A Philadelphia Flyers Season Preview with Special Guest Wayne Fish!

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1:00right here in the United States. Tickets are on sale at UNLVtickets.com. Get 20% off by using code Team USA. What are expectations heading into this flyer season and can they fix that power play we're going to talk to Wayne Fish to find out. For Lockdown Flyers, your daily podcast on the Philadelphia Flyers. Part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. Hey there and welcome to Lockdown Flyers. I am Rachel Donner. I'm here as always with Russ Cohen to keep up with our latest episodes and flyers news. You can find us at Lockdown Flyers on Instagram, Threads, Blue Sky and Twitter and we are going to bring you our conversation with Wayne Fish of the Morning Call amongst many other papers. He's got FlyingFishHockey.com. He's written a bunch of books about the flyers and flyers players.

2:00So a really good resource for flyers, institutional knowledge and covering the current team on the beat there. And it's a really fun conversation. We talked a lot about the off season. We did talk about special teams in particular and some key players including Matt, they Mitch Koff and Porter Marton. So without further ado, here is part one of that conversation. All right. Welcome, Wayne Fish of the Morning Call and FlyingFishHockey. Good to see your face getting ready for the upcoming flyer season. Looking forward to it. So Wayne, given everything including the whole offer sheet saga, what is your overall evaluation of the flyers this off season? Well, even before the Carlson offer was made, I thought the flyers were heading in the right direction. They didn't make any key personnel moves that I felt changed anything in either direction.

3:04The fact that they finished the season so strongly and beat Pittsburgh in that first round, I know that they weren't that competitive against Carolina. But yet then again, they wound up winning the Stanley Cup. So if you're using that as a litmus test, I think that's a pretty good showing there. I think the important thing is that the flyers have kept an open mind about where they're headed in terms of not rushing out and signing a big 33 year old, a 32 year old guy for millions of dollars. But they're sticking to their plan, which is a progression, a slow improvement each year. And I think so far they're headed. They're doing it the right way. So Wayne, let me ask you this since based on that. So the flyers had that plan a couple years ago where they were like, hey, you know, this past summer is going to be a big and free agency, but the cap sort of changed that right? So now, but now I want to ask you, did you think they've changed their plan?

4:07Because I still hear them saying, yeah, we kind of want to get players here. It's going to be a good place to be here. But I feel like free agency has changed now forever with the cap going up every year. And I feel like they need to sort of change with that too. And I'm not sure they have. What is your feeling? I would agree with that. I think that they're playing it one step at a time. The fact that they go after, you know, went after the home loan with Carlson tells me that they're committed to winning. And they feel like they've crossed over that line of being sort of a borderline contender into we think we can do some damage here. We think we can make maybe the final four, whatever, make a good showing, you know, the fact that I don't think they're yet in Stanley Cup, serious Stanley Cup contention. And I think they're looking at it this way that we're not going to give up, we're not giving away players now for draft picks. We're looking to acquire players. And whether you like that strategy or not, Daniel Breer has, you know, made it clear that,

5:11you know, the flyers have waited quite a while now for this moment. And I think they're going to move based on the fact that they think that Derek and Tender. Yet it is really interesting because I think that there has been so much push toward wanting to get a one C for so long and that it seems like this could have been the year to do that. And they, you know, they did that with the offer sheet in some ways, but the realistic chance of success of that was pretty low because we knew that the ducks were going to match it. And so it doesn't feel like in the end, they really went for it this year. It does seem like conventional wisdom says this wasn't the year to do it for the flyers, but league wide, this was the year to do it. And that could come into conflict, I think, in some ways. Yeah, there's so many different parts to this puzzle that, you know, to say, well, we tried this or we made a commitment to that. It's really hard to say. I mean, they're still getting, this team is still getting used to the talk at way of

6:16playing the game. And I would say if we were in year three, we were talking now after year three, we might be talking differently, but they're still learning the talk at system or whatever you want to call it, the way that they play the game. And I think that if it took talking a while to get to that, you know, it took a few years with other teams until talk and found the right formula with the, with the connox and 153 games and was coach of the year. I think it might take a year, but two more to get to that spot. But when you have guys like Reair and Keith Jones working sort of hand in hand with you, I think that's a good thing. There's not going to be any, any disagreements here. I don't think I'm personnel. And the fact that Danny went for the big hit, I think Jones and, and the talk at work will wholeheartedly behind that move, but at the same time, just because they didn't connect there doesn't mean that they're not going to try again. So Wayne, with the Atlantic being as strong as it is and the capitals loading up, the

