(upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) - Hey everybody, how you doing? - Well that's good. - Welcome to PHLY. Flyers, my name is Bill Matz. I'm your director of fun and games on this absolutely stupendous Friday the 13th. - Yeah, it was a Friday the 13th. - Miskov day. - I didn't realize that. - I am just absolutely excited to see the mad Russian and orange and black for the very first time tonight up in Allentown at the PPL Center. Flyers Rangers rookie game. But joining me today, for all that, we gotta do the show. - Joining me today, Philadelphia's number one hockey beat writer, it is Charlie O'Connor. How you doing today Chuck? - I'm back, back. - How was it? - Back for my trip to faraway voorhees and jerks. - Yeah, how was it? - Or it's now $1 more expensive to get back here. - It's, I just don't look. That's the, how were your first two days of school, bud? Making any new friends, how's it going down there? - The really? - Yeah, there really wasn't anyone on the media side that was new. Everyone was just, you know, meeting up with the old friends. - Of course, of course. - No new classmates. And nevermind, we'll move on. I'm just gonna make other jokes, but I really shouldn't. So this is the first thing I wanna ask, and obviously it's unserious 'cause that's who I am. As I mentioned, today is Friday the 13th. Maffey Mishkov makes his debut on the quote unquote "unluckiest day." You know? - Okay. - We have talked forever about how this team's luck just needs to turn. Like they have just suffered from inexplicable bad luck for years now. Yeah, like just some really bad decisions and all sorts of organizational problems. But on top of that, horrible luck. - Indeed. - I just feel like this means something. - Do you? - I know that the universe is ambivalent, but I don't know, man. Sometimes things just go a certain way. - I feel like this means something. - I don't know. As much as I believe that the universe is random and chaotic, the last 10 years of "Flyers Hockey" has led me to leave the perhaps the universe does put its finger on the scale of the Philadelphia Flyers. - Only for the Philadelphia Flyers. - Only the Flyers. - Nothing else. - And maybe, just maybe, that today, Friday the 13th, is Maffey Mishkov's debut. And listen, it's a glorified scrimmage as we said yesterday. Like the rookies were on the ice with coaches for the first time yesterday. They had a morning skate today, and now they're gonna go play a game. Like, it's a glorified scrimmage. - It is. - Oh, it's absolutely a glorified scrimmage. - But they're gonna be wearing Flyers jerseys. It's going to be a packed house. This is the most excited I've been for a Flyers game in a long freaking time. And it just feels like we're on the upswing. I know I've had my questions and my concerns about where this rebuild is going, and they still have such a long way to go in terms of building a team that can one day win a Stanley Cup. But I said to JP yesterday, like, I don't, today I'm happy. Today, like I am flired the hell up, man. And it's because we finally have the one thing we've been begging for. And Keith Jones joined Anthony Gargano on his show this morning. At the end of today's show, we're gonna show you that interview. Charlie was on with Gargano as well today, right before they were back to back. So check out the whole thing. Check out Gargano's whole show, right? - It was an entire Flyers section of the year. - Yeah, look at that. That's where we are right now. And Gargano said this to Jonesy. You'll hear it in the interview after the show. It's week two of the Eagle season. Philly's making their playoff push. They did like an hour of Flyers today. - Yeah, love it. - That means in a town where the sport, all four sports are fighting each other for coverage. And the Flyers have lost that fight consistently for a decade. - Indeed. - There is this hope of like maybe they'll be back one day. And it starts tonight with Maffey Mishka. I'm not to mention Jelu Chanko and a whole bunch of other guys. But that's, you know, my nonsense, Friday the 13th. Happy Friday the 13th, the all who celebrate. Charlie, yesterday was day one. We played some highlights on the show yesterday, the very first Michigan attempt that apparently drew some laughs from the coaching staff. - I didn't see that, but apparently John. - John Bailey tweeted it. - John Bailey was, I guess like immediately turns to stare at the coaches. - Yeah, the coaches, yeah. - Yeah, John Bailey tweeted that the whole coaching staff then looked towards and laughed at him. We saw a spinarama to set up a 2-on-1 chance. We saw him dig a puck out, get it to Jelu Chanko for a goal. - Lot of fun, lot of excitement. What did you see from, we'll start with Mishka of yesterday, just what was it like watching him? - It was cool. It was cool that it felt real. He's on the ice in a formal setting with his teammates doing things. He wasn't incredible. If you were expecting him to come on the ice and the heavens to open up and God himself to be saying, "This is my favorite son with whom I am well pleased." That was not ever going to happen, but-- - And it's the first day of practice. - But, he showed off the skills. He's got great hands. The quick hands were obvious throughout the practice. He looked good. He looked good from what Emil Andre said after practice. He said he was hyper-competitive and Andre loves that because he considers himself to be hyper-competitive as well, loves to have that kind of competition on the ice. The vibes were fantastic, I would say. All good vibes, the place was significantly busier than it would be normally on the first day of rookie camp. I actually said that to Anthony this morning that there are some decent crowds for the beginning of training camps, sure. First day of rookie camp, nah, that's the 10 media members that show up a scattered group of like 10 to 20 fans that walk in and fly our jerseys to get the autograph of whoever the first round pick is from the previous year. According to the flyers, and I did not count, so I'm just going to trust that they weren't exaggerating too much. They estimated out 300 people showed up on a Thursday morning in September after school has started. - A school story, yeah. - I would say that is a sign that the fans are excited. - It's just seems like the culmination, like, and again, they're a long way away from this actually, like playing, I mean, they're a long way away still from, it's still what, a month almost, a little less than a month before meaningful games even begin, but it just seems like the beginning of something here, something meaningful. - I really hope so. - And fans are so freakin' excited. - Yeah. - You know, like, even today, they're on Gargano, they're talking about like, yeah, temporary expectations, he's still, he hasn't turned 20 yet, you know? - Sure. - But I'm throwing all that away for right now. I am just an unabashed, and you, Capital J Journalist, I get it. My expectations, my optimism, my excitement is to, the ceiling is the roof, to quote Michael Jordan. Well, that is, I don't know numbers, but I'm just like, oh yeah, he's went in the colder, he's gonna be everything I want him to be, I am so freakin' excited. - Okay, so here's a question for you, that, because look, I'm approaching it this from a journalist's standpoint. Whatever happens tonight, I'm gonna write about it, I'm gonna explain it, I'm gonna, you know, make it into a story, that is my job. What are you expecting from Hitchcock tonight? - While, again, like regular season expectations, you're gonna be up against men, you're gonna be up against the best players in the world, it might not be exactly what we want right away. Rookie game, expecting them, I don't know, put on a show, but I expect to come