Flyers coaches long on philosophy, short on answers for floundering power play

by Bob Herpen

Phanatic Hockey Editor

On breakup day for the coaching staff, May 14, Flyers head coach Rick Tocchet provided his most expansive thoughts, philosophy and plan to date about how to shake the club’s consistently dreadful power play out of the doldrums.

The second-to-last question from that media session revolved around the media-driven revelation of defenseman Jamie Drysdale’s “frank admission” following a Game 3 loss to the Hurricanes on May 8 that players often would disregard – though not willfully – what was planned on the power play, with the messaging and its lack of resonance with each unit contributing to its failure.

“I think when it comes to the power play, you gotta see things. Sometimes, it’s gonna take people longer to see things,” he admitted. “I can name 5 or 6 players where, to get technical, you’re playing against an aggressive diamond where the top guy is aggressive, he’s out of position, well, you gotta see that there should be a 2-on-1 in front of the net.”

“If that particular play happens, sometimes we’re not seeing it,” he added. 

Tocchet also referenced that disastrous 50-second, 5-on-3 advantage from Game 3’s 4-1 setback as a prime example of the confusion. He and the coaches instructed the unit that Carolina plays a “2-up” system, which to them, indicated an easy solution to puck movement. 

“Where do you want the puck to go? Down low,” he said. “It’s gotta be a 3-on-2 in front of the net. Well, we did a ‘high’ play. That’s what I think Jamie’s talking about, we’re missing the reads.” 

"Accountability" from the Top

Tocchet offered a general mea culpa, admitting the coaching staff could impart the lesson in a way more conducive to success. But he had no idea, at that point, how the nuts and bolts would work so all involved could understand the correct reads. He wondered aloud where they could find the proper time and space to accomplish a proper regroup and re-teach. 

“Is it better to do on the ice than in video? I’ve already talked about it with the coaches. We might just have a dedicated half an hour power-play practice on one rink, before the (main) practice even starts,” he said. 

The Flyers managed to wrest defeat from the jaws of victory in the regular season, finishing dead last overall with a 15.7% efficiency. In the playoffs, they were 14th, firing at an 8.3% clip. That was after ranking 30th the year before under John Tortorella and Brad Shaw with a *worse* percentage (14.95%). Before that, it was last (12.2%), last (15.56%), last (12.55%) and 18th (19.16%) in the COVID bubble season.

"I think it’s something we’re gonna have to dive into because it’s been a long time here (since the power play worked),” Tocchet said. “We’re really gonna have to do some really out of the box thinking to fix this.”

The mind truly wanders at this prospect. 

When pressed on how, exactly, the skaters involved on the power play could “get better,” Tocchet put it squarely on the players: “If you wanna be on the power play, you’re gonna have to get these reads. How do you get these reads? Study. Live it. Practice it. Rinse and repeat. That’s really what it comes down to.”

We’ll get to this later in the piece, but the class had a whole summer to do the reading, hope they aren’t cramming the last two weeks before camp.

On August 24, the Flyers released a team-friendly, video roundtable with Tocchet and three assistant coaches during which, in their words, “no state secrets” were revealed. Instead, the on-ice braintrust offered a general wide-ranging philosophical take on how the coaches instruct the players to function in all three zones. 

As for the main man responsible for the power play, Yogi Svejkovsky offered a hint of how an internal issue, like, oh … maybe a failure to adhere to the power play system or making a failed read might be remedied in the moment or during a break in play.  

“As a head coach, you have to trust your assistant coaches that, if the system is not followed, it would be my job, specifically, to deal with the player,” he said. “And then, at the same time you have to deal with (the fact that) every player will be different.”

Whole Team Concept?

Symposium facilitator Jason Myrtetus later spoke of having an “alpha” in the offensive zone to set up a power play, like an Ovechkin or Kucherov to which Svejkovsky replied that there is a whole-team concept which relies on the entire unit understanding their roles, rather than a point person with different responsibilities. 

