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TABLE TALK: Imagining A Flyers Stanley Cup · The Philadelphia Sports Table | Philly Sports News & Views

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Hey everybody, it's Jeff. We've recorded this podcast to episode on Monday,
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August fourteenth, twenty twenty three. By the time you hear this, things
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may have changed a little bit, but we hope you enjoy the show.
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All right, folks, welcome to Table Talk here at the Philadelphia Sports Table
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podcast show, the longest running weekly Philly sports podcast show in the world.
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That's right over ten years strong. We got a great discussion coming your way.
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As we always do on our Table Talk interview shows, we haven't talked
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about the Philadelphia Flyers too too much during the course of this summer for obvious
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reasons. Not too too much has been happening with this team. However,
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one of our friends at Broadstreet Hockey dot Com wrote a really interesting piece We
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wanted to get into that during this discussion, as well as some hypotheticals for
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the future, and just a little bit of some storylines that have been going
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on with this team. So let's get right to it. It is great
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to having the podcast for the very first time coming to us from Broadstreet Hockey
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dot Com. You know, we love having the folks at Broadstreet Hockey dot
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Com on this podcast to give us their insights about the Philadelphia Flyers the world
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of professional hockey. We have got the one and only Matthew Conte. Matt
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Man. How you doing, buddy, appreciate you coming on. Thanks.
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Yeah, I'm doing great. I'm happy to be here. Till nice and
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Mata Jafflin. Yeah, you know, well, I gotta tell you,
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Matt, when I read your piece on Broadstreet Hockey this past week, which
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we're gonna be getting into in a little bit, what it might feel like
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to win the Stanley Cup, I had to have you on the show to
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talk some Flyers. As I mentioned to the intro, haven't gotten into too
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much flyers talk on this particular podcast platform, you know, over the past
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few weeks and even over the past month. It's just been a low time,
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of course. But we are going to be getting into some storylines,
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folks, and uh, I guess first and foremost in terms of one of
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those storylines, the Flyers. This past week, Matt, they acquired the
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rights to Massimo Rizzo I believe that's how you say his name's and a fifth
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round pick in twenty twenty three. Yeah, in a deal with the Carolina
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Hurricanes, which gave them former you know, the rights to David Case.
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Is that how you say his name? Case? Dude? I mess up
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names constantly, Costa. There you go, folks. I'm gonna be getting
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emails now just to let you know, Matt. They're gonna be like,
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Jeff, you screwed up names again. That's my mo here on this particular
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show. But anyway, moving it is, it is, yes, But
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look, Rizzo is still playing college hockey with the University of Denver seventeen goals,
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forty six points this past season. And as we know, casse Cos
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that's how you say his name. Is that what it was? Yeah?
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Okay, yeah, yeah. He was never going to be suiting up for
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the Flyers, and this seems to be like a nice prospect that the Flyers
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now have, and it's gonna be interesting to keep our eyes on him in
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the in the near future. What were your thoughts about this trade when you
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heard this come down from the Flyer's front office this past week. Yeah,
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well I think that. I mean, I don't, I don't. I'm
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not a prospect guy. I don't know a ton about Rizzo. I think
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the interest here more is for people who like to kind of like speculate about
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GM relationships and all that kind of stuff, because I don't know how much
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this prospect will or the pick will feature into like the Flyer's lineup. You
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know, I think probably a better prospect than Kasha, and you know,
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he's still young, and we could see what happens. But it's kind of
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like this is this was the return that they were originally supposed to get for
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DeAngelo, and then the league blocked that trade, calling it like cap cap
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circumvention because it was like lest eater since Hurricanes trade them with the Flyers and
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all that stuff. So the way it worked out, I think it's funny
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because it kind of feels like this is even more cap circumvention because they bought
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him out. He signed with the Hurricanes for less than what they would have
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got on the retain trade the Flyers. The buyout cost is less than what
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they would have retained, and they still got the return, So it seems
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even more convoluted, you know what I mean? Right? And I think
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there's one way to read it where it's like this is Waddell and the Hurricanes
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kind of like given a little middle finger to the league and being like,
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you've blocked this trade, but we're still gonna do it, and it's gonna
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work out even better for us. But I think the what I how I
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would prefer to look at it maybe seems more likely at least more charitable,
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is that they're like showing a little bit of respect to Brier, you know
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ye, kind of like being like, we honor we we made this deal,
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and we're gonna honor it. Yeah, even though we have to at
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this point, right right, That's a that's a really good way to analyze
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what this deal was. And again it goes back to, you know,
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like you initially mentioned GM relationships team by team, how how these kind of
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deals just manifest themselves. And of course we have no idea if Rizzo's gonna
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end up working out in the long term, but it's another piece in terms
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of potential building blocks for this team down the road. I certainly liked this
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trade in the direction it's going and just where brand Danny Brier is taking this
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team. And and again, folks, Cache is how you say his name,
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and its spelled ka ka se is how he spells his lives. Just
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say case. For God's sake, I am so tired of trying to pronounce
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hockey guy's names and trying to do it. It's got some funny little oom
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lots and stuff exactly. Yeah, they can take the um lots and shove
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them anyway. Well, Matt, I wanted to get into the piece you
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recently wrote on Broadstreet Hockey dot Com really again, I absolutely loved it.