out of tonight's game, I'm gonna leave the PPL Center with a whole bunch of diehards who we gave tickets away to, it's gonna be like 20 people joining us, and I think we're going to be leaving that rink saying, "Mafe Mishkop was the best player "in the ice." Does that translate to three goals? Does it, you know, he gets a break away and two assists? I think we're gonna say he was the best player on the ice tonight. - Okay. - So, what happens if he's not? It, (laughs) I jump out this window, (laughs) no, it's, listen, it's, we know it's a process, we know young guys might take a little while, and that might back me off of some of my, okay, regular season optimism. He's got a ways to go. Also, like, there's no structure. These are line mates he, like, he's had for a day. - One day, yeah. - Yeah, one day, like, Elliot Deinoye is gonna be on his line. He has never played with either of these guys before. - That's true. - Like, Jet Luchenko probably just met, Matt Vaymichkov yesterday. Like, they don't speak the same language, although it really seems as if he's trying. - He sure seems like it. - Like, if he, if I don't, I'm gonna have a whole bunch of excuses as to why. That's what I'm gonna, that's it. - Okay, okay. - No, I'm not, honestly, it's not gonna kill my buzz. I am going to come up with a whole bunch of takes from Monday's show as to why it wasn't his fault. (laughs) That's, that's what it's gonna be. - Fair. - Just Miskkov, in terms of, I realize, like, it's not like they're playing games out there yesterday. It's a morning skate today. - Yeah. - Not a lot. - It's on my stream with Luchenko. - It did appear. - Kind of seemed like they had a little something. - It did appear that the two of them showed something yesterday. Now, we'll see in a game situation, obviously. We're gonna see that tonight. The fliers too, we rank them as their two top prospects. I guess you could theoretically argue that Oliver Bonk might be a better prospect than Joe Luchenko, but they're at least two out of their best three, I would say. They're putting them together. They wanna see the magic app. They do. And the thing that Luchenko brings to the table is speed. Miskkov is a good skater, not a bad skater. He's not slow, by any means. He's not a burner. He's not going to be flying up and down the ice and generating all the zone entries every single time the way Conor McDavid does. And really, the way Jett Luchenko probably will. Like Jett Luchenko should be the guy who's blasting the puck through the middle of the ice, particularly on, on power plays, because he's real fast and he's gonna back off defenses because he has that high end speed. And the Rangers prospects and young players and invites are gonna pick that up very quickly. The Jett Luchenko can fly. If Jett can get Miskkov in the offensive zone more, you gotta think that's a good thing for everyone because we wanna see Miskkov work in his office, in the zone where the wizard degree can take place. So I like the idea. I think it's cool. And generally speaking, this is what happens in these games. They put the best prospects with the other best prospects to see what the two or the three have together. So it makes sense, but they didn't have to 'cause they could have put Miskkov with, you know, Rizzo or somebody else. Nah. I put him in Jett Luchenko. They know people are gonna get excited about that. They're excited about that. You know, I think you mentioned it before we went on that Inlet Perry Air, who's basically running rookie camp, went on the Flyers Daily Show with Jason Martinez yesterday and Martinez asked him about the Lions and Lappy Basie said, "Hey, that's about my pay grade." They picked the Lions for these games, which tells me that Danny Breair and Keith Jones and maybe even John Torella wants to see Miskkov with Luchenko and that's cool. And we're gonna get into the Lions and pairs in a little bit for tonight's game. I like the dynamic though. There's, with this top line, I think there's something to it that could give us a little hint as to who Matt they might be playing with in the regular season, at least to start. I mean, he's gonna play on every line at different points, but I don't know who you got a chance to talk to yesterday, but-- Is there, we talked to quite a few people? Yeah, we obviously talked to Miskkov, of course. We would have been a dereliction of duty if we did not request. You and I would not be speaking if you didn't talk to Miskkov yesterday. So we got that, we got Miskkov, we got a meal Andre. We got Carter Southeran. And there was a fourth player who we got, but it's slippy in my mind right now. We obviously got Ian Leperrier. And then today we got Hunter McDonald, we got Elliot De Noye, and we got Samu to Amal. Starting with Lappy, but anyone who had anything to say about Miskkov, what was the general take on number 39? Quick hands, very competitive. I have a piece coming out, hopefully in the next couple of days. It's really hard to work on bigger pieces during rookie camp, because it's every single day. And now we're covering practices. We're going up to Allen Town, going up to Allen Town, doing these videos, doing shows. I hope I can get this piece out soon because it does shed some light on who Miskkov is as a person. And I think people really enjoy it. But to answer your question, I think everyone is very impressed with just how much Miskkov cares that this isn't just a rookie camper. And look, there is a world, and I think this is not the case because it's very much not who he is. And it's part of the reason why he's so good is that he's not like this. But Danny Breyer straight up said in July that Mafai Miskkov was making the Philadelphia Flyers. This rookie camp really doesn't mean squat to Miskkov. He could breeze through this rookie camp, knowing that the real camp is going to start in a week. And this is all just a format that he's got to do. I get the sense from everyone I talk to that he ain't treating this like a formality. He's treating this like every single rep, every single practice, every single, one of these rookie games that he gets to be in, he's going to treat like it's the most important thing in the world because that's just who he is. That's what makes him great. - There is the endless, and it's such a North American, Canadian driven market that like these stereotypes are oftentimes unfair. Like you don't get to be Alex Ovechkin and be like, oh, he's kind of lazy. Like, I doubt it. I doubt you can be one of the best players ever. And that would be, that means you're the most gifted player of all time. But there is this stereotype sometimes about these offensively gifted Russians that like, ah, yeah, man, if he tried, he'd score 100. It doesn't seem like that. - Guys like Alexander Simmons, guys like that. Yeah, there were ones who, you know, I think Alexi Kovalov had that Kovalov had and had that reputation of, yeah, he's real good. But if he actually gave a crap, he'd be a top three player in the NHL. I don't think we're going to have to worry about that one. - That's like Mitch Kovalov. - Mitch Kovalov is nowhere near that, like fair, unfair stereotype. He is the opposite of why. - If that's Jared, I was another. - Mercurial, whatever. - Jared had all sorts of it. - An SAT word, mercurial. - Yeah, he had all sorts of-- - He was difficult. - You know, but it's just exciting to hear like, Jonesy say how they're impressed with how mature Jet Luchenko's game is. And then you match that with just the competitiveness and the willingness to get better every day of Maffee Mitch Kovalov. And it's like, man, I know we were kind of low when the Luchenko pick when it happened. And we'll see how this works out, especially with Zeev. - Yeah, we'll see. - They'll always be that Zeev comparison. - We'll