Latest / The Philadelphia Sports Table | Philly Sports News & Views / TABLE TALK: Are The Flyers For Real?

Transcript

TABLE TALK: Are The Flyers For Real? · The Philadelphia Sports Table | Philly Sports News & Views

0:00
Hey there, everybody, it's Jeff. I wanted to let you know that
0:02
we recorded this Table Talk discussion and interview on Monday, November twentieth, twenty
0:08
twenty three. So by the time you hear this, some things may have
0:10
changed here or there, but we hope you enjoy the show. All right,
0:35
everybody, you're listening to Table Talk here at the Philadelphia Sports Table podcast
0:38
show, the longest running weekly Philly sports podcast show in the world, that's
0:41
right over ten and a half years strong. We got a great discussion coming
0:45
your way about this Philadelphia Flyers team. What we have been seeing from them
0:49
on the ice. A pleasant surprise, right for all of you Flyers fans
0:54
out there. I don't think a lot of us thought this season would be
0:57
going the way that it has at this point. So we're gonna get into
1:00
it here. We're gonna get into some analysis, some really great takes.
1:03
I know with our guest, who is phenomenal, he's fantastic. Let's get
1:08
to the discussion right now, all right. It is great to be able
1:11
to talk to him once again. Absolutely love talking to him about this Philadelphia
1:18
Flyers team. From phl Y all phl y dot com. I should say
1:23
it does a great podcast with our good buddy Bill Matts here as well.
1:29
We've got the one and only Charlie O'Connor. How you doing, buddy.
1:32
Hey Jeb, it's really good to be here. Thanks for having me again.
1:34
You are You're welcome, man, Seriously, it's so great to talk
1:37
to you. I love your content. It just have for years. I
1:40
mean, back when you were writing for Broadstreet Hockey dot Com, you always
1:44
had that ability to really, I think, captivate the reader. Then I
1:49
went over to the Athletic whe where you were for quite some time, and
1:52
then you've now transferred over to again phl Y and you're putting up some great
1:57
content there. I'm just I want to ask you before we get into the
2:00
Flyers. You know, how's that transition been for you? I mean,
2:04
you're still putting up great content for sure, but you know, how was
2:07
that transition for you? Yeah? It all kind of came about this summer
2:10
and you know, I certainly you know, loved my time with the Athletic.
2:15
They gave me an opportunity to be a full time be writer for the
2:17
Flyers, you know, for the first time I'd always done it part time.
2:21
They were the ones that gave me my first job and you know allowed
2:23
me to you know, do what I wanted to do for years and make
2:27
that my career. And I'll always be, you know, be grateful to
2:30
them for that. But you know, the way it played out was I
2:32
just kind of saw where the Athletic was going, and it definitely does seem
2:36
like that that company, you know, especially since they were purchased by the
2:38
New York Times, they're moving in more of a national direction. They're less
2:42
focused on the individual teams. They're more focused on stories. They're going to
2:46
capture everyone rather than like hyper localized, really detailed coverage of individual clubs exactly.
2:53
Yeah, you know, they they told me in the summer that you
2:57
know, I still had a job, but you know I was, I
2:59
was safe whatever. But you know, in June they cut coverage of the
3:02
Philadelphia seventy six ers, and that was a real concern because you know,
3:06
while I don't think they were going to like up and fire me right away,
3:09
you worry. It makes you worry about your job security. So you
3:12
know, I started looking around and all city that the company that owns PHL
3:16
Y I was looking to come to the Philadelphia area. So you know,
3:20
I took a meeting and I liked what I heard. I'm really excited about
3:23
what we're building over there. You know, it's very much a you know,
3:27
The Athletic was much more solely writing. Obviously, subscription based model,
3:30
everything's behind it. Pay well. This is much more multimedia, yep.
