An Open Letter to the Isles Fan Sitting in Front of me Last Night

Dear Isles Fan,

You fooled me at first.  When you asked whether you were in the right row, I helpfully directed you to your seat since I've had season tickets in the section for years.

When you jumped up to cheer after Nielsen beat Mase just 55 seconds into the game, I cringed.

Then.  THEN.  You turned around and pointed at me.  You yelled YEAH BABY! in my face.

Are you kidding me?

Look, I get it.  I'm sure you get pushed around a lot in real life. You were pretty short.  You didn't even have the guts to wear any Isles gear to the game.

Don't do that again, I said.

Ok, baby, you said.

I hate you, I thought.

(I might have whispered it.)

Your presence made me cheer louder while the Flyers peppered Halak.  PEB's shorty was even more sweet because you had to see it in person.

You knew your team was getting outplayed.  So explain to me why, after my mom (yeah, my MOM) booed a particularly rough open ice hit on a Flyer you decided to turn around and yell at her:

THAT'S HOCKEY BABY SOMETIMES PEOPLE GET HIT!

Like, you just yelled at a stranger's mom at a hockey game. Over nothing.  Feel good?  Whatever you need to do to validate your existence, I guess.

At least you shut up after I shouted, Listen, DUDE, I don't need YOU to tell ME about hockey.  To which the entire section cheered, YOU GO GIRL.  AMEN.

(Your witty retort was to hide in your seat.)

We were all sick of you.

I'm sorry you got to see the Isles win in OT.  If you come back to Philly, please keep your mouth shut next time.

Better yet, just stay in Brooklyn.

Flyerdelphia Fan Files #2 - Winning Cures All

I had the thankless task of putting together the first Fan Files column about a month ago, when there was nothing good to say about the Flyers.  All I could do was preach optimism and keep my fingers crossed.

Much has changed since then, with the team on a three game winning streak and finally showing signs of life.

What, exactly, accounts for the difference?  Wayne Simmonds indicated that the guys are sticking up for one another.  The beats have written endlessly about the energy Shayne Gostisbehere brings to the ice.  Or maybe Dave Hakstol is finding his stride.

From a fan’s perspective, though, the Flyers, even when winning, can be maddening.  Currently, they are worst in the league in goal scoring and team shooting percentage, but 13^th in the penalty kill having killed off 24 straight penalties before allowing a game-tying power play goal in the final minute of regulation on Friday.   

Goaltending is the least of our problems for once.  Four of ten wins were shutouts but the Flyers are posting a dismal -18 goal differential.

The numbers tell one tale but the story is constantly changing.  As long as the Flyers keep putting up wins statistics will cease being the story. 

And that’s what keeps fans interested – the knowledge that fortunes in hockey turn on a dime.

The Flyers are on the right track.  Here’s hoping they keep grinding and give us all a reason to prove those who predicted another season of missing the playoffs wrong. 

With or Without You

I've been thinking about relationships recently, which leads me to this post about ... advanced hockey statistics.  Weird, right?  Bear with me.

(If you thought I was writing about U2, sorry to disappoint.  I did listen to The Joshua Tree while writing this, though.)

My favorite fancy stat is With Or Without You, a.k.a. WOWY.  WOWY measures how well pairs of players perform together and apart.  Like any stat, it has its limitations, but typically good players help others perform better.  WOWY also lets you know if a player is dragging down his teammates, that is, if they perform worse when playing with him.

One of my favorite illustrations of WOWY is this analysis of the Umberger for Hartnell trade, written in June 2014.  It's a quick read.  The bottom line is that, statistically, Hartnell ranked with such elites as Jonathan Toews, Patrice Bergeron, and Anze Kopitar in improving his teammates' performance on the ice.  On the other hand, Umberger's teammates consistently performed worse when paired with him.  

Wonder if anyone at the Flyers organization looked at those stats before the trade.

That aside, I find WOWY fascinating because it distills a two-person relationship down to hard percentages.  Wouldn't it be nice to have a stat like in life?

Instead of complaining to your boss about a lazy co-worker, you could just show her the data proving that he reduces your productivity.  Want to break up with your spouse?  Now you have the numbers to prove that she's literally bringing you down.  

I'm joking, of course.  Relationships are defined by intangibles, they are impossible to quantify.  Numbers can help, but if you ask any two people - whether teammates, friends, co-workers - what gives them a spark when they're together, what gets them in sync, what makes them click...

The answer isn't going to be a fancy stat.  Rather, it's the elusive concept of chemistry, and when a team finds it, underdogs become champions.  

The Flyers need that synergy to succeed.  I can't get a handle on Hakstol's coaching, to be honest, but given the importance of chemistry, how about less practices where the players attack each other and more focus on cohesiveness?  