7:21flyers, do you think it's going to be harder than last year just to either maintain that third spot or that last wildcard spot? What you feel? I think it will be harder because of the fact that they caught a lot of people off guard last year. They were the last, don't forget they were last the year before. So a lot of people picked them to be last. And I think a lot of teams were thinking, now the flyers, we're not too worried about them. When we come into the Wellswell, now it's moving past it now to the infinity. And don't worry in 2030, it'll be something. It's something that's just... I still look around my head around that one, but anyway, in the flyers home building that they sort of took it for granted, they were going to come out of there more times than not successful. And I think now over this summer, a lot of people watch more of film of the flyers and said, we got to be careful here. These guys are getting pretty good. So yeah, I think to answer your question, yeah, I think it will be tougher.

8:23I haven't made my prediction yet for this year. But I think that the important thing to keep in mind is that a lot of teams are going to be gunning for the flyers this year simply because they were sort of an overnight success story. They were still out of the playoffs, I believe, until the last month or so. And then they caught fire. They brought some kids up. And now I think other teams were watching footage of them over the summer. So the flyers, they're not going to catch a lot of teams off guard this year. Yeah, I think one of the suppositions that I've made going into this season is that the flyers have to put a bigger emphasis on early season wins and the month of January because the way that other teams to your point Wayne are going to be on the attack and be more aware of the flyer system and be able to combat it, you know, they're not going to be able to do a run like they did late late last season again.

9:24That's just not going to be repeatable. So they're going to have to make up those points early in the season and then have a non-disasterous January. That's true. And I think you alluded to this early on that there's going to have to be this X factor of things like the special teams, which I think you're going to get into a little bit later. But the power play just can't be dragging it's butt at 32, 30 second year after year. They have to get it somewhere back up to around 15 or 20. The penalty killing can't argue with that. They're pretty good at penalty killing. The special teams overall I think has to be improved and you know, it starts with the fact that they need more scoring and they are good at stopping goals but they're also not great at scoring goals. So I think those are things you have to keep in mind. Wayne talking about the power play. If I'm a fan and I'm looking at this team right and I've watched two different coaches

10:25bring back two different failed power play coaches for the team never replacing them. What am I supposed to think about that? I think you have to get better at start with getting personnel that is suited to, you know, I know Mark Howe's don't grow on trees but you need to get someone like a Mark Howe here who can bring it from the point not only shoot it hard but also find guys who are open down low. And that seems to be the recurring theme here is that guys like Mischkopf and Owen Tippett you know, Tippett, guys like that, you know, they should be scoring like a John Licklayer on the power player Tim Kerr. And right now they're not and I think that's a big part of the problem is maybe the scheme isn't quite right. Is either get the puck to the net quicker, a harder shot and have guys that are willing to really go after it down low. All right, we'll have more with Wayne Fish coming up next. Running a business shouldn't feel like you're trying to connect a bunch of systems that

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12:26Part of the beast is the must see adventure of the year. An incredible story of survival. I got you. One of the most extraordinary on-screen bond you'll ever see. Oh, the greatest dog ever walked here. Brad Pitt. I'll give you a little part of the beast. Lean theaters. September 25th. Ready PG 13. Maybe inappropriate for children under 13. All right. Before we get back to our conversation with Wayne fish just want to remind you about our last off season poll question and it's related to our topic of the day. What are your expectations going into this upcoming season for the Philadelphia Flyers? Your options are repeat and make the playoffs potentially win around. Go further than last year. Come close but not make the playoffs or perform significantly worse than last season. Make sure you get those votes in. The link is in the show notes and it's on our YouTube channel. And let us know why you picked what you did or another potential outcome in the comments.

13:30And now back to our conversation with Wayne fish. Yeah, we've been talking about that quite a bit and the shooting aspect of it in particular and getting those initial shots from the point like they just have not been coming the way that they need to in order to have secondary chances that maybe those net front guys can actually get in. And we haven't had a consistent net front power play presence since Wayne Simmons. And like that has to change. I would agree with that and I think that Jamie Drysdale I think is okay there. And he showed signs on some nights when they got a couple of power play goals. We'd all say Jamie was a big part of that. But you're right. I think the down low guys have to really work harder. And I'm sure talk it is going after those guys. Talk it was a guy that was a strong presence down low. And if it means going out there and basically standing next to him doing practice and saying, you should be here and this is how you get the puck off the rebound or whatever it takes.