3:35
You know. Obviously we're doing five podcasts, five shows a week, but
3:38
not only is it a podcast, we're also recording in studio, so it's
3:42
all on YouTube in addition to the articles that have kind of been the core
3:47
of my work. So it's just it's a new challenge. You know,
3:51
it's fun. It's fun to be on camera. It's fun to be recording
3:54
YouTube videos, doing practice updates. And I'm still getting all the freedom that
3:59
I want to write the articles that I want in the way I want to
4:02
write them in depth. You know, they can go along sometimes, they
4:05
can go off on tangents, I can talk about stats, I can drop
4:10
in little funny anecdotes. I've learned like I have full freedom to write the
4:13
kind of articles I want to write. So so far, look it's a
4:15
startup, so we're gonna have some bumps, to be sure. And you
4:17
know we're gonna make mistakes, I'm sure, but I'm really excited about the
4:21
potential of this and I'm excited about what we've done so far. You all
4:24
are building some really good stuff over at PHL Y for sure, and I
4:29
can honestly say, Charlie, over the years from an analytics perspective with regard
4:31
to hockey, you've actually taught me a lot over the years, sobody,
4:35
I thank you very much for that. Keep up with the great content,
4:40
and as you guys are building over at PHL why this Flyers team is on
4:45
a path of building as well. And it's just it's so bizarre to kind
4:49
of take in thus far here toward the end of November, what we've been
4:54
seeing from this team. And if you don't mind, I want to reference
4:57
one of your recent articles over on PHL Y and you specifically wrote about something
5:01
that I've actually been thinking about for the past couple of weeks as it pertains
5:03
to this Flyers team. And it seemed tough to figure out over this time
5:10
if the Flyers were sticking with the young guys as it pertains to the rebuild,
5:14
or if they wanted to just kind of prioritize chemistry, leadership and that
5:17
cohesive locker room culture, and as you wrote in one of your recent articles,
5:23
it seems like they're kind of doing both here, and it's really bizarre
5:28
in terms of a hockey team looking to take that next step over the course
5:31
of a few years. I guess the real question is here, I mean,
5:34
is this Danny Brier being a complete genius bringing this all together and understanding
5:41
what a real and true rebuild is, or and it sounds ridiculous to say,
5:46
maybe are the Flyers just getting lucky here? What are your thoughts about
5:48
this, Charlie Well, I do think there's absolutely an element of luck here
5:53
because I can tell you and look, we're eighteen games into the season.
5:57
There's no guarantee at all that the Flyers thirty games, forty games, sixty
6:01
games, eighty two games end of the year are going to be looking this
6:04
good. Right, every time the Flyers have a really good game, John
6:08
Soderella goes up in front of us in the media basically is like, there's
6:11
gonna be pain, don't worry, it's coming. It's not all gonna be
6:14
shown exactly. He's preparing everyone for the possibility that like this could fall off
6:19
a cliff at some point and the team could start playing significantly worse than they
6:23
are now. That said, like, I don't think the Flyers came into
6:28
this year thinking this team was going to be this competitive. I think they
6:31
thought they were gonna be better than a lot of people enter the season thinking
6:35
they were gonna be. Like, I don't think the Flyers necessarily thought that
6:39
they were gonna be a bottom five team in the league. In part because
6:42
they had confidence that guys like Sean Gaturier and Cam Atkinson were going to come
6:45
back and be close to what they used to be yah in part because they
6:47
had confidence in some of their younger guys as well. But I certainly don't
6:51
think they expected that coming up on American Thanksgiving they were going to be second
6:56
in the Metro. I think this is a surprise to them as well,
6:59
and it does very much. And this is something I tried to really dive
7:02
into on my piece on Saturday, the one that you reference. It's just
7:06
the fact that, like the Flyers have announced this rebuild, they're rebuilding,
7:10
and I do believe they are truly rebuilding. But with a rebuild, you're
7:15
expecting a team to be stockpiling assets to be drafting at the top of the
7:20
draft, because you look at this team, this Flyers team, the way
7:24
it's been playing thus far this year, they have a lot of guys who
7:28
are good players, a lot of guys who are seeing expectations to be good
7:31
players, like Travis Sandheim's taking a massive jump this year, Joel Feierby's taking
7:35
a jump, Owen Tippett looks legit, Travis ConnectNY is showing that last year
7:40
was no fluke. They have a lot of legitimately good players, and that's
7:43
hoff they're doing this well. They don't have a great players, and I
7:46
think the expectation on the part of the Flyers was, Okay, we already
7:50
used the fifth overall pick to get Cutter go Ta two drafts ago. We
7:54
just got Mafey Mitchkoff with the seventh overall pick. We lucked into him this
7:58
past draft. We're probably gonna have a couple more years where we're not that
8:01
good. We're going to get a couple more top ten picks, and then
8:03
we're going to be able to really have what we don't have now, which
8:07
is those high end guys at the top of the lineup. That can lead
8:09
a Cup contender. Well, the problem is is that now it looks like
8:13
they're better than I think even they thought they were going to be, And
8:18
suddenly you're like, Okay. The positive of this is that you now have
8:22
a stronger foundation. You have more players that are that can be part of
8:28
a good Flyers team. You have more guys that clear like two years ago,
8:31
last year, the Flyers looked like they were barren of talent that could
8:35
legitimately fit on a really good team. Now it looks like they have quite
8:37
a few guys and that's great. The negative and the drawback of it is
8:43
now you're wondering, how are they going to get these guys at the top
8:46
of the line, Because, look, I love Travis Connecty. He's a
8:48
really good player, and I'm very much coming around on the idea that they
8:52
don't need to trade him, that he can be part of this. They
8:54
can re sign him and that'll fit the timeline that said Travis Connecty cannot be
8:58
the best player on a great team. He's just he's not that caliber player.