“You look at in the Eastern Conference as a whole, there’s way more diamonds, way more aggressiveness,” he noted.

“The process was understanding how to beat the structure of the opposition. The only way to see how you do, is to see what you create. Out of that, (you analyze later) are we creating?”

And, then, as Svejkovsky explained, with the help of the off-ice assistants who crunch numbers while watching the post-game video, players have a readout of how their o-zone entries affect their play. 

“We were top 10 in ‘Grade A’ chances, it tells you we should probably not be the last team in the league (in PP percentage),” he added, without explaining exactly what stats or metrics comprised such opportunities.

Svejkovsky proceeded to explain there is an overlap of communication from the top down, as Tocchet previously had control of the man advantage in both Colorado and Pittsburgh, as far as receiving guidance on what to address.

“So, what we’re looking at now is, how can we help our players in different ways, over the last 3 months, to give them the tools to improve,” he continued. “And, let’s say you’re the quarterback, that you understand how to get your lanes open, that you have more time to take shots.”

From here, the idea of summer homework from the coaching staff to the players emerged again, with the expectation that this off-ice study was intended as a primer ahead of whatever they do to practice to Tocchet’s specifications. He gave the strongest indicator yet that nothing is set in stone. 

“It’s going to be a fight for them to see who’s gonna be on that first unit, second unit,” Tocchet said. “This year’s one of the year’s (the slots on each unit) is open.”

New Boys for the New Year

On a July 20 video call with local media to announce his new contract, Drysdale provided the only hint at what skills he might further develop to help the cause. 

“I think there’s a lot of little things I can work on, when I get the puck (make a) head fake … a little bit more deceptiveness, obviously the main kicker is shooting more,” he said. “I’ve been pretty continuously working on my shot the last year and throughout the summer, so it’s something I’m going to come in confident with and use it as a weapon.”

Back at the ranch, assistant Jay Varady, whose umbrella also includes the power play, offered the following when discussing the difference between thinking and reacting when a new system is introduced. 

“I think when you’re teaching new concepts, sometimes a player has to think. And then as you develop and start to get comfortable, they stop thinking and they just start playing,” he explained. 

Again, communication is hammered as a key concept, but at least Varady diplomatically acknowledges the players’ responsibility in absorbing the information, then internalizing it as they practice and play. 

“It’s a process you have to stick with as you’re implementing things. You have to know there’s going to be a little time where you see a little hesitation - have a little meeting, have a conversation and as (learning) starts to grow and progress, it naturally becomes the way you play.”

Ok, but that attitude only works with the internal belief that *this* staff with *this* certain set of skills and system can override the mistakes of the past. We’ve seen the failure up front for the fourth regime and counting.

If that’s the prevailing wisdom, maybe one of the “out of the box” suggestions for fixing things should be keeping the longer-termed players (Tippett, Couturier, TK, Risto) away from PP1 and PP2 to avoid the brain rot that comes from veterans having to fully internalize *another* system.

Who among the newer puck-hungry players might be able to provide a remedy? 

Three likely lads are Trevor Zegras, Alex Bump and Porter Martone. For the former, it needs to be beaten into his brain “shoot first, distribute later,” unless he’s the distributor or quarterback for the unit, then, like Drysdale, he's got to focus on the initial read while carrying the puck. For the middle man, a known shooter, he needs to seek the puck, collect the puck and shoot the puck inside 30 feet. For the latter, if he’s the plumber down low, he needs to muscle defenders in front and be quicker to rebounds and loose pucks. 

Following Up

How does this all mesh with the actual nuts and bolts required to make the power play function in real time? 

We didn’t get an answer here, and we won’t have any semblance of an answer until the units have been determined through camp scrimmages and preseason development, then put on display for the first 10 regular-season games or so. 

