No One In NHL History Loses To 0-10-1 Teams The Way The Philadelphia Flyers Do
The San Jose Sharks got off the snide and won their first game of the 2023-24 season, but it wasn't at the expense of the Philadelphia Flyers, whom they defeated 2-1. No, it was thanks to them.
That's because when it comes to losing to teams that open a season 0-10-1, the Flyers are the greatest in NHL history.
The Flyers kicked off a West Coast swing with a visit to San Jose and as a lifelong Flyers fan, seeing that on a schedule made me nervous. Most other fans would be licking their chops if they saw their team playing a club floundering as much as the Sharks are.
Not me. I knew that the Sharks would have to win at some point. No one is going through an entire NHL season completely winless. Even a peewee team would win one accidentally, in 82 attempts.
I voiced my concerns to anyone who would listen (and several others who either feigned interest or explicitly asked me to be quiet) and knew full well that others did the same. This is because, around the time I was in the throes of my own panic, I got a text from my brother that said something to the effect of, "Dude, I'm worried about the Flyers playing the Sharks on Tuesday."
Dude, we were all worried.
That's because we had all lived through this before.
Tuesday Night Was Some Serious Deja Vu For Flyers Fans
Re-wind to the 2017-18 season. October 30, 2017, to be precise.
The Vegas Golden Knights were in the midst of their impressive debut season, Carson Wentz was still quarterbacking the Philadelphia Eagles, movie audiences were still several months away from being disappointed by Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi.
Amid it all, the Arizona Coyotes rolled into Philadelphia after getting off to an abysmal 0-10-1 start.
The 'Yotes scored three straight to take a 3-0 lead, only for the Dave Hakstol-led Flyers to realize that they might need to put in a little effort to win. They scored three unanswered to send it to overtime. In the extra frame, Alex Goligoski potted the game-winner.
The Coyotes losing streak was over. The Flyers were embarrassed. Fortunately, the Flyers fans would never have to go through that again... at least not until Tuesday night.
Alright, now back to the present day. I'm not too concerned about this Flyers loss. Yeah, it's embarrassing, but they're a young team that ran into a strong performance from Sharks netminder Mackenzie Blackwood.
It's not the end of the world, but I'm going to start getting nervous if another team opens the season 0-10-1 and has the Flyers on the schedule for Game No. 12.
In the meantime congratulations to the San Jose Sharks on reaching the 3-point plateau this season.
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