9:01
Right Like they beat Vegas. Vegas was the Cup the Cup champion last
9:05
year. Travis Knecty probably somewhere between the third and seventh best player on Vegas.
9:11
He can't be the centerpiece of a championship team. Now they're hoping that
9:16
Matt They, Mitchkoff, and Cutter Gotier can be and maybe they will.
9:18
They certainly have the upside to be stars, both of them do. But
9:22
suddenly this rebuild that they're trying to do. While they certainly have more depth
9:28
than I think they thought they had, they now really have to hope to
9:31
God that both Mitch Cooff and go Tier are legit yea, because if it
9:37
turns out that one of those guys, or God forbid, both of those
9:39
guys are not what they're hoping they're going to be. And like Mitch Koff
9:43
I think has the potential to be a one hundred point a year superstar,
9:46
and Gotier, I think has the potential to be a forty plus goal year
9:50
guy who's just like a dominant score. If they if Gotier is like just
9:54
a thirty goal scorer and if Mitchkoff is like just a sixty point power play
10:00
specialist, they're screwed because then they don't have anybody who can be the stars,
10:05
and they just have a bunch of dudes, and they're basically just where
10:09
they were with the Hextall rebuild, except without a Claude room. So there's
10:13
good things here in that there's a lot of players that we thought were worse
10:16
and now it turns out they're actually better than we thought. That's great,
10:20
But the rub is that now they're really really dependent on guys like Mitchkoff and
10:24
Goji being stars, because unless they get those stars, they're not going to
10:30
be able to take the next step beyond being like a good, decent playoff
10:33
team and being an actual contender for a championship. I love the feelings that
10:39
we all get as fans right now watching this team, but I still,
10:41
in the back of my mind, being a Flyers fan for as long as
10:45
I have been, Charlie would say to myself, this could just completely fall
10:50
out, This could completely just derail, and we could be looking at a
10:54
top ten pick. I mean, it's still very possible. Not that I'm
10:58
necessarily hoping for there's that. It absolutely is. It absolutely is. But
11:01
you know, as we're moving along, I really want to talk about one
11:05
player on this team who I think is just I don't necessarily want to say
11:07
exceeding expectations. But kind of a two part question here with regard to this
11:13
player, and it's Carter Hart, because like, I'm trying to figure out
11:16
a word to describe him this season that you know, and maybe this word
11:22
that I'm particularly looking at, and that's the word tenacious. I think carter
11:26
Hart has been extremely tenacious throughout the court of throughout the course of this season.
11:31
I think he's been steadfast. I think he's been persistent. I think
11:33
he's just been tough in front of the net. And I'm wondering what word
11:39
you would use to describe carter Hart this season, because we're seeing some really
11:43
good stuff from him in front of the net. Not that we haven't seen
11:46
some of this stuff before, but there is a level of tenacious consistency that
11:52
I've been seeing from him. So what's that one word that you would use
11:54
to describe Carter Hart and what you're seeing from him this year. Yeah,
12:00
I think the word I would use to describe him actually as a word that
12:03
John Turella used to describe Sean Walker in the piece that I published today at
12:05
All Phohy, I think he's just been steady, Like I don't think he
12:09
has been incredible. He's not doing, say, like what Thatcher Demko is
12:13
doing in Vancouver right now, with you know, having an incredible, say
12:16
percentage of stopping everything he sees. He's just been steady. And you saw
12:20
it in the games against Carolina last week and then against Vegas over the weekend,
12:24
where like, the Flyers don't win those games unless Carter Hart plays the
12:30
way he plays. And I'm not saying he was perfect, Like there are
12:31
a couple of goals against Vegas that I'm sure he they weren't necessarily easy saves,
12:37
but I'm sure he wishes he stopped them. But against Carolina, you
12:39
know, early in the Carolina game and early in the Vegas game, the
12:43
Flyers could have been down one nothing, two nothing, even three nothing,
12:46
because those really good teams, those are Cup contending teams, and they came
12:50
out there and it seemed like they just wanted to like just shock in all
12:54
the Flyers and remembering, like, look at how good we are. You
12:58
guys aren't on our level. The only reason why those games stayed scoreless was
13:01
because Carter Hart was great. Yeah, and that's what you need when you're
13:07
a team that like, look, the Flyers have a good record so far.