find out a couple years. - It's going to be Earl Thomas, Brandon Graham. - Yeah, like, and it took years for that. - It took years for that to swing until Jet scores the game winning goal in the couple. - Yeah, like, exactly. It took, like, it's very exciting right now to just see this thing happening. Was there any, I'm gonna talk about Matt Vay's press conference. - Yeah, I wanna talk about that too. He's working on that English, man. - I made this point in my article. I made it in the video. I made it on Twitter that I get the sense almost that he's approaching learning English with the same competitiveness that he approaches hockey, which is wild. The fact, 'cause he was, he went into that press conference 'cause he obviously had the translator. He had Slavikus and that soft son, Max, who was doing the translating yesterday. It was clear, he went into that press conference, thinking to himself, if I have the opportunity to answer in English, I'm gonna answer in English 'cause I wanna show them that I'm working on this. And that was cool. I'm like, listen, if he played for The Flyers for 20 years and never learned a word of English, I would not care. - If he's a Hall of Fame coward player, no one would care. - He can speak gibberish. He could be Billy Madison out there. I would not care what language he's speaking. But it is so impressive to me as someone who like was pretty damn good at school without trying at all. I could not pick up foreign line. Like I would take Spanish. I took Spanish from fourth grade to 11th grade. I can speak Verde game when I go to the corner store. That's what I know for people who understand that reference. To be great. And we're talking about a dude who has a chance to be an elite NHL player. That takes, to be great at something, 10,000 hours, that whole thing. It takes so much effort to do this one thing at such a high level. I cannot imagine then going home and doing homework. Like that is insane to me. And I do think it kind of speaks to the drive of the kid where it's like put a challenge in front of him and he's already trying to tackle it. It's like, I don't know, man, you're about to, on October 11th, you were going to be suiting up in the NHL for real. You're learning this on the side and like, seems to be going all right. It's going all right. - Very, very impressed by the character of this person. I think it, as much as I don't care what language he speaks, again, who cares? - Well, it makes your job easier. - Makes my job easier. - It makes your job a whole, like the best player on the team who's the biggest story in the world for us. Yeah, being able to talk to him is probably pretty important for you. But just the drive to want to do it and already kind of be on it is very, very impressive for, again, a 19-year-old. - And I think it's just important too for his overall comfort level because if you can more easily interact with your teammates and your coaches, it's just going to make things seem easier in terms of, you know, not even play. 'Cause I think the hockey, yeah, there might be a couple of things that, you know, would be easier if he understood what John Twitter was yelling on a given day, but overall, we're not. - He knows hockey. - Yes. - Hockey is a universal language regardless of where you came from. It's the game. It's ice, it's pucks, it sticks, it's hockey. - Draw it on a whiteboard and he'll know what you're saying. - But I am very much of the belief that happy players are better players and he will be much happier if he can go out with the boys and have some fun rather than going home after every game and staring at a wall. And the quicker-- - Not be abandoned in a hotel room, not be abandoned in a hotel room. - The quicker he picks up, at least the generalities of English, the easier it's going to be for him to go to a Phil's game with Faraby and Dry Sale in York. You know what I mean? Because it's not that I think they're going to be like, you have to learn English before you hang out with us, but-- - Probably makes it a lot easier. - He's going to have more fun, you know? And I think that's important. I think it's important for him to feel like he belongs. And it's going to be easier for him to feel like he belongs when he can be involved in the discussions. I mean, I might even talk about different languages, but it's more fun when you're around a group of people and you know what they're talking about. And you get the references, you get everything. Whereas now he's probably sitting in the cafeteria or whatever in the facilities and people around him are chatted up and he's picking up every fourth word, baby. And that's got to be frustrating. And I think the quicker that he figures out what's going on and what everybody's saying and can be involved in the inside jokes and everything, I think it's going to be better for him, definitely in terms of his happiness and his mental health, but I think that carries over into play. So I love the fact that he's working hard on this. I think it's really cool. - I think, like you said, it's definitely, it bodes well. It just bodes well because he definitely knows, while I think it was probably overblown and maybe there's a good side to it that he's so demanding of his teammates and all this, there was that little bit of concern. Maybe it's part of the reason he dropped to the Flyers at seven that like, oh, he's maybe not the easiest teammate. - I think it's a big reason why he wasn't taking a five. - Yeah. - I tell you that. - I think there was concern that maybe he's a little tough to play with. Regardless of how true it is, regardless of how much an issue it actually is, he knows that that was said about him. Like, oh no, I can tell you with certainty, he knows. Like him picking this up, I think very much speaks to him wanting to, yeah, listen man, I'm gonna yell at you on the bench, but we're boys, I wanna be boys with my teammates. It's just there's gonna be a standard and honestly good. I said for years, you know, I think this locker room is sometimes a little too pleased with itself. We could use a little bit more of that on the bench, but obviously, like you said, a happy team is a better team. - Yes. - Off the ice is special. - Absolutely. I think he, Mitchkopf actually said something. He said something yesterday, obviously via the translate. And there were a couple of questions he answered in English. He made a joke about the questions were really hard. They weren't when he said hard questions, which was legitimately very funny. But he-- - Sorry, bust 'em bowl. - He did make a comment through the translator that I thought was interesting and does speak to what you were talking about, about the idea of him being difficult. You know, with teammates at times, particularly in his draft year, not his draft plus one. The question had something to do with like, have you gotten to know your teammates and everything like that? And he said, through the translator, he skated with most of the main roster guys already. He said it's a pleasure to play with guys with such high hockey IQ and it's gonna be really nice to finally play with the flyer guys. I think, and maybe I'm being overly optimistic here, but I think that a big reason why he got so frustrated at times with his teammates, especially in Sochi, was because they didn't give a crap and because they weren't that good. And I know that it has become a fun thing on flyer social media to act like the flyers players currently are bad and that they're not actually that good and they don't have high-end talent. They are so much better, especially the players on Sochi. - Than the players that were on Sochi. And they all care so much more than most of the players on Sochi. They were guys on that Sochi team that were just basically