March 15, 2016
The Flyers will bring sports in Philadelphia back into the realm of the here-and-now on Tuesday night at the Wells Fargo Center with a critical game against the Detroit Red Wings.
The enthusiasm should continue with games on Wednesday night against the Blackhawks in Chicago and then back at home on Saturday for the usual passion play of emotion against Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins.
If you prefer the hardwood, three Big Five teams will join the here-and-now scenario on Friday as Temple, Villanova and St. Joe’s begin their collective NCAA Tournament journeys.
So, at least for a little while – and maybe (hopefully) a lot longer – the discussions about sports in Philadelphia will be about things that happen on the ice or on the court.
And, thankfully, we are not talking about a court of law.
Even with Jake Voracek out of the lineup, the Flyers have climbed back into a heated playoff race and every game from now until the end of the regular season is likely to fall into the category of “critical.”
Think about it this way, much of the sports discussion for the better part of the past year has centered around what the Phillies needed to do for a better future; or how long it would take the Flyers to rebuild; or how the Eagles could get back to playoff contention; or how many years it would take for the Sixers to become competitive.
What would the Phillies get for Hamels, Utley and Rollins and how could they get out from under the Howard contract?
Could Howie Roseman rid the Eagles of all the players and contracts Chip Kelly acquired during his disasterous tenure as GM/Coach?
The parade of high profile athletes exiting the city has been the biggest focus, dating all the way back to Ilya Bryzgalov, LeSean McCoy, DeSean Jackson, all the Phillies with rings and the whole saga of Andrew Bynum.
On top of that, the last two months have featured stories about McCoy coming back to Philadelphia and allegedly getting involved in a bar brawl that led to a couple of off-duty police officers being badly beaten.
Even more than the rest of the sports universe, the local Philadelphia sports landscape was mostly about off-the-field issues, and our teams trying to see a better future.
There is resignation that the Phillies struggles will extend well beyond this season, and we are asked to consider the value of a replenished farm system while the big league team hovers near the bottom of baseball.
The Eagles have some hope, but that has come at the expense of a massive power shift in which Roseman was odd-man-out before once again returning as BMOC.
The Sixers haven’t played a meaningful game in what seems forever, and their very public experiment of triple tanking for the future has turned into a public shaming of historic proportions.
The actual games? They have been a footnote to all the drama taking place when the games are not being played.
It is with all of that as a background that this week arrives as a sweet reminder of why we are all such rabid fans – who wins and loses the actual games.
The Flyers have been a pleasant surprise under first-year coach Dave Hakstol and the surge of excitement provided by rookie defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere. But the truth of the matter is that it was unexpected that the team would face such a parade of big games schedule over the next few weeks.
Even with Jake Voracek out of the lineup, the Flyers have climbed back into a heated playoff race and every game from now until the end of the regular season is likely to fall into the category of “critical.”
Imagine that, an actual critical game, rather than a critical decision on which player to take for the future or which player to deal.
There is still a larger overall story about the Flyers’ future being bright with a critically acclaimed collection of young defensemen in their development system, but that does not matter this week … or even next month.
What matters now are the games at hand. The Red Wings a couple of times … the Chicago Blackhawks … and three games left with the Pittsburgh Penguins.
You combine that with an NCAA Friday that features Temple-Iowa, Villanova-UNC Asheville and St. Joe’s-Cincinnati we finally have a stretch where we can concentrate on what happens on the field of play as opposed to off.
Enjoy.
