many injuries outside of Stall who
• 47:35
  was out for you know, he's up for about four to six weeks,
• 47:37
  got injured in the home opener. But outside of that, man, I
• 47:39
  mean, yeah, I mean, it's it's been a I think it's been
• 47:43
  a good month of refreshing month because you've seen they've been healthy and the games
• 47:46
  have been entertaining to say the least. Absolutely well. Before we get into
• 47:52
  any more details with this team, and we certainly have some subjects that we
• 47:54
  want to want to touch on. My co host Eric and I just got
• 48:00
  done talking about protecting players and various aspects of their body more in hockey after
• 48:06
  the death of Adam Johnson. I wanted to get your thoughts on this,
• 48:09
  Chris, and where you like, basically, where do you come down on
• 48:14
  this after this tragedy that struck the hockey community And I'm just wondering, you
• 48:19
  know, we were going through our conversation, you know, does the NHL
• 48:22
  need to do more regarding player safety in your opinion with regard to various parts
• 48:27
  of their body? What are your thoughts here? Yeah, So, I
• 48:30
  mean, first of all, I'll start off and say that it's it's you
• 48:32
  know, obviously to keep in memory of Adam and yeah, obviously played in
• 48:37
  our organization in Lehigh Valley. It's horrible, it really is. I mean,
• 48:44
  it's such a shame for someone at such a young age to go through
• 48:47
  something like that. And obviously everybody that's affected, not just obviously adamant and
• 48:52
  his family too, and and you know the again, like you said,
• 48:57
  like the whole hockey community. It's it's horrifying. And again it's it's such
• 49:00
  a shame. I think there's you know, I think everybody's gonna have different
• 49:04
  opinions on it. For me, I mean, it's really tough because in
• 49:12
  this type of you know, accident, I guess I should say is it's
• 49:16
  more like you've never really seen something like this, right that at least and
• 49:22
  I mean obviously like you've seen guys get cut by skates before, but nothing
• 49:24
  to this extent. Obviously. The other one was Clint Mauerchuk. Yeah,
• 49:28
  and that was I think in the eighties or nineties. I wasn't even born
• 49:30
  yet. Yeah, uh, And that's you know, I think like there's
• 49:34
  been other you know, cuts and skates that have kind of come up in
• 49:37
  the face, but nothing like this, and unfortunately it's it, you know,
• 49:43
  you know, and unfortunately leads to a death of a player. But
• 49:47
  also it's you know, I think there's little things that you can kind of
• 49:52
  take out of it. I think, for me, the one thing is
• 49:54
  I think the player's efety. They've been really strict so far this year.
• 49:59
  You've actually and again this is just the NHL. Obviously this happens in England,
• 50:04
  but there's been a lot of suspensions so far that have been really heavy
• 50:08
  games for things that probably would maybe in recent years maybe be one game or
• 50:14
  two games. There's already been two four game suspensions and we're already in the
• 50:16
  first day of November. Yeah, So I think there's some things that you
• 50:21
  can make the game safer on. I mean, it's taken a long time
• 50:25
  for hockey really to adapt in many different areas outside of just player safety,
• 50:31
  from branding in the game and marketing and all these other little things that they
• 50:36
  do well. Television is another one. It's taken them a long time to
• 50:39
  kind of get into that, and I think the safety part, I think
• 50:43
  they do a good job in some ways. For me, I just think
• 50:46
  you know, there's little things that you can kind of add to it.
• 50:50
  I know in that specific league in England they're basically after I believe it's New
• 50:54
  Year's Eve twenty twenty three they're doing where the net guards are basically mandatory after
• 51:01
  that you have to wear them. I don't know if the NHL is going
• 51:05
  to go that route. It took them a while just to ge advisors,
• 51:07
  uh to be mandatory, and now they've kind of just started kicking that.
• 51:10
  Yeah, So I mean, we'll see. I mean, I don't think
• 51:15
  I don't really know what they're going to do in the in the sense of
• 51:20
  net guards or risk cards or anything like that. I think they've done it
• 51:22
  before, but I think there there has to be, in my opinion,
• 51:25
  there's got to be a way where you can get some sort of new technology
• 51:30
  or something around that to make it so it's comfortable. And also, you
• 51:32
  know, the guys can wear it all the time because a lot of them
• 51:35
  wear like to really like lightweight shirts underneath, Like you're some guys just you
• 51:38
  know, just wear no shirt at all and just go with the pads.