Given Tocchet’s assertion that coaches review everything from the previous season to detect what needs to be tweaked – and given that zero time was devoted to an answer about the power play when discussing offensive-zone entries – here’s a short list of questions that should be asked, by anyone who covers this team in any capacity:  

• How do you plan on practicing the power play?
• When would you practice it?
• Do you simulate game conditions? If not, why not? 
• If you do simulations, do you approximate any of the other 31 NHL teams’ PK strategies? 
• What time and space will you devote to meshing o-zone philosophy with power-play entries?  
• When practices did occur, how were changes and corrections made? 
• Now that players have had a year’s familiarity and the head coach has uncovered issues per above, how will you approach it this year beyond the timing and length of practice? 
• How, if at all, will the general five-man-unit offensive-zone philosophy impact the actual power play? 
• How will you deal with addressing these issues given the reduction of preseason games from 6 to 4?

Stick with the Phanatic as we ramp up our season schedule, beginning Sept. 15.

The 10 Greatest Losses in Flyers History

by Bob Herpen

Phanatic Hockey Editor

The latest edition of Phanatic Biweekly delves into the times the Orange and Black came up short throughout their first 59 years, but where the setbacks made some kind of noticeable impact on the direction of the franchise.

Touch some grass, soak up the sun. Grab a beverage and turn off your mind. Here’s the 10 Greatest Losses in Philadelphia Flyers history.

10. Dec. 22, 2023: Red Wings 7, Flyers 6 (SO) - Little Caesars Arena. The countdown begins with a major comeback in Motown. Defense was optional throughout the contest, the first period in particular. Permanent nemesis Patrick Kane scored twice and the Wings were up 5-1 after 20 minutes. Curiously, head coach John Tortorella opted to keep starter Carter Hart in goal for the remainder of the night and from there, he was noticeably better than his Detroit counterpart, James Reimer.

The rally began on strikes from Sean Couturier and Morgan Frost in the 2nd, followed by Garnet Hathaway, Scott Laughton and Owen Tippett with 5:07 left to give the visitors the lead. A late tally from Dylan Larkin and shootout winner from Kane put Detroit in the win column but also put Flyers fans on notice that a big leap forward for this young roster was possible.

9.  March 2, 2002: Rangers 6, Flyers 5 - Madison Square Garden. Although Eric Lindros reintroduced himself to the Philly faithful as a Broadway Blueshirt less than 2 months prior, this was his true New York debut. 

Still firing on all cylinders after a year away from the game, Big E rifled home 3 goals in a span of less than 10 minutes of play between the 1st and 2nd periods, staking the hosts to a 4-0 lead and posting his first post-Philly trifecta.

But Simon Gagne, working through his 3rd NHL season and counted on to be the brightest young gun in a youth movement, answered twice, Eric Desjardins and Jeremy Roenick followed early in the 3rd and Gagne added his hat trick score with less than 8 minutes to play. Lindros’ career soon faded due to the after effects of repeated concussions, while Gagne went on to record nearly 300 goals in his 11-year Flyers career.

8.   May 6, 2011: Bruins 5, Flyers 1 - TD Garden. You name it, it ended that night in an awful conclusion to a brutal 4-game sweep authored in revenge by the club on the wrong end of a reverse sweep a year before. 

The goalie carousel which saw 3 different players (Brian Boucher, Sergei Bobrovsky, Michael Leighton) man the nets in 11 playoff outings over 2 rounds. The off-ice rampage of Messrs. Carter and Richards. Dry Island. Kris Versteeg.

Ordered to dredge up a franchise goaltender from the highest of heights, then-GM Paul Holmgren sacrificed the club’s two young leaders 48 days later to snag one Russian space cadet. Their leftover cash also managed to lure Jaromir Jagr back to the NHL and, apparently, off all team pictures in CONSOL Energy Arena. The ensuing 93-game regular and postseason was certainly one for the memory banks. We’re still waiting for Claude Giroux to officially take the mantle of “Best Player in the NHL” from Sidney Crosby, though.