13:09
They're exceeding expectations. That's great. No one, even the most optimistic
13:13
Flyers fan, is putting them on the level of them from a talent standpoint
13:16
as teams like Vegas and Carolina. Yeah, they're not on that level.
13:20
Everyone knows it. But when you have a goalie who can go into those
13:24
games against these top tier teams stare them down and not blink when they throw
13:30
their best at him, that gives you a chance to win individual games against
13:33
teams that are better than you. And I think that's what Carter Hart has
13:35
done. Obviously, you know, he dealt with the injury, which ended
13:39
up being not quite as serious as I think a lot of people feared.
13:41
It was a back issue that it basically locked up on him for like two
13:45
or three days, and then he woke up on Sunday and it was fine.
13:48
Like God, I missed being twenty five years old. But anyway,
13:52
that was one that for a while looking he's going to be out for maybe
13:56
a month. Turns out he only missed a couple weeks, so he hasn't
13:58
been in He has been active all the time. But when he's been active,
14:03
when he's been available, I think he has. He has steadied this
14:05
team and he's given them the foundation that has allowed for everyone else to exceed
14:11
expectations. If he wasn't doing what he's doing, I don't think we're seeing
14:15
as many good things from the players right right. I absolutely agree with that
14:18
too, and I think, you know, to follow up, my second
14:20
part of the question was, Charlie, it's gonna be like if he continues
14:24
with this this certain level of continuity throughout this season, I mean, does
14:28
it inevitably bode well for him to stay in Philadelphia long term because you know,
14:33
we know what's coming down the pike perhaps with him. Yeah. I
14:37
think. Look, I think purely as a player, the Flyers really like
14:43
Carter Hart. I think they they view him as I think they. I
14:46
don't think they know if he's a great goalie, like a truly top tier
14:50
goalie. But he's definitely at least a good goalie. He's a good NHL
14:54
starter, and he's still young enough that he could potentially take that leap at
14:58
age twenty six, at age twenty seven and become a great NHL goalie.
15:01
It's there. He's got the talent. There are a couple of things though,
15:05
that I'm sure give them pause Number one and this is the the easier
15:09
thing to talk about is his next contract, Like he is, he has
15:13
one more year left on his deal after this one, I believe. I
15:16
think that's his his contract situation. And essentially, no, no, this
15:20
is his list this year. That's right. Yeah, yeah, he's a
15:22
he's an RFA this upcoming summer. My guess is he's gonna want a lot
15:26
of money. And honestly, rightfully so, he's a young starting goalie with
15:31
a ton of experience who's had some really good years and he's playing it in
15:33
front of some really bad teams that have probably deflated his numbers. It's gonna
15:37
be interesting to see if the Flyers are willing to give him what he wants.
15:39
Yeah, if you know, and and it depends on what he wants,
15:43
you know, if he wants to shoot for the moon, maybe the
15:46
Flyers look at it and they say, you know, Carter, we like
15:48
you, but we don't love you, and and we don't love you to
15:52
the to the tune of eight million dollars a year over seven years. So
15:56
if you think you can get that from Edmonton, like, we'll trade your
15:58
rights to Edmonton if they are willing to pay that, we're not. So
16:02
the negotiations part is going to be interesting. It's going to be interesting to
16:06
see whether Heart is reasonable and realistic or whether he has for so much that
16:11
the Flyers have to reassess just how much they like him. That's number one.
16:15
Number two, and this is the really tough one, is the Hockey
16:17
Canada stuff, and that's going to linger over Carter Heart's head until it's resolved
16:22
one way or the other. Now, no one knows whether Heart was involved,
16:26
whether Heart did anything wrong, whether Heart was even in the vicinity of
16:30
all those terrible things that happened in that hotel room. But the fact of
16:33
the matter is is that we just don't know. Investigations are still forthcoming.
16:37
The London Police Department still investigating Hockey Canada, is in an appeals process right
16:42
now. The NHL is sitting on their investigation, I think, waiting to
16:47
see what resolution there is from the London Police side and from Hockey Canada.
