Brotherly Pod #258 "Tocchet vs Michkov"

0:30M-E-E-E Hammer's fucking swinging and we're packing it up It only got saves for the burning baron Coming out of the fog throwing orange and white The broadly law boys coming up white What are you gonna do? We're the nuts and the candy moves When the heat's right hits ya What you gonna do? You can't cut your gay ass here D-K You're beating your hair D-L-O-R-E-A It's here for a fight A new era of orange and white Oh, I'm ready to be brotherly proud Sunday February 1, 20, 26 here

1:33Stumbled over that intro Just me flying solo tonight I was getting ready to wind up and name a show And then realized I don't have a show to name But yeah, flying solo Just because I just... I feel like I needed some time To just vent a little about this team Without being interrupted Without anybody else getting my way So We're gonna talk to about Rick talk it And that'd be Mitch call the ass Which is a recurring theme this season If you haven't been paying attention But I just been like There was another go around today It's the carnival today everybody Hope everyone had fun With something flyers associated Maybe the first time all year At least in months anyway But remember they had a good team in November So we should all just be happy about that But

2:34You know, we've been talking at length Over the last You know, a little while about Talk it's quotes on Mitch Cobb And how fucking fatty is and out of shape And all this and that And you know, the ridiculous nature in which So much of this is Grown into I suppose And I was thinking about it this morning And talked about this on Twitter And got a whole lot of interesting responses But like It begs the question of like It's not just Rick talk it It's not just Kevin Kurtz Like I think those two the biggest proponents of it But like Meltzer got on this one And Martinez was talking about it Charlie fucking So many people Have something to say negatively about Mitch Cobb right now And none of it is even like Genuine complaints It's all just bullshit And it begs the question of like What's the real reason That people are going so far out of their way

3:34To shit on this guy Like I'm not a big conspiracy theory guy It's not my thing If anybody listens to the tithedopod Gaster Shane and I We ask for your conspiracy theories once a year Because it's the only time I can take it Once a year And we just make a mockery the whole thing Because I just genuinely don't Buy it into a lot of that stuff But like When we start talking about the flyers And How The messaging from The entire contingent within the press box Becomes so United I get skeptical Because it's not just the team page Shills anymore It's not just Meltzer and Mertidis going out there And bearing the guy because it's what they're told to say You get your theoretical professionals Even though they're arguably some of the most unprofessional people In Charlie and Kevin That are hopping on this bandwagon too And then I've since muted most of the other fan blogs

4:35Just because I don't care anymore But you know people reply to them And then I read those tweets And as I go You know they're saying it too Well Mitch Cobb was fat I can't pull it Where's the bluster? No, I just trash them endlessly Why is this happening? Why is it happening at the scale that it's happening? This is one of two guys in the entirety of the organization That means anything to the future Is Mitch Cobb and Marton Everybody else is fucking worthless As far as I'm concerned And they're going out of their way to just bastardize them And somebody put an interesting theory in the mentions It was a Fire Rick Talket Ironically enough J. Cerulo 21 I think it's just easier to bash someone They know will struggle to communicate through the media Not being able to speak English Or have the real personality pushed by the media Made him the easiest person for people to bash Just my opinion, but that's how it feels

5:36I thought about it and went Hmm That's an interesting theory Because I mean, this guy has never seemed overly vocal He seems quiet Still, I guess he speaks better English than he has in the past But it's still not fluent or anything Are they just picking out? There's been this theory for a long time That people have been saying It's the beginning of the year that Rick Talket You know, has some vendetta against Russian players And I've never done enough research on that topic myself Like, did a deep enough dive To see how consistent that is But everyone points to Kuzmanko and Kravdsov in Vancouver And both of them were basically exiled You know, underutilized and exiled I'm like, well, by that alone in handling here And as someone pointed out And also in that threat of like, you know, talket came up In the Bobby Clark system Who didn't like the Russians and you know if it's beat in your system head then Beat in your head back then Then it may just be what it is now

