A new era of orange begins — Flyers 2023-24 season preview
Flyers players, including Owen Tippett, skate to goalie Carter Hart after the New York Islanders at Philadelphia Flyers pre-season NHL game at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia on Thursday, October 5, 2023. The Flyers defeated the Islanders 5-2. Photo by Elizabeth Robertson/Philadelphia Inquirer
Opening night and the roster is finally set for the Flyers after a prolong and impenetrable preseason.
Head coach John Tortorella’s team will be heading to Columbus for their first game of the season against the Blue Jackets Thursday night, and it’s safe to say that the expectations are not high with the officialization of the rebuild.
Per general manager Danny Briere, the plan is to try to win games but the most important is to let the young players get experience. Although the Flyers got a few veterans during the offseason during a rebuild, the plan behind this is to help the young players get experience.
Marc Staal was one of the players.
Are the Flyers tanking?
It may be weird, but yes! The Flyers won’t be tanking per Briere. Although, on paper, the Flyers aren’t competitive especially defensively. With the loss of Povorov, it will be hard for the Flyers goalies this season especially since the Flyers didn’t make any trades to get stronger on defense this season. It is logical since the Flyers are rebuilding.
“The Flyers are not “Tanking”. I repeat the Flyers will not tank, per Danny Briere. The Flyers are looking to win, and develop players” (Jamey Baskow)
On another hand, the Flyers’ offense looks promising especially with the young guys. It will be exciting to see Owen Tippett, Travis Konecny, and Scott Laughton grow especially with the big step they took last season. For the young guys, Tyson Foerster, Bobby Brink, and others will have a big opportunity to play a lot of minutes to prove themselves. A rebuild might be long, but for the Flyers with the two first-round picks they got in 2021 and 2022 combined with the promising young forwards they have, it may be quicker than people think.
The early seasons of the Flyers
Anyway, with the season starting Thursday, it will be exciting to see how the Flyers start their season because, in their past 2 seasons, the Flyers started strong early. To take last year as an example, the Flyers won 4 of their first 5 games to start the season. It will be interesting to see what this early season will bring, and we will be finding that no later than Thursday night in Columbus!
