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TABLE TALK: The Flyers And The Underdog Culture · The Philadelphia Sports Table | Philly Sports News & Views

0:00
Hey, everybody, it's Jeff. Happy New Year to you and yours.
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We wanted to let you know that we recorded this podcast on Monday, January
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first, twenty twenty four. By the time you hear this, some things
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may have changed, but we hope you enjoy the show. All right,
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everybody, you're listening to Table Talk here at the Philadelphia Sports Table podcast show,
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the longest running weekly Philly sports podcast show in the world, over ten
0:42
and a half years strong. It's twenty twenty four, and we have got
0:47
a great year coming your way in the world of Philly sports, at least,
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we hope so. Right well, specifically on this particular Table Talk show
0:55
and interview, we're gonna getting into the Philadelphia Flyers. This is a team
0:58
that at this very moment is third in the Metropolitan Division with a record of
1:03
nineteen twelve and five. It is amazing what we have seen from this Philadelphia
1:07
Flyers team, some of the games that they have won as of late.
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We're gonna get into what we are seeing from this team and what we can
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expect from them in the future. We've got a great guest, love talking
1:18
to her. Let's get right to it. It's great to have her back
1:21
on the show to get into this Philadelphia Flyers team, this Flyers team that
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has surprised so many of us during the course of this twenty twenty three twenty
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twenty four season. From Broadstreet Hockey dot com. I am a subscriber over
1:34
there, and you should as well. If you love the Philadelphia Flyers,
1:37
and if you'd like some really, really good Flyers coverage, you can find
1:41
her on the Twitter dot com where I guess is we are calling it now
1:45
X. We have Kelly Hinkel at hinks Hi n X, Kelly, how
1:49
you doing. I'm great, Jeff, Happy New Year. Happy New Year
1:53
to you as well. And that was probably the worst intro that I have
1:56
ever done, but I'm probably not the worst. It was what a mumbo
2:00
jumbo intro that was to start this twenty twenty four year. I feel like
2:05
we should just start over. I don't think we will, though, but
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you just let me know we're fine. I guess we're fine. Here.
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Look this Flyers team. Holy crap, I you know I said in the
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I said in the intro nineteen twelve and five on the season, here third
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the Metropolitan Division? What the hell? Jeff? Exactly exactly Seriously, the
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world of sports anymore is absolutely mind boggling. There are so many folks online
2:35
with you know, whether it's you know, you know you myself, whether
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it's just this community, especially in the world of Philly sports that we are
2:42
a part of, and we all try to predict what's gonna happen year after
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year, month after month, what's gonna be happening with these teams that we
2:49
all follow. And you take a look at the Philadelphia Eagles, what has
2:52
happened to them in their season. You take a look at the Philadelphia Phillies
2:55
and how it was pretty disappointing, of course, with how their season ended
3:00
and what we thought was going to happen with this team. And now we're
3:02
looking at this Philadelphia Flyers team and we're like, oh my gosh, I
3:06
feel like we know nothing about sports, even though we've been following these teams
3:10
and these sports our entire lives. I feel like we know nothing, Kelly,
3:15
I mean, honestly, like people that act like they know everything about
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sports and that they can't, you know what I mean, Like they're always
3:24
right and they know what's going to happen. Like those people are boring anyway,
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Like that's not what we do here. None of us know what's going
3:31
to happen. You can look at as many predictive staffs as you want to,
3:35
you can watch as many games as you want to, none of us
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know actually what's going to happen, especially in hockey, because it's so random,
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and honestly, that's the best part of all of this, if you
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ask me, and that's one of the best part. Yeah, it's the
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best part of hockey in general, is that you just don't know what's going
3:50
to happen. You cannot predict, especially during the playoffs, dude, you
3:53
really can't predict what team is going to do what. But as we're getting
3:55
into this Flyers discussion here, I wanted to off by talking about Carter Hart
4:01
and I wanted to talk about a previous conversation that we had here, and
4:05
I also remember a while back on the broad Street Hockey podcast as well.