7.   Nov. 29, 1991: Penguins 9, Flyers 3 - The Spectrum. Three words: “PAUL MUST GO”

Baby, if you ever wondered when there was a time Philly fans didn’t either blindly follow Mister Snyder or simply wandered away in apathy, it was Black Friday during Paul Holmgren’s 4th year as head coach.

Mired in the midst of an 0-7-1 string which included a 7-3 home loss to Hartford less than 48 hours prior, Flyers fans didn’t exactly come loaded for bear when this one started, but were screaming for vengeance by the end. When it was 6-0 Pittsburgh late in the 2nd period, two separate, competing three-word chants began at the end seats, repeatedly and loudly clashing at center ice in a distorted symphony of discontent.

The Sniders, with much face to save, certainly heard the angry herd. Because their choice for a replacement bench boss (Bill Dineen) was incognito somewhere south of the Adirondacks, it took 2 more losses and 6 more days before Homer was officially sent packing. Dineen’s avuncular manner would be a factor in Lindros’ development as a rookie the following season. Holmgren wasn’t a significant player within the front office until well after an exile of 3-plus seasons as coach and GM with the Hartford Whalers.

6.   Apr. 16, 2024: Capitals 2, Flyers 1 - Wachovia Center. Who cares whether Tortorella knew or did not know, threw or did not throw, the club’s final game of the 2023-24 season, one in which they needed to win to keep their slim hopes for a playoff berth alive? 

It was the most compelling terminal regular season game for the franchise in almost 30 years. Needing a goal and a win to improve their standing, Torts opted to pull the now-dearly-departed Sam Ersson with roughly 5 minutes left in regulation. T.J. Oshie nailed that coffin shut. 

At the same time, the fates of the Detroit Red Wings and Pittsburgh Penguins were held in the balance and more conspiratorial minds made like Charlie Kelly and started stringing 2 and 2 together with a lot of wishes as connective tissue to come up with a conspiracy theory. Problem is, nobody could really put it past the crafty and mercurial head coach. Lose, but never be boring.

5.   March 25, 2025: Maple Leafs 7, Flyers 2 - Air Canada Centre. The exact minute everyone – including Flyers upper management – was done with John Tortorella. Typical for the disappointing Leafs to pile on an inferior foe, but when John Tavares, Auston Matthews and William Nylander all do the Happy Dance on your squad at the same time, someone’s ass had to be grass.

Before this loss, Torts was on record as unwilling to coach a full-on rebuild. After it, the fight between Torts and Cam York was publicized. With assistant Brad Shaw given carte blanche, it was an entertaining 9-game stretch to end the season, giving fans a glimpse of what their young players could do with time, space and a velvet hand at the reins. It was “high-event” hockey at its finest ahead of the sweeping changes that led to the current Tocchet Era.

4.   Apr. 2, 1989: Penguins 6, Flyers 5 (OT) - The Spectrum. After failing to win in Philadelphia for 15 straight years, Pittsburgh scored a pair of victories twice in less than 2 months. This one, in the final regular season game loaded with meaning and playoff seeding, happened thanks to the Pens rallying from an early 2-0 deficit then blowing a 5-2 advantage. 

Desperate for a win which would vault them up to 3rd place, Holmgren’s decision to pull Hextall and try for a winning goal in overtime, resulted instead with Mario Lemieux notching his personal record 85th goal, 114th assist, 199th point and locked the Orange and Black into 4th place and a date with division-winning Washington.

Historically, it was the last of a still-standing franchise record of 17 consecutive seasons reaching the playoffs. It also unwittingly set up a mammoth division finals series once the Flyers upset division-winning Washington, the first postseason meeting between franchises which were welcomed into the NHL in 1967. 

The eventual seven game set to decide Patrick Division supremacy was rife with drama. And while we can make a case that Lemieux’s 8-point night in a 10-7 win in Game 5 of that series might have been a greater catalyst for the Flyers, it doesn’t happen without this Game 80 defeat.

