Flyers happy to ‘stick it to the doubters’ this season
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Greg Wyshynski, ESPN
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 it.”
TO A MAN, the Flyers say that training camp was where the belief started. The team had lost a few veteran players in the offseason, including trades that shipped out center Kevin Hayes and defenseman Ivan Provorov. Expectations were low for what was seen as a rebuilding campaign.
But Tortorella believed they could be better than that, and it started with team chemistry.
“For me the most important part of our summer prior [to the season] was our locker room. You could see early on that our locker room was together,” he said. “It’s just something you feel. It’s hard to explain how you see it. There’s no analytic for it. It’s just your gut and how you watch how they act.”
It’s something veteran defenseman Marc Staal experienced as one of a handful of new faces on the Flyers this season, signing in Philadelphia after helping the Florida Panthers to the Stanley Cup Final.
“When I got here, guys already had a really good culture and a good room and everyone enjoys each other’s company,” he said. “We’re able to push each other while still keeping each other accountable and having fun at the same time.”
“I knew the projections of what the Flyers were supposed to be. I didn’t really believe when I saw it,” Staal continued. “I looked at their lineup; they were getting players back, good goaltending. I was just like, they’re not far off, and that’s been proven that over the season.”
The word “belief” is heard a lot around the Flyers. It’s a mantra from Tortorella, a catchall word that refers to everything from desire to win to confidence that success can be achieved.
“The word ‘belief’ is huge for us. We’re not a team of stars, and we certainly don’t have things figured out here as the beginning of our process of rebuilding this. But belief brings in a lot of good things,” said Tortorella, in his second season with the Flyers and 22nd as an NHL head coach. “If you have the effort and you have the mindset that we’re going to do this together, you can stay competitive in this league.”
But at some point, belief isn’t enough. There has to be proof of concept to reinforce it.
For the Flyers, that came early. They started the season 3-1, including wins over the Vancouver Canucks and Edmonton Oilers. Then came an overtime loss at the Dallas Stars and a tight 3-2 loss at the Vegas Golden Knights. The wins didn’t start arriving en masse until November, but those early efforts were fortifying.
“I think that first road trip, going into Dallas, Vegas [and playing other] top teams, we were right there,” Staal recalled. “We had some big wins, really close games, and I think that started to kind of build like, ‘Hey, we’re competitive every night. We have a chance.'”
ONE THING EXPECTED to be a drawback for the Flyers might have actually helped bond the team: the lack of true star players. Sure, Travis Konecny has 27 goals and Couturier is considered one of the better two-way centers in the league. But as Tortorella said, and Farabee reiterated, it’s not a team of stars.
“Obviously we’re one of those groups where it takes all of us to win games. We don’t have the one guy that’s going to score four goals and win us the game. It takes everybody, and it’s every night,” Farabee said. “We go into every game believing that we’re going to win the game, so I don’t think we overanalyze too many things. I think the good thing about our group is we kind of just go out there and play. We compete really hard. We’re hard to play against. I think if you have those attributes as a team, you give yourself a chance to win every night.”
New Jersey Devils coach Lindy Ruff said the Flyers are a “hard team to play against” as an opponent.
“For me, they’ve been a highly competitive team almost every night,” he said. “You’ve got to compete for all the ice you’re going to get in every zone. They’re defending well, and they’re playing the game quick. They’re creating some really good opportunities.”
The Flyers are 23rd in goals per game (2.91) and 11th in goals against per game (2.88).
What Philadelphia has excelled at this season is not allowing its bubble to burst. In December, the Flyers lost seven of nine games; then followed that with five straight wins; then followed that with five straight losses; then followed that with four straight wins. Lots of peaks, lots of valleys, but not a lot of panic.
The Flyers credited Tortorella for helping them maintain confidence. There was probably a time earlier in his career when losing seven of nine games might have led to a volcanic response from the coach. But Farabee said that Tortorella has managed emotions well.