4:11
Again, it's a conversation you and I had many months ago. You said,
4:15
and you know, and you readily admitted that you were in the minority
4:18
in terms of what Flyers Nation fans were talking about at the time. You
4:23
mentioned that it might be a good idea for the Flyers to trade Carter Hart
4:27
as the organization was looking at the rebuild. So as we're seeing what has
4:31
been unfolding with this season thus far, with what we've seen from Carter Heart
4:36
and how his goaltending in front of the net has been just pretty remarkable this
4:41
season. Here, I'm wondering, are you still feeling that way that you
4:45
know he'd be a great trade piece? Is there in this rebuild here?
4:47
Are you still feeling that way? Kelly? Why are Why not? So?
4:51
I mean, honestly, in a vacuum, would it be great to
4:56
keep Carter Heart for the rebuild going forward? He's not terribly old, like,
5:01
he'll still be good when this team is ostensibly turning the corner into an
5:06
actual contender. Yeah. Sure, he's playing really well. He has outstanding
5:13
numbers. I pulled him up here. He's saving one point sixty six goals
5:16
above average. He's got a nine to eighteen save percentage. Like, Yeah,
5:19
he's objectively having a very good season. He looks great. Ye.
5:25
That said, this isn't a vacuum. He's going to be up for a
5:30
new contract, and given how well that he's playing, he's going to rightfully
5:33
be asking for a lot of money and a lot of term. I'm assuming
5:38
he'd be crazy not to. Are the Flyers in a position to give a
5:42
goaltender a lot of money and a lot of term, I don't think so.
5:45
I don't really think that goalie should ever get term, like if you
5:47
want to give him a bunch of money, like whatever, if you have
5:49
the cap space, whatever. Term though in a goalie makes me very nervous.
5:54
It seems like every just about every long term goalie contract at some point
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looks terrible. Yeah. I feel like Vassilevski is probably the only one that
6:03
wasn't at any point bad, you know point. Yeah. So there's that
6:09
to think about. The Hockey Canada thing is still hanging out there in the
6:15
universe that we don't know what's going to happen. Is it ever going to
6:16
come out? At this point, it feels like, no, it's never
6:18
going to come out. It feels like they're gonna try as best they can
6:21
to just let it die because it's the NHL. Yeah, and really quick,
6:26
just to piggyback off that really quick. I feel like if Carter Hart
6:29
was really involved in something horrific in terms of that situation, that it actually
6:33
would have come out at this point. I don't know, And I know
6:36
what you're saying with the NHL and how the NHL operates and things like that.
6:42
I look at the world of digital media that we live in anymore,
6:46
and it seems like it seems like people just can't get away with shit that
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they used to be able to get away with at times, you know,
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And I feel like it would have come out already. I don't know.
6:55
That's just initially what I'm thinking. I would, I would, I would
6:58
love to believe that. I would really like to believe he had nothing to
7:00
do with this. But the fact of the matter is there were eight or
7:04
nine, I forget at this point guys that did a terrible thing, and
7:10
he's in the pool of guys that could be one of those eight or nine
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yep, And we don't know definitively if he did or didn't, So it
7:15
is kind of hanging out there like a big mounts of ball. And then
7:20
also you have the fact that this is a rebuilding team. It's still a
7:25
team that needs to fill some holes, particularly at center. The defense I
7:30
think could probably use a little bit of shoring up in spots. And when
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you have a goalie as good as Carter Hart, they don't really get traded
7:39
very often. So you could probably get out of a team like Toronto,
7:46
like Edmonton that are really on the edge of what should be Cup runs for
7:53
years, that don't have any goaltending and that is the weak spot for them
7:57
and has been for years. I'm assuming you could get a package out of
8:01
them that would make a lot of sense for the Flyers, be it futures,
8:03
be it prospects, be it guys that could play on the team now.
8:07
So if you do trade Carter Hart, you're probably you're not gonna get
8:11
You're never gonna get the value of the guy that you're trading. In these
8:15
situations like you're never going to get as much value as carter Hart provides.
8:18
But I do think that you could get some good pieces for the future.