• 51:40
  Yep. Obviously that's all depending on how long you've been playing and stuff like
• 51:45
  that too, Like I think a lot of the new the new, newer
• 51:49
  generation, whereas those really lightweight shirts and stuff like that. So if you
• 51:52
  could find something that's maybe a little more padded where it's comfortable but doesn't you
• 51:57
  know, obviously won't leave you with a really deep cut, you know,
• 52:00
  on your wrist or neck unfortunately like that him with Adam Johnson or anything like
• 52:04
  that. If you can find something like that, I think, you know,
• 52:07
  players probably would wear it. Do I think everyone will know because I
• 52:12
  think that there's that riskic. I mean, some guys right now don't even
• 52:15
  wear advisors. Yeah, and then we've seen that before with Chris Pronger.
• 52:19
  I mean, it takes a stick in the eye, Jeff. I play
• 52:22
  in Amend's beer league, that's street hockey, and I get clowned for wearing
• 52:28
  a cage. And I wear the cage because I don't want to take a
• 52:31
  stick in the eye, you know what I mean. I mean, like
• 52:34
  a couple of weeks ago, I was playing and I ended up going up
• 52:36
  to try to just to try to get like a little sticklift on a guy,
• 52:38
  and I hit him in the eye and he didn't get hurt or anything.
• 52:42
  He didn't get caught. But I'm just like, dude, like it's
• 52:44
  such a fast game that you can get hurt in any instance, and like
• 52:47
  for me, like I don't, I don't play around with that stuff.
• 52:51
  So like that was me, I would wear that stuff all the time.
• 52:53
  Yeah, there's there's balance that needs to be figured out at some point.
• 53:00
  And it's not that balance hasn't already been figured out, but I think as
• 53:04
  we progress. We've talked on this podcast show a number of times over the
• 53:06
  years about how whether it's hockey or whether it's basketball, baseball, football,
• 53:10
  soccer, soccer, you know, we progress. We continue to progress.
• 53:15
  Technology gets better and and and what players are able to wear, how they're
• 53:20
  able to protect themselves gets better again, not just with hockey, every single
• 53:24
  sport. So you know, it's finding that balance, I think, and
• 53:29
  making sure that they're able to implement and having an agreement with the players too
• 53:32
  on what that balance is actually going to be. Yeah, for sure,
• 53:37
  definitely, I think I think again, I think you nail on the head
• 53:40
  with that, Like you got to find a balance of where you know,
• 53:44
  guys want to wear stuff and what's comfortable and all that too. So yeah,
• 53:46
  I think do a lot of little things that'll play into it. Yeah,
• 53:50
  but we'll say, okay, yeah, absolutely we will see. We're
• 53:52
  going to talk about it more, probably on this podcast in the foreseeable future
• 53:57
  as well. Let's get to some flyers talk here, and let's start off
• 54:00
  with one gentleman who's having a hell of a rookie season thus far and in
• 54:04
  my opinion, and that's Bobby Brink. And I know he's surprised a lot
• 54:07
  too. I mean, what a great underdog story he has to start this
• 54:10
  twenty twenty three, twenty twenty four season, Christopher. I mean, he's
• 54:15
  only twenty two years old, and a lot of folks didn't think that he
• 54:19
  should have made it out of the team's camp just a few weeks ago.
• 54:23
  So I mean, what what have you been liking about what you've been seeing
• 54:25
  from Bobby Brink on the ice? And you know, where where where?
• 54:30
  Does he also need to show some improvements as well? Yeah, I mean,
• 54:34
  you know, I think for Brink, Jeff, I think one of
• 54:37
  the things that I like about him is that he's completely earned it. And
• 54:42
  I know it sounds like such like a simple, easy answer, but when
• 54:45
  you actually watch the games and you go back to even in development camp,
• 54:50
  like, he looked great in development camp and that's in the middle of the
• 54:52
  June. I thought, so he had some Yeah, he had some really
• 54:55
  good moments. I thought, some really quick, really quick as an a
• 55:00
  and I'm not gonna call anybody out here, but I had a guest on
• 55:01
  the show. It was over the course of the summer, and I had
• 55:06
  a question about Bobby Brink as well, and they seemed a bit so before
• 55:09
  we hit the record button, they were like, yeah, I'm surprised you're
• 55:12
  you're asking about Bobby Brink here. I don't I don't even think he's gonna
• 55:15
  make the team here. And I was like, oh yeah. I was
• 55:16
  like, I just wanted to, you know, get your thoughts on him.
