Dec 14, 2025; Raleigh, North Carolina, USA; Philadelphia Flyers center Sean Couturier (14) comes off the ice after the warmups before the game against the Carolina Hurricanes at Lenovo Center. Mandatory Credit: James Guillory-Imagn Images
I had a strange experience on Thursday night.
I flipped the television on to what I thought was the Flyers-Bruins game, and instead I got the video to Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up."
Yeah, I got Rick rolled.
In fact, we all did, at least it seems that way.
Yes, I know there's a faction of Flyers Twitter that will be louder and prouder of their anti-everything stances and will be insufferable for at least another year after this with all their "I-told-you-so's", but what they don't understand is most people do not revel in schadenfreude.
Most people, who watch sports, care and care in a way that isn't measured in persistent negativity.
Sure, they'll boo. Sure, they'll complain. But they have hope. They have faith. They want what's best for the team and have renewed faith with each season.
And the Flyers gave those people reason to believe. for the first half of the year. The way they were playing, they were making you believe they were bought into what the organization was selling.
The culture. The belief. The accountability.
All these things matter, no matter what the doubters will shout.
But they can't be the only thing that matters. The play on the ice has to be a part of it, too, and while it looked good a little more than two months, everything has been completely undone in the span of 23 days.
And that's why everyone who believed this team could finally end a long drought where fans have not been present for a playoff game (yes, they made it to the postseason in the pandemic bubble, but Flyers fans haven't witnessed a playoff game in person in eight years.) feel duped.
A 6-3 loss to Boston was probably the final straw.
It was their tenth loss in the last 12 games (2-8-2) and it dropped them closer to the bottom of the conference (seven points ahead of the last place Rangers) than to a playoff spot (eight points behind both the Penguins and Islanders).
And while you can make up eight points in 29 games, it's not easy. And it's especially not easy for a team that lacks the necessary depth.
As a General Manager Danny Briere had a very good stretch from last season's trade deadline through the summer months. The changes he made to the Flyers were all positive. Nearly every player he brought in either improved the team or netted him an additional asset.
And as good as it was, there was more he should have tried to do.
And who knows, maybe he did. I'm not privy to every conversation Briere has with other teams. Maybe he tried hard to get the things he needed, and couldn't get it done.
But watching this season play out, he has to regret two things more than any other - not having a better option at backup goalie, and not having some more NHL-caliber organizational depth.
Because while he's still on the hunt for talent that can eventually fill the role of a top line center or a No. 1 defenseman - as every team is hoping for at some point - you can start to improve as a team without those spots filled. And they were on their way to doing that until they lost Tyson Foerster for the year and Dan Vladar for six games.
Foerster's injury was the one they ultimately couldn't survive. Valdar's was just the rope being cut on the guillotine.
The loss of Foerster had immense impact. Not only did it take away a very good goal scorer, but it took away the team's most complete forward.
His linemates, Noah Cates and Bobby Brink, have struggled mightily without him. The team's five-man defensive structure started to show some cracks immediately after he went out of the lineup until the levee completely broke 12 games ago.
And the Flyers didn't stabilize their lineup after he was gone.
Carl Grundstrom stepped in and provided some juice from the fourth line with a bunch of goals in a short span, but that was never going to be enough.
Denver Barkey certainly looks like he belongs in the NHL and the Flyers have every reason to be excited about his future because of his intelligence in the way he plays the game, but he doesn't play the style of game Foerster plays, and therefore isn't really replacing Foerster's productivity.
All you need to do is look at simple stats to see what Foerster's impact was.
Surely, not one guy makes that much a difference by himself, even if he is an all-situations player like Foerster, but the team's inability to mask his absence tells you how much of a keystone he was to the entire operation.
You don't normally have depth guys in the AHL who can step in and fill his role, but you often need other players on your own roster who can perform at a higher level with greater responsibility - and that is where things failed for the Flyers. Players they needed to elevate their game to cover for the loss of Foerster, could not. That is very telling, and a misread by the organization.
So was believing that Sam Ersson could be a strong second half of a tandem with Vladar.
It was clear, pretty early in the season, that he could not. This was a crucial flaw in the roster construction.
Let's look at it this way. Let's imagine Ersson was league average, and didn't have the worst numbers of any goalie in the NHL who has appeared in at least 11 games (Ersson has appeared in 26 and ranks dead last - 67th - in save percentage at .856).
Of those 67 goalies, the guys tied for 33rd have a save percentage of .899.
For Ersson to have gotten there he would have had to stop 24 goals from going in that he allowed.
Think about that number for a second. That's one goal per start (he's started 24 games). Now, imagine he did make those saves. How many more points do the Flyers have this season?
I can conservatively say seven. There were enough close games that would have swung that many points in the Flyers favor. A deeper dive than I took could potentially find more.
Even the game against Boston. They lose by three goals, one of them an empty-netter. But look at these two goals allowed by Ersson.
Viktor Arvidsson - Boston Bruins (13) pic.twitter.com/eTzHsGKO8K
That can't get through you. It gives Boston an early lead and forces your team to once again chase the game from behind.
But you get back in the game. It's 3-1 and you have some momentum. Then this happens.
Fraser Minten with poise surprises Ersson through the five hole for the #NHLBruins third goal of the night + his eighth goal in the month of Jan! pic.twitter.com/DMj3njy300
These are shots right at him. Without a screen. Without a tipped puck. These are saves goalies have to make.
Look, there's no guarantee that they get even a point in this game if he makes these two saves. But the tenor of the game could have a shift if the goalie does his job.
The point is, even without Foerster, a league average backup goalie has the Flyers at least within a point of a playoff spot today if not actually in one.
There are a lot of other things that have gone sour in the past few weeks that aren't related to Foerster's injury or Ersson's play. But those things happen over the course of a long hockey season.
Every team has their stretches where it feels like the roof is caving. Heck, the Colorado Avalanche have the best record in the sport, and they've lost six of eight, including getting blasted by the Flyers.
Teams can survive periodic downturns - if they have the roster to do it.
The Flyers had a path to do it as well, but it was razor thin and they needed the players on the team to traverse it's twistiness and the pitfalls along the way.
That was the fly in the ointment. They didn't have enough players with the countenance to get them there - especially at a time without their most important forward and their No. 1 goalie.
So, what's next?
Well, don't expect much at the deadline. I doubt the Flyers will be very active either way. Sure, they have some small parts they can sell, but nothing that's going to move the needle.
And unless they do something like get 10 points in the seven games that remain before the deadline and close the gap, they likely aren't buying either.
So, they just might punt.
No one wants to hear that, but in reality, it's probably their best option.
You lick your wounds, head into the offseason and try to fix your flaws.
But now, the spotlight is really on Briere and his management team. The benefit of the doubt is no longer there. Yes, there was a mess to clean up, and three seasons of patience and understanding was a fair and long-enough runway to have the plane take off.
The team felt that it was ready to take the next step, which meant getting to the postseason. Barring a miraculous turnaround, it wasn't.
So the next phase has to be bigger. It needs a little bit of risk to get to the reward you want.
It has to, because no one wants to get Rick rolled again.
