The Pigeon Coop

We're back from an extended vacation, shaking off some rust and warming up for the season by talking about some stuff we missed while we were away.

The Flyers probably aren't worth watching anymore so we're gonna talk about what would make them better in the future. Questions about the coaching staff, goaltending, and who needs to be moved in the off-season fill this one up.

It's hard to grit your teeth and sit through another season of patient front office guys, especially after Hextall, but that might be just what we're getting. In the long run, it may be okay.

In this episode, we're talking about the Shayne Gostisbehere waiving, and seeing if some past criticisms of the coach still hold up with the FLyers.

You can hear Ryne exasperatedly rubbing his temples while talking about the team in this one. There are so many things to complain about, which makes this team the same as it's been for far too long. 

We talk about the constantly changing lines, and the need to have at least one solid line that can stick together and regularly produce. The coaching decisions still feel bad, and Ryne has a point to make about the careers of past great goalies.

It's the Bonus hockey Podcast! All the hockey podcasting you love but like a bit more of it. Every other week Aj, Ryne, and Brian are giving you a short update on Flyers news and other things happening around the League. 

This week: Are the Flyers good or not? The Flyers have rotated between looking bad and not great through this season, we don't have to worry about them beating bad teams anymore, but do we need to worry about them not being able to beat good teams? or the Bruins specifically.

In a season full of weird lineup experiments, one seems to finally have ended as Sam Morin returns to the Lehigh Valley Phantoms. A new experiment begins as Nolan Patrick moves to the wing, and AJ forgets to look up some fancy stats.

Ron Hextall made his first move against the Flyers picking up his old draft pick Mark Freidman, and the dramatics between former teammates immediately started. Why were the Flyers going so hard against the former defenseman?

That's right, two subtitles! We're talking about the betrayal of former Flyers GM Ron Hextall and the sudden increase in Sidney Crosby trade rumors and speculation. Ryne picks a former Penguin he'd like to help us get revenge.

The Flyers were gifted a special event hockey game and half the team was put on COVID protocol a week before, forcing the coaches to make some odd lineup choices including moving more defensemen around the board. We make predictions for the game that will be obsolete within just a few hours. 

Ryne gets mad at the league's use of points percentage to determine standings. The Flyers record is good, but they don't look good at all. In fact, they've looked so bad that Alain Vigneault decided to bench Travis Konecny to send a lesson to the underperformers. Aj misses a reference, we talk about the physicality of the lineup with Sam Morin on the wing. What it was expected to be and what it actually was.

The Columbus Blue Jackets have a thing for driving away good players and Pierre Luc Dubois is the most recent consequence of whatever is going on there.