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It was titled what it might feel like to win the Stanley Cup, and
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folks, I would highly advise you go over to Broadstreet Hockey dot Com check
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out and read this particular piece because it wasn't just like, okay, okay,
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what's it gonna feel like? Oh, we're gonna be happy, We're
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gonna be glad, we're gonna be satisfied. I can't believe that after all
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these years it finally came to fruition. No, it wasn't necessarily like that.
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Matt. I love how you intertwined your love of music a particular band
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that you've been following for a very long time with the story of how it
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might actually be for Flyers fans in the future if this team really does start
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to see success. So I don't want to ruin anything for folks here.
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In terms of trying to describe what this piece was, what it meant to
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you and even what it meant to me, because I think it was one
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of the more philosophical pieces that we've ever seen on Broadstreet Hockey dot com.
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Tell us first here how and why you really wanted to write this piece,
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and you kind of, like I said, you intertwined the music aspect of
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what's been important in your life with how this hockey team may be going in
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the future. So tell us a bit about the piece, why you decided
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to write it. Yeah, it's funny that you connected so much with it,
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because I when I wrote it and sent it to Kelly, I was
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like, you know, this is a little bit esoteric, it's a little
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bit weird. You know, maybe you should read it closely before you post
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it, because I don't know if it's like anything, right, But yeah,
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I think that I I you know, I went to that concert.
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It was the first concert I've been to in a long time. What's the
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band name. Let's let's tell everybody the band name. It was Houndmouth.
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They're kind of like an Americana folk rock kind of thing, and it was
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at the Stone, Pony and Asbury. You know, I've been following them
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for a while. I used to go to a lot of concerts, you
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know, when they release their second album, My Bait. I went to
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like a bunch of shows on that tour, but even just like I used
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to go to a ton of concerts in general, and I think the pandemic
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kind of slowed that down. And then I had a baby and that has
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seriously. So this was the first one for me in like a year,
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and the last time the last few times I had seen them, because they
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had they had somebody leave the band. They kind of went an experimental direction
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that didn't hit with the fans, and I think that I had kind of
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given up on feeling the ecstasy of their really great live shows. And when
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it hit me, like this was a really great live show. The crowd
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was super into it. It was like it used to be, I was
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like not expecting that. I had also kind of been reading this recently.
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It's great Russian literature analysis book, A Swim in the Pond in the Reign
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by George Shanners. It's really good. He breaks down some some rush and
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short stories, and it reminded me of the feeling of this one story where
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the guy is kind of he's being philosophical and trying to intellectualize happiness. You
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know, where he's like, happiness is not the point of life, because
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you know we should be doing good. But even he can't help but be
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caught off guard. And you know, there are certain things that are gonna
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make it happy no matter how hard you think about happiness, even you know,
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like in our lives, you know, eating a great meal, all
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of a sudden you're happy and you weren't expecting it. And it's something that
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I think it is really hard to picture how it's gonna feel. It's really
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hard to think about how it's gonna feel. And I kind of that is
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kind of how I feel hopefully about the when Stanley Cup one day. You
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know, like I can't picture what it would feel like right now exactly being
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so invested, you know, people like me and you and you know,
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my dad and people at Broadstreet Hockey and who are talking about you know,
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fifth round picks being traded for whatever, you know we're here doing, you
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know, really in the dirt that one day all of it might pay off
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is so like indescribable that no matter how I try to like intellectualize the joy
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that I would feel when it happens, I can't do it. It's tough
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to it's tough to put. It's it's tough to actually describe what the feeling
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may actually be. And you get you kind of touched on that in your
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piece. You know, you talked in your piece about us Flyers fans who
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are right here, right now, we're waiting, we know what this process
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is likely going to look like over the course of these next couple two to
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perhaps three years. So I mean, sticking with that theme, Matt,
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what's your level of hope right here, at this moment here in August of
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twenty twenty three, that we are we are going to reach those quote unpredictable
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feelings unquote that you talked about in your piece that you eloquently wrote, Like,
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what what is that level of hope right now for you? And where
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do you think it should be with regard to Flyers Nation. Well, I
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think that my personal level of hope is you know, I try to be
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a little tempered, you know. I remember when Hextall first came in.
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We were also jazzed up on everything that Hextall did. And yeah, I
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think it's it's easy to it's easy to look good when you're trying to rebuild.
