Yes, Flyers Fans Are Frustrated…For Good Reason.

In case I’m SOMEHOW the first person you’re seeing this from, one of the biggest trades in recent NHL history happened on the night that I’m drafting this. On January 24th, 2025, the Colorado Avalanche traded Mikko Rantanen to the Carolina Hurricanes in a mega-blockbuster.

MIKKO RANTANEN IS A CAROLINA HURRICANE!!! pic.twitter.com/sHxgFwstOY

— Carolina Hurricanes (@Canes) January 25, 2025

I plan on writing something to explore the details of the trade for both the Hurricanes and Avalanche, because I think it’s deeply interesting. Obviously, it’s massive. But it’s also interesting. It’s something with a lot of detail and nuance. I can’t wait to write about it, but I’m holding off because I believe Colorado isn’t done here. And I want to capture the full essence of the trade for both teams.

🚨 OFFICIAL: Three-team trade

to #RaiseUp – Mikko Rantanen (50% retained by CHI), Taylor Hall, rights to Nils Juntorp

to #Blackhawks – 2025 3rd (CHI)

to #GoAvsGo – Martin Necas, Jack Drury, 2025 2nd round pick (CAR), 2026 4th (CAR)

— NHL News (@PuckReportNHL) January 25, 2025

In the meantime, I want to talk on a personal level with you in a way that I really never do. I was recently accused by the comments section of putting too much of my emotions into my writing. The contention was essentially that I’m not living up to journalistic standards by writing with such fervor and zeal.

But here’s the thing: I’m not a journalist. I’m not a journalist by trade or craft. My work here is not an extension of my journalistic ambitions because I have none. I’m a storyteller at heart. I take extended breaks from writing about hockey, usually because I’m writing up novels that I really need to get better at taking through the editorial process in an efficient manner.

But that’s what I am, ultimately. I’m a storyteller. When I do write about hockey, I don’t really have any interest in making sure you’re maximally informed from my work. To a point, I want what I write to be informative. But only to a point. 

When I write about something, it’s always with the fundamental premise that I’m a storyteller. I’m telling you a story. Even when I’m telling you about numbers and analytics, I’m telling you a story. I’m not excoriating people for no reason. I’m telling a story. Always.

And in the spirit of telling a story, my number one purpose when I write anything is to generate emotion. I want you to feel something. I’m crafting a story that is supposed to make you feel something. I have feelings in mind that I’d like to evoke, but any feeling at all is sufficient to me. Sometimes, I can’t predict the feelings that I might inspire. That’s kind of the beauty, but more on that later.

I took that accusation as a compliment, actually. If that person thought I was putting my feelings into my writing, it’s because they could sense the feeling in the words. Even if they didn’t like the feeling inspired in him. 

I sense that’s made me a more polarizing figure in the Flyers social media sphere, but I don’t really care. It’s who I am. I don’t need you to think I’m smart. I don’t need you to think I’m some arbiter of truth, which I suspect drives some of the more professional Flyers reporters.

I need you to take a ride with me and indulge in the story I’m telling. So, yes, my writing is emotional. But it’s not personal. It’s never personal. The things I write are never my feelings. Just feelings that I’m looking to evoke with my writing.

For this piece, that changes. Every word I’m typing is my feelings. Not what I think packaged up in a story meant to evoke emotions out of my readership. No, this is what I feel about the Flyers.

In the wake of this monumental trade, Flyers fans are… in my personal opinion… rightly outraged at the hilarious inaction of their GM who’s still begging for an undo button.

Yes, the Rantanen trade was actually replicable if you’re willing to use Konecny as the centerpiece of the package. Anyone who doesn’t think that is delusional, honestly.

And yes, trading Konecny plus some Drury equivalent and some picks outside of the first round for Mikko Rantanen is absolutely a win for the Philadelphia Flyers. The people pretending that any of this isn’t true are behaving stupidly, either on purpose or because it comes naturally to them. I don’t really care to discern which, but I’d imagine the answer is on a totally case-by-case basis.

No Undo Button: Flyers GM Daniel Briere Defines His Tenure

But it’s not really about Mikko Rantanen. It’s about the premise. It’s about the principles. If the Flyers really didn’t want to go all in for Mikko, I can understand that decision even if I don’t love it. It doesn’t bother me. I have plenty of latitude for the organization disagreeing with me.

Here’s what I can’t tolerate, though. For one thing, I can’t tolerate outright lying to your fans. High-end players aren’t available! Didn’t Danny say that just days ago? And Mikko Rantanen gets traded in the blink of an eye? 

So, high-end players clearly are available. Just not to Daniel Briere. Not for the Flyers.

And here’s what else I can’t tolerate, even more than the failures of the front office: treating the fans like children.

In all seriousness, any frustration directed at the Flyers on here tonight is mostly just generalized frustration that they haven't made big moves yet. It's not rational, it's visceral. So just let them roll. https://t.co/prwePeM4Qo

— Charlie O'Connor (@charlieo_conn) January 25, 2025

Yes. It really isn’t about Mikko Rantanen. It is generalized frustration. And that isn’t rational? First of all, are you the ultimate arbiter of what feelings are and aren’t legitimate? How arrogant can you get?