16:51
I think they're just kind of holding off because there haven't been any charges filed,
16:53
so who knows. But I think that's part of the reason number one
16:57
why the Flyers haven't actively tried to trade him or like gauge his value,
17:02
because who's going to want to give up the kind of package the Flyers would
17:06
be willing to accept, not knowing whether in six months Carter Hart's going to
17:10
be suspended for two years because he was evolved in a rate case like no
17:12
one knows, and we've talked about it on PHLI where it's such a crappy
17:18
situation for everyone. Obviously it was an awful situation for the victim, Like
17:22
let's not let's not sugarcoat that by any means, But there are probably players
17:27
that were not at all involved, that did nothing wrong, that were not
17:30
in the hotel room, that were not involved even a little bit, and
17:34
they have a black cloud over top of them even though they did nothing wrong,
17:40
just because they happen to be on that team, and that this is
17:42
lingering as long as it has. It's not fair to them that there's been
17:47
no resolution. And my hope is that Carter Hart is one of those people,
17:51
that he's one of those people that was not at all involved, that
17:52
did nothing wrong, and that when if and when we do find out who
17:57
was the perpetray or who was involved, that we're gonna find out Carter Hart
18:02
is completely cleared, and then the Flyers can go forward, but until they
18:07
know for sure, like, I don't know if you can sign him to
18:11
a long term deal, because it's a risk. It's a major risk,
18:15
number one, just from a functional standpoint, because you sign a guy to
18:18
a massive contract and then suddenly he's not available for a year, or he's
18:22
not available for two years or whatever. And then second there's the moral aspect
18:25
of it. You know, even if you sign him for that to that
18:29
contract, he sits out a year and then he comes back rightfully. So
18:33
there's gonna be a lot of fans who don't want him on the Flyers ex
18:36
exactly. So there's a lot of things going on here where I think heart
18:41
well, his play this year has been really good, and I think all
18:45
things being equal, I think the Flyers would like him to be part of
18:47
the future. I don't think you can make a final decision on whether he
18:51
can be until you know clearcut one way or the other. What is gonna
18:55
happen with his Hockey canon investigation. Absolutely, it's great analysis and great takes
19:00
for sure coming from Charlie. And as we're moving along, here. You
19:03
know, there are definitely a lot of surprises this year with this Flyers team,
19:07
as we've talked about, you know, as we're talking about with the
19:10
you know, opening question. But I'm wondering, is is there a player
19:15
on this team, Charlie that you're not surprised about in terms of their performance?
19:21
But most everybody in Flyers Nation is actually surprised about in terms of this
19:26
season? Do you have Is there that player for you that you can point
19:29
to and say you're actually not surprised about him, But folks like myself be
19:33
like, yeah, we were surprised. Who's that person and why? Yeah,
19:36
that's an interesting question because there are quite a few guys on the team,
19:38
like, for example, I'm not surprised that Travis Sandheim has this in
19:44
him. I always thought very highly of him. I am surprised that he's
19:48
playing this well after such a bad year he has. I'm here that does
19:52
surprise me? Yes, I guess if you're if you're gonna like like pin
19:56
me to a wall and say, like, who who who has done something
20:00
that has surprised a lot of people but doesn't surprise you, Like, honestly,
20:03
it's probably Joel Farrabe because I've been a Joel Farraby believer since the day
20:07
they drafted him, Like he was the guy I wanted the Flyers to take
20:11
with that pick. He was my top choice. I loved the skill set.
20:15
I thought he had the potential to be the rare guy who is like
20:18
the rare prospect who is a high floor guy but also a high ceiling guy
20:23
where like worst case scenario, he's a good third liner. Best case scenario,
20:26
he is a play driving, goal scoring winger who can play in your
20:30
top six for ten to fifteen years. And I think over the last couple
20:34
of years his stock has dipped a lot in the eyes of fans. Didn't
20:38
he had had the really good year, the one young guy who had a
20:42
really good year, that post pandemic season, the shortened season where everybody's stunk
20:48
and Farabe was the only guy who looked good and it was like, oh
20:49
man, they might have something in this guy. Then the next year he's
20:52
stagnated, and then last year he came back from that next surgery and just
20:57
like he went like twenty six games without a goal. It was just very
21:00
clear that even if he wasn't hurt, that he had very much been hurt
21:07
by the fact that he didn't have a real offseason. He spent the whole
21:08
off season rehabbing rather than actually getting stronger, which he desperately needed to do
21:12
well. What you're seeing this year from Joel Farraby is what Joel Farrabe is
21:18
like. After he has a full summer to do all the work he wished
21:21
he did the summer before. He looks faster, he looks stronger, and
21:25
the numbers are backing it up. I mean, this is a guy he
21:26
has fourteen points in eighteen games. He's got seven goals, so he's on
21:30
a thirty a thirty plus goal pace, and for the first time in his
21:33
career because he is always literally from his time in at the USND Pig,
21:38
he has been projected as a guy like he's a two way winger. He's
21:41
gonna drive play, he's going to be good defensively, he's gonna do all
21:45
the little things right. And for whatever reason, his numbers, if you're
21:48
looking at terms of like expected goals, course he underlying play a five on
21:52
five. They've never been that good and it always was like that doesn't match
21:55
up with my perception of what I think Joel Ferraby can be well this year
21:59
for the first time. The Flyers are killing it when he's on the ice,
22:02
like they're they're generating something like so so far through like eighteen games,
22:06
they're generating something like sixty percent of the expected goals with him on the ice,
22:08
which is like straight up elite levels that much. Oh my god.