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It's easy to look good when you're not actively trying to win, and
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so I kind of try to remember that with Brier a little bit. That's
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a good point, yep, that like, it's easy to win trades when
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you're not trying to improve your hockey team, right. But you know,
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the Mitch cough pick, I think is is different from that. You know,
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it's not just this we got the seventh best guy in the draft and
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that was what we could do. It's like something that I don't think that
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many previous Flyers gems would have done. And so I agreed that really raises
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my level of expectation. But I think I'm happy being patient for a little
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bit. You know, I think every GM has the same goal in terms
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of rebuilding. It's like, you know, we're gonna build through the draft,
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we're gonna develop and whatever. I think it all just comes down to
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how good they are at you know, the scouting and the development and getting
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a few lucky breaks. And I think the Mitch coop is both a big
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swing and a lucky break, absolutely, And I think at the end of
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the day, to Matt Danny, Brier is showing us a picture that provides
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us some foundation for what the future could potentially look like. And I think
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it's us Flyers fans, those who have been waiting, like you mentioned in
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your peace, those of us who have been patiently just idling by with our
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feelings about what this team is and what it could be. We're okay with
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that at this point in time, because there does seem to be that long
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term vision and potential future of where this team could actually go. And again,
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it's one of the reasons I loved your piece because we're like, Okay,
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there's some unexpected things that are currently happening right now that could be lead
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to unexpected feelings at some point down the road. And it was just it
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was a fantastic piece. And again, folks, head on over to Broadstreet
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Hockey dot com and check out Matt's piece. It really was a great,
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great read. But moving along here, Matt, I did want to talk
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about some of the storylines that we've been following within Flyer's Nation over the course
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of this summer. Again, not too too much has been happening with this
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team, but the Flyers did recently sign Samuel Urson to a two year contract
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extension, and I mean I personally love the move, you know, considering
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there could be and I hesitate to say this, but yes, there could
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be some time that carter Hart might not be able to suit up for very
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reasons. We don't have to get into it right now, folks, but
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there may be that time when we might not be seeing carter Heart in front
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of the net. That being said, there's an interesting goalie situation and dynamic
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here. I think that's manifesting itself. Perhaps, what are your thoughts about
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where this goalie situation goes here in the future. Yeah, I mean I
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think, you know, like you said, I wouldn't necessarily want to speculate
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too much on the Carter Heart and the hockey cant of the stuff. But
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I think I've already begun to Maybe I'm lying to myself, but you can
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survive in the modern NHL without a star goaltender. And I mean I think
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you know, you look at the First Place teams last year, they kind
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of they get the right guy at the right time, They plug somebody in,
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they do a platoon, you know, even like the Bruins, you
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know, Swayman and what linus all Mark, Yeah, like they're not you
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know, high draft pick superstar goaltenders. They're guys who've been in the league
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for a little while and they had good years. So uh, it's it's
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really hard to or it's kind of like just our luck that the one time
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in like the fifty years that the Flyers are like intentionally rebuilding is the one
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time where they have the thing that has eluded them for so long exactly in
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terms of like a star goaltender. Yeah, but I do think that there's
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a possibility that we could survive without a star goaltender in a couple of years
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and still be a good hockey team, you know. And I think that
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Sam Merson, you know, I don't know, he's played well, like
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twelve twelve games. Yeah, yeah, he's looked good. You know,
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it's hard hard to tell. And you know, for me, I'm so
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I'm so bad at judging goalies. It's like, you know, if the
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puck goes in, that was bad, and if the puck doesn't go in,
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that was that was good. Right. Yeah. I look at this
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move though, Matt. I look at it as though it's an organization saying,
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you know what, we have options, we have options for the future.
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And again it goes back to the fact that I think Danny Brier and
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this new front office are really setting a tone for what the future is going
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to be again, laying that foundation. I think it's responsible. I think
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it's it's good for US fans to see that this is happening. I have
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to wait and see how it all pans out. But moving along here as
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well, you know, sometimes I think US fans also forget about a certain
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gentleman because we have not seen him in quite some time on the ice,
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and that is one Sean Couturier. Yeah, he's still on this team,
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folks, In case you forgot, he's still on this team, and he's
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Matt He's the one athlete in Philadelphia that I genuinely missed seeing last season playing
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their particular professional sport. I mean, again, it's been over twenty months
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since we've seen him on the ice in Philly. What kind of Sean Couturier
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are we going to be seeing this coming season? In your opinion? I
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mean, if you kind of like take a step back and say, okay,
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given the injuries, given where he's at in his professional career, I
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don't know, what are your thoughts about what type of what type of Coots
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we're gonna be getting this year. Yeah, yeah, like you, I
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missed him, I and I frequently forget about him now. Yeah, but
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you know, I don't. I don't know what he's got left. I
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think maybe the part of it that could work in his favor is that his
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game was never necessarily built on speed and movement, but more on like hockey
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IQ and his positioning and that kind of stuff. So you know, he's
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never a particularly fast guy. Hopefully, even if this like slows him down,
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he can still make an impact on the ice. I kind of think
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best case scenario or like, what would be great this year's if he plays
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a full season, Yeah, scores fifty points, I'll tell you fantastic.