playing out the string. Like they were going in, they were cashing a check and it was like, all right, whatever. This is a job. The idea, like Mitch Koff is incapable of understanding someone who isn't obsessed with being great. And while there will be NHL players, I'm sure, who have a little bit lower on the give a crap chart, they're gonna be all significantly higher than probably the worst guys on Sochi. And I thought it was interesting that Mitch Koff straight up said, like, it's gonna be great to play with guys with really high hockey IQ because what kind of was left unsaid was that he's playing with a lot of guys who didn't have very high hockey. - We talked about this a little yesterday, JP and I, like, whatever tier you wanna put Travis connecting in, we debated his contract all off season, we debated how good he actually is all off season, not interested in that. I believe it to be a fact that Travis connecting would be the best player in the KHL. - Very, very possible. - Jordan wheel was the fourth highest score. - Exactly, it's like, exactly. - You pop Travis connecting on, on Scott St. Petersburg. Yeah, he's probably scored 90. - Yes, like, and that's, he has never had anything close to this. He's probably very excited to have guys. Now, hopefully he's the best player on the team. He's the colder trophy winner. He gets heart votes. We're off to the races in the playoffs this year. Rebuilds over, we have a superstar. Hopefully that's all the case. But, like, even if it's not, this is still the best group of players he's ever been with. It has to be. - You would think. You would think. And I think he's excited about that. - He's excited that, you know, even if it turns out that no one on the Flyers can quite match him, I think he's very excited to play with players that can at least come close. - Yeah. - Much closer than any of the other guys he played with, especially on Sochi. You know, he played a little bit with Scott St. Petersburg, which is a top tier KHL team. - Yeah. - And along with them. And when he was playing with them, he was playing down the line up because Roddenberg was insane. - He played one like four minute game with them last year. - Yeah, exactly. - That's what it came down to. All right, we have a lot more to talk about with Mavé Michkov, the rookie game tonight. Charlie's impressions of camp. But before we get to that, it's not just hockey season. It's not just Michkov season. It's fall allergy season. Man, I have been a fall allergy sufferer my whole life. And straight up, it sucks. Fall allergies can begin as early as August and last into November. Well, we're at September 13th and they are here, dude. It's an issue. We know the culprits is the ragweed, the mold, plants like sagebrush and pigweed, some dust mites, even your pets, standard and fur can flare up symptoms. There are some things you can do, some preventative measures you can take. First of all, sign up for Rite Aid Rewards emails at Rite Aid.com/rewards to receive email pollen alerts for your area. And when pollen counts are high, try to stay inside a little bit more. Maybe run that air conditioner, close those windows, just try to avoid the situation to kill some of those symptoms and pick up a dehumidifier in your local Rite Aid, dust mites and mold thrive in human environments. And a dehumidifier helps take the moisture out of the air so that those allergens cannot grow. Shower frequently. Good advice, no matter the situation. And if you're gonna be outside, like I said, I've been putting up my Halloween decorations, if you're gonna be doing some gardening, whatever it might be, wear a mask, maybe some gloves, just, again, just try to protect yourself. But if these preventative measures aren't enough, check out the over-the-counter options at Rite Aid, like a nasal rinse or when symptoms are flaring up, try some antihistamines, like Claritin, or also available in Rite Aid brand, as is their tech with Rite Aid brand as well, a little cheaper, same medicine, and one to two weeks before pollen allergies are expected to be high, try a nasal corticosteroid like Flonase or Nezacorte, also available in Rite Aid brands as well. Still not enough relief, still have questions. Ask a Rite Aid pharmacist if a different type of allergy medication, like a decongestant might be necessary. You can always ask your Rite Aid pharmacist for recommendations on ways to get relief during allergy season. And while we're here, let's talk about making good decisions. We want to see a bunch of good decisions from Matthew Mishkov on the ice tonight. But we're talking about good financial decisions. One of the best financial decisions you can make is switching from a big bank to True Mark Financial Credit Union, and the switch is so easy, because they know it's a pain. Oh, you have this and that set up. It just seems easier to stay at this big bank. It really is not difficult at all, and it's because you get such great personalized service from all of the members and all of the employees at one of any of the dozens of True Mark branches. One of the reasons you might want to leave a big bank, banks are typically for profit institutions owned by shareholders. What's their goal? Well, it's to generate profit for those shareholders. Well, as a credit union like True Mark Financial is a non-for-profit financial cooperative owned by the members. So if you live or work in Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery, or Philadelphia counties, you're eligible to join and member benefits include great rates, lower fees, and that personalized service I'm talking about. You have advisors at every branch that can provide personalized financial planning and expertise, so you can learn about goal setting for long-term financial security and who the hell couldn't use that. True Mark Financial is federally insured by the NCUA and is an equal opportunity lender. For more information, visit truemark.com/phly. All right, Charlie, so I think that's kind of the mishcobs. Anything else pop about mishcobs before we get into some other guys? Not really, I think everyone's just excited about this game. It's vibes right now, man. It was 300, I realize again, it's a Thursday morning during school, I was expected a little more than 300. Did you? Yeah. Was it like a madhouse? No, it wasn't, but there were lines. The line you took was like around the corner. It wasn't packed to the degree of like, for example, the degree to which the scrimmage was on Saturday during development camp. That was like wall-to-wall pass. Interesting. But again, that was Saturday. Yeah. This is a Thursday, in September, people have jobs and people are in school. Absolutely, so I understand. I just, I don't know, I had it built up in my head that it was gonna like BTO and Lehigh, but again, that was the summer as well. So, all right. We're gonna start with some of the other rookies, Charlie. First one I wanna talk about, and this is cause of great excitement. Jet Luchenko, not, I mean his presence, his speed. Like, oh, that's great. Doesn't have like a random rookie number. He's wearing 17 out there. I wasn't aware that people were making a big deal about this until around like 6 p.m. last night when I got on Discord, and someone straight up added me and was like, does it mean anything that he has number 17 and he changed over like, I don't think so. It just means he changed his number. But I gathered it on Twitter. This was a thing that people convinced themselves that because he changed his number, he's gonna make a team. Yeah, I don't know about that. I just think first, and we're gonna get into this. Like, to me, yeah, a lot of times rookies are just wearing weird numbers like, machine gossip where comes up and wears 53 and had no intention of keeping