• 55:20
  So I saw something as well within that development camp, which is why
• 55:22
  I asked that question over the course of the summer, and anyway, didn't
• 55:27
  what didn't mean to interrupt you, but we definitely saw something from him at
• 55:30
  that point. Yeah, No, no, for sure. I mean,
• 55:32
  you know, there's so many little things that he's been doing right. And
• 55:36
  you know, I actually had a tweet not too long ago just about you
• 55:39
  know, where Brink was playing. I believe it was before he had scored.
• 55:43
  I believe I believe it was before the Minnesota game. Okay, if
• 55:45
  I am not mistaken, because that was when he obviously scored his first first
• 55:50
  Inchie goal and then second yeah NHL goal, let me pull it up here.
• 55:53
  But yeah, I mean, I think with Brink it's so it's so
• 55:58
  much for the little things, right, I mean, he so many puck
• 56:00
  battles, He's been drawing a lot of penalties. He gets in on the
• 56:05
  fore check a lot of the time. Again, he's a smaller, a
• 56:07
  smaller player where you know he's he's going to draw a lot of penalties a
• 56:13
  because of his size. And I just think, you know, some of
• 56:15
  the stuff that he's been doing there's just great. Like you know, he's
• 56:19
  again he gets in on the corners, he gets in on the four check.
• 56:21
  He's a lot of chemistry with Joel Farrabee. I think with with Farrabe
• 56:25
  specifically, there's a lot of little things that that those two kind of play
• 56:30
  off of each other, I think because they have such high hockey IQ.
• 56:34
  And that's the one thing that's really been good with the Flyers lineup is just
• 56:37
  it's been so balanced with guys that where in I guess I should say off
• 56:44
  of last year where it was like they kind of kind of just felt like,
• 56:45
  well, not even just last year, the last two years they were
• 56:47
  just kind of putting lines together, just to put lines together, it felt
• 56:51
  like. And now when you when you have and and I should say part
• 56:54
  of that too is because you know you're injured, and it's later in the
• 56:57
  year and all that too. But now when you know you have a fresh
• 57:00
  start, guys are healthy, you Adcoataria, you add Atkinson, you can
• 57:05
  do that. And for Brink who you know, for up until uh October
• 57:09
  twenty fifth, so obviously a couple of games ago, he had hit some
• 57:14
  really good games. And one of the things that caught my eye, Jeff,
• 57:17
  and obviously this is a tad bit old, but he played ten games
• 57:21
  in twenty one to twenty two and he was on the ice for three high
• 57:23
  angel goals for so for those who might be wondering, that's from the slot
• 57:28
  to the blue line out so anywhere in that area. And it was two
• 57:32
  again, so he was on the ice for two against and up until that
• 57:36
  point he had on the ice for four and given up. Not this year
• 57:39
  and in five less games. So it's just a little bit of it.
• 57:42
  And I know it's such a small sample size and it's it's a little bit
• 57:45
  old info too, but I mean it just shows you how good he's been
• 57:47
  progressing throughout the year. And you know, again like he's he's just completely
• 57:52
  earned it. He comes out and again, no one really thought he could
• 57:57
  make make camp, you know, or make it a camp like he's said.