8:22
And then there's also Sam Erson, who seems to be a pretty dang good
8:26
goaltender. Yes, and we've got two or three Russian kids coming up in
8:31
the wings that seem to be pretty good goaltenders. And if we could make
8:37
sam Erson the starter with a solid backup like that seems like a path forward
8:43
that wouldn't be terrible either. Because Arson's younger, he seems to be maybe
8:48
not as good as carter Hart looks right now, but he looks pretty darn
8:50
good. Like, I'm pretty confident when sam Erson is starting a game at
8:54
this point, Like, I don't feel like I have anything to worry about.
8:56
So, I mean, there's a lot to consider. It's a complicated
9:00
issue. I totally understand why people would never want to trade carter Hart,
9:05
and I totally understand why people would say you have to trade carter Hart.
9:07
Both arguments make sense to me. So it's it's kind of a it's a
9:11
lot for Danny breerra consider, and it's going to be interesting to see what
9:13
happens because I would imagine it's a tough decision for a general manager, Yeah,
9:18
to think about trading a goaltender this good and essentially his prime. But
9:24
there's a there's a lot of stuff to consider. I don't know, because
9:26
I really don't think he can give him eight years, you know what I
9:28
mean, Like, I don't think that's a good idea. Yeah, And
9:31
that that's where my brain starts to hurt when I think about that. In
9:35
a way, but my brain has also been hurting too because I feel like
9:39
so many of us in Flyers Nation have this PTSD when it comes to the
9:43
goalie situation too. You know, I mean, ide, you go back
9:46
to you go back to Mason and like he was kind of a steady Eddy
9:50
type of goalie. You know, we can go back to Briz, Oh
9:54
my god, Brits goll Off, you know, and just like there's been
9:56
so much, there's been so much like an certainty in a way with the
10:01
goalie position where I remember on this excuse me, on this podcast, even
10:05
going back ten years, where we would say we just want more, we
10:09
want stability, but also more than stability, we want the solid goaltender of
10:13
the future. And I feel like we have that here with Carter Hart.
10:16
But you make good points too about Sam Yerson and what he has been doing,
10:20
and he's probably gonna get better as a goaltender as well. So it's
10:24
like I feel like I have that PTSD when it comes to the goalie position
10:28
for the Philadelphia Flyers. No, totally, it's it's it's I mean,
10:31
at least at this point, it's complicated in like kind of a good way,
10:37
right right, Like we have it's almost like we have an embarrassment of
10:39
riches in the sense that, like we do have some flexibility and like what
10:43
decisions are made because of Arson. Arson being good has kind of given them
10:48
a little bit of wiggle room so far as what they're going to do.
10:52
I mean, it really all comes down to the contract. For me,
10:54
Like if if Carter Hart was willing to sign for three or four years,
10:58
yeah, okay, cool, but like why would he be you know what
11:01
I mean, Like if he hits the market, someone's going to throw a
11:07
bucket of money at him for a you know, ten years, Like they'd
11:11
be crazy not to you know what I mean. Like it's just solutely yeah,
11:15
it's almost you know, bad for us. He's playing So I love
11:20
the Flyers mentality. I love it. Oh it's bad, It's bad he's
11:24
playing so well. I love it. It's this Philly sports mentality. I
11:28
love it. And I say completely see where you're coming from. I really
11:30
do. It's it's gonna be an interesting storyline to follow for sure, uh
11:33
Kelly. But as we're moving along here, you know, I really want
11:37
to just kind of like reflect on, my gosh, when the Flyers beat
11:39
the Canucks last week, Oh my gosh, watching that geme I was absolutely
11:45
enthralled by what we were seeing on the ice from these guys. I mean,
11:48
we're seeing like speed from so many of these kids. I mean,
11:52
what do you think that that win meant to the guys on this team and
11:56
how they're viewing this season from a pure hockey standpoint point. So Charlie O'Connor
12:03
Front of the Pod had an article the other day about what it's been like
12:09
in the Flyers' locker room considering what the expectations were for the team heading into
12:15
the season, and it kind of seems like every win for them at this
12:20
point is kind of a little bit of like an f u yea like the
12:24
media. Carter Hart said, I think it was in that article that that
12:28
Heart said that people come up to him like at the mall and say,
12:31
why aren't you tanking? Like which, by the way, folks listening,
12:35
please don't approach professional athletes in the wild and talk to them about their job,
12:39
like, please leave them along exactly. But I do kind of think
12:43
that they really have embraced this whole underdog thing, this whole like we're going
12:50
to show you, and I think that, you know, going out on
12:54
that stupid Disney on ice trip all the way out to Vancouver, a team
13:00
that's absolutely dominating the Western Conference, and to just like absolutely take it to
13:05
them. I would imagine that it's it's probably giving them some swagger. Now.