14:35That's where you have to go after it. And I think that well, we'll see how it goes. I want to keep this going though. So let's say it looks like David Urichek has the best shot. I have I don't have a lot of faith that Rick talk it's going to give him a lot of time on the power play early, even if he's the guy with the best shot because he has trust issues. That's why he had Risto on the power play who's pretty much useless on the power play, except he's safe and doesn't make a mistake. That's true. I don't know how many short handed, I don't know how many short handed goals that gave up last year. But to me, if it's a reasonable amount, then it's worth taking the chance, taking the risk. And you're right. I mean, he, when he was in Buffalo, Risto Linen was competent in terms of just like even shots from even strength situations and so forth. He comes here basically, he's put in the closet somewhere and they don't really use him. I don't know what the really the answer is. I mean, the guy you mentioned, Urichek is, we haven't seen enough of him yet to know

15:39for sure if he's the guy. Yeah, I think that's going to be a really interesting question there. I do want to touch on the penalty kill though because I think the power play gets all the like buzz and the attention because it's been so horrifically bad. But the flyers had a very good penalty kill for a couple of seasons there. But last season, they were 21st in the NHL in penalty kill. And you have to wonder, like, is enough attention being paid there and what you think they can do to improve that? I think one of the things they can do is find guys that are geared to just doing that, like a Kate's or the guys that are almost penalty kill specialists. And I think you need to find a couple of guys like that. Now they they parted ways of garnet half the way. I kind of liked him on the penalty kill. But I think that in the long run, it's sort of like one year you could be fourth next year,

16:41you could be 12. But you don't want to sink as you mentioned to 20th, 21st, 22nd. I mean, you want to be sort of in that middle of the pack. At least, right? Yeah, because a lot of games are lost. How many times did the flyers lose a game in the third period on a maybe a poorly taken penalty and then they give up a surrender of the power play goal? I mean, if you're talking about the feeding atmosphere on the bench, you could just see the whole bench just sag. And so I think yes, you have to go after they did go after the kid from AC on a pronoun to ACRE. Atari, yes. Atari, yeah. Yeah, I think that he will, I think he's got promised there from what I've read. So Wayne, just keep it on. You mentioned shorthanded and I wanted to bring this up. Like the avalanche had the they gave up the most shorthanded goals in the league with 13, right? But they could be a chancey team because they score a lot of goals. Yeah. We saw that Rik Toket kind of is saying now they want to be very aggressive and take more

17:43chances yet the flyers gave up nine shorthanded goals. They were, you know, fourth technically tied for fourth with the most in the league. Again, it's nice to say you're going to be aggressive, but you can't give up that many shorthanded goals either in a season. So how do you balance that? I think you go, it goes back to the team being familiar with what Toket wants. And I think that one year was definitely helped, but I still think that it's going to take another year, possibly two, for all these guys to really have it ingrained in their heads that they need to be careful in terms of allowing that many goals in those situations, especially in crucial situations. I don't care if you give up a shorthanded goal in the first period. That's not a big wrap. But if you're giving up all the eight minutes to go, that is a big deal. So, and I think Toket still has to stress that. And one of the thing is that this lineup looks like it could be set. I mean, there may be one or

18:46two changes, but a lot of these guys now have a year under their belt, including the three guy, Marton, Bump, and Barkey. They're the ones that have to learn the system on the fly. And I think they did pick up a lot. And I think things improve. When you look at a year, don't just look at say, well, they had a let you know, and I'm not saying that this is wrong or right or wrong. But if you give up, let's say 11 shorthanded goals, but you've only gave up two in the last 30 games, then what are we talking about here? We're talking about improvements. That's fair. But yeah, so I haven't looked at that chart yet, but I'm wondering if that were the case, and I would say, well, at least they're heading the right direction. Yeah, that's a good transition to talk about those line ups because, you know, you say you think it's pretty much set. So do you think that they're going to continue to put Zegros at center at this point? That is a that is a $64,000 question. And I was looking at that before I got, came on the show here is that I wonder what they're going to do there. And I think that, you know,

19:49I ran for the hockey news, so I had to, you know, line projections and all. And short of calling Rick talk at two o'clock in the morning and catching him off guard, I don't think anybody really knows for sure. I think I think it comes down to whether or not, I mean, Sean Cateria is another year older. You at so in other words, do you have a need to have a guy in the middle simply because you don't have anybody else to fill that hole? But if that's the case, I'd like to see him at center. I think he does his best work there. I don't have the stats for how many goals and the sissy had when he played wing versus what he did at center. But if you're asking me, I would say I'd like to see him there. And I think that there's some chemistry there either with connecting your forester. One of those two would be a natural wing. They seem to have both of them seem to have a good chemistry. You know, forester was out for much of the year, most of the year, or 50 games or something. So I think that, you know, but if I he and connect, he just seem to have a good rhythm together.