“I think he has a really good feel on the group and what we need versus what we don’t need — when we need to maybe be yelled at a bit versus when we don’t,” he said. “I think it’s him just knowing that it’s a long season, obviously you can’t be on it guys too much. I just think with how good our group is, he’s really found a really good balance on just letting us go out there and play and play our game.”
Staal played for Tortorella with the New York Rangers back in the coach’s more volcanic days. Although he said the coach is “still the same guy,” he believes the 65-year-old has found a better balance in his life.
“I think his coaching style has changed a little bit since the last time I had him,” he said. “His assistants run a lot of the meetings. He’s still very involved in the day-to-day business of it, but I think he’s a little bit more hands off in certain areas than he was when I had him in New York.”
Tortorella said being “hands off” sometimes means monitoring from afar.
“I do a lot of watching of the team when they don’t think I’m watching them. I learned a lot then as far as how they’re together,” he said. “You win a few games early on, you get off on the right foot. I watched how they handle it then, and you just saw it built. That helps [when] have some stretches where we struggled.”
THE FLYERS HAVE FACED some uncertainty as they journey to a surprising playoff berth.
Starting goaltender Carter Hart, who played 26 games for Philadelphia this season, took a leave of absence from the team in January. He surrendered to police in London, Ontario, having been charged with one count of sexual assault after an investigation into an incident involving Canada’s 2018 world junior championship team. He was one of five players charged in the case. Hart, 25, is a restricted free agent this summer.
His absence meant that rookie Samuel Ersson and 29-year-old veteran Cal Petersen are the team’s goaltenders going forward.
The March 8 NHL trade deadline could mean more roster changes. Despite their playoff position, the Flyers are still thinking ahead. Pending unrestricted free agent defensemen Walker and Nick Seeler have been in the rumor mill, as has veteran center Scott Laughton, who has two more seasons left on his contract.
“It’s been interesting at some times, but you just try to put it at the back of your mind and take everything with a grain of salt,” Walker said. “Everything will work itself out at the end of the day.”
Tortorella has said that the team is “not backing off at all as far as what we’re trying to do with the organization in the big picture as far as rebuilding,” regarding the trade deadline.
GM Danny Briere has all but ruled out trading draft picks to bolster the team’s current playoff chances.
“We’re not going to make trades just to make trades,” he said in January, via PhillyVoice. “If there’s something that makes sense that we feel makes us better for the future, we’ll strongly consider it.”
Finally, there’s the rest of the conference. The Devils, New York Islanders and Pittsburgh Penguins are trailing the Flyers with games in hand, and they can’t be counted out for the third seed in the Metro or a wild-card spot.
All that said, Philadelphia is in the driver’s seat for a playoff spot. Which is not where many expected the Flyers would be — outside of their locker room, at least.
“Being the underdog, there’s nothing wrong with that, right?” Atkinson said. “Personally, I’ve been an underdog my whole life, my whole career trying to prove people wrong. There was no expectation for us. We have each other’s backs. We put our bodies on the line. You can see how excited the guy next to you is when someone scores a goal. It’s a special group, and it’s fun to be a part of that.”
Especially when it’s a chance for a team from Philly to stick it to the critics.
“We’ve always thought that we were good enough to be here,” Konecny said. “This year is another opportunity to prove people wrong, the people that were counting us out. It gave us a little bit of motivation.”
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David Hale, ESPN Staff Writer
The committee has revealed its third set of rankings this season, and aside from BYU tumbling after a loss and Tennessee falling just outside the current playoff field, not much has changed.
But that doesn’t mean there’s not a reason to be outraged. Indeed, it means the committee had a whole week to fix the mistakes it had already made, and it chose not to!
So, who should be most angry this week? Grab a pillow to scream into and a stress ball to clutch. We’ve got a lot to get off our chests.
A fact the committee made clear this week: Beating Mercer by 45 points is better than sitting at home on the couch.
So it is that Alabama, which was ranked behind Miami last week, beat up on a hapless FCS opponent and jumped Miami during the Canes’ open date.