22:14
Yeah, like like the really good team who're usually around like fifty six and
22:17
he's at sixty. Like, when he's on the ice, the Flyers are
22:19
dominating play. And this is what I always thought Joel Farrabey had in him.
22:23
Now, granted I wasn't sure what we were going to see postneck surgery.
22:27
You know, he had the disappointing year last year, and I said
22:30
to myself, you know, if he can bulk up without losing speed,
22:34
if he can gain that like quarter of a step extra stride, if he
22:38
can be stronger in puck battles, I still think that player who I believed
22:41
in when he got drafted, I still think he's there. But he needs
22:45
to do it, Like he needs to do the work, He needs to
22:47
put the time in, and he needs to show that guy is still there.
22:48
And what I've seen so far this year is that that guy is very
22:52
much still there and it's very much what it appears. Joel Farrabey is becoming
22:56
again folks. Talking to Charlie O'Connor from phl y Sport and you can follow
23:00
him on Twitter. If you're not already, you're probably already following him.
23:03
But at Charlie oh underscore con conn great, great follow for everything Flyers.
23:11
So as we're moving along here, Charlie, I wanted to get into Morgan
23:15
Frost here, certainly having a bizarre season my gosh, I mean from being
23:18
benched in the home opener. He earned his first point of the season just
23:22
about a week ago or so, maybe a little over a week ago.
23:26
At this point, it's been disappointing as a fan to see how things have
23:30
kind of gone for him. And John Tortorella has said that he needs to
23:33
be in a scoring role, and it's tough to see that being a consistent
23:37
aspect of you know, this team's offense by any stretch of the imagination,
23:42
because he's just not in that scoring role of course. So what are your
23:47
thoughts about Morgan Frost season here and just kind of what his outlook is overall.
23:52
I mean, is he gonna bounce back? Do you think in your
23:56
mind? Or is this just is this what Morgan Frost really is going to
23:59
be for this Flyers or organization. Well, it's tough. It's tough to
24:03
answer the question of whether I think he's going to bounce back, because I
24:07
think he did like he obviously played the first two games, wasn't that good,
24:11
then got scratched for like two weeks, then comes back, looked better,
24:15
but wasn't scoring in large part because he was alongside Tyson Forrester, who
24:19
at the moment couldn't buy a goal to save his life. And he gets
24:22
scratched again. Then he comes back and he scores, he produces offense.
24:27
Was I went on the California road trip. I watched him have a really
24:30
really good game in LA where he did everything that John Trurell has been begging
24:36
all of his players to do. Get in front of the net, do
24:37
the little thing, shoot the puck. Everything he wanted to do. Morgan
24:41
Frost did. Then Morgan Frost has one game where he doesn't score a point
24:45
and he's out of the line up again, and it just it's very much
24:48
a thing where like, I think he is working really hard to be the
24:52
kind of player that John Twuderella once But I don't think John Twittererella is really
24:56
giving him the chance to be the player that John Sourella wants. Now here's
25:02
the thing, and this is just the reality of the situation. John Toterella
25:06
is part of the triumvit of leadership with Keith Jones, with Danny Brier.