it. But it was like, oh, you sold so many jerseys. I think I'm just gonna keep it, so I don't think convenience people. Like, I think that happens some times. What was like more in Frost is Danny's number. Danny's because it was given to him. And then suddenly everyone was like, it's so cool. You're a skilled, offensively oriented forward, and you have Danny Breyer's number, and then he actually got to know Danny. Yeah. And said, okay, I guess I'm keeping the thing. What stood out to me personally is not that he had like, a regular number. It's that it's number 17, and number 17 is very much. Obviously, like, there's the retired numbers where one guy made it theirs, like, you know, 16 Bobby Clark, 88 Eric Lindross. These are untouchable numbers. Superstore Hall of Famiers. Like, I'd be surprised if anybody gets 28 for quite a while. Yeah, it'll be probably a little bit. But 17 has kind of been this, and there's some other guys in between them, and the last dude to where it was Zach McEwen, and so much as I love him, 'cause we're like twins. Not exactly some of the other guys on this list, but just looking at some of these names, like Paul Holmgren, 500 Games for the Flyers, racked up 309 points and 1600 PIMs. In the late '70s, early '80s, and we know he coached the team for three plus years. He was the AGM, he was the GM, he was the Poho, and I was a senior advisor. That's a franchise legend, Paul Holmgren. He is one of the, you know, lifers. Rod Brenda Moore, a huge fan favorite. 601 points and 633 Games with the Flyers, led the 97 playoffs in goal scoring with 13 goals. Jeff Carter, I mean, the man for his time. Scored a lot of goals. 181 goals in six seasons. He has 46 goals in '08, '09. Second most for Andy Flyer since the lockout behind only Kanye's 47. And Wayne Simmons, like Mr. Flyer of his era. 203 goals in 584 Games. 784 penalty minutes were fifth most in the league in that span when he was here. Fan favorite, Ultimate Flyer, all that stuff. The Wayne train. I'm just saying 17 isn't a random number. It's something you put on a guy you expect. Something out of a disability, I believe. I don't think it's like the Yankees where they lined everyone up. No. But like, it does, number 17 means something, at least to me. Okay, that's interesting. I, you don't put much stock in this time. I don't put a lot of stock in this being that meaningful. I, and I was, I was surprised because it just, I, when I saw it on the ice, I was just like, oh, he has a number, cool. I was not expecting five hours later to realize that like Twitter had turned it into a thing. I just didn't expect it. And I don't think this means he's making the team. Like we said, it's a non-zero, I guess he gets the non-game tryout and we'll see from there, but like chances are that's not happening. In La Parrier straight up said yesterday, he's not going to term pro for a couple of years. Okay, he actually said. Yeah, he's straight up said now. Okay. Again, in La Parrier isn't the end-all, be-all of information in the organization. That's true. Perhaps he has not been made privy to the, the plans of Danny Brere and company in terms of Jetluchenko, especially because Ian La Parrier is never coached Jetluchenko before. It's not like one of the guys that he's familiar with from Lehigh Valley. But the fact that he gave that on prompt, it tells me that it's not as if they are all speaking by enclosed doors about the secret plans of which Jetluchenko in the lineup for game. He's going to be one C on October 11th. Yeah, I don't, I don't think that's happening. The fact that he actually said that kind of tempered my expectations of even maybe the non-game tryout. Outside of the number, I know that's a much bigger deal to me than it is to you. I mean, it's a cool number. It's interesting. I 17 is just an interesting number of flyers history because it's very clearly one of those numbers that no one has worn it who has been good enough to get it retired? To get it retired, but a lot of players have been like that next level down. And there are the flyers I don't think have historically been one of these teams. But there are teams that rather than retire a number, it's like an honored number. And you wear that because you're one of these guys. Yeah, that's fair. And 17 is kind of that in my head. Do you think? Yeah. Okay. Other than the number, like the speed, chemistry with, with Mishkov, like did he just, when he skates, is it him and then everyone else out there? Yeah, from a speed standpoint, sure. He is a really, really good skater. And it's hard not to notice him. Like you're going to notice him, and I said this, I think this morning on the Organa show, but, or maybe I said it in the post practice videos. I don't know. I'm doing a lot of videos, okay? It's hard to keep track. It's hard to keep track. Working, man. You're working. We're obviously going to be watching Mishkov because he is the focus of all of this. It is going to be impossible not to also notice Luchenko because he's on the ice at the same time as Mishkov and he's a very noticeable player because he has the one tool that is-- Everyone can see. It is the one thing you could have never seen hockey before and you go, "Oh, he just got by everybody." Yeah, like speed pops. And I'm looking forward to seeing that. And like in terms of the game tonight, and we'll see what the lineups are for Saturday. I haven't seen anything about that yet, but we know that it's going to be at least a start, first line, Luchenko Mishkov. Look, there's only 14 healthy forwards at this camp. I'm not going to say for like, for certain that Mishkov is not going to play Saturday. The fact that they only said he's playing Friday tells me that he might only play the one game. So that means that there's only one other forward who's playing in this game who's not going to play on Saturday. Is it possible that Luchenko is the other one? Maybe, but I could see them playing Luchenko both games. But you said earlier, like in the grand scheme of things and Mishkov is so competitive and he just wants to play. He just freaking loves hockey so much. But in the grand scheme of things, rookie camp, rookie game, doesn't really matter for him. He's making the team. Yeah, unless he hits Lee in La Parrier over the head with his stick, he's making the freaky team. Even that he's still making it. Towards is like, that's what I want. I love it, love it. You're the captain. This is kind of important for Jet Luchenko. Just, I mean, listen, he's the first round pick. They went a little bit off board, little bit of a reach to get him. They clearly like him. But in terms of me, even just perception to me and idiots like me, I want to see what you got, kid. This is, there's an opportunity. I want to see Mishkov dominate because he's an NHL player. But it's like, all right, Jet, let's see it. Man, let's show me what they saw. I think if there's, if it plays out where Luchenko is nearly as, if not just as impressive as Mitchkoff, that will be huge for Luchenko. Given the hype surrounding Mitchkoff, that Luchenko has an opportunity here to, if he has a really strong performance where he is not just like second banana to Mitchkoff, but like, oh, it was Luchenko and Mitchkoff show, the Mitchkoff and Luchenko show. I think that will increase the hype in Fliers fan circles for Jet Luchenko. There is an opportunity here. I don't think there was a serious opportunity for him to make the team out of camp. Can't entirely roll out the possibility of an audition, but I don't think it's likely. And I think the Fliers are already super high on Luchenko. So I don't think that his performance in camp, from a, like, if he plays really, really well in the early game, I don't think it's gonna make them much higher on him than they already