13:11
They've had a couple of, you know, not as good games since
13:15
that game, right, a thing that I didn't realize I was looking at
13:18
yesterday, They've lost four or five, which I think that has never clicked
13:24
in my mind, just because a couple of the losses were overtime or shootout
13:28
losses. Most of the ames has been tight the whole, like Christmas,
13:33
New Year Break, all these games are like broken up, So it didn't
13:35
occur to me that they had lost four or five. But I do think
13:39
that that win in particular was probably a very nice like yeah, see,
13:45
like screw you guys, We're going to shove it up your buttholes. Yeah
13:50
exactly. And they do really seem, like I've said it a thousand times
13:54
that the vibes that the Phillies had and have had for the last couple of
13:58
seasons, this vibe of like we all like each other, we are playing
14:03
for our friends in the dugout, like we don't really care what anyone thinks
14:07
like we're just out here having a good time. There seems to be a
14:11
similar vibe with this Flyers team. I think that's fair. Yeah, I
14:16
think that's important. I don't think you can discount the idea that like,
14:18
these guys like each other, they're having a good time, Things are going
14:24
well, guys are developing nicely. There's no one, you know, causing
14:28
any drama in the locker room. There doesn't seem to be anyone except for
14:33
Morgan Frost. I guess that's like at odds with the coach at this point,
14:35
Like everything just seems good. Yeah, And I think it's translating onto
14:39
the ice and and like people seem grumpy about some people seem grumpy about the
14:46
results that we have been seeing. And I think, you know, there's
14:50
something to be said about culture in sports and with sports teams. Look at
14:56
you mentioned the Phillies over the past couple seasons. Look at this pill at
14:58
All, a seventy six ers team. They get rid of a cancer in
15:03
James Harden, and my gosh, this team is on fire. There is
15:07
there is gelling and meshing in certain ways that we didn't realize was actually possible.
15:11
And then you look at the Philadelphia Eagles. They're a freaking mess right
15:16
now because the culture has absolutely fallen off a cliff and y to be having
15:22
fun anymore. No, there's no fun, no fun at all. Won
15:24
eleven games, you know, out of seventeen. Everything stinks here at this
15:28
point. But really, there are the Flyers team. These kids are having
15:33
so much fun out there, and and like you said, you can really
15:37
tell that they're playing for each other, and there is a lot to be
15:39
said for that. And I do wonder too how much of that also is
15:45
potentially John Tortorella and his leadership coming through with these guys too. What are
15:50
your thoughts there? I mean, it's hard to argue ye that he doesn't
15:54
have something to do with it. I was very concerned about the idea of
16:00
John Torderella coaching a rebuilding team, I really was. We talked about it.
16:03
Yeah. Yeah, he has completely shut me up. Like he has
16:10
made lineup decisions that make sense to me. Like he's not playing Mark Stall
16:15
every night. He could he wanted to, but he's not. He seems
16:19
to be letting kids make mistakes and learn from them, right, which I
16:23
was wouldn't happen some guys seem to have a long relation than others. But
16:27
you know whatever, But yeah, he really does seem to have fostered an
16:33
environment of growth. He seems to trust these guys. The Vets seem to
16:41
have been kind of given the opportunity to lead the younger players, and you
16:45
know, on ice, off the ice, it just all seems like good
16:48
and positive, and you know, it's just it's not what I was expecting,
16:56
right exactly. I was worried about twarts. But he's shutting right up.
