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Greg Wyshynski, ESPNFeb 24, 2024, 07:00 AM ET
CloseGreg Wyshynski is ESPN’s senior NHL writer.
Joel Farabee didn’t understand the negativity.
As he walked into Philadelphia Flyers training camp last September, he saw a locker room that had become even more tight-knit over the summer. He saw key players like center Sean Couturier, now their captain, and winger Cam Atkinson finally healthy again. He saw a coach in John Tortorella who demanded effort every game — the last guy you’d expect to lord over a last-place season.
Yet the Flyers had been effectively counted out in preseason predictions. Their .457 points percentage in 2022-23 was seen as a harbinger of rough seasons to come. And it wasn’t coming just from media or fans: Team management had candidly communicated that the Flyers were rebuilding and not a Stanley Cup contender this season.
But that’s not what Farabee saw before the season. That’s not what a lot of his teammates saw either. And they weren’t happy about what they felt was disrespect from the rest of the NHL.
“We just came in with that F.U. attitude,” Farabee told ESPN. “Just seeing all the media, and everyone else, having us in the bottom five or bottom three in the league, whatever it was, I think it just fueled a fire and motivated us to stick it the doubters.”
Through 57 games, the doubters have been stuck. The Flyers are third in the Metro Division with a 30-20-7 record (67 points), trying to make the Stanley Cup playoffs for the first time since 2020. Instead of tabulating their lottery odds, as many anticipated, it’s their playoff odds that are getting the most attention: a 76.8% chance of making the cut as of Thursday, according to Stathletes.
“There was a chip on our shoulder from the beginning of the year. People were always saying that we were supposed to be one of the worst teams in the league,” defenseman Sean Walker said. “Once we started to win some games, we felt like we could be successful this year. And then we started actually doing…
Source link : https://www.espn.com/nhl/story/_/id/39584706/nhl-philadelphia-flyers-gritty-success-playoffs-rebuild
Author : Greg Wyshynski
Publish date : 2024-02-24 12:35:06
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