are. They already love this kid. But I do think it'll make the fans a lot higher on him. - No, I think I started the sentence and I was like, they love him clearly, they drafted him. And they drafted him over some guys that were consensus. - Better process. - Exactly. - Time will tell. But yeah, for me and the contingent of fans who are nuts are sickos, I think this is important. And getting to see him, 'cause one of the things that we've talked about with Luchenko is they think he could have had 90 points last year if any of his teammates could play. - Yeah, pretty much. - Well, these guys could play. - Here's an opportunity. - Yeah, these guys could play. - Your right winger tonight is gonna be in a top six role in the NHL in a month. - Yep. - So here's a better, here's an opportunity to show that you can play alongside better guys. I think that's important. - And your other winger is a two-year pro. - Yeah. - The next dude I wanted to talk about is Denver Barkey. - Sup? - Hey, he's got mono. - The reason this is funny to me is we all know about Denver Barkey undersized and the baby face. And I'm just like, Denver Barkey, going to make out parties. (laughing) - Like, is that how you're spending your time? - I don't know if that's how he got mono. - We do not. But when you hear mono, that is-- - Yeah, I know. - Yeah, I know. - That is the-- - It's the kissing disease. - That's the bias. Yeah, I know. - I agree. - But I know you kinda had this a couple days ago and you're like, when it happens, if you can't skate, I'll be able to report it. Have they known about this for some time? - My understanding is that I believe he, when he went to-- - I'm sorry if I wasn't supposed to say that. - When he showed up, no, it's fine. When he showed up at London camp, I think he basically told them, like, I'm okay, but I'm kind of feeling a little under the weather, not doing great. And then they branch the test and they're like, yeah dude, you got mono. - Kinda fun somewhere. - The big thing with this, at least from, unless he's gotten worse over the last couple of weeks, the big thing with this is, even if he's feeling good, like mono affects your spleen. And you don't want there to be a situation where you send him out there, he feels fine, he takes a hit, and then a spleen gets screwed up. So you wanna play it safe here. I think that's what the flyers are doing. - All right. - But it's a bummer because Barkey was one of the standouts at the rookie games last year. - Yeah, he earned himself a preseason game by his play in the rookie games, and he's definitely not going to line up tonight. My assumption is that he's not gonna play on Saturday either, which means he's not getting the opportunity to make that impression. And I think he would have made a good impression. So it's a bummer. - I know. - But it's not like, it's not a concerning thing. - Yeah, no, it's just a bummer. - It's not a long tour, it just, you know, it sucks. And what concerns, and not concerns, but yeah, it's a bummer. What bums me out is, like this is a kid who believed he was snubbed from the world juniors team last year. And if this affects the beginning of his season, and it's maybe a reason he gets off to a slow start, 'cause he's not able to really get going and camp at all. And he doesn't make the team again. Like that just sucks for him. - It would. - It's something that's like out of his control. And we wanna see him. Like we really, he just put up a hundred points in the OHL. I wanna see him again. - Yeah. - Yeah. - And we're not gonna get that chance. All right. All the reports on Emil Andre. - He's quicker and more explosive. - Very positive. - Did you notice that? - I wasn't watching Andre real close, to be honest. I was watching off of a metric off, and then to a lesser extent, check and check out. So I was, no, I was not focused intently on the intricacies of Emil Andre's physical skills. However, it is very important to me, 'cause I think I noted this last week that I had heard this summer, that the fliers were a little annoyed that he didn't come to development camp. And their thought process was like, well, what are you doing? You know, you just hanging out in the suite and watching TV, you know, eating moms cooking. Like, why can't you come over to development camp? And apparently Andre told them, no, I'm working real hard. I have a training regimen. I just wanna stick with that. I'll be fine, I'll be good for camp. My understanding is that once he showed up, they were like, all right, we're not mad anymore. - All right. - Because they're like, all right, yeah. You didn't slack off this summer. - You worked your tail off. - It always seemed like one of those things like, we're not saying we don't believe you're working hard. We would just like personally to be watching you do it. - Yes, yes. - And he was like, well, you know, I'm going home. And you do spend a considerable amount of time away. Like, he's on a different continent for nine months. Maybe he wants to go home for a little bit. That's fine. And since he did put the work in, it's like, cool, bro, thanks. Hopefully we see Andre in orange and black sooner than later. - I think he's gonna be one of the main guys on watching tonight because I get the impression based on the interview we did with LePerrier yesterday. And just based on the general, like, he made the team last year. I think aside from Mitch Koff, he is the guy with the best chance of making the team. And I don't think, in terms of prospects. And I don't think it's a very good chance just because they have so many goddamn defense men, they have Ronnie Atard, who no longer is waiver exempt. So like, if they, if he doesn't make the team, he's available to everybody. That's a risk that they might not be willing to take. It's gonna be tough for Atard to make the team, or not for Andre to make the team. But I get the sense that they think he's real close. They love the work he put in over the summer. They think he's quicker. They think he's stronger. They think he's leaner, but in a good way that he has less fat and more muscle. So even if he's lowered the weight, he's actually stronger, which is the exact thing you want a young guy to be doing. It showcases the work ethic. It showcases the dedication and commitment to an off-season workout regimen. I think he's put himself in a position where if he has a real good rookie game, maybe he'll play in both. If he has a real good weekend, he could hit camp with some serious momentum. And then it just comes down to how does he do in preseason games? Because the one thing the Flyers did show last year. And this is why I'm not ruling out the possibility of anybody not making the team. Like I'm not ruling out the possibility that Andre will make the team, not ruling out Hunter McDonald, not ruling out sandwich to a mile because we saw last training camp in Bobby Brink that if a guy plays so well in camp that they won't feel comfortable telling the rest of the guys in the NHL room that this guy doesn't deserve to be here, they will find a way to keep him here. And if a meal Andre uses this to create momentum for himself going in a real camp and then in the preseason games, excels, looks good on the power play, picks up some points, makes plays, they already put him on team last year. It's not gonna be a hard sell for them to be like, all right, maybe we gotta keep eight defense gonna start the year because a meal Andre just needs to be here. He's a guy I'm gonna be watching 'cause I think there's an opportunity here for him. - That's interesting, I am, Andre's one of those guys, like could still be a boat. - Could still be great of a boat, I don't know, but like all boats are nice. - It's fun. - Maybe he's not gonna be a cruise ship but he'd be a real nice yacht. - He