6:36In the current day and maybe just be something there I mean, that's the only thing I can think of That like, it's just this mindless hatred of Russian players From talket spills over in the media And then they have to say whatever they're told to say to To do it like I don't know, man Something's fishy with this whole thing Like, did Mitchkov go out there and personally slash all of their tires one day And they just have some vendetta against him now Like, what could possibly have happened that the united hatred against this one guy has risen to the surface I just... I've never been credentialed I've never wanted to be credentialed I don't live in Philadelphia anymore I couldn't attend these games I'm not driving an hour and a half in my way You know, three times a week to watch the flyers lose So I can sit around and pretend that I mattered to the world I don't care I never did care But I have been interrogated by the flyers front office on multiple occasions over the years

7:36Sean Coit, who I guess no longer is employed by the flyers think Christ You know, he and I had some pretty knockdown dragout arguments with each other about this And a lot of that came down to them trying to get me to say what they wanted to say You know, they had no jurisdiction over me as a writer, as a creator But they tried anyway And I think it was one of the biggest mistakes they've ever made Because they overplayed their hand to someone like me Who's just gonna turn it around and say hey This fucking organization overplayed their hand to me Like, I know they do this shit I can only imagine what they tell people That are either fighting for press passes just happy to be there Or these people that are cashing paychecks by the team They... It's such a... When they all come together It's not just one or two guys in the rest of Maria Something's going on here I just don't know what it is But it's on such a massive scale And it's such a ridiculous

8:37He came in to camp out of shape It's fucking February Training camp started in like what The second week of September What was that five months ago And we're still talking about That he came in to kill like try a new line Remember when they resigned to Vorak Well he came in to camp in shape So we had to resign Go down Like... That is not a good enough reason To justify five months later Going out of your way To say how badly he sucks And these are the same people that coddled Morgan for Morgan Frost had two assists In the last 78 games Dating back to December of 2023 He's the greatest player that ever existed Remember that bullshit I remember that bullshit All this fucking pro Sean Cateriae propaganda He being here His goal is expected four plus minus Of course he's really good He's still the best player on the ice in 2026

9:37Fuck off If you're going out of your way To convince me that Sean Cateria is the greatest player Fucking all time And yet you bury Mitchcoff six feet under Because he had one to many donuts in the off season Six months ago I can't take anything you people say seriously And that leads me back to fucking Recktocketing general He delivered what a fucking interview I didn't listen to the whole thing I just couldn't I made it about three or four minutes and I got angry And shut it off I believe I did the same with Jones and Brear as well They're interviews from From the carnival It's just fucking bullshit The administration would be happy With how god damn pro state The flyers are with shit like this Surprise or not They got a fire I was thinking about this And musing on this on twitter the other day as well

10:37Like You got a fire the guy The flyers have spiraled so badly The biggest thing with talking is like We all knew what he was going to bring as a head coach Because he's been doing it for nine years And all those teams had very similar results With the exception of the one year in Vancouver When that your demko and quin hues were playing it You know All star caliber levels They've always been doing the same thing Otherwise Which is a whole lot of nothing They don't produce offense Their special teams aren't that great Boring, bland Don't put shots on goal They just don't do it It's the same problems It's the same faults Now is this 100% is fault No, Brear's roster construction is still miserable Having You know Six, eight wingers that are all basically third line wingers With no center depth And every single piece on this roster is interchangeable

11:37And you wouldn't even notice There's some problems here The goal tending has not been great Badly after his start Samerson has been Fucking terrible for the most part It's not just target But we're 54 games into the season They're now God, eight points Out of third place in the Metro And Holy shit Quite a few points out of 67 points God, eight points out of a playoff spot The Sabers and Bruins hold The Wildcard spots was 67 points The Islanders have 65 Flyers have 58 They have two more games Before the Olympic break Which is a Washington on Tuesday And Ottawa on Thursday Both of those are at home Which I guess are both Theoretical winnable games Both of them are more points And the Flyers do By the way But at least as of this recording