3.   November 19, 1985: Islanders 8, Flyers 6 - Nassau Coliseum. What happens when your defending Vezina Trophy-winning goaltender is dead, his countryman and teammate is back in Sweden to attend the funeral and  your No. 1 blueliner is out with a lower-body injury while the team is riding a franchise record 13-game winning streak? Push the four-time Cup champions to the final second of regulation before their victory is secured.

Keenan’s Kids defied all logic in the wake of Pelle Lindbergh’s death. They won their 11th straight against the defending Cup champion Oilers on an emotional night whose impact has been dissected for decades. After breezing past Hartford, they were down 4-1 to the Islanders late in the 2nd period the next night and you’d think that luck would have run out. Instead, they rallied for 4 straight goals and a miracle OT win.

Two days later, the Isles – whose then-league record of 15 straight wins was on the line – looked like they would crash the party with a runaway as the North Stars did in January 1980 to stop The Streak. Instead, the visitors, down 5-1 after just 22 minutes, roared back with 4 power-play goals and 1 shortie.  Ed Hospodar recorded the only 2 goal game of his entire NHL career. His tally with 2:29 left made it 7-6. Bryan Trottier’s empty netter at 19:59 finally put things to rest, keeping the Isles’ mark secure.

2.   Apr. 2, 1972: Sabres 3, Flyers 2 - The Aud. Maybe the most important quote ever uttered (not written on a chalkboard) by anyone associated with the franchise, what Ed Snider repeated to his players on the flight home, as he said to head coach Fred Shero immediately following the worst loss in team history: “Nobody would lose his job over one disastrous goal.”

That one disastrous goal was scored by Buffalo’s Gerry Meehan with 4 seconds left in Game 78, with the Flyers needing just one point to leapfrog the Penguins and into 4th place in the East Division. 

Twenty-three days earlier, Shero’s team was in solid playoff footing, 3 points ahead of the Golden Seals with 11 games to go. They went 3-4-3, including a 4-4 home tie vs. the Penguins the day before which put them 2 points up with 1 remaining. Pittsburgh would win the head-to-head season series tiebreaker with a win and Flyers loss. Meehan beat an unscreened Doug Favell with a 45 footer to win the game, Philly’s only defeat in their last 6 contests.

“It was like getting shot,” said Bill Clement in Jay Greenberg’s Full Spectrum.

“I feel dead inside,” admitted Bobby Clarke in the same chapter.

The mercurial Snider decided to take the long view for once, as Greenberg related: “It was unbelievable what happened. But once I got used to it, I realized we had made great strides. I was still totally and completely confident.”

The only move of significance the front office made in the wake of the unreal setback was to secure Bernie Parent from the Blazers in the WHA, which had nothing to do directly with Favell’s error. 

Just 777 days later, the Stanley Cup came to Philadelphia.

1.   May 31, 1987: Oilers 3, Flyers 1 - Northlands Coliseum. Until the day they win it all, Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals in Edmonton will stand as the high-water mark for the franchise regarding playoff prowess.

More than any other loss, it stands as a model by which all future Flyers playoff teams will be judged; outmanned and injured, a team with 4 or 5 star players at best took the greatest offensive machine in league history which boasted a half dozen potential Hall-of-Famers down to the final 2 ½ minutes before the championship was decided. 

What if Brian Propp’s shot in the 1st period, minutes after Mark Messier tied the game, actually made it all the way through Grant Fuhr’s pads? What if Ilkka Sinisalo didn’t throw an absolute brick on net from 15 feet away with nobody in sight with the game tied, 1-1, early in the 2nd period? What if the puck hadn’t skipped over Ron Sutter’s stick at the Oilers’ blue line with clear ice ahead early in the 3rd period in a 2-1 game?

Legend has it Keenan brought the Cup into the locker room pregame to goose the ultimate visualization for a roster mentally and physically wiped from 26 games in 53 days and 117 since September. Maybe he should have bribed arena staff to poison a few Edmonton pregame meals instead.