• 58:00
  Yeah. Everybody was kind of just like, yeah, you know,
• 58:01
  he could. But he's probably gonna be a phantom because again last year,
• 58:06
  he's coming off of an injury and he looked okay through towards the end of
• 58:08
  the year with the phantoms, he progressed a little bit. Then the fan
• 58:12
  has made the playoffs and and you know, is I hate again this is
• 58:15
  a side note, Jeff, I hate how the AHL does the playoffs because
• 58:19
  it's like three games in the first round and it's it's it's horrible and all
• 58:22
  three are on the road and everything. So so I think that was part
• 58:25
  of it too. But yeah, no, I mean, you know,
• 58:28
  I think for Brink, you know, he's he has a lot of of
• 58:31
  just good little moments where he wins a lot of puck battles, and he's
• 58:37
  just he's played with energy, he's played with buzz. I mean, he's
• 58:39
  he's taken it by storm and he I think he's kind of just going out
• 58:43
  there and playing. Like one of the things that I think Danny's kind of
• 58:45
  been mentioning these guys, and then he said it to Brink in preseason,
• 58:49
  which is go out and play, you know what I mean, like,
• 58:51
  don't worry about anything because they're not a spot to make the playoffs, they're
• 58:54
  not a spot to compete for a Stanley Cup. They're not No one is
• 58:58
  really like it's just battle the vets out, see what you're gonna do,
• 59:01
  and because of the rebuilding, there's nothing else you can do. So it's
• 59:05
  like for for a guy like Brink, it's like, go out, play
• 59:07
  your best hockey and see what happens. And he's been doing that start of
• 59:10
  the year. Absolutely, he's playing balls out. Love to see it.
• 59:13
  I love to see it. Well, there's another guy that I want to
• 59:15
  get into with you, Christopher, who's he's he's not having like the greatest
• 59:22
  season, but I think we're gonna start seeing something from him in the near
• 59:24
  future. And that's Owen tipp It. I mean, he's been getting a
• 59:28
  fair amount of chances early this season to really prove himself, but the goals
• 59:31
  just have been really hard to come by. Based on what you know,
• 59:35
  of course we've been seeing from him. He's the one guy who I really
• 59:38
  wanted to see kind of just bust out of the flyers gate this season,
• 59:42
  take everything by storm. We have not really seen that too much yet.
• 59:46
  What do you think is going on with Owen Tippett's game and what's been happening
• 59:51
  with him on the ice so far this season? Yeah, I mean for
• 59:53
  Tippitt, I think the first couple of games was kind of just canding back
• 59:57
  into it. You know, I didn't think he had you know, I
• 1:00:00
  think the first couple of games of the season was all right, kind of
• 1:00:02
  just playing it out a little bit. Yeah. I feel like in the
• 1:00:06
  in the past couple he's he's had some really good moments. He gets the
• 1:00:08
  first goal of the year against UH Minnesota. You know, for me,
• 1:00:13
  Jeff, I think the one thing with tipp it was just like he never
• 1:00:16
  really was able to find himself open ice. I felt like where I kind
• 1:00:21
  of felt like every time he was either skating by or he maybe lose the
• 1:00:22
  poker, somebody would be on him really quick, right, or you know,
• 1:00:27
  et cetera. Like there's so many little things just trying to get open,
• 1:00:30
  and I think he's been able to get himself more open. I think
• 1:00:32
  a lot of that too is that Tippett is a guy that can really flourish
• 1:00:37
  from your power play, and your power play hasn't really done anything for you
• 1:00:40
  to start the year because for a couple of reasons, they've you know,
• 1:00:45
  they've a it's just been bad from entries to well. Face off is another
• 1:00:50
  key thing. I know that's not even on your list, but we can
• 1:00:52
  trouble that face offs for ten minutes. They've been real bad and in the
• 1:00:55
  face off dot And when you look at that too, it's like, you
• 1:01:00
  know, he's playing with Katier, he's playing with different guys. I just
• 1:01:04
  think for tipp it like, you know, he's the guy that can really
• 1:01:07
  again, like I said, flourish on your on your power play. If
• 1:01:08
  you put him in the left flank, he's right there for a one time
• 1:01:10
  or every time, and they haven't really been able to use that. They
• 1:01:14
  have three three power play goals. I think on the season so far off
• 1:01:17
  the top of my head, so that too, I mean, tippit.
• 1:01:22
  He's got three points and or excuse me, four points in his last four
• 1:01:24
  games, two goals to assist. So I mean he's had some some points
• 1:01:29
  recently on the season. He's got six and six and nine two goals for
• 1:01:32
  sixty's plus two. So I mean, again, he's had some good moments.
• 1:01:37
  I think it's just you know, give him a little bit of time.