might not be, yeah, exactly. Like I'm looking forward to seeing him as well and just the strides he took. Like we talked yesterday, JP and I about Andre and it was, it was a, yeah, I think the speed of the game last year was something he really had to adjust to when he was in the NHL, he was in over his head. - Yes. - And a lot of that is decision making. But if you're quicker, more explosive, you get to that puck faster, you will have more time to make those decisions. Like one will help the other. - And that's the big thing that he, they thought he needs to get a little quicker. It appears he has gotten a little quicker from what I was told. He did a lot of, he didn't go into the details about the changes he made to his training regimen 'cause the big change he made was that usually he would go back and he would practice with his old club in Sweden, HV71. And he could have done that this summer. I mean, even though he's not a member of that team anymore, he still knows everybody there. They would have let him skate with the team and the facilities and everything and done all the workouts that they do. He got his own personal trainer. And what I've heard is that he really focused on like explosive plyometrics, like those kinds of like leg exercises that just doesn't necessarily make you, you know, more beefy, but it could give you that burst, that explosion that maybe he felt like he lacked a little bit last year. And according to Ian LaParere and the Flyers coach and staff, they feel like it made a difference. - All right, next guy I wanna talk about is because I've never heard of this before. Carter Southeran is apparently suffering from Wolf Parkinson White syndrome. And it's the thing that's been a issue in his life for years now, I think he said 14. - No, four. - Four. - He revealed, so I went back through and he did talk about this back in, I think Portland, the Winnipeg Free Press, I believe did an article on it last summer. But I think he said that it was, he was diagnosed with it about three or four years, or four or five years ago is what he said. - Okay, Wolf Parkinson White syndrome, if you're unfamiliar, a syndrome in which an extra electrical pathway in the heart causes a rapid heartbeat, the extra electrical pathway in Wolf Parkinson White syndrome appears between the hearts upper and lower chambers and is present at birth. Symptoms most often appear between the ages of 11 and 50 and include rapid pounding heartbeat, dizziness and lightheadedness. - It's a heartbeat thing. - It's a heartbeat thing. - Yeah. - He was back out on the ice today. - He was back out on the ice today, he's not playing tonight's game, but it's a good sign that he's back out on the ice today. He made it clear yesterday, 'cause we requested him, he wasn't on the ice, we requested him, and he could have easily been like, nah, I wasn't on the ice, I'm not available. He came out and he talks about it, and he said, it was an episode. It's basically a flare up. We got it under control, no reason to push it, but, and it's a bummer, it happened on the first, you know, leading up to the first day of camp, but he straight-up said, I'm confident I'll be able to be in the rookie games. I, if I had to guess, I think he probably plays on Saturday. - Okay. - They're maybe just giving him the extra day, he didn't skate yesterday, so it's like, well, you know, you didn't really have a day with your teammates to get yourself back into the swing of things, give you the day, he did the morning skate, he stayed afterwards and skated longer than everyone else. Saturday to me feels like the day we'll see Carter Southern. It really does seem like that was just a random flare up. - One of the things. - Not one of these, oh my God, he's gonna have to go to the hospital, just, you know, I woke up a couple of days ago and my heart was going a little crazy and had to, you know, up the medication a little bit for a couple of days, it's feeling better, but why risk it, why risk it? - Yeah, the guy I really want to talk about now. - Okay. - Hunter, Mick, Don, here we go. - It sounds like he was just whooping ass out there. - On, on Thursday, yes. - Yeah. - Today was morning skate. - Not a lot of physicality. - Most of these questions are things that we did not get to talk about because it was going on while you weren't here yesterday. - Morning skate is morning skate. He got into a war with Jacob Goucher, who was also six foot four. Oh man. Like, 'cause whenever someone was coming to the net front, Hunter McDonald was pushing 'em, he was checking 'em, he was hitting 'em with a stick, whatever. Goucher was the guy who was like, "I'm not taking this." And then he fought back and then McDonald fought back and by the end they were slashing and punching each other and barking at each other. And Leperi Airbase said like, "Oh man, Tort's had to have forget to love that, right?" - He's making this team. I don't think he's making a team. - Maybe not out of camp. - Okay, okay. - But, like, we talked before. - Oh, he's gonna get a game this year, maybe comes up the end of the year or whatever. - I think he plays this year, yeah. - And listen, Andre, probably right now ahead of him on the depth chart, maybe it's depending on-- - It's also just different roles. - If it's an injury, who the injury is to and what they're trying to replace. But I just, I have no information. That's the journalist. I'm the guy who just goes on vibes. I just feel like the call is out. Come take Risto from us and then Hunter, congratulations. I just feel like they want this guy so bad. They love his intensity. The meanness, that's what something that I heard Ann Leperi Air talk about today is like, I love a dude that, it's way easier to calm someone down than it is to try to put that meanness in them. And he has that, and we very much know that size, aggression, physicality, being an a-hole. These are things they very badly want on their blue line. And he checks all those boxes. - Well, I think it's notable, and this might be a good time to show the lineup, but I think it's notable that Hunter McDonald is paired with Oliver Bach, one of their top prospects. - Yeah. Before we move on to the lines for the game tonight, were there any other standouts, notes, guys we didn't talk about that, you're like, "Oh, huh, let's just go to the line." - Let's go to the line. Let's go to the line. - All right. - It's 152, let's go to the line. - You're right. So we have the top line of De Noye, Luchenko, and Miskov, really, really looking forward to seeing these guys play together. I do like the dynamic of your top two prospects together, and then a defensively responsible seasoned pro, couple of years pro already, in Elliott De Noye. And this was set on Flyers daily today, and it's the first thing I thought when I saw the lines. This kind of seems like a frost forester sort of pairing where, all right, we have the good skilled center. We know about Luchenko's potential playmaking. De Noye, maybe not the offensive upside of forester, but definitely a guy who can make up for the mistakes of the two young guys, especially like, it's not like they've been coached on any structure yet, it's day two. I just really like this, and I like it for De Noye as well. He needs to really show out if he's gonna, like this is a make or break year for him. This is a, S or get off the pot kind of year for De Noye. So here you go, you're playing with the top two guys. You know what your role on this line is. Let's see it. I like this grouping. - Yeah, yeah. One thing I do want to point out because I've had a lot of people on Twitter, and even I even see Jacob hate saying this in the comments section, Matt Rempe is not playing. - Not playing. - He's not in rookie camp. Why would he be in rookie