Hextall made 40 stops in his 26th playoff game and 92nd appearance of the season, rightfully earning a Conn Smythe Trophy he’d rather not have won. Wayne Gretzky called him the greatest goalie he’d ever faced.

“I’ve never been shot with a bullet,” said Norris Trophy runner up Mark Howe “But it couldn’t hurt any more than this.”

It will be 40 years next spring, and the bullet holes in thousands of fans have healed but never faded.

NBA, Sixers release full 2026-27 regular-season schedules

The National Basketball Association released the full schedules for all 30 member clubs on Thursday afternoon, including that for the Philadelphia 76ers. 

The new-look Sixers open the season unusually early, Tuesday, Oct. 20 at Madison Square Garden to help the rival New York Knicks raise their championship banner. Two nights later, their home opener welcomes LeBron James' OG club, the Cleveland Cavaliers. And on Halloween Eve (Oct. 30), the Knicks make their first trip back to Philly since their Game 4 blowout victory in the Eastern semifinals on May 10.

The regular season concludes on Sunday, Apr. 11 at home against the Charlotte Hornets. 

In between some key matchups are as follows:

Tuesday, Nov. 10 at 6 pm a national TV contest as Jaylen Brown welcomes his former team, the Boston Celtics, to South Philly.

A Thanksgiving Eve (Wed. Nov. 25) 5 pm start at home vs. LeBron's second team, the Miami Heat.

Of course, the previously-announced 5 pm ET Christmas Day national TV broadcast of the Sixers in Los Angeles to face the Lakers.

New Year's Day finds the Sixers taking on the Bucks in Milwaukee, while Monday, Jan. 16 finds the club with a Martin Luther King Day matinee at Atlanta. Philly will also be on the road for a Presidents' Day afternoon (Feb. 15) tilt in Dallas.

The league ratchets up the drama between the old rivals, as the Sixers play in Boston twice in the latter half of the season: Jan. 21 and again on Mar. 7 -- a matinee start scheduled for ABC.

For the full schedule with dates and times, bang either this link or this one.

Grebenkin locked up, last of Flyers loose contract ends

Late last week, the Philadelphia Flyers managed to puncture the mid-summer doldrums and announce a contract for the last of its restricted free agents.

Nikita Grebenkin, who, unlike teammates Trevor Zegras and Jamie Drysdale, was not arbitration eligible, nonetheless returns to the fold on a 2-year deal worth $2.2 million.

The 23-year-old bottom six winger, who was acquired at the March 2025 trade deadline in the deal which shipped Scott Laughton to the Toronto Maple Leafs, compiled 14 points over 55 regular-season games during his first full NHL campaign. 

Brind'Amour supplies Flyers with Cup winning recipe

Courtesy of WRAL

by Bob Herpen

Phanatic Hockey Editor

When Phanatic Offseason Biweeklies left you 2 weeks ago, we asked you to consider the first half of Carolina Hurricanes head coach Rod Brind’Amour’s blueprint for success – as mentioned on the Nasty Knuckles podcast from July 9 – and whether or not the Philadelphia Flyers front office and roster possess the requisites to duplicate.

In the second of this two-part column, further examining the back half of Brindy’s prime points, we’ll tackle organizational buy-in for longer-term success and player buy-in with the coaching philosophy.

We know ‘Canes owner Tom Dundon wanted to win, but lacked the requisite knowledge and patience most multi-millionaire owners do in pursuit of championships. Does a gestalt entity like Comcast want to win? 

I don’t think Dan Hilferty has ever directly addressed this, on the dais or at breezy downtown lunch hours. Like appeals for a number of chronic diseases, there’s more money in research and development instead of cures, with less risk involved. 

There’s certainly less risk in Flyers GM Danny Briere preaching about waiting for something that “has to make sense” compared to the cap hell that his three predecessors both faced and put themselves in. Nothing about this offseason put a dent in that idea – especially the Carlsson offer sheet, which the opposing GM emphatically stated would be matched, and was.