• 1:01:39
  And they've only played nine games. And the other thing is too,
• 1:01:42
  Jeff, is like they've had a lot of tough opponents to start the year.
• 1:01:45
  That's a good point. You've gone from from Vegas to Minnesota to Edmonton,
• 1:01:49
  Carolina. Like they've had a pretty tough schedule out the gate too.
• 1:01:52
  So I think a lot of it is just you know, the learning curve
• 1:01:54
  of you know, starting a new season and all that too. And I
• 1:01:59
  wasn't really expecting him to come out, you know, guns blazing right away
• 1:02:01
  because it takes a little bit of time. Yah. And plus you're also
• 1:02:05
  playing with new guys. I mean, he's playing with Contrarier for the first
• 1:02:07
  time in his career. That's true, you know, Atkinson, it's a
• 1:02:10
  new type of Uh, it's not really a new system. It's just like
• 1:02:15
  getting used to playing with those guys is essentially what it is. So I
• 1:02:19
  think for two, I think he's I think he's gonna be fine. It's
• 1:02:21
  just more of you know, getting open and just being able to kind of
• 1:02:24
  use that shot of his because everybody knows how deadly it is. And oh
• 1:02:28
  yeah, I think you even saw it on the on the breakaway goal.
• 1:02:30
  I mean, he gets open and he just said when he has time and
• 1:02:32
  he can rip it, you know, watch out because it's it's going in
• 1:02:36
  a lot of the time. All right. I think you talked to me
• 1:02:37
  off the ledge there with Owen TAMPI. Thanks for putting it into perspective.
• 1:02:42
  And again, folks, we're talking to Christopher Maher at Underscore Chris Maher on
• 1:02:47
  the Twitter dot com and uh you can find his podcast, the Chris Maher
• 1:02:52
  Show and the uh the Flyers Warm Up Pregame podcast on Apple Podcasts and again
• 1:02:58
  Maher Media, check out everything they're doing as well over there. And as
• 1:03:02
  we're moving along our conversation here, Christopher, you know, this young defensive
• 1:03:07
  corps has held up I think pretty well given the you know the quote the
• 1:03:10
  lack of talent on the ice from Rasmus Risto Lane in. You know,
• 1:03:15
  you talked about the injury to Mark Stall first game of the season, Travis
• 1:03:19
  Sandheim and Sean Walker, they've been eating up some minutes out on the ice.
• 1:03:24
  So what what have you been liking from what we've been seeing on defense
• 1:03:29
  early on this season with the talent that's been available to the Flyers. Yeah,
• 1:03:34
  I mean, you know, I think, Jeff, the way that
• 1:03:36
  I look at the D is you know, throughout the summer is again,
• 1:03:39
  for a lot of the shows that I do, I have my canoubal he
• 1:03:44
  comes on each week. Yeah, yeah, for a segment and me and
• 1:03:47
  Mike have kind of talked about a lot of the time. We were like,
• 1:03:50
  hey, like this D is really scary looking like we were like this
• 1:03:54
  is not going to go well, and you know when you look at it
• 1:03:57
  on paper, and Mike's like, yeah, like they don't have a lot
• 1:04:00
  there, and I'm like yeah, And obviously we broke it down and everything,
• 1:04:02
  but you know, we we were kind of just like saying, like,
• 1:04:06
  you know, it's it's really they don't like, in my opinion,
• 1:04:10
  they don't have a number one guy who can log up minutes. That was
• 1:04:15
  one thing I said for for two three months. Well, Travis Sandheim is
• 1:04:18
  making me look like an idiot because he's he's doing that in every in every
• 1:04:24
  area possible. He's second in the NHL and in time on ice. Yeah,
• 1:04:28
  he hasn't really gotten too many points to start ar only one goal,
• 1:04:30
  but he's I mean, Jeff, he's he's had a lot of good,
• 1:04:32
  lot of good moments. He's moving the puck while he's been physical. You
• 1:04:35
  can see the added you know, muscle. I know they've been saying twenty
• 1:04:39
  pounds of muscle. That's like your lord, that's like, I'm sort that's
• 1:04:43
  like that's like superhuman. That's probably not even possible to do in three months.