It certainly couldn't hurt.

Thanks to puckalytics.com and alongtheboards.com

Perspective

The Flyers played a terrible game last night, yes, but let's keep things in perspective.

It's still just a game.

I woke up ready to throw in the towel or write something scathing about the team.  Then I saw the posts on Twitter from today's practice and paused...

The Flyers hosted Liam on behalf of the Make-A-Wish foundation.

Liam could have cared less how many goals Jake Voracek has scored, or whether Claude Giroux is a good captain, or if the players had fifty, let alone two, closed door team meetings.

He was just living out his wish.

And thinking about Liam's perspective made me change mine.

The Flyers are my team.  I love to watch them play.  I will not boo them.

Today I was reminded that, win or lose, hockey is full of heroes.

Go Liam and go Flyers!

Flyerdelphia Fan Files #1 - What Can You Say?

When Flyerdelphia asked me to contribute to Fan Files, I was beyond excited.  I love the Flyers and will take every opportunity to talk about the team.  I’ll start a conversation with total strangers wearing Flyers gear – whether walking down the street, working behind a sandwich counter, or driving next me on Broad Street.

Even when the team is slumping I can find a silver lining.  So I agreed to write for Flyerdelphia’s new feature without hesitation.

But there’s a problem.

I’ve got nothing.

Believe me, I was absolutely convinced that by the Friday night deadline I’d have something good to say about the team’s roadtrip.  I don’t.  (Who does?) I’m so tired, having stayed up past my bedtime practically all week watching the Flyers spiral down, down, down.

What is happening?  This season is so much worse than anyone thought.

Surprisingly, goaltending seems NOT to be the issue.  A lot of people are pointing fingers at the defense, but let’s face it, you can’t win hockey games if you don’t score goals.  And the Flyers are barely scoring at all.

It’s difficult to get a handle on exactly what’s wrong because – let’s face it – everything seems wrong, from the coach to the players to the front office.

What’s a Flyers fan to do?

Hang in there, like always.  Celebrate when the Flyers finally win, because they will.  And hold out hope that, in a long season, the Orange and Black stop slumping, and start streaking, so we’re all holding our breath for a playoff run come the spring.   

Thanks to my friends @Flyerdelphia! Originally posted here.

My Hockey Night in Canada

We went to Montreal, y'all!

It was my first time there and I have to tell you, despite coming down with a nasty cold as soon as we landed, I loved it.  Highly recommend a long weekend there if you can swing it - short flight from Philly, beautiful city, amazing food, nice people.

We went to the Habs/Leafs game on Saturday October 24 at the Bell Center.  The Habs were still undefeated and the Center was on fire!

Literally.  They had the heat blasting in there like nobody's business.  Really different from WFC where it's freezing most of the time.  And on top of that, they were giving out Habs scarves!  To make you even warmer!

But seriously, what a great place to see a hockey game.  Not only because of the intense rivalry between the Habs and Leafs and the size of the Center itself, but because of the amazing fans, and the fact that the entire city is literally obsessed with the Habs and hockey.

I've never experienced anything like that before.  The signs on all of the buses say "GO HABS GO!"  Habs merchandise is sold at every corner store.  Tim Horton's - kind of like Dunks or Wawa - has signs in the window touting NHL trading cards with pictures of Sidney Crosby (of course).  At every restaurant, people are talking hockey - the waiters, patrons, bartenders, whoever.  Coming from Philly, where the Iggles dominate most conversations, it was awesome as a hockey fan to be in a city and country that is totally, absolutely 100% immersed in the sport.  

And I might be biased here but there were easily as many, if not more, female hockey fans at the game than men.  I loved it.  The woman sitting next to my hubs was the best, she hugged him every time the Habs scored and could have cared less that he didn't understand a word she was saying to him in French.  

Not gonna lie, it was fine to masquerade as a Habs fan for a few hours, but my heart wasn't really in it.  I'll always bleed Orange and Black.  

We made sure to give our Habs scarves to a true Habs fan before we flew back home.

Let the Sun Set on Sunrise

There's not much to say about last night's effort by the Flyers other than it was an unmitigated disaster.

Now, time to move on.  I think we will have a better sense of what to expect this season based on the team's response to that 7-1 slaughter.

Coach Hakstol hasn't been called one of the brightest minds in hockey for nothing.  Let's see how he gets his new team to rebound at the home opener Monday night. 

I hope the Flyers pick up momentum at the Wells Fargo Center tomorrow and carry it into Kimmo's retirement night on Wednesday.  Bold prediction:  the Orange and Black get back to back wins against the Panthers and the Hawks.

Then, game 2 would seem like nothing more than a blip on the radar.