Tocchet’s on the second of a 5-year deal that history and entropy strongly suggests he’s not likely to finish; Briere’s entering his 4th year at the helm. Sands through the hourglass are about to be falling at a quicker rate – unless they can replicate the Hurricanes’ 8 straight years of reaching at least the conference semifinals.

From a statistical standpoint, the Flyers have only seen one stint in franchise history equivalent to the Hurricanes’ current run: nine seasons from 1972-81 reaching the 2nd round or further, including 2 Stanley Cups and 4 Finals berths.

But that was in a league steadily growing from 14 to 21 teams, with a handful of impatient, maverick owners and GMs willing to throw away 1st-round draft picks for immediate gratification. One GM, Keith Allen, presided and earned the nickname “Keith the Thief.”

This does not exist in the current 32-team league where 16 make the playoffs and 22 are in the running until a week before the regular season concludes. 

Between 2007 and 2012, the Orange and Black won at least one playoff series in 4 of those 5 seasons. That spree bridged two head coaches, John Stevens and Peter Laviolette, but included several major moves which radically altered team chemistry.

Although Brind’Amour has been the on-ice leader this whole time, the Hurricanes acknowledged that even a well-respected franchise icon like Ron Francis was unsuited from the GM chair to transition from a tear-down through a rebuild. Francis was essentially promoted, then his contract terminated. After, Don Waddell, who signed on as both president and GM, was sacrificed in 2024 for the players’ inability to get over the hump. 

They hit the jackpot with Eric Tulsky, who cannot be confused with any traditional hockey mind. 

Meanwhile, the Flyers keep going in the same direction. Cleaned out the perceived cold, corporate personages in the front office only to goose the spirits of the suffering faithful by hiring a bunch of photogenic ex-players to key positions. Which, counterintuitively, if you’re going for a longer term rise to success, it kinda makes sense to give the John LeClairs and Patrick Sharps and Keith Joneses of the world plenty of runway to learn their craft among the league’s administrative sharks.

They’ve already got the Flyers-as-family, “if you’re not for us, you’re against us” attitude down pat. No need to look further than the smear campaign against William C. Gauthier as a tell.

But it’s hard to imagine even Hilferty could keep up the jovial “past is prologue” attitude for another 5 years. He’s on the back nine of his professional and personal life and no doubt would start getting an itchy throat and trembly hands if his shiny new toy doesn’t win a few races soon – or at least gains a few hundred more season tickets in the effort. 

They got a big spiritual and financial boost with a surprise playoff chase that resulted in a second-round appearance but linear continuation is not a reality. It was clear for those who watched, that Briere’s “step back” was couched in terms of a playoff berth or playoff success. The Flyers may win 40 games and lose a round next year; they may win 44 games and not make it. It is no doubt maddening for fans young and old to accept this is part of the process.

In that way, the Hurricanes cracked a code more daunting than Enigma, because they *never* took a step back in 8 years.

When asked about the ingredients for success in his coaching methods, Brind’Amour led with the following: “Everybody’s playing. You just have to get the buy in. There’s no master class on which way to go. It goes back to the leadership stuff. If your top guys are buying in, you don’t have any room for anyone to do it differently.”

Brind’Amour, though, is a unique mixture. He’s the kind of person who’s a) obsessively driven, b) carries a better-than-average hockey IQ (dating back to his playing days) even if he’s not sold on analytics, and c) knows what it takes to win both as a player and direct supervisor.

Tocchet really isn’t an analogue. He’s definitely not a, hasn’t convinced anyone in Philadelphia or anywhere else that b applies (with the possible exception of championing Steven Stamkos when Barry Melrose slagged him off in Tampa), but can skate by with c as he both won as a player in 1992 and stood beside Mike Sullivan for the Penguins’ last 2 titles in 2015-16.

You know who was an obsessive? Mike Keenan, Tocchet’s first coach and architect of the first Flyers Renaissance from 1984 to 1987. Keenan, famously, never powered down from the insecurity that drove him to act like he did, because he didn’t play professionally.