12:37Much of they played at night Especially if they come back from the Olympics And they suck real bad And everything goes to shit You gotta fire the guy I don't think they're going to though Like my personal bet right now is that they don't The Flyers don't ever admit That they did something wrong Like fire and Rick talking after one year Would basically admit That they were not In the right hire in the guy They fucked up They wouldn't do that You know, they would rather Like they're driving their own train off the tracks Because they can't admit that they were rock And that brings up the And point that I was talking about Online like At some point You start drifting into Ron Hextall Dave Hextall Territory When it's fire the coach, fire the coach, fire the coach You refuse to fire the coach Eventually it stops being Fire the coach Eventually it turns into Fire the GM I think a lot of people are relatively neutral

13:38On Brear right now He's definitely not in the good graces anymore I think people are starting to get a little The natives are getting a little restless But they haven't fully turned on him yet And talking has been taking so much of this heat right now As has the media That Brear's been able to kind of duck and weave away from a lot of the The stray fire that's out there But if you go into next year Like the 2026 obviously I don't think you're getting anything big out of this Maybe some change But I mean it's not like There's going to be you know a massive sell-off And a massive addition And I just don't think you're going to see that I think it's going to be relatively Disappointing summer because the market dried up So if you run this team back Largely on the whole And they have very similar results of Mediocrity And you did not fire a rick-talkit All of a sudden It's just looking great for this guy Like this entire front-office regime is going to come crashing down

14:38And admittedly it's probably Best for everybody right now That she just fucking Get rid of Brear and talkits And probably Jones while you're at it And just bring in a brand new front-office That knows what they're doing But I don't think we're going to get there easily I don't think that path is going to be easy And even if they go on some crazy run When they come back and somehow sneak into a playoff spot And talking about, you know, the comparisons to 2018 all year Great, you make the playoffs You play Tampa in the first round and get your fucking shit rocked And then you go into the office season And you probably don't fix what needs to be fixed At least not to a thorough level You go back in the next season And Mediocrity results and you're going to fail Regardless and you're still in the same situation So I don't know I'm not expecting rick-talkit to get fired He's also got four years left on his deal By the way, and like historically Players don't like paying For, you know, these coaches Even though they can afford it Because it's not on the salary cap, it's all Comcast money They can do whatever they wanted

15:38They just don't, historically They would rather hold on to these guys And continue to steer directly into the iceberg Than firemen fix anything But yeah, I don't know, man The beginning of the end for this regime is upon us Quite frankly, I think it started when they resigned connecting I think that was their first major mistake Bringing in talk it was a disaster That Christian Dvorak The timing of that Dvorak contract Like, right before everything went to shit And it's just been a downward spiral ever since And a lot of people have been pointing to that As a failure as well As they should have, like, listen Well, they need a center And largely, I do agree Like, I think talk it, uh, not talk it Fucking talk it's on the brain I think Dvorak was coming back one way or the other Just because he's the culture guy They need someone to play center He's, you know, BFS of the Rectology He was coming back, whether he liked it or not No, he should not have gotten the term in the fucking trade protection that he did But This team was Interested in rebuilding

16:38You probably should have sold him for, like, a first round pick When you had the chance, but they didn't, for some reason They had to resign him in, like, December Maybe early January, whenever the fucking was I don't know I just The thing about this front office And this goes back to talk it, in a sense, in Briar is like They filled this front office with former flyers That was the entire fucking gimmick that they've had Ever since Fletcher left Ever since Fletcher and Scott left That's what Hilfordy wants, right? I watched Rick Puckett play here in 1985 God damn it, he needs to be the coach You know, that's all they want You built this Firefront office with the idea that they're likable The idea that Well, nobody will ever get mad at us because we're likable, right? A bunch of former flyers Wayne Simmons and John DeClaire, Danny Brear, Keith Jones Patrick Sharp I'm sure there's more of them All the old heads are still around

