Diary of a Flyers Fan: Reaction to the Offseason and Expectations for 2011-12

Dear Diary,

I know we haven’t spoken since those four games against Boston last year.  I should have been writing all summer, but after the high of a Finals run two seasons ago, it was too difficult for me to really think about hockey after we got swept by the Bruins.

Besides, I was distracted.  How about them Phils??

But a new season begins tonight, and I am having trouble expressing how strange I feel as the opening faceoff approaches.  It seems like I’m rooting for a completely different team.

I looked through my closet earlier, and I took out my Mike Richards jersey.  I was so sure that he was going to be a part of the Flyers for years.  I remember buying that sweater the moment he signed his 12-year extension in 2007.  I even got a “C” stitched on there when he was named captain.

I can’t bring myself to get rid of it.  Maybe I’ll leave it in the corner of the attic, on top of the LeClair and Recchi jerseys.

I also found my Jeff Carter t-shirt.  That went straight into the trash.  I’m glad he’s gone.

Still, we were two wins away from a Stanley Cup two seasons ago.  Two wins!  And now the core of that team is gone.  Is that productive?

I keep hearing hockey fans talking about how busy the Flyers were during the offseason.  That’s fine, but is busy necessarily a good thing? 

All of a sudden our goalie for the future is the backup goalie for now, the two players with the longest extensions on the team are playing out those extensions in California and Ohio and our offense of young stars has turned into an offense of… well, just young stars.

And while I try to wrap my brain around all that, my heart is supposed to suddenly accepted Max Talbot and Jaromir Jagr as members of the family?  They’re still Penguins to me.  How do I root for Penguins?

Usually, when new players join the team, I know exactly what to expect.  But this year, it seems like all these new additions that I’m supposed to be excited about have a thousand questions surrounding them. 

Jakub Voracek, Brayden Schenn, Sean Couturier… sure, they could all be great, but they could just as easily be busts!  And where does the team go if they are?!

On top of that, what happened to Bobrovsky?  I thought he was supposed to be the goalie of the future, and now we’re spending the next nine years with Ilya Bryzgalov?

Sure, Bryz is a great goalie, but I’ve seen great goalies come and go in this city lately, and they don’t last nine years.  If he gives up a soft goal in the first game of the season, this whole town is going to have an “Oh s***” moment.

Maybe I’m being a paranoid fan.  Maybe this team really has improved.  After all, Bryzgalov SEEMS like he should be an improvement upon Boucher, Niittymaki and Emery. 

And I suppose having young stars waiting in the wings isn’t a bad thing.

It’s just hard for me to accept that this team will be better next year than it is this year.  Because I want to win this year.

This year, I’m going to be hard on the team.  Paul Holmgren is going to have to prove to me that he made the right moves.

Bryzgalov is going to have to prove to me that he’s a solution to the goalie problem.

Talbot and Jagr are going to have to prove to me that they aren’t Penguins.

And most of all, Schenn, Simmonds, Voracek and Couturier are going to have to prove to me that they are worth losing Carter and Richards. 

I suppose things will become clearer tonight. 

That is all for now, Diary.  I’ll write again soon.  There’s a long season ahead.

Diary of a Flyers Fan is compiled by the author based upon interactions with passionate Flyers fans that occur before games, after games and in day-to-day conversation.  The thoughts and opinions presented above do not necessarily reflect the thoughts and opinions of the author.  The author encourages input from readers for future installments of the series via the Bleacher Report private messaging system.