25:10
He has a very strong voice at the table. And if John Tortorella is
25:12
convinced that Morgan Frost just doesn't have it, he just doesn't have that essential
25:18
piece in order to be part of the next Gray Flyers team, Morgan Frost
25:22
will not be part of the next Gray Flyers team. Now, John Sorella
25:26
could be wrong. Maybe Morgan Frost goes somewhere else and kills it. But
25:30
John Tortorella has such a strong voice in this mix that if he just doesn't
25:33
believe in Morgan Frost, Morgan Frost ain't gonna fit. Now does that mean
25:37
that Morgan Frost is a bad player? I don't know. I personally have
25:41
my skepticisms about Frost. I think I look at him as somebody who I
25:47
view more as a like he is a score All he really does is produce
25:52
points, And I don't know if he's ever gonna produce enough points for me
25:56
to want him to be like that designated scorer guy on my team. Like
26:00
you look at the Flyers right now and the way they're gonna be built for
26:03
the future. You got Sean Gaturier and they have Cutter Got who they're developing
26:07
as a center. So if Morgan Frost is gonna fit, he's probably gonna
26:11
be the three C. And he's a three C who doesn't kill penalties,
26:14
who doesn't drive play, who's just there to score, Like, does that
26:18
really fit with what they're trying to build. I'm skeptical. The frustration on
26:22
my part is that what I wanted, what my ideal situation for Morgan Frost
26:26
this year would have been. And I'm saying this is someone who was skeptical
26:29
he was going to prove that he deserved to belong. I wanted to give
26:33
him this entire season, eighty two games, because you go back to last
26:36
season. Last season, he had a rough start, he was far down
26:38
in the lineup. Final two thirds of the year, he was one of
26:41
their best scorers for the final fifty five games. I mean, how many
26:44
times have we heard Bill Meltzer say it and tweeted it out the final fifty
26:47
five games, Morgan Frost led the team in scoring. I don't know if
26:49
he can do that over eighty two. I don't know if he's that good
26:52
of a player. But I wanted to give him a chance to show over
26:56
eighty two games that he can be a sixty five point a year guy,
26:59
that he can be an offense machine, that the Flyers had to find a
27:03
way to make him fit because he was just that good of a player.
27:04
Now, I had my doubts that he would actually do it, but I
27:07
wanted them to give him the chance because I wanted to know. I wanted
27:11
to at least have confidence one way or the other whether Frost was good enough
27:15
or wasn't good enough. What's happening instead is that we just don't know because
27:19
Tortorello isn't playing him on a nightly basis. So Tortorello might be right.
27:23
Maybe Morgan Frost, like you know, it's become a more popular term in
27:26
sports recently, Maybe Morgan Frost just don't got that dogging. Maybe that's true.
27:30
Maybe towards is right, but I don't think we know because Torts isn't
27:36
giving him the chance to prove he's got that doggin. Yeah, he's just
27:38
scratching him every other game, even when he's playing well. So look,
27:42
I don't think the marginalization of Morgan Frost is a disaster for the Flyers.
27:49
You watch the way they play when he's out of the lineup. They play
27:52
fine. It's not like you're watching them without Morgan Frost and you're like,
27:56
man, they really miss Morgan Frost. However, I do think there's value
28:00
here, and I think the Flyers are squandering it a bit by like shuttling
28:04
him in and out. I was gonna ask you, I think it really
28:07
just yeah, and I think it really just boils down to the fact that
28:08
John Truerrel doesn't really fully believe in him, and the Flyers just kind of
28:14
have to hope that John's Bruerel is right because I think where this is going,
28:17
the path this is going down, is Morgan Fross getting moved at some
28:21
point in the next twelve months. It has to because if you're if you're
28:23
not going to play him, then you got to give him a shot.
28:26
Somewhere else. Well, that and that, and that's the sad part of
28:27
this situation too, is that I do actually think he does have value and
28:30
he will have value for this team in terms of asset acquisition at some point.