17:38Clark and Barbara, they're still all fucking there These are cashing paychecks I don't know what they do on a day-to-day basis But they're still around For a lot like You built this front office to be likable And they fucked up so bad In less than three years That everyone's already turned on them And like Kudos to the fan base on this one Like as united as the journalist The bin to put out the pro's Team propaganda here A lot of fucking flyers Twitter's pissed off about Of course you tell these weirdos That pretend the flyers have never done anything wrong And they're the greatest organization ever Which is fuck, God that's funny I still get that shit Daniel so negative Fuck you It's 2026 now Ronnext almost hired 12 years ago This organization's been in a downward spiral ever since And we're still pretending that I'm the negative one Like it's completely unfounded To point out that the flyers have been shit lately All the good things they've done

18:38I'm just choosing to turn a blind eye to But this whole front office is supposed to be so likable And they're just not Like Rick talking This team has employed a lot of really Unlikable people over the last 10 to 15 years Ronnext all Chuck Fletcher Dave Scott Ivan Provrov Tony D'Angelo All that list And like talking is already high on their most unlikable And the entire reason they hired him is because he's a former flyer And like the boomers like him Right? Apologies if you're a boomer and like Rick talking And you happen to be listening to this But that's generally what I've noticed Like the people that watched him play You know Rick talk it's second tenure with the flyers Ended in what? 02, maybe 03 So I would have been 6 or 7 at the time I don't remember a rocket playing here I certainly wasn't even fucking alive in the late 80s during his heyday I have no connection to this one

19:38As a player again like I was technically alive when he was here But I don't have any connection to him So I didn't have that like undying love for the guy And I mean Fuck I watched anywhere in the playoffs all those years And I don't give a shit about that guy either So I'm not sure there's anybody you could put in this front office anymore that I would care about Based on former flotting When they fire dating we are in replacing with fucking Simone Gagne or something I'm not gonna give a shit I'm still gonna be critical But Sam we're in that front office for all I care If he sucks at his job I'm gonna tell you he sucks at his job But the fact that it's been less than three years And people have already Turned on the guy Turned on this regime Like That's good. It means people aren't taking it anymore And generally that seems to be a lot of the discontent That bubbles up from the fan base It's just like it's been so long I went back and forth with those people The last week Talking about

20:38Well it's been over 30 years since they were in like yeah The 2010 run was kind of the last Cudi Grah there Those last you know handful years even before that We're overly spectacular It has been a while A long consistent and good hockey You're probably dating back to the late 90s at that point But I have a body in To the Hexdal Rebuild They bought into the Brear Rebuild Or you know the theoretical rebuild It's like it's a whole different tangent But Danny Brear has never lied to us He many times I hear that I'm like all fucking Danny Brear has done since he showed up Is lied to us. It's like it's like what he learned from Chuck Fletcher Let's just sit there and talk to both sides of your mouth He never used the word rebuild. Fuck off Yes he did. Why? It's not the fans who use the word rebuild. Danny Brear uses the word rebuild. He used it today During the fucking carnival

21:38But he also talked about making the playoffs Because that's all they fucking want They want their sweet sweet two games of Fucking playoff revenue on homies And that's it. That's all they give a shit about If they actually wanted to rebuild If they actually gave a shit about making the playoffs Virtually everything they'd done Have done would not have happened At any point here But they just keep doing it wrong We're back in Ron Hextal Territory of We're rebuilding but we're not gonna call it a rebuild We're just gonna put an end date on We're just gonna draft mindlessly What was I going on that tangent about 30 years ago Where was I going with that There's something about some fucking Twitter. I don't know It's all stupid That's just some of everything. Should we just do that now Every week on the show I'll come in and say The flyers are dumb Just call it a day. Same old bullshit's happening We all just need to get over it I don't know, man. They're like Before the season started

22:38I was not a fan of this talking higher Ever wrote a piece in the website Do not hire a target But like before the 2026 off season dried up And before we knew how badly Mitch Cobb is gonna be used I sat here and said okay I see the potential vision here Mitch Cobb takes a step forward Maybe Alex Bump and all of her Bunk Shop And they play really well And I guess in this case it was more Denver Barkey You know this out of left field Surprise That's at least getting ice time You know and you go to the 2026 And maybe one of the maybe Capri's off makes it Because he didn't want to go back to Minnesota And you can sign him and it's like okay Like it's just the genuine start of something You know And then the free agency pulled dried up Stuff happens And this roster just looks like dog shit from top to bottom And it's like I don't know how Danny Breer Saves himself Anymore Especially if they don't fire a target