17:00
Look, we're talking about the Flyers. Let's not talk about good stuff
17:03
now, Okay, Let's talk about some crap with this team, like we
17:07
have been so used to doing for so long. Yes, say, let's
17:11
talk about some crap here. And that's the power play. And I swear
17:15
to God, every time that we see them at like five on four,
17:18
you know, I'm just sitting there. There's not an ounce of excitement in
17:22
my body at all as to what is going to happen. And I mean,
17:26
and that's kind of sad in terms of being a hockey fan. You
17:29
know, if your team's on the power play, you're like, you know
17:30
what, there's gonna be a pretty good shot that my team is gonna be
17:34
scoring here and there's gonna be something exciting that's gonna be happening. Nope,
17:37
not at all, not with this Flyers team. The power play still stinks.
17:41
And look, there's no way to fix the power play with what they
17:45
currently I think have on their roster. They probably would have done it by
17:48
now. So I'm wondering, is there anything like or any outside talent that
17:53
you see them possibly bringing in, maybe a low end move before the trade
18:00
deadline, just to help boost the power play. Do you think that's possible
18:03
and might we see that? I would be really surprised. Brierre has said
18:07
several times like, yeah, we're not buying, like that's not going to
18:11
happen. Yeah, right now. I have no reason not to believe him.
18:15
It wouldn't make any sense given the way that the organization as a whole
18:18
seems to have very firmly committed to the idea of rebuilding. I would be
18:23
very surprising for them to go out and buy yeah this season. So I
18:26
don't know that that's going to happen. I do wonder, though, you
18:32
know, have they tried everything that they can? I don't know. I
18:37
don't know if they have. I don't know that this is a personnel problem.
18:42
I kind of think that the power play coaching, I think seems to
18:48
be a problem. I mean, this team has players that can score,
18:52
Like, there's no ifans or buts about it. Absolutely, they're not scoring
18:56
when they have one more guy on it, So generalizing it doesn't make any
19:03
sense logically. But I do think that, like, you know, if
19:08
you had a more creative coach, you know, would they be at this
19:14
point really trying some stuff like get real weird and do like five forwards like
19:18
Florida did there for a little while. J Yeah, I don't think Travis
19:23
Sandheim gets as much time on the power play as he could. He could
19:29
probably, you know, give him a longer look on the first unit.
19:32
See what happens there. Switch guys up a little bit. I think Joel
19:36
Farrabee is still on the second Yeah, Joel Feraby still on the second unit.
19:40
Why don't we bump him up to the first unit. See what happens
19:41
there. He's pretty good at scoring goals. Like, I really don't think
19:45
that they've tried everything, and I don't know that it's not fixable with the
19:48
pieces that they have. Do I think that they're going to have like a
19:52
top ten power play with what they have? I mean, probably not.
19:56
But it can't get any worse. You can't fall out of a basement window,
19:57
you know, be this bad with this group of players, Like no,
20:03
no way, absolutely not. So like's you kind of have to look
20:08
at the coaching and be like, Okay, why can't you get this group
20:12
of players that can score five on five and can score shorthanded, Like why
20:18
can't you get them to score on the power play? Like what are You're
20:23
not putting them in a position I would argue to do it otherwise they would
20:27
at least luck into one every now and again. Yeah, I think it's
20:32
a good point because you know, I think we're led to believe that they
20:34
have tried everything based on the messaging that we're getting from the coaches. Yeah,
20:37
or keep trying, you know, we keep trying. You know,
20:40
I think we're led to believe that would you make some really good points there
20:42
or they could like you know, do there was a while I reference this
20:45
all the time, and I have a very unreliable brain, so bear with
20:51
me, But I know that there was a time in the not distant past
20:55
when they tried, very briefly having Travis Connectney run power place from below the
21:00
goal line and it was beautiful, And they don't I don't really see them
21:04
trying stuff like that very often, you know, like like really creative,
21:08
weird stuff at this point, like you said, it can't get worse,
21:11
So why aren't we just like throwing some stuff at the wall to see if
21:15
anything sticks. Yeah, I would kind of like to see some more creativity
21:21
from the coaching staff as far as trying to fix the power play because there's
21:23
nothing to lose. So like, if your only solution is different guys,
21:29
then yeah, I guess it's never going to get better. But that seems
21:30
like kind of a shitty way to look at it, Like you have to
21:34
be able to get There's no reason why Joel Farrabee can't score power play goals,
21:40
Like there's literally no It makes no sense to me. And like then
21:42
you have a guy like you know, Atkinson is struggling, like he he
21:48
seems to be going through some stuff. Scott Lawton's not having the best year.