• 1:04:46
  But he's definitely put on muscle, you can tell. I don't know
• 1:04:48
  how much, but it's definitely a little over exaggerated on that front. But
• 1:04:53
  I mean, yeah, I mean for Sanheim, he's been good walker again,
• 1:04:55
  like you mentioned, I mean really pleasant surprise. He's the top forty.
• 1:04:59
  Everybody said that he was always a cap dump and all this stuff.
• 1:05:00
  He's not a cap dump. You know. I think when they when they
• 1:05:03
  took on Walker. It was like, hey, we have an actual defenseman
• 1:05:06
  here, let's see how he plays, and everybody kind of wrote him off.
• 1:05:09
  He's still twenty six years old and he's said a really good start of
• 1:05:12
  the year. Again, no Stall hurts because you know, your third game
• 1:05:17
  of the season and you lose a vet defenseman and you're like, yeah,
• 1:05:21
  he's only here for one year. You would have liked to have had him
• 1:05:24
  and not Kid hurt because he could have been a trade chip. But that
• 1:05:27
  the deadline too. Again, I know it's a it's a smaller type of
• 1:05:30
  injury, but when the Flyers say week the week, day to day,
• 1:05:32
  you're like, yeah, that's more like months to month. Yeah, so
• 1:05:35
  well, at least that's what it's been in recent years. So when I
• 1:05:40
  look at the D I'm like, I think the one thing that that stands
• 1:05:43
  out to me is that they haven't really had any games where they've all collectively
• 1:05:47
  been bad, right, Like they've had some like Team D. They've been
• 1:05:50
  good, like they've you know, they've get sure, they've given up a
• 1:05:54
  lot of goals in some games, especially the nine game last Saturday, but
• 1:06:00
  they've been fine. I mean, they haven't really had any moments where it's
• 1:06:02
  been like collective breakdowns or anything. The penalty kill has been surprising. Then
• 1:06:05
  the league good, you know, for for pretty much the entire season so
• 1:06:11
  far. Again, it's just been the power play that's been the problem.
• 1:06:13
  Yeah, So, I mean, I think for me, Jeff with the
• 1:06:16
  d it's it's more of you know who who who's really been standing out each
• 1:06:21
  night. I think you're you're getting a standout guy every night. I mean,
• 1:06:24
  Santa him has been good, Walker has been good. Cam York silently,
• 1:06:27
  I well, quietly, I guess I should say, has had a
• 1:06:29
  really good start of the year. So Woul has had some good games.
• 1:06:32
  Again, I know that you know that they sent down a mill Andre a
• 1:06:35
  little bit, and of course now he gets hurt in Lee High Valley too,
• 1:06:39
  so he got to, you know, pay attention to that. But
• 1:06:41
  I think overall, I think he's been fine. I mean, they've again,
• 1:06:44
  like I said, collectively, they've been good as a unit. So
• 1:06:46
  it's been a pleasant surprise overall, just to start the season so far.
• 1:06:49
  You know, we see the we see these little uh I shouldn't say little,
• 1:06:54
  but we see these areas of the team that that will shine night after
• 1:06:58
  night, you know, and then they you know, things kind of dimmed
• 1:07:00
  down a little bit. But we see these little pockets of this Philadelphia Flyers
• 1:07:04
  team that are doing some good things every now and again where they can really
• 1:07:09
  develop in the future, and especially this young core Christopher, and I'm so
• 1:07:14
  excited to see where it goes, not just this season, but the next
• 1:07:17
  two seasons, like where these guys are going to end up developing. So
• 1:07:21
  I guess to close us out here, I think there's a lot of under
• 1:07:25
  the radar type of activity going on with this team that we're seeing on the
• 1:07:29
  ice, and I'm wondering, what's what's the biggest under the radar story for
• 1:07:32
  this Flyers team that you have seen thus far? As we're like heading right
• 1:07:36
  here into November. I know it's early, but as we're heading into November,
• 1:07:40
  what's that what's the biggest under the radar story that you're looking at.
• 1:07:43
  Yeah, Honestly, Jeff, I kind of just feel like just how just
• 1:07:46
  how the start has been so different. Yeah, everyone kind of said,
• 1:07:50
  you know, like I know, and like I know Towitorella teams usually start
• 1:07:56
  really good and they have really good games to start off the season. And
• 1:07:59
  the Flyer of historically been really good at the start and then they kind of
• 1:08:01
  fall off, But it just feels different this year. I don't know why.