23:38Like that's their like one golden carrot They're only bulletin chamber right now It was firing a target Manning up and saying Haley made a mistake in trying again But I don't think they're gonna do that I'm not a betting man I would not bet on talking getting fired But if he's not fired You're gonna go into this office He's like There's you know the market was tweeting all this time Well they don't want Shane Wright Well they don't want Robert Thomas There's no way they're gonna fucking trade for Jason Robertson And when you eliminate that stuff On top of your already shitty roster What are you gonna do here What's the fucking plan to get better this summer You know The Keith Jones on the carnival was like Well You know the salary cap was rising And it gave every team an opportunity To resign their players And we were caught off guard by that And like Your entire plan Was just hope that somebody didn't resign

24:38Somebody that was it You didn't have anything more than that I'm gonna fucking told you this Especially after last summer in 25 Since there was a notable free aid And say I'm gonna told you this wasn't gonna happen If you were lucky at bare minimum One of those guys was gonna make it and that was it The idea that two or three of them Would have been there Was never gonna fucking happen So you go into 26 And look at the job done You don't fire-talk it, you run this team large Maybe you get it to break and replace it with Martone Okay Great And then you know work-talk it of course Unless he comes into camp and shape Then maybe he'll give him a fair shake Did Denver Barkey come into camp and shape? Was that right or right been out there yet? Is that why he's getting an opportunity Because I mean it's clearly not just the young players If it was the young players Barkey would still be in the HL But he's been largely playing Well I wonder what his ice time looks like Let's look it up together y'all Hmm

25:38T.O.I. Per game For all Denver Barkey Uh 13.52 Which is only slightly worse than Michkoff's 14.32 One of the lowest on the team But he's still playing He's got 20 games and now 9 points in those 20 games I don't know He must have been in shape So I get ice time I don't know Man I just I don't see a way out of this Anymore for the flyers That's where I was going with this This rant If you don't fire a target And you're just going to this offseason and not do enough You have another offseason We're gonna bring in you know Random Center X That's out there and probably overpay him and free agency Or give him one you're dealing and overpay him later Like to do a bit devorac But more tone and just hope that he's can single hand at least save the franchise

26:40That's pretty much all they got going for I'm like I don't think And the salary cap is going up So maybe you have Opportunities to move Someone that go and tip it But I just You know they got to get rid of him before July 1st Because it's when his contract kicks in His uh his uh no move Modified no trade Dentime no trade He's got here till 2032 at 6.2 mil Like I don't I don't think that's a sexy option for teams They're not moving Sean Cateria He's the fucking greatest hockey player that ever fucking lived Remember he's not going anywhere You know I don't think they would move Know what kates I don't think they're moving New York like all these big money long term deals Are not going to try to move And if you're not going to subtract Then you can't really add to begin with They like money's not a super big problem for the flyers right now But you know I mean maybe once Zegerson and dry is already signed You know it's gonna get a little tight But it's not the money

27:40It's it's the Avenue's to upgrade That are virtually non-existent going into 2026 I mean maybe a name or two pops up between now The fucking are tell you penair in rumors The flyers have interest in penair like You don't want Shane Wright Or Robert Thomas or Jason Robertson Or Quinn Hughes or Marco Rossi Or David Urichek You don't want any of those guys But you want 35-year-old Artemi Panarin Now even at 35 He'd probably still be the best player in this team By like a fucking country mile Which is That's a different problem for a different day I suppose But like you're gonna bring in the 35-year-old And then what He's probably once I think Expecting averages in the 12-mill range I believe That averages in sane Why Why would that be the guy Of everybody in the league that you're targeting right now I mean as a fan It'd be like fun