21:52
Laton doesn't really get much power play time, but I mean Atkinson gets
21:56
time on the second unit. Maybe you know, give him a break and
21:59
try somebody else there, because he seems to be snake bitten this season.
22:03
Like, I get that he's a veteran that you know, the coach loves
22:07
him. You want to give him a chance to work out of it whatever,
22:08
But like, at some point you got to start trying different stuff.
22:14
And at this point I haven't seen them trying enough different stuff to convince me
22:18
that they can't figure it out with the guys that they have. It's interesting
22:21
for sure. And again, folks, we're talking to Kelly Hinkel from Broadstreet
22:23
Hockey dot Com follow on Twitter x at Hank's hi n x. She is
22:29
a great, great follow, a very fun follow, And uh yeah,
22:33
I mean that. I guess it leads us to, you know, something
22:34
we just touched on, which is, you know what this team is going
22:37
to do with the trade deadline, Danny Brier saying, you know, not
22:40
gonna be buyers. So I'm wondering, do you see them selling off possibly
22:45
some of the veteran players with expiring deals that we know are on this team,
22:49
you know how, you know, gaining assets for the future seems to
22:53
be the best way of going with regard to the trade deadline. If they
22:57
are going to do anything with regard to the remainder of this season here,
23:00
how do you see things shaking up here and how they're going to handle things
23:04
at the trade deadline? This is the one question mark that I really am
23:10
curious to see what Brierre does, because, as you said, the right
23:15
quote unquote thing to do for this rebuild would to be to take a guy
23:18
like Sean Walker, who is an absolute lottery ticket for you at this point.
23:22
He was a throw in on that trade. Yeah, no one thought
23:26
that he was going to be anything. He will absolutely get you a first
23:30
round pick from a team heading into the playoffs at this deadline. Is it
23:34
going to be a super high first round pick? Probably not, because it's
23:37
going to be a good hockey team. But like all of a sudden,
23:41
then we have I think three or four first round picks, and then maybe
23:44
you can package two of those later picks to try to move up a little
23:45
bit. Like there's a whole lot of things that can be done when you
23:48
have a bunch of first round picks. So it would be crazy not to
23:51
trade Sean Walker. And then also Nick Steeler that teams are calling on because
23:55
he looks better than anybody expected. The two of them together apparently could be
23:59
packaged for a team. I think Toronto was looking at two of them together.
24:04
But it would be crazy not to trade these guys on expiring contracts that
24:07
are playing really well. But when you have a team making what could be
24:15
a push into the playoffs for the first time in a while, you know,
24:19
playing like a whole cohesive unit, like we said the locker room,
24:25
everything's great, Like, ye are they going to decide to do that thing
24:30
where you say, well, we got to give these guys a shot to
24:33
see what they can do in the playoffs. That I think would be a
24:37
mistake for the long term of the team. But also like I don't know
24:42
how mad I could be at it, Like if they are firmly in a
24:47
playoff spot, which right now they are firmly in a playoff spot, like
24:49
we're not racing, like right now we're in the playoffs, it's understandable to
24:56
think that Brierre might just say, well, we're you know, we're doing
25:00
pretty good second in the metro, like, let's you don't see what these
25:03
guys can do. You never know, it's the playoffs, right, But
25:06
that said, I think it would be a missed opportunity, not to cash
25:07
in a lottery ticket like Sean Walker, not to get any kind of first
25:11
round pick that you could get, you know, a high second round pick,
25:15
whatever. He's got to be looking to get those kinds of assets heading
25:19
into the draft because we do still need to, you know, rebuild the
25:26
hockey team. The job's not done, even though they're doing well. And
25:29
I think that he knows that. But I do also think that, like
25:33
culturally with the hockey men, there is kind of this you know, my
25:41
brain just went dead. It's this like desire to let these guys play it
25:47
out. Yeah, because they're doing better than you thought they would. And
25:51
I do worry that that's what they're going to do. If they do that
25:53
and they're bounced in the first round, is it going to be frustrating?