20:50Yeah, we brought up forester. He does have a little something with him. You talked about the team being pretty much set. We know that there's only four preseason games. So do you feel like camp is even more important because guys are literally going to get like one or two games to kind of show what they can do? And then they're just going to go with the regular I agree with that 100%. I understand the fact that they they had to do something because they increased the regular season to 84. So they took basically traded two for two. I get it. You know, at the end of the day, who doesn't want to make more money? Who doesn't want to have, you know, more fans blah blah blah. So yeah, I think that's the case. But this is a very to me is a very short camp. Basically, the veterans report on the 17th if I'm not correct, if I'm not mistaken. And they play on the 30th. And that's pretty quick. I mean, four games, but don't forget the biggest work is done in between those games. I mean, you're not going to see the same guys playing two games in a row. Right. The most part, it's still tryouts trying to get see if the young guys

21:56you know, are getting closer to the NHL. So yeah, I think that this camp that unlike maybe the last five, there's a great deal of importance there. So do you think Alex Bump is a lock for the roster this season? Boy, that's a good question too. Ask me after the first week. You know what, there's so much there's so much there that so much energy there that whatever shortcoming he has in terms of scoring or defending, you know, I'd like to see him make it. I would say it's probably 60 40 that he makes it, but I think there's still there's still at 40% of doubt whether he'll make it. And maybe he gets pushed off. Maybe someone does something great and pushes them off the roster. I don't know. All right, we're going to wrap it up with Wayne fish coming up next. Your favorite fall flavors are back at Starbucks. The one and only pumpkin spice latte and the

23:00deliciously smooth iced pecan crunch latte have arrived and are ready to sip all season long. Or find a new favorite like the new iced banana bread latte that tastes just like fall in a cup. You can find your favorite taste of fall only at Starbucks. I'll give you a little part of the beast. Lean theaters September 25th ready PG 13 maybe an appropriate for children under 13. Yeah, I'd like to be able to ask you a hers ships question so you can get a sponsorship after this from them because you're giving them some airtime. But instead, I'm going to ask you with

24:02with all the young players kind of getting locked up. We just saw another contract get locked up with the Bruins. Are the flyers going to do that in July with Mitch Cough? Or they really going to wait and see what they have this season. Do you think they're even planning on it yet? Or you think they're going to just really wait on that? And maybe in July, they'll start thinking about it. Very good question again. And I don't know. In my opinion, I guess I'm going to start off by saying I think there's a lot of potential there. I think Tucket and Mitch Cough got off got off in the wrong foot. I think I've used this anecdote before, Russ, but I'll use it again in the danger of using it again. That last year in training camp, the flyers used two different ranks. They used the primary rank and they used the secondary rank. So they get done with the practice this day. Tucket is walking from the other other rank to the main ring. And he walks past me and he goes, what's with that Mitch Cough kid? And that is really sort of the theme of what

25:06took place over the next six months was what's with that musical off kid? And I'll tell you this, that I don't know where the things are going to wind up with the contract, but he has great skating and scoring ability, but he's a little bit what I'll be used to call cherry picker where he would you know guys like that would hang out near the blue line and try to make that spectacular rush up the ice and all can't do that with talk it. Tucket is, talk it once that goes against average down. And I think that Bladar would second that notion of we don't want guys out there. It ends up being a power play with five guys on the other teams against your four. So you still would rather fundamentally change one player knowing that that's his strength to conform to the game. Isn't that like risky? But because I don't think he wants an example of making an example or saying to the rest of the team, we're going to condone that type of style of play. I think he's the op in other

26:10words, it's the old high school thing I used to use, which is if a guy is loafing, the coach stands him in the middle of the track of the football field and makes the other guys do some rants while he watches. And then the other players go, when we get in the locker room, we're going to coach you, not the coach. He has to be more like he was as a rookie, which is that just pick the right spots, nowhere to go. And being in shape when you show up for camp, I'm anxious to see how he does last year he wasn't in shape. And he goes, well I was injured, I was injured last May. Well, you know what, by July or August, get out on the ring, start doing some sprints, start doing some some drop ice drills and catch yourself back with, you know, in good graces again with the coach. Yeah, I think that'll be important. I think we're on the right path to that. And he obviously came back to where he's early. So that's a good thing. And to wrap up, I just