28:40I guess he'd be the biggest thing the flyers have done in like Probably 20 years As far as they overshoot in Shayweber But in terms of what the flyers need right now Do you need a 35-year-old panarin On this roster for four more years Don't you have enough player signed until they're 40 Really need another Another winger on top of that I don't know I don't know what you do anymore Things are getting real Real antsy again This fan base is getting pissed off And there's just no easy solutions here And it's a it's that mix that fascinates me Especially if they suck to end this here If they just come back from the Olympic break And just spiral out of control And there's no saving this ship I don't know I don't know how you get better I don't know what you do here They just need to You can't They can't sit here and go okay Well we're gonna rebuild for real now

29:40It just seemed like the plan by the way Breyer was still Talking about the playoffs And his thing they'd sent out that season ticket letter But you're the renewal letter from Hilfordy We're glad that this team's back in our competitive playoffs They're doing everything we can We're glad you're here to build a It's like they did the work extension It's just so poorly timed To start putting out shit like that But I don't know I don't think a lot of changes happening And if changes are gonna happen You're in We're in for a world of shit next year If nothing changes And nothing's gonna change If you're not gonna change the roster And I think it's gonna change Run the same product back for a 15th year in a row Maybe that'll change this time And I don't know, man Flyers are in a really bad state right now That is the overarching point to this They call Matt Mimitchkov fat You got a shitty coach You got no hope for the future

30:42They have this weird like Anti-fan vendetta Does the front office And your only hope is Porta Marton And they're not tanking like That's something I think people need to get over Is the idea that the flyers are tanking Oh well they're no No tanking To me the idea of tanking always involved like a plan It was part of the plan The flyers wanted to make the playoffs this year They made that perfectly clear And they just suck this bad Rebuilding And tanking is intentional losing The flyers are just losing Because they don't know how to build a hockey team It's the consequences of your shitty coaching hire In horrendous roster construction It's not a plan they're not tanking Tanking lets them off the hook For their shitty decision making You got to talk it

31:42He's frustrated I've been here so many times And I'm sick of losing I'm sick of missing the playoffs Travis Kineckney debuted in 2016 He resigned in 2024 That stretch Was some of the worst hockey In the history of the entire organization Not just his career Not just recent history And that post-pandemic run there When these players resigned long term And these Kineckneys and Cateriades And then they come out and go I'm tired of losing Clearly not If you were tired of losing you wouldn't have resigned with the flyers You would have left and went and joined the winning team But you're resigned here And so many people were mentioned after that Being like it's admirable that Kineckney resigned Because it means he wants to win here And he doesn't want to win here If you wanted to win if that was your priority

32:42You would not sign a contract With a team that you've been on for a decade And made the playoffs twice Twice Kineckney's been here since 2016 Made the playoffs twice 2018 and 2020 And he has like what one point in those 20 games Whatever it is Maybe it was one goal and like three points I'm tired of losing guys Yeah, fuck it me too That's why I'm not watching your product anymore So all you do is lose You've been losing all these Ugh This team Here I am ready to retire from all this And step away You have largely step away from the website And preparing my out for the podcast Ready to step away from all this And it's when you all need negative Dan the most Like a bad signal back in the year Come save us Daniel Event for us That's what I shall do At least for now

33:42At some point I'm just gonna tap out and stop watching this team And stop doing this entirely That day may be coming sooner than we fucking think of this point Well hey I guess I'll wrap this one up I'm gonna go on for another fucking hour quite frankly I'm gonna I'm gonna not Be back uh at least got we uh Got a frequent flyer That you'll hear some point Either uh This week or over the weekend Show me back with somebody we're gonna try and get another New French bash of a frequent flyer recordings And sometime this week I think so Give you preoccupied for the Olympic break But um Yeah, if not Let me show this week There may even be some stuff on the website Yeah, I may I may have Written down some of my frustrations Before I came here and talked about them So you may get some of that as well So check that out by leapuck.com

34:42And uh yeah At Dan the flyer fan I'm sure you all know that by now Come tell me how great the flyers are And I will point in laugh at you In real life Quite frankly I'll put my phone on the table and point Fuckin takes it out great the flyers That's true by the way That's not even just I will laugh at you Anyway Yeah, so until next time everyone Goodbye And good night Good night Good night Good night