i mean if we are going to talk about delusional, flyers fans have been boasting about several elite dman,
We have 2 great young defensemen. We do not have a truly elite (and that's your word, not any Flyers fan's) guy back there, not yet anyway. We have a great young prospect the coach is scared to play because offense is bad apparently. Then we have Gudas in the middle of his worst season as a Flyer, and 3 fringe NHLers in Hagg, Manning, & MacDonald.
the best two way forward in the league,
Wait, when did we get Bergeron? Oh, you meant Couturier. Well, he's certainly one of the best 2-way forwards in the league and is likely to get a Selke nomination this year, but I think most Flyers fans would easily choose Bergeron as the better 2-way player.
Is he not a Hart candidate?
point per game elite winger,
Is he not a PPG winger? And again, the only one using the word elite is you.
jack adams candidate coach.
but up until this week it was a significant possibility they miss the playoffs. we heard about "the best crop of defensive prospects the league has ever seen" for so long, and it really didn't amount to much. we arevso used to flyers fans blowing smoke why would we take them seriously now?
Flyers fans aren't delusional. We know exactly what our issues are. Outside of a few top vets, we're an extremely young team. Our bottom 4 is ugly. We have an entire line of uselessness, which the coach thinks is our 3rd line, because vets. Our second line has 2 rookies on it that have a combined career total of 29 points. Our goalies are terrible and/or injured. Our PP2 can't score. Our passive PK bleeds goals against. We're consistently hamstrung by a coach that doesn't know what the hell he's doing. Prospects deserving of merit call-ups don't get them, because the team is scared to have too many rookies on the team at once, so we play past-their-prime vets to ill-effect instead.
As for "the best crop of defensive prospects the league has ever seen" (and I defy you to find one Flyers fan who ever posted such a thing), here's how it's turned out.
1) Shayne Gostisbehere. Calder runner-up. Broke 6o points this season.
2) Ivan Provorov. Was a legit #1 defenseman at age 20.
3) Robert Hagg. Played 70 games so far this year as a rookie. Led league in hits for much of the season. Upside is bottom pairing defender. (I actually don't much like him as a player and think there's a strong argument for him being the worst defenseman on the team.)
4) Travis Sanheim. Too good for the AHL. Solid rookie campaign considering the coach is terrified of playing him despite the fact that he's clearly the team's 3rd best defenseman because he actually tries to do stuff with the puck. Good advanced stats. Can't wait until he actually gets PP time. (Hey Hak, maybe PP2 would actually be able to f***ing score a goal now and then? You might as well give it a try, right?)
5) Sam Morin. Top pairing AHL defender who pretty much lost the entire season due to injury. Will be a Flyer next year.
6) Phil Myers. Strong AHL rookie campaign has been hampered with injuries. Likely will stay in the A until the Flyers move either Gudas or MacDonald.
So, it's turned our fairly well thus far. We got our top pairing set, the coach is beginning to trust Sanheim more, and hopefully Myers & Morin can stay healthy next season.