• 1:08:05
  I think there's just like, to me, there's more buzz around the
• 1:08:09
  team. And I know you're probably thinking yourself, like what is this guy
• 1:08:12
  talking about? But now I look at at the team and kind of where
• 1:08:15
  they are, it's like I think there's a certain buzz with you know,
• 1:08:18
  just the the new era of Orange and the rebuild and kind of what they've
• 1:08:23
  been doing and just embracing that, and it's so many little things. I
• 1:08:27
  mean, like, to me, I've been a fan of this team for
• 1:08:30
  since I was nine to like eleven, twelve years, and when I look
• 1:08:35
  at it, it's like, you know, the first year I started watching.
• 1:08:38
  I might have told you this before, Jeff was first year I started
• 1:08:41
  I started watching the team was the last lockout, so when they started,
• 1:08:45
  it was like, you know, the first year of DARU. They're kind
• 1:08:46
  of getting into that like new era, and I think Jonesy like said it
• 1:08:50
  best, like every year they were kind of brought up to be like a
• 1:08:53
  Stanley like thought of as like a Stanley Cup contender and that's what they marketed
• 1:08:56
  the mass and I'm like, that's that was wrong, Like they really weren't
• 1:08:59
  that, you know what I mean, And like, yeah, it was
• 1:09:00
  kind of just like a false interpretation of what they were. So now when
• 1:09:04
  I look at it's like they're honest. I think they're doing all the little
• 1:09:08
  things right, from the jerseys to the marketing of the team. I think
• 1:09:13
  there's less of gritty now, which I personally love because you know, honestly,
• 1:09:16
  when you look at it, it's like the only marketable things when you
• 1:09:20
  look at what the flyers is gritty at the moment, and it's little things
• 1:09:24
  like that to me that I think have been huge. So many of the
• 1:09:27
  little Ed Snyder touches that they're bringing back, like the double logos at center
• 1:09:30
  ize from the the you know, Jonesy and Dan Helferdy going down and shaking
• 1:09:34
  the player's hands after a win. It's like they they get the details so
• 1:09:40
  good, to the point where it's like you can't even like you can't even
• 1:09:43
  like shit on them anymore. I can excuse my language, but that's sorry.
• 1:09:45
  You can't even like get mad at them for the little things that they
• 1:09:48
  aren't doing right. If it's a hockey ops thing or a business side thing,
• 1:09:51
  because they're they understand the fan base. Now, yeah, I'm glad
• 1:09:55
  you said the word honesty. Yeah, I'm glad you said the word honesty
• 1:09:59
  because I think for years we wanted this organization, specifically the front office,
• 1:10:02
  to use that word rebuild. And I remember last season it's like, God,
• 1:10:06
  just come on, Fletcher, just use the freaking word rebuild. And
• 1:10:11
  when Danny Briere used it, it was like a relief. It was a
• 1:10:14
  sigh of relief and a load that was lifted off of our shoulders as fans
• 1:10:18
  to say, Okay, now this honesty is coming out from the front office.
• 1:10:23
  We kind of know what we should be expecting in these months and even
• 1:10:27
  years ahead. And I think that while I don't know if it would be
• 1:10:30
  under the radar necessarily, it is certainly something of a relief for Flyers fans
• 1:10:38
  and it's actually something we end up looking forward to. And I think the
• 1:10:41
  details of it, which you were just talking about, you know, speak
• 1:10:44
  to that, oh definitely. And again, it's so many in the little
• 1:10:48
  things like you can't forget. Like I think the biggest thing in sports for
• 1:10:53
  me is with teams, and like the way I look at stuff is like
• 1:10:56
  don't a bit like don't like like completely like forget your history, but like
• 1:11:01
  don't abandon it. And the Flyers were kind of just like abandoning it.