25:59
Yeah. That said, maybe they resigned shall Walker for two years. You
26:04
know, I don't know, but I yeah, I mean I don't want
26:07
them to Exactly if they didn't trade him because of this whole playoff thing and
26:14
then signed him for two years for you know, like a reasonable hit,
26:18
I don't know how mad it would be. He's not that old. I
26:19
always forget how young he is. I'm just not sure if like guys like
26:25
Sealer and Walker are the are the They're part of what is holding this underdog
26:30
mentality together to a certain extent. I don't think they are the super glue
26:36
that's been at all together, do you know what I mean? And I
26:37
think like if they were, Yeah, if they were to be let go,
26:41
I think the culture is still there. I think the culture of yeah,
26:42
you know what, we're gonna shove it up everybody's butts here. Yeah,
26:48
I think it's still going to be there. And I think there's a
26:51
contingency within Flyers Nation, like you were saying, that is saying like,
26:53
don't break it up right now, don't break it up right now. Things
26:56
are good, But I still think it can be quote good in terms of
27:00
this rebuild. If those guys were let go and the traded, I should
27:04
say, if they were traded and there were some assets that were get like
27:08
you said for Walker, getting getting a first round pick for him would be
27:12
absolutely fantastic with regard to the foundation of this rebuild. And yeah, to
27:18
be clear, like they absolutely should be great. Absolutely, And the thing
27:23
is, like I'm sure that Danny Brier and Keith Jones know that, like,
27:29
even if this team is heading into the playoffs hot second and the second
27:33
or third in the metro doing really well, his team's not winning the Stanley
27:37
Cup this year. But like, so many things have to happen for this
27:42
team to win the Stanley Cup this year, Like I mean, like devastating
27:47
injuries, teams in the Western Conference, like luck out the Wazoo, like
27:52
Carter Hart would have to turn into a friggin' wall, Like so many things
27:56
would have to happen for them to even have a shot at the Cup this
28:00
year, even if they're in the playoffs, but they have to know that
28:04
they're not stupid guys. So like I'm hoping that they understand that, you
28:08
know, yeah, get in there, guys, push as hard as you
28:12
can, but we have to we have to get these assets for this guy
28:19
that we didn't think we're gonna get anything for. Yeah, Like no one
28:22
thought Sean Walker was going to turn to a first round pick exactly. The
28:26
fact that he has means that you have to you have to get it,
28:29
and I think that so I'm hoping that they do the right thing. But
28:33
this is the one spot where I'm like, oh, what's gonna what are
28:34
they gonna do? Exactly exactly? We know nothing, right, we know
28:38
nothing, and that's great because it's fun. We know nothing. Well,
28:44
Kelly, to close us out here, have a two part question for you
28:47
about the Metropolitan Division as we're moving into January twenty twenty four here, So
28:52
I wanted to ask, like, outside of the Flyers, which team do
28:56
you think you know for you has been the biggest surprise at this point again
29:00
in the Metropolitan Division. Again, outside of the Flyers, you know what?
29:03
What? What's a team that's really been surprising you this season? So
29:07
I I didn't expect the Rangers to be this good. Yeah, that's fair.
29:12
Yeah, kind of like running away with the Eastern Conference, which I
29:18
would not have predicted. The Islanders. I still never believe the Islanders.
29:23
The Islanders right now are kind of like dead heat with the Flyers for third
29:27
in the Metro. I I don't I look at that team and I'm like,
29:33
I don't get it, Like I don't get why they win games.