If anything, that buy-in from Carolina players clearly emanates from a deep respect for the guy on the bench. 

We heard a lot of propaganda in the break-up pressers from Flyers coaches and players themselves about how ‘Tocc’ is embracing a more modern mindset with the younger roster – Michkov aside – and how the players are comfortable with the way things are. I hope that supposed concordance will be analyzed and scrutinized beyond this space in the coming year. 

“We’ve been real fortunate. The 23 guys we have here are here for a reason, they get it. The guys who didn’t quite fit, you gotta move on. That’s just kinda how it works,’ Brind’Amour added. 

“That’s our secret sauce. We got the right people in the right chairs and they’ve been able to put the team first, which is … everyone talks about it, but to be able to do it … I see it every day in the way we go about our business,” he noted.

We know there is a significant gap in presentation and belief regarding the Flyers power play, with Tocchet having admitted that one of his young defensemen is publicly at odds with the system. We don’t know whether Sean Couturier – who showed flashes of his old self in the playoffs – can rejuvenate to the level of Jordan Staal (28 goals regular/postseason) or successfully put the team’s needs ahead of his own as he cruises toward retirement on a mega-contract. 

We don’t know what happens to team chemistry when roster changes are necessary. It can’t be playtime in the sandbox all the time. Two or three or more of the current young core may not be here if Briere sniffs the sweat off the Cup and it is up to those remaining to suck it up, learn and grow along the way. 

We don’t know if Tocchet or Briere will preside over things by the time a return to the Finals is made, but continued success and applied knowledge will spur management to find appropriate bridge deals to keep both where they are. 

“It doesn’t guarantee everything,” Brind’Amour concluded. “It guarantees you one thing, and that’s a legitimate chance. That’s what we’ve had these 8 years, we’ve been knocking on the door. It’s much better knowing you have a chance by the way you play.”

Needing a right-handed bat, Phils instead opt for 3-time batting champ Arraez

In desperate need of a right-handed bat to fill out a lineup chronically struggling vs. left-handed pitching, the Philadelphia Phillies opened up the final day ahead of the 2026 MLB trade deadline by acquiring infielder Luis Arraez from the San Francisco Giants.

The deal, as reported by Matt Gelb and Jayson Stark finds Arraez -- a left-handed bat who is expected to play second base and who leads the National League in hitting at .324 over 105 games for the last-place G-men -- and right-handed relief pitcher Caleb Killian heading to San Francisco in exchange for pitching prospects Marty Gair and Ramon Marquez.

In his 8th MLB season, the 29-year-old Venezuelan has won three batting titles with three separate franchises (Minnesota, 2022; Miami, 2023; San Diego, 2024) and may repeat the feat with a fourth if he keeps pace in Philly.

No firm plans were announced for a reshuffling of the infield and outfield, despite much online speculation from beats who should have that information in pocket; however, multiple reports revealed that first baseman Bryce Harper had multiple conversations recently with GM Dave Dombrowski over his willingness to return to the outfield. 

Further, Harper was reported to have brought his outfielder's glove on the recent road trip which concluded in Baltimore with Sunday's rain-shortened 8-0 victory.

These reports were solidified just ahead of the 6 pm (ET) deadline by Inquirer reporter Scott Lauber, who stated on X that the plan revealed by Phils manager Don Mattingly would be: Bryson Stott to 3B, Harper to RF, Arraez to 2B and Alec Bohm to 1B.

Killian's acquisition hopes to offset the loss of the disappointing Brad Keller to pending UCL surgery. The 29-year-old SoCal native went 3-6 with a 4.26 ERA, 53 strikeouts and 20 walks over 45 games for the Giants in 2026.

Another deadline deal announced a short time ago saw the Phils snagged left-handed reliever Brooks Raley from the fading New York Mets in exchange for righty prospect Luke Gabrysh and outfielder John Spikerman.