I personally hate watching beat reporters leverage their credibility to tell fans what feelings they’re allowed to have while being a “rational person.”

I try to evoke feelings with my writing. Whatever feeling you have, that’s up to you. However you want to experience my writing, that is entirely your choice. It’s an experience unique to you that I can’t and shouldn’t dictate.

Likewise, whatever feeling you have about the Flyers is your own. It’s not up to the team to shape that. It’s not up to Charlie O’Connor, for damn sure. 

However you want to experience this hockey team… which is a hobby for all of you… is entirely your choice. And it isn’t any less legitimate because this sanctimonious reporter or another sanctimonious reporter told you to behave better.

Now that we’re talking about how we personally experience this hockey team, I’m going to talk about how I personally experience the Flyers. If you experience it differently? I am taking nothing away from you. Nothing at all. Everything I say is entirely my experience. It is subjective and entirely individualized. If you relate, that’s fantastic. If you don’t, that’s equally fantastic. Thanks for reading. I mean that.

The Flyers of this season are a chore to watch. They aren’t fun. They aren’t cool. I don’t derive joy from dedicating my time to watching this team. I find it to be an obligation more than a hobby.

I currently have very few emotional connections to players on this team. Matvei Michkov, Jamie Drysdale, and Cam York are all players I watched and enjoyed as prospects. For that reason, I would like to watch them playing quality NHL hockey. Beyond those three, however, I’ve mainly persisted for you guys.

I’ve also persisted because I think that, just maybe, in some small way, influencing the narrative around this team might actually lead to substantial changes on the ice. I’m far too idealistic to think that can’t be accomplished. I actually think I’ve made some small but notable difference in the narratives around this team.

If I’ve given voice to the feelings of one person, I’d consider that a win.

Maybe I haven’t. But I think I have. I think the Flyers are spoken about differently broadly, because of my contributions. I know I’m not the only one, but that thought has actually kept me watching these hockey games which I largely find insufferable.

If I keep going, if I keep chipping away, perhaps the political winds blow with enough force that real change happens.

And I’m realistic about what “real change” looks like, by the way. I don’t need Danny Briere to be fired, and I don’t need some puppet of Derek on X to be installed. I haven’t launched a neoconservative war on the Flyers’ front office.

My demands aren’t that they tank immediately, or that they go sign Connor McDavid tomorrow. My demands are that they isolate their strengths and weaknesses as a hockey team and aggressively pursue the mitigation of their weaknesses and the accentuation of their strengths.

I want constant action. I don’t want “one big move.” I don’t want the deus-ex-machina of trades, and that one mega-deal which reverses their fortunes permanently. That’s unrealistic, and I think beat reporters talking about that are selling snake oil to the fans on behalf of the front office which furnishes them with access. 

I want the Flyers to be constantly and aggressively pursuing the strengthening of their team.

I want constant movement. I want a series of small wins that adds up to a large win. I want this team to be so relentless that they can afford to blunder a trade or two, and it won’t affect the macro-game of building out this team. Because they’ve won so many other deals.

More than that, I just want fun hockey to happen in Philadelphia.

I’m not naive. I’m fully aware that the Stanley Cup isn’t coming to Broad Street anytime soon. It’ll be several years at least, even if they’re lucky. I’m not even particularly determined to see this team in the postseason.

I’d like it to happen, for sure. But it isn’t a strict inclusion in the sale for me. And yes, I’m not fully dedicated to the tank. I’d like to see postseason hockey in the Wells Fargo Center.

If they did choose to bottom out for a couple of years, I could certainly accept that. Especially if they did so in the right way. But it isn’t a necessity for me. Again, if it is a necessity for you, I think that’s entirely rational.

But my demands are even smaller. And perhaps it’s because my demands are so menial, so self-evident, that I’ve become so frustrated and disenchanted with this team.

Ultimately, my central demand is that the Flyers play fun hockey. Ideally you’d win a couple times along the way, because wins are fun. But I just want them to be fun. I want them to be a team that’s worth talking about without including some off-the-wall quote from their clownish head coach.

I want a front office that aggressively pursues its primary and only interest, the improvement of their team’s fortunes both now and in the future.

But I mostly want a fun on-ice product. Something that I derive real joy from when I go to watch it. The Sharks aren’t very good, but man, they’re fun. The Habs are pretty decent, but hardly Cup favorites. And they’re fun. I envy that.

The Flyers aren’t fun. They don’t play a style of hockey that’s particularly fun. They shell up in the defensive zone, clogging the middle of the ice and subjecting their goalies to triple-layered screens. Just to make sure that they lead the league in goals allowed from 50 feet deep.

And that’s not fun. That’s deflating. It’s annoying. It’s fine if you give up a goal because of the exceptional skill level of the other team, but good lord, watching them score on plays that can be executed by peewee players is ridiculous. 