27:14want to get your thoughts on Porter, Martone and how you think he'll adjust to a full NHL season. Oh, I'm a big Marto fan. Just the fact is, composure, you know, we mentioned before about TIPIT and guys like that down low. Martone may end up being the flyers best guy to how low. You know, from what I've seen, he's feraled us down there, got a great release. And the biggest thing is he's got his head on a swivel. So he knows everything that's going on. He's not just standing there hoping and watching what's going on. He's getting involved. And I help talk it, finds a way to get him into that power play more often to set screen so that the goal, you know, take the goalies eyes away. And you see those guys, the pain in the butt guys in this league, I just stand locked views and look at the teams that are top five. They've all those top five teams. I bet they've got one guy that does does that does that job. And I think Martone could be that

28:17guy for the flyers. Yeah, I think, you know, we think so too, for sure. It'll just be interesting to see how he deals with the rigors of a full NHL season and a full NHL season that's two games longer than anybody's ever had to deal with. So that I think that's going to be a fascinating aspect to the whole rookie class this year and and how that affects the Calder race and Porter Martones, you know, potential involvement in that. But Wayne, excited to get this flyer season going excited to see you around the press box and we'll get your thoughts as the season progresses. Where can people find you and your work out there? Well, flyingfishhockey.com is my, you know, my website. And I've got a couple of books out. I'll plug those real quick. There are a couple of years old now. But Chris Tarion wrote to Redemption about former flyer defenseman, Chris Tarion, who played a lot of his career while basically a functioning drunk. And now he's turned his life around and he

29:23helps other people in their battle against alcohol. So it's a very good story and I highly recommend that. And also, Angel on my wing is about Brian Propp's battle after he suffered a life threatening stroke in 2015. You can get both of these books on Amazon or goru, you know, bookstores, you know, anything like that. And you know, as far as my newspaper stuff, you can catch them at Alan Town Morning Call. Or and I write for other papers like the Trentonian, you know, basically a bunch of Delaware County times. You can pick up all those on the websites too. Excellent. Thanks so much, Wayne. Thanks, Wayne. All right guys. Have a great day. Thank you. All right. Thanks once again to Wayne. Again, some really interesting opinions there. I think you're going to talk about some of them in future shows because we definitely maybe have some disagreements between the two of us and with what Wayne had to say. So I'm intrigued to see what the temperature is with everybody

30:27in the media going into this season. Yeah, he's, you know, he thinks outside the box. He's always around hockey. He's covered a lot of sports in his day, not just hockey. So I think he said, yeah, he brought up some good things. Yeah, really, really fun. All right. On tomorrow's show, we will have our final preview heading into rookie camp and for the rookie series Games this weekend. And the two of us will be there on Saturday to cover it. So make sure you are following us on our socials at Lockdown Flyers where you can ask us any email bad questions that you want us to answer next week. You can email us at Lockdown Flyers at Gmail or comment on our YouTube channel. Thanks for making Lockdown Flyers your first listen today. Now on video, we send you to Lockdown Sports today 24 7 YouTube channel on audio. Check out Lockdown NHL for your next listen. I'm Rachel. I'm on blue sky in Twitter at our Miriam. That's our MIR I am. I'm Russum at Sportsology on the same socials as PRTS. Oh, hello, Jua.

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32:37On September 25th. No one's coming for us. It's just you and me, boy. 58 miles. Part of the beast is the must-see adventure of the year. An incredible story of survival. I got you. One of the most extraordinary on-screen bond you'll ever see. Oh, you're the greatest dog ever walked the earth. Get you home. Part of the beast. Only in the air. September 25th. Ready PG-13. Maybe an appropriate for children under 13. Ball is here and that means the pumpkin spice latte is back at Starbucks. It's the one we've been waiting for. So whether you're a fan of the original pumpkin spice latte or ready to mix it up with an iced pumpkin cream chai, the new ice pumpkin cream matcha or the new ice pumpkin cream shaken espresso. You can find your favorite taste of fall only at Starbucks. CBS Sunday, September 13th. The new season of 60 minutes begins. Okay, let's go. Every second a story unfolds. This is one of the great mysteries of human nature.

33:38Every minute a new question. We were buying access to the president. Every week a deeper understanding. When we take the field the expectations are to win. It's time. We're preparing to go out on this grade for the new season. It was gunfight all the way in all the way out 60 minutes. CBS Sunday, September 13th and streaming on Paramount Plus.