Was there a message in this?
Surely, the message could be that taking the week off isn’t something to be rewarded, but we’re betting that’s not a message the committee wants to send while coaches are arguing about the value of playing in a conference title game.
Is the message that blowing out a team from the Southern Conference is really impressive? All due respect to UMass-Lowell, but we doubt it.
No, the message seems to be that the ACC needs to understand its place in the pecking order, and the line starts behind Alabama. Funny, because we thought the ACC already got that message last year, when Florida State was left out.
Alas, Miami went from No. 4 in the first rankings all the way to No. 8 now, thanks to a one-possession loss to a solid (and underrated) Georgia Tech team. But is that fair?
Miami has four wins over SP+ top-40 teams this season — the same number as Alabama and twice as many as Notre Dame.
Miami has a better loss than either of the two teams directly in front of it: Georgia Tech is No. 55 by SP+. Vanderbilt (one of two losses for Alabama, remember) is No. 61. Northern Illinois, which beat Notre Dame in South Bend, is No. 84.
Miami’s problem, of course, is it lacks a signature win. Notre Dame has Texas A&M. Alabama has Georgia. Miami has … Florida ?
So perhaps the Canes shouldn’t be quite as mad at the committee here as they should be furious with Louisville. The Cardinals were the lynchpin victory for both Miami and SMU (and helped Notre Dame, too), but they bungled their way to a loss to Stanford that will be studied by future generations as a model of ineptitude.
That the committee has woefully undervalued SMU all season, has shoved Miami behind the two-loss Tide, and thinks Clemson is worse than Colorado is the real message here though. The ACC is a one-bid league. The committee is spelling it out loud and clear.
2. Everyone not named Texas in the SEC
Let’s state something at the top: Texas is probably quite good. It is, of course, not the Longhorns’ fault they joined the SEC and still drew a Big 12-caliber schedule. But facts are facts, and in a conference with six eight-win teams and four more already bowl eligible, Texas has played exactly two Power 4 opponents with a winning record this season. Those games resulted in a three-point win over Vanderbilt and a shellacking by Georgia.
But Texas has one loss, and the rest of the SEC competition has two or three. Is that all that should matter?
Will be interesting to see the SEC pecking order, and it’s hard to fault Texas for the schedule it was handed… but 1 team is not like the others here. pic.twitter.com/K6yISrTFN5
— 💫🅰️♈️🆔 (@ADavidHaleJoint) November 19, 2024
Ultimately, winning games is the most important thing, and the committee seems to recognize that with Indiana at No. 5, despite a schedule that might well have included a home game against Bishop Sycamore.
But is it all that matters? If Texas played Georgia’s schedule, would it still have a better record? Their head-to-head meeting would suggest otherwise.
Again, it’s hardly Texas’ fault the SEC rolled out the red carpet in Year 1. But it is up to Texas to impress when the spotlight is on, and since the blowout win against Michigan — a team vastly overrated at the time — the marquee moments have been mostly meh, right up to last week’s mediocrity against Arkansas.
Ultimately, an incredibly good SEC team — Georgia, Ole Miss, Tennessee, Texas A&M, South Carolina or Alabama — is going to end up having played a markedly tougher schedule, proved they can hang with the best of the best, and either go on the road for a arduous opening-round matchup or be left out altogether.
(Seriously, how is Georgia the 10th-best team in the country? There’s no logical argument.)
But Texas? Even with a loss to A&M, it’s hard to see the Horns falling from No. 3 to a place outside the top 11.
How bad was the Kansas loss?
There’s a good case to be made that the Jayhawks are an incredibly undervalued opponent right now. They opened the season ranked in the top 25, they’re just rounding into shape now, and they’ve been incredibly unlucky, going 1-5 in one-possession games. SP+ ranks Kansas as a better loss than Vandy or Georgia Tech. And BYU was still probably the better team in that game, but a special teams miscue cost the Cougars a win.
So what? BYU probably should’ve lost to SMU or Oklahoma State or Utah, and karma is a real jerk.