29:37
I don't get like why they're always hanging around a playoff spot in this division,
29:41
Like I don't get it, they keep doing it. That's where hockey
29:44
looks. Yeah, that's where hockey luck comes into play a lot, right.
29:48
And then also, like on the other end of the spectrum, I
29:52
thought New Jersey was going to be way better. Same here. Yeah,
29:56
like I'm I'm and I wouldn't be surprised. I I guess, you know,
30:00
losing Dougie Hamilton obviously hurts you. But I really expected them to be
30:08
much better. And if they don't make the playoffs, I'm going to be
30:11
really that's going to be a real shocker to me. Because I had them
30:15
at the start of the season. I would have expected them to be at
30:18
least second place in the metro. Like, I thought they would be right
30:25
up there. Carolina is second right now. But they're another team I thought
30:30
would be better. They've kind of been up and down this season. I
30:33
kind of thought that they would be more consistently one of the better teams yep
30:37
in the league. But yeah, I mean, honestly, the biggest surprise
30:41
for me is the Devils. Yeah, okay, all right, I think
30:45
that's very fair. I thought they'd be better. Yeah, I thought so
30:48
too well. And to close this out here, who do you think is
30:51
the biggest fraud? Who's the biggest fraud in the metropolitan You may have said
30:53
it already with the with the Islanders, but I what are you thinking?
31:00
In the Islanders are always a fraud? I mean, is it? It's
31:03
kind of it's kind of funny to consider that, Like, are the Philadelphia
31:07
Flyers the biggest fraud? Ah? Yeah, there you go, souse?
31:11
What I mean? Like, honestly, you didn't think they were gonna be
31:12
as good. I don't think they were gonna be as good anybody. Listen,
31:17
I am the biggest psychopath in the world when it comes to this team.
31:18
Every year, I'm like, naw, this is it. They're gonna
31:21
be great this year. Even I heading into the season was like, you
31:25
know, you can't try artists. They're gonna They're gonna'll be all right.
31:30
Did I expect them to be in a playoff spot heading into twenty twenty four?
31:33
No, right, nobody. But does that make them frauds? I
31:37
don't know. I don't know if this is fraudulent. I think this might
31:41
be a good hockey team. I think we might have a hockey team on
31:42
our hands. Absolutely. Let's go back to what we talked about culture.
31:47
Culture. There's so much to be said for sports culture, team culture.
31:52
What that does from a sports psychology and mentality standpoint, there's something to be
31:56
said for it, for sure. Absolutely, Kelly Hankel folks Broadstreet Hockey dot
32:02
Com at hanks hi NX on Twitter, on X Kelly, it is always
32:07
awesome talking to you. Absolutely love our conversations whenever you come on the PSD
32:12
podcast show. Join us down the road my friend anytime. Thank you,
32:15
Jeff. It is always so fun, so enjoyable talking to Kelly all the
32:20
time. We love having her on. And again, Kelly, thank you
32:22
so much for taking the time to join us here on our table talk show.
32:25
Look, there are many factions within Flyers Nation, as we all know,
32:29
and it's been like that for so long, and as we're heading here
32:32
into this you know, twenty twenty four a year and where this team is
32:37
at during this campaign, it really seems that the factions are going to continue
32:40
to argue with each other thinking what the Flyers should be doing. Should they
32:45
actually be tanking, should they actually be moving forward trying to get into the
32:49
playoffs here during this rebuild. There's a lot of thoughts, there's a lot
32:53
of opinions of course out there within Flyers Nation, but again, it was
32:59
great talking to Kelly, and we're gonna keep talking about this team well into
33:02
the future here in twenty twenty four, So it's gonna do it for us
33:06
here on table talk. If you are new to listening to the show here
33:09
in twenty twenty four, subscribe on whatever podcast platform you're on, Follow us
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on Apple Podcasts. Anything happens to your podcast feed. Head on over to
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Philadelphia Sportstable dot com. We've got all of our shows over there. I'm
33:21
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Search us out there. All right, folks, take care, We'll catch
33:30
you next time.