28:36
But if they're squandering this opportunity right now, it kind of just stinks
28:41
that that that they're not allowing him the opportunities to one have some sort of
28:45
level of success, not just for himself professionally, but what that value is
28:49
going to be for the Flyers organization as well. So it's, uh,
28:52
it's it's gonna be interesting to follow his, uh, his his play over
28:56
these next you know, a couple months, you know, at least,
28:59
you know, and I don't know if he's going to be on this team
29:00
or not, who knows. But as we're closing things up here at Charlie,
29:06
I wanted to just kind of dive into, you know, the consistency
29:11
of this team, and consistency seems to be such a hard thing for NHL
29:15
teams to accomplish week after week, especially when a team is in a rebuild
29:19
like this Flyers team is. So I'm wondering, like, what aspect of
29:23
this team will be the most consistent moving forward throughout the rest of this season,
29:29
this twenty twenty three, twenty twenty four year. What do you what
29:32
do you think is going to be most consistent for us to see on a
29:34
nightly, weekly, or even monthly basis here. It's a good question because
29:40
because I could talk about individual players, I could talk about like, maybe
29:42
the most consistent thing is going to be the power play is going to stink,
29:45
like maybe that's the answer that it's going to say that, But but
29:49
honestly, I think what I'll say I think is going to be the most
29:52
consistent because I don't see this changing. Like I think it's going to be
29:57
consistent that the Flyers are going to on a nightly basis work extremely hard because
30:03
I think John Tortorella would blow his top if they don't like John Sorella is
30:07
not going to let them not work hard. And if player players aren't working
30:10
hard, they're not going to play because they got enough guys they can shuttle
30:12
in from the miners or guys that are currently healthy, scratches that can come
30:17
in if a guy isn't pulling their weight. Look, I don't know if
30:19
the Flyers are going to keep up this level of play. My guess is
30:22
that they won't because I look at the roster and I'm like, this team
30:26
isn't They're not this good. There are more than a few guys that might
30:32
be playing over their heads. I look at their defense core and I'm like,
30:36
look, I love what I've seen for Travis Sandaim, I really like
30:38
what I've seen for Sean Walker. But like Nick Steelers on your second pair,
30:42
you know, this is not a defense corps that screams to me like
30:47
cruising to a playoff berth. Good. But even if they do regress,
30:52
and even if they go on some losing shrieks and they go through some rough
30:55
times over the course of the year, which as I said, John Derureau
30:57
keeps saying, that's gonna happen. Worry, We're gonna lose games, that's
31:00
gonna happen. But even if that happens, I fully expect the Flyers will
31:04
be giving a ton of effort every night. I think that where they're at
31:08
as an organization and where they're at as a team, they're at the very
31:12
least going to play in a way that has Philadelphia Flyers fans not a shame
31:18
to be rooting for the Philadelphia Flyers, and I think that was a problem
31:22
over the last few years, where too many nights it just didn't even look
31:25
like they showed up. I think the Flyers every night are going to work
31:29
their asses off. Now. They might lose a bunch of games over the
31:32
next however, many games are left because they have serious talent efficiencies. Maybe
31:37
they'll keep winning, who knows, But regardless of the outcomes, I think
31:40
this is gonna be a hard working team that's gonna make it tough for opponents
31:42
to win. Doesn't mean opponents can't beat them, but they're gonna have to
31:45
earn every inch of it. Gonna be an interesting rest of the season for
31:48
sure. Again, folks, Charlie O'Connor from phly allphli dot com. Check
31:56
out their podcast, check out the columns that Charlie is specifically writing. Great
32:00
great content, and Charlie, my man, thank you so much for taking
32:04
the time to jump on here. Very much appreciate it and hopefully we can
32:07
have you on down the road. My friend. Yeah, sounds great.
32:10
Always great to jump on the show. It's always an interesting discussion with Charlie,
32:15
and again we thank him so much for taking the time to join us
32:19
when it comes to enjoying what we're seeing here. I mean, that's what
32:22
we got to do, folks. We got to enjoy what we're seeing here
32:24
in a way, because I really do think you know, as we were
32:27
talking earlier, and as Charlie has written in the past too, you know,
32:30
it's that melding of what's the locker room chemistry going to be like in
32:36
terms of leadership things like that, and in terms of playing these younger guys
32:39
and what that means for the rebuild as well in terms of their development.
32:44
All of it meshing together, it's really interesting to watch and it's going to
32:47
continue to be fun to follow for sure, as we're hidding into the holidays
32:52
here and as we look to twenty twenty four as well. So you know,
32:58
it's not a terrible time I'm in the world of Philly sports, by
33:00
any stretch of the imagination, it's not. So let's enjoy this time right
33:04
now. Ebbs and flows all over the place on an annual basis when it
33:07
comes to the world of Philly sports. So let's enjoy what we're seeing now
33:10
from all five of our major Philly sports teams. So that's going to do
33:15
it for us on table talk folks. Hope you enjoyed it again, and
33:19
you can follow us on the Twitter dot com at Philadelphia PST can follow me
33:22
at Jeffrey Underscore Warren, and we are on Instagram as well. If anything
33:28
happens to your podcast feed, head on over to Philadelphia Sports table dot com.
33:30
We've got all of our shows over there, and yeah, subscribing whatever
33:35
podcast platform you are on. We greatly appreciate that. Hope you enjoy the
33:37
content. We'll catch you next time.