Still, let’s compare some résumés here.
Team A: 9-1, No. 13 strength of record, best win vs. SP+ No. 12, loss to SP+ No. 84, 3 wins vs. bowl-eligible Power 4 teams
Team B: 9-1, No. 15 strength of record, best win vs. SP+ No. 46, loss to SP+ No. 5, 0 wins vs. bowl-eligible Power 4 teams
Team C: 9-1, No. 9 strength of record, best win vs. SP+ No. 22, loss to SP+ No. 55, 2 wins vs. bowl-eligible Power 4 teams
Team D: 9-1, No. 8 strength of record, best win vs. SP+ No. 13, loss to SP+ No. 42, 3 wins vs. bowl-eligible Power 4 teams
They’re all in roughly the same demographic, sure, but if you’re splitting hairs, it’s hard not to split them in Team D’s direction, right?
Well, of course, Team D is BYU. And, of course, Team A (Notre Dame), B (Boise State) and C (Miami) are all ranked higher.
Way back when the playoff began and the committee was launched, the idea was not to adjust the rankings entirely off the previous week — sending teams that lose tumbling and teams that win inching up as attrition occurs above them — but to view each team’s résumé anew each week. But this committee is acting every bit like the AP voters of old — dropping Miami and Georgia and Tennessee and, particularly, BYU, because of recency bias rather than the sum total of the results. Heck, BYU is now behind SMU — a team with the same record the Cougars beat head to head!
And the real issue here? With BYU, Colorado and Arizona State all now ranked behind Boise State, the odds of the Big 12 missing an opening-round bye are looking pretty strong.
Maybe Coach Prime should use some of his considerable air time to mention that.
Speaking of Coach Prime, here we are again with the clearly superior two-loss Big 12 team ranked five spots behind Colorado.
Same record. Arizona State’s worst loss was by 10 without its starting quarterback. Colorado was blown out by Nebraska. ASU’s best win is against SP+ No. 18; Colorado’s is No. 49.
And, if we’re being honest, Kenny Dillingham’s postgame rants this season have been more entertaining than Deion’s, too.
1:07
ASU coach labels kicking game ‘atrocious,’ confirms tryouts for Monday
ASU coach Kenny Dillingham labels his team’s kicking game “atrocious” and says it will be hosting open tryouts on Monday.
This is a mistake by the committee, plain and simple.
5. The Power 4
We won’t get to say this very often, but the power players are getting screwed.
OK, not really. The SEC and Big Ten will be fine, and even if they’re not, they can cry themselves to sleep on giant piles of money.
But the fact remains that Boise State is primed for a first-round bye, and this week’s top 25 includes four teams from outside the traditional power conferences: Boise State, Army, Tulane and UNLV.
That’s the most during any one week since the final poll of the 2021 season that featured five, but among those were Houston, Cincinnati and BYU — all power conference teams now. Only twice before have four teams not currently in a power conference league (or the Pac-12) been ranked concurrently — in the wild COVID year of 2020, and for a single week in 2019 with Boise State, App State, Memphis and Navy.
Somewhere, Greg Sankey is diabolically petting a cat in an oversized chair and plotting revenge.
Also Angry: Duke, Pitt, Kansas State, Syracuse, James Madison and Washington State (all 7-3 or better, unranked and with more wins vs. bowl-eligible Power 4 teams than Illinois), SMU (9-1, No. 13), Georgia (8-2, No. 10. Seriously, who thinks there are nine better teams?)
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Pete Thamel, ESPN
Villanova has hired Oregon deputy athletic director/COO Eric Roedl as the Wildcats’ new athletic director, the school announced Tuesday.
Roedl replaces Mark Jackson, who departed after nine years for the same role at Northwestern, and gives Villanova a new face to lead its athletic department at a time when its nationally recognized basketball program is struggling for the third consecutive season.
Villanova chose Roedl, a Wildcats alum, in part because of the breadth of experience he brings from his time at Oregon. Roedl played a big role on a macro level at Oregon with the school’s No. 1-ranked football program and perennially successful basketball program.