• 1:11:05
  Like to me, there's so much of the of the love of the seventies
• 1:11:10
  teams and the broad Tree Bullies that we kind of like forget the other eras
• 1:11:14
  like the eighties and the nineties and so many of the good players, even
• 1:11:16
  the early two thousands, so many of the good players I played, you
• 1:11:20
  know, I think they're understanding that. And they're doing so many of the
• 1:11:25
  little things right from from the alumni game that's coming up in January to the
• 1:11:29
  Ed Snider Legacy game, like obviously retiring Mark Greki's number, like so many
• 1:11:33
  little things that they're just doing that they make it enjoyable to watch this team
• 1:11:38
  again because it's like there's a plan. Now, there's an idea behind this.
• 1:11:42
  Before it was just like what are we doing? Like everyone's looking around
• 1:11:45
  like well, you know, you know what I mean, Like, it's
• 1:11:46
  just it's kind of I think the biggest word that I could describe it is
• 1:11:51
  it's just just refreshing. Such a Yeah, it's just so much easier to
• 1:11:56
  watch this team. Now, what a great word to end this discussion on
• 1:12:00
  refreshing. Absolutely again, folks, Christopher Maher, The Chris Maher Show and
• 1:12:05
  The Flyers warm Up Pregame Podcast, Chris Buddy, thanks so much for jumping
• 1:12:12
  on the PST podcast show here. I'd love to talk to you down the
• 1:12:15
  road. We'd love to have you on again talking more Flyers, my friend.
• 1:12:18
  Yeah, man, thank you, I appreciate it. Oh Man,
• 1:12:21
  such a great word. Refreshing. That's exactly what we've been seeing from this
• 1:12:26
  Philadelphia Flyers team. And like Chris was saying, it's like it's not perfect
• 1:12:30
  by any stretch of the imagination, but especially from like a defensive standpoint,
• 1:12:33
  he hit the nail on the head. You know, we are seeing one
• 1:12:36
  guy on a nightly basis really stepping up the game to give the team a
• 1:12:43
  chance. And it's really nice to see from a developmental standpoint too. I
• 1:12:46
  mean, throughout the summer, a lot of folks in Flyers Nation we're talking
• 1:12:49
  about the fact that, okay, you know, we know what the season
• 1:12:53
  is going to be. We talked about it on this show as well.
• 1:12:55
  Let's see these guys develop. We're actually seeing that now right in front of
• 1:12:59
  our face, folks. We are seeing these this core, this young group
• 1:13:03
  starting to develop. And even some of the guys who have been here before,
• 1:13:08
  you know, mentioned Travis Sandheim, you know, all the minutes that
• 1:13:11
  he's been playing and seemingly having a really nice season. It's good to see.
• 1:13:15
  And again, we know it's not gonna be perfect, but it has
• 1:13:18
  been entertaining thus far. All right, go Flyers, Go flyers, And
• 1:13:23
  that's gonna do it for us here on this PSD podcast show. Anything happens
• 1:13:28
  to your podcast feed, head on over to Philadelphia Sports Table dot com.
• 1:13:30
  We've got all of our shows over there. And if you are listening on
• 1:13:34
  Apple podcasts, please give us a rate and review, subscribe, follow,
• 1:13:39
  I should say you follow on Apple podcasts. If you haven't yet done that,
• 1:13:43
  we would appreciate that. And yeah, it's it's it's quite a time
• 1:13:47
  in the world of Philly sports here, folks, So make sure that we're
• 1:13:51
  trying to enjoy it as much as we can. I know, the Phillies
• 1:13:56
  is just such a heartbreaker. Eric and I talking about it earlier, and
• 1:14:00
  I spoke about the NLCS this past week. Last week's show seems like it's
• 1:14:04
  forever ago. It really does at this point. But we do have the
• 1:14:09
  Sixers team. What's been happening there? No James Harden. This Eagles team,
• 1:14:14
  where are they going to be going? What is going to happen with
• 1:14:16
  them? Is Jalen Hurts gonna kind of chill out in terms of the turnovers?
• 1:14:21
  That would be nice for sure. So go back and listen to our
• 1:14:26
  Opposition Territory podcast this week for our Eagles Cowboys preview show. It is a
• 1:14:30
  great discussion with our guests. So all right, folks, you all take
• 1:14:34
  care, have a great morning. If you're listening to us in the morning,
• 1:14:38
  have a great afternoon. If that's when you're listening to us, have
• 1:14:41
  a great evening. If you are listening to us during the night time,
• 1:14:45
  take care of folks. We'll catch you next time. It is