Hey everyone, I’m going to keep this short and sweet. Although I grew up just outside of Baltimore, I fell in love with the Flyers at an early age thanks to my parents, who were both born and raised in Philadelphia. The Legion of Doom, the Philadelphia skyline on Ron Hextall’s mask, a helmet-less Craig MacTavish, and a rookie named Dainius were some of the first things I learned about this team. I also experienced the many ups and downs of being a Flyers’ fan in the 1996-1997 season, as I saw my dad lose his mind after Eric Lindros scored with seconds left in Game 4 of the 1997 Eastern Conference Finals and watched him stare blankly at the television after Darren McCarty undressed Janne Niinimaa and Hextall one series later.
My love of this team hasn’t changed since that run in 1997. Whether it was partial-season tickets that involved two-hour rides to the First Union Center on weeknights, listening to games on XM radio when I worked nights in high school, or walking two miles to pick up tickets to watch the Flyers lose to the Rangers in a blizzard with my friend Jon in college, watching the Flyers has always been a priority.
On top of being entertainment, Flyers’ hockey has become somewhat therapeutic for me over these last few seasons. As I mentioned above, the reason why I fell in love with this team was because of my parents, mainly my dad. For every big moment the Flyers have had over the years, I was watching it with my father. We were in the building for Game 1 of the 1997 Stanley Cup Final, when Chris Pronger scored with 2.1 seconds left in a 2010 Stanley Cup Preview, and when Tie Domi lost a fight with a fan (I spot Chris Falcone a lot of points due to the fact he was flying over a pane of glass when the fight started and that he wasn’t paid to fight people at the time. Maybe he is now, I don’t know). Since his passing in August of 2011, the team has been an outlet that’s allowed me to remember his time here and provide a way to help the healing process.
Being a fan of the Orange and Black has also dictated my career path, as my desire to become a sports writer was strong enough in college that I switched my majors. On top of earning my degree, being one of the first contributors for a site called Flyers Faithful helped to create the writing voice I have today. Through game previews and recaps, as well as columns on Flyers’ prospects and fantasy hockey, I became a fan that started to look at the team objectively rather than defend how each decision the coaching staff or management made was always the correct choice.
Thanks to these experiences in both watching and writing about the Flyers, I was fortunate enough to find myself in a situation to join this staff. What I’m hoping to bring to BSH is straightforward analysis of the Flyers. There’s going to be a lot of numbers and stats. I heard there used to be a guy here who knew a little about that topic, and I’m hoping to replace some (I stress some) of that content. There’s going to be assessments of Flyers’ prospects and draft-eligible players, whether it’s about their style of play or how their stats line up with other players who are the same age in the same league. I’m also going to try and ‘watch the game’ by breaking down game tape occasionally. I know this isn’t the lengthiest article, but almost all of my articles following this will be much longer and involve more thorough explanations. No matter what I write about, I’m glad to be contributing to Broad Street Hockey and I’m hoping in a short amount of time you will be as well.