University president Peter M. Donohue said in statement that he is confident Roedl is someone who can “successfully navigate the changing landscape of college athletics and who possesses the necessary skills to build on our legacy of success-athletically, academically, and administratively — well into the future.”
Roedl had a big part in the search that brought Dan Lanning from Georgia to Eugene, played a key role behind the scenes on Oregon’s move to the Big Ten and has strong Nike relationships from his time at the school, which began in 2012.
There’s also significant local experience for Roedl, who graduated from Villanova in 1997 and was a co-captain of the tennis team. He also worked at Temple for eight years, which included oversight of its basketball program.
“As a Villanova alum and former student-athlete, it is an honor to return to my alma mater,” Roedl said in a statement. “My vision is to collaborate with University leadership, the Villanova community, our coaches, staff, and student-athletes to maintain a championship culture throughout the athletic department that places the highest value on student-athlete experience and success and strives to match and promote the excellence of Villanova in everything we do.”
Roedl’s first big decision is expected to be on the future of basketball coach Kyle Neptune, who continues to struggle in his third season at Villanova. Neptune, who replaced Hall of Fame coach Jay Wright, is 37-36 and 2-3 this season with a loss to Columbia.
Wright won national titles at Villanova in 2016 and 2018, but the program has slipped dramatically since his retirement.
Roedl’s responsibilities at Oregon included a role as the sport administrator for men’s basketball. He also had oversight responsibility for business/financial operations, strategic and financial planning, human resources, contracts, information technology and equipment operations.
“Eric has played a key role over many years in the Oregon Athletics success,” Ducks athletic director Rob Mullens said in a statement. “Eric brings strong leadership, a commitment to the student-athlete experience and a competitive spirit to Villanova. The Wildcats have a bright future with Eric Roedl at the helm.”
Ducks football coach Dan Lanning added, “I’ve been fortunate enough to work closely with Eric and our football team the last three years here at Oregon and can say with confidence that Villanova is getting an all-star.”
Roedl will officially start in his new role in early January.
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Adam Rittenberg, ESPN Senior Writer
Colorado coach Deion Sanders, who has his team pushing for a Big 12 title and a College Football Playoff appearance, says he doesn’t intend on leaving despite talk about him being a possible candidate for other jobs, including in the NFL.
Sanders has engineered an impressive turnaround at Colorado (8-2), which already has doubled its wins total from 2023. The Pro Football Hall of Famer, who began his college coaching career at Jackson State, has been mentioned as a potential candidate for current or expected NFL coach openings, including the Dallas Cowboys, where he played from 1995 to 1999 and won two Super Bowls.
Former Cowboys teammate Michael Irvin and others have mentioned Sanders for the Dallas job, if the team moves on from Mike McCarthy.
“I’m happy where I am, man,” Sanders said Tuesday. “I’ve got a kickstand down. You know what a kickstand is? … That means I’m resting. I’m good, I’m happy, I’m excited. I’m enthusiastic about where I am. I love it here, truly do.”
Sanders received a five-year, $29.5 million contract when he was hired at Colorado in late 2022, following a 1-11 season for the team. The 16th-ranked Buffaloes, who visit Kansas on Saturday, are two wins away from a spot in the Big 12 title game in their first season back in the conference. They are led by Heisman Trophy contenders Travis Hunter and Shedeur Sanders, son of Deion Sanders. Both are set to depart for the NFL after the season, along with other key contributors.
But Colorado has had success adding transfers, and the Buffaloes are among the top candidates for quarterback Julian Lewis, ESPN’s No. 2 recruiting prospect in the 2025 class who decommitted from USC on Sunday.
Sanders on Tuesday also recognized several freshmen who are contributing to Colorado’s success this season.
“It says a lot about what we plan on being and the stability that we’re going to be here for a while,” Sanders said. “We ain’t going nowhere. We’re about to get comfortable.”
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