They play clogged through the neutral zone. Nobody is moving freely, and everyone is stacked right on top of each other. They play off the rush, which is fun in a vacuum. But the way they play on the rush really isn’t.

They just put their heads down and skate and take a poor shot at the net and pray it goes in, which it almost never does. And if it does go in, it’s honestly something to scoff at rather than admire the skill or athleticism of the player who made it happen. 

Their play in the offensive zone, like their play in the neutral zone, is cluttered. It’s clogged. Everyone is diving headlong for the puck, but much like a dog chasing its tail, they’re unsure of what to do with the puck once they’ve finally retrieved it. They didn’t really plan out that part of it. 

When they have the puck, the spacing is dead and the puck carrier has to navigate through 4 different sticks… at least one of which coming from their own team… in order to create a play at the net. 

A passing play at the net should result in goals, but they rarely have those, because attacking the weak side of the ice is considered verboten in this system. Which is boring. 

It isn’t that there isn’t any aggression. There is some thought for offense in the way Tortorella coaches this team. They take a lot of risks in the offensive zone and in the neutral zone. They’re constantly gambling to get the puck. 

There’s no limit to the manpower they’ll throw at the puck. And they create a lot of extra chances for themselves with their offensive zone time. 

But those extra chances aren’t even really threatening, because they’ve thrown so many resources to getting the puck that there’s nothing available for making the next play. 

Worse yet, this constant gambling inevitably leads to things like bad pinches and a horrific odd man rush against. 

What are we doing? We’re throwing everything at the puck in order to get it and do nothing with it, and if that doesn’t work, I just have to watch a basic 2 on 1 result in a goal? It’s insane, and it’s frustrating to watch. 

They take all of the wrong risks. They’re expected goal merchants, which is a humorous and ironic fate for the head coach who abhors analytics. 

—

For all of the frustration of the actual on-ice product, it was supposed to be okay with the injection of Matvei Michkov into the roster. I was optimistic at first. I was supposed to be watching one of my favorite players ever growing into the NHL. I would have enjoyed this happening on any team, and for it to happen on the Flyers? I considered it a blessing. 

But instead of watching a consistent helping of Michkov, I’m watching Michkov get constantly dragged and crapped on in public by an absolute dinosaur of a head coach. Seriously, no Habs fan has engaged in as much negative Michkov propaganda as John Tortorella. 

And it manifests in his ice time. Their second highest scorer is their thirteenth most played player? It’s absurd. I don’t want to watch this. It’s not appealing. 

Even when I do get Michkov on the ice, I’m seeing less and less of the Michkov that I knew and loved. Don’t get me wrong. All of the talent translated as fast as I figured it would, but he’s forced to use that talent for the good of the dumbest and most analog offensive system I’ve ever seen. 

Tortorella wants to kill his genius instincts for finding space in the offensive zone. He won’t succeed. Michkov will be Michkov again when the Flyers are finally being coached by a real coach with a mind for playing with the puck. 

But I have no interest in watching him play 13 minutes of fake Michkov hockey until that happens. While I watch 47 minutes of the most boring and frustrating team in my life. 

—

Perhaps what makes this worse is the gaslighting that emanates from just about everyone who interacts with the Flyers. 

No, this is great for Michkov’s development. 

No, John Tortorella is a genius who’s “setting the standard.” 

No, we’re “building up the culture.” 

It’s not even so much that people experience the team differently. Perhaps, for some people, they really believe that. And I’m happy for those people. You can tell who they are, too. I’m happy they’re deriving joy from this team. 

The people that help compromise any joy I could derive from this team are the ones who pretend as if all of those things are true. 

If you got them behind closed doors, they’d probably agree with nine out of every ten words that flew out of my mouth. But whether it’s because they’re too shy to buck the organizational narrative, or because they truly aren’t allowed off the reservation, they pretend as if I’m saying crazy things. 

—

I suppose all that’s left to do is tell you about the future. I’ve started a gimmick on my X account that I’m a Hurricanes fan now, but there’s truth behind the gimmick. 

I can’t watch the Flyers to the same degree that I have been. If you can, that’s good. I’m sincerely happy for you. But I can’t. If one of the players who actually has earned my interest has a great game, I can always dig through the tape. 

But I have no interest in watching this team. I have plenty of interest in watching hockey. And that’s what I’m going to do. 

I’ll even write about other teams. If the Flyers do something interesting, a thought that seems more laughable with each passing day, I’ll write about it. If they don’t, I’ll find someone around the league who is interesting. 

The Hurricanes are interesting. They aren’t the only ones. I’ll write about them. 

I’ll tell stories about them. I’ll continue being exactly who I am. That’s a prerequisite to any hockey writing I do, and I’m tremendously grateful for the almost obscene amount of latitude I have with the Liberty Line, and the Liberty Yell specifically. 

But I’m just done pretending that the Flyers are an interesting team or acting as if they’re worthy of my time, because they aren’t. 

And while you’re entirely free to disagree with this assessment, I don’t think they’re worthy of your time either. 

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