The regular season is finally here. The Philadelphia Flyers will drop the puck on 2022-23 against the New Jersey Devils at the Wells Fargo Center on Thursday night at 7 p.m. Eastern time. Expectations within the fan base are as low as they’ve ever been after two consecutive disastrous seasons and a very underwhelming summer. New head coach John Tortorella will set out to reverse the organization’s downfall by setting a new standard for winning for a struggling franchise that has lost its way.
Flyers Lineup
The Flyers announced their final regular-season roster on Wednesday. The evaluation of young talent in 2022-23 will begin with the 12 players on the 23-man roster age 25 or younger. Unproven commodities like Morgan Frost, Owen Tippett, Wade Allison, Egor Zamula, and Ronnie Attard will push for their futures with the door wide open to step into impactful NHL roles in Philadelphia.
Cam Atkinson will miss the regular-season opener with an undisclosed injury. Tortorella classified the former Columbus Blue Jackets winger as day-to-day after practice on Wednesday. Goaltender Carter Hart did not appear in any preseason games, but he will start on Thursday night against the Devils. Joel Farabee will also be in the lineup ahead of schedule after rehabbing from an offseason neck injury.
Fletcher Meets with the Media
General manager Chuck Fletcher met with the media at Flyers Training Center in Vorhees, NJ on Wednesday. He discussed the roster decisions following training camp, the progress of the young players within the organization, and the overall status of the team entering the 2022-23 season. He spoke about the strengths of a team not picked to qualify for the playoffs by any major media outlets.
“We have a lot of work to do, but there’s a lot of upside, so I think the youth, the speed, the depth – we have really good depth this year, much better than we have the last two years. So if we do run into injuries, which seem to happen through the course of the season, I think we have a lot of kids down in Lehigh Valley we can call up.”
He continued by speaking about the improvement in the team’s character he’d like to see after one of the worst seasons in franchise history in 2021-22.
Related: Flyers Final Roster Reactions and Preseason Recap
“We expect to work hard at establishing a standard to which we’re going to be held on and off the ice. We’re expecting to defend much better, play harder away from the puck, be a more competitive team. Clearly we got to reduce our goals against. That’s something that you can control through hard work and structure and attention to detail, and that’s an area that coaches have been focused on in camp, And we’ve spoken about a lot internally. To me, I’d like to see significant improvement in our compete, in our details, keeping the puck out of our net, allowing our goaltenders to see the puck a little cleaner,” he said before the team’s morning skate.
“The Standard” Under John Tortorella
The Flyers produced an authentic summary of training camp and the preseason with “The Standard” on their YouTube channel. The four-part series analyzed the intensity that Tortorella will bring to Philadelphia as a seasoned, hard-nosed head coach with a Stanley Cup and two Jack Adams Trophies to his credit.
“When you think of John Tortorella, it’s no BS. It’s hard work or you’re not going to play. He holds everyone accountable. He holds everyone to a standard that he thinks is the right way. If you’re not living up to what he expects you to do, you’re probably not going to get the results you want or the ice time that you want,” Kevin Hayes said about his new coach during the popular online series.
While the Flyers might not have the most memorable season in 2022-23, they have begun an era with a new head coach who fits the mold of the city. The franchise has historically been a major part of Philadelphia’s passionate sports landscape, but the Flyers have slipped away from the spotlight gradually over the past decade. If a big-name coach with a fiery and appealing persona can turn things around, they will return to their past prominence.
The Connor Bedard Sweepstakes
Jeff Marek and Elliotte Friedman spoke on the 32 Thoughts podcast about a major storyline that will persist in the NHL this season. Connor Bedard is expected to become one of the top prospects in the NHL Entry Draft in recent history in July 2023, and the league’s bottom feeders will have an eye on drafting the Western Hockey League (WHL) star. A worse record unfortunately means better draft lottery odds for the lowly franchises. Friedman analyzed the position of the Flyers in the bottom tier of the league.
“I don’t think it’ll be an intentional tankathon. I just think that the way circumstances are going with them, they could end up in it,” he said.
He continued by contrasting the Flyers with the Chicago Blackhawks and the Arizona Coyotes. Both respective teams have been much more transparent about how they don’t have serious intentions to compete this season. The Flyers have not and will not set their sights on losing with a greater goal in mind.
“I’m not sure Philly has prepared everybody for that, and I’m not sure Philly institutionally is ready for that. John Tortorella could put a better culture under you and have you better in the long term, and you could still have a bad year this year. I’m just not sure if the stomach is there for it,” Friedman said.
The Flyers, at least consciously, will not set out to lose. They don’t expect to compete for a Stanley Cup and probably not even a playoff berth in 2022-23. However, they intend to correct the embarrassment of the past two seasons by reversing the glaring lack of respect they have around the NHL.