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I think you could, you know, a good comp Maybe you see him
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aging into like Jordan's stall. I think that he was better than Jordan's stall
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was, but you know, you could, I could envision him, you
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know, being a veteran guy plays the middle six ye those penalties defensive role
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on a good team. Of course, the like kind of problem there is
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that he's not really paid like a middle six player. He's played like a
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first line player, paid like a first line player, and he's also not
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on a good team. But you know, if he's thirty three, thirty
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four, you know, when the Flyers are trying to compete and he's you
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know, they got a bunch of guys on entry level contracts and he's still
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playing, you know, still getting some Selkie votes and you know, playing
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fifteen minutes maybe and scoring like half a point per game or close to that.
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You know, I don't mind the contract. You know, if if
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he can do that, it'd be great, it would be fantastic for sure.
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Again, folks, we're talking to Matt Conti from Broadstreet Hockey dot Com.
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I am a subscribe. Check out everything they have going on at Broadstreet
19:02
Hockey dot com. Uh if you want to get some great, great Flyers
19:04
coverage and just some really interesting content. Again Broadstreet Hockey dot Com. You
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know, we're good friends with a lot of folks over there. And last
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question and topic, just wanted to pick your brain here, Matt, is
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you know I'm wondering. I'm wondering if you think if Danny Brier has any
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other moves that are in his back pocket here during this offseason that you know
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that we may end up seeing at some point and if so, you know,
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are there any moves that you are hoping the team may make, and
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of course it probably going to be small moves at this particular point in time,
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who knows. But what are you thinking in terms of Danny Brier and
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any other possible movement during this offseason? Yeah? Yeah, like you said,
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I don't know how much can happen for the rest of the offseason.
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I think maybe we you know, we might have to at this point and
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be looking forward to like trade deadline. Yeah, you know, the marks
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falls and uh who else has even left exactly seeing what they can get.
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I think another guy that we, at least me I frequently forget about is
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Cam Atkinson. Yeah. I think that he, you know, probably doesn't
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want to be on a rebuilding team right now, and he's maybe got some
20:15
value somewhere. I don't I don't know what his injury status is, so
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I think the Flyers would have to kind of wait to see how that shakes
20:29
out before they can trade him. But you know, I would like to
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see what Danny Brier could get for Kam Mackinson. That's very interesting, even
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if it's just picked some prospects, you know, they're in rebuild mode.
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Man, it's rebuild mode time here, and I think we've all embraced it
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at this point. Yeah, he's another one of those guys who might be
20:47
too too good too. You know, he's going to raise the level of
20:52
Flyers play if he's if he's playing right. So yeah, maybe he can
20:57
find a whole elsewhere. Yeah, that would be very interesting for sure.
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Again, folks, Matt Conti from Broadstreet Hockey dot Com check out everything that
21:06
got going on over there. Matt, buddy, thank you so much for
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taking the time to jump on our table talk interview show this week. I
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hope you can join us down the road. We'd love to have you back
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on my friend. Sure. Yeah, it was great. Thanks so much
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for having me so great talking to Matt for the very first time. It
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was great talking about some Flyers hockey. Quite frankly, again, not too
21:25
too much going on with this team during the course of this summer, but
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I love talking about the foundational pieces of what this team is going to look
21:33
like down the road. And again, going back to that two year contract
21:37
extension that Samuel Urson got just recently, I mean there's a reason why,
21:42
and I like the fact that they're keeping their options open in terms of the
21:45
goalie situation, and Matt was absolutely correct. You know, you don't necessarily
21:52
need that amazing, unbelievable star goalie in order to really get you through the
21:57
Stanley Cup playoffs. You just don't necessarily need that. Would it be great
22:02
to have it? Absolutely However, there may need to be some options for
22:06
this Flyers team in the future. Who knows, probably gonna be talking about
22:10
that at some other point down the road here at the PST podcast show.
22:11
So that being said, take care of folks. Hope you enjoyed this table,
22:17
talk, interview and show. This week, we got a lot more
22:19
great content coming for you on the platform this week our Opposition Territory show.
22:25
We're gonna be getting into the New York Mets what has happened with this team?
22:29
That podcast is going to be dropping Tuesday this week, and then on
22:33
our regular show, as you know, we upload every single Thursday morning.
22:37
We got a great show, a great great discussion coming your way this week.
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We are on the Twitter dot com at Philadelphia PST. You can search
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22:59
We will at you next time.