camp? He was in NHL or last year. - I thought honestly he played fewer games. I looked it up 'cause I thought he was a rookie, but he played more games than I thought. - Okay. - So he's, I think at one point, like when the press release first came out, they were like, Rempe, it was one of the guys they advertised. - Oh really? - Okay. - But it might have been like, oh, and he played last year. Like maybe that was-- - I'm looking at an article right now from Vincent Merkeliano who covers the Rangers and says that Matt Rempe was given a pass for this rookie camp. So he's not there. - Okay. - I see a Sawyer Bolton versus Matt Rempe or Hunter McDonald versus Matt Rempe. I know Matt Rempe is like, I don't mind if I'm gonna get this. I think Matt Rempe gets way too much hype for what he is because he's big and he fights. He's not that big of a deal, guys. We can stop obsessing over Matt Rempe. - He is a heavyweight on the New York Rangers. - It's not that big of a deal. - That's what it comes down to. - He's not very good. - He's not. - He did score against this list. - He did, that's true. - We don't have to assess-- - The rest of these lines, I like Rizzo and Tuamala together, a couple of guys with an outside chance. But the D-Pairs are what is most interesting, I'd say. - Yes, I remember that. - Emil Andre and Spencer Gill, Hunter McDonald, Oliver Bonk. These are four dudes who all might be part of the future blue line. - Yeah, yeah, I just, I think it's interesting that McDonald is with Bonk because they like, I know they like Bonk so much. He's one of their top three prospects and they could have put Bonk with Andre and then stuck McDonald with Gill, who like, they like Gill, he was their second round pick, but they know Gill ain't making the team. - Yeah. - He's going back to Junior's probably for two more years and then we'll see what he becomes. The fact that they put McDonald with Bonk, it shows me that, yeah, they really wanna see what this Hunter McDonald kid's got. They wanna see him with a quality partner who they know is a quality partner because they wanna see just how close he really is. They're real high on Hunter McDonald, man. - I am to, I know it's not as if he has like, Norse upside, but I'm just looking forward to watching him staple dudes into the glass. I think that will be a lot of fun. - It'll be fun to watch him. So McDonald, interesting, definitely a guy worth watching. Oliver Bonk, obviously a guy worth watching. - Something you pointed out on Twitter, the top power play unit initially did not feature Oliver Bonk. - In the bumper. - And then he was always on it. - He was on it, he was on it just like a-- - The left side. - Your typical defenseman on the left side. And then they ran a set with him in the bumper, which is where he racked up all those goals and points. - Bumper Bonk. - Bumper Bonk, which is where he racked up all those goals and points. And we've questioned like, all right, but is he gonna do that at the NHL level? It's a tough thing to do, score a lot from that spot. Has a defenseman, it's pretty out there. But maybe he just has that skill set. Maybe it just works for him. I like that they're giving it a look. - Yeah, yeah, I don't dislike it. - Why not? - Another thing that I thought was interesting. So obviously you got that first line of L.A. De Noye, J. Luchenko, Moffat Mitchkopf. That's your prestige line. That's the line everybody's gonna focus on. Second line is interesting. So Massimo Rizzo, intriguing prospect. Obviously this is kind of his real debut, because while he was a development camp, he didn't compete in any of the like, the competitive drills wasn't in the scrimmage. We're still getting over the high ankle sprain. This is the first time we're gonna get to see him in a game wearing a Flyer's uniforms. I'm excited to see him. Next him is Samitu Amal, who I also think has a dark horse shot of making the team given the way he played last year, given how highly the Flyers think of him. I think they do wanna slow play his development ideally. But if he repeats last year's camp and is just as good, hey, he's gonna make him think. Next to them too though, is Joss Akreski, who, why he is interesting to me, is that he's one of two camp invites. He was draft eligible this past season. This was his first year draft eligibility and he did not get drafted. But we've seen in the past them sign undrafted guys to entry level contracts that they liked if they perform well in development camp. The fact that Zakreski is playing on what sure looks like line two, and was playing on the second power play, that strikes me as the Flyers, giving him a real look and saying, you know what kid, you want an entry level contract? Show us you want it, show us you're good enough. - And I was just looking up, the Flyers are at 44 contracts. - They could. - So they do have, they have six spots if they wanna sign a undrafted guy. - I like it. - He played for the Portland Winter Hawks last year. I didn't get something like 40-something points in 68 games. So there could be something there. And the Flyers I think wanna see, they're not just parking him on a line with Sawyer Bolton and Al Capone. They're putting him on a line with legitimate prospects and they're giving him power playtime. If he pops in a few goals, you know, maybe he goes the route of Phil Myers and Jira Avon, where they show up to camp, they impress, they get a contract, only a few months after being passed over in the actual draft. - All right, before we get to the super checks, I just wanna thank all of our PHLY diehards, and thank you very much, looking forward to meeting a whole bunch of diehards in Allentown for the game tonight. Great ticket giveaway. Just one of the many benefits of being a PHLY diehard. So thank you for all that you do for us. Couldn't do it without you. All right, Charlie, before we get to the super chats, anything else, or is it super chat time? - Ah, let's go super chats. - Super chats. - Yeah, why not? - All right, we have three of them today, first from JH, Maffet Mishkov, lifting the curse of the Wells Fargo Center tonight. Unfortunately, it's gonna be at Allentown. - Yeah, it's not a West Fargo. - Maybe, maybe making his debut elsewhere will save him from like, the curse getting to him. - Yeah, he might not, not only is he gonna make his rookie gap, can't debut elsewhere. There's a decent chance he makes his actual recent debut elsewhere, because it starts on the road. They play their first game of Washington. - And their regular season. - Does it make cool? - This starts in Vancouver. - Sure does. - All right, so we're keeping him as far away from the Wells Fargo Center as possible. - Thankfully. - All right, let's go to Kay Red. Best bit from Jonesy on Gargano. When asked about Mishkov, he immediately complimented his brain, specifically his vision, maturity and competitiveness. He wants to win all the cups. Let's effing go. - And not just one cup, all of the cups. - Just give me, I'm gonna take you guys back to Russia. We're gonna win the gaggering cup or whatever the hell it's called. - It is the gaggering cup. - The world cup, even though that's soccer, but we're gonna win all the cups. - I think it's saying it's pronounced gaggering, but you got the name right. - Listen, man, I'm trying here. All right, and now let's get to this last one here from Nathan Smith. - Oh, it's just a nice comment. - You all have made the hockey off season extremely enjoyable and insightful. Thank you, thank you all for listening. - Yeah, thanks for sticking with us. - Everybody that did, I fully understand that some people, once the season's over, are gonna say, you know what, it's summer, it's hot out. I don't wanna think about hockey. I'll join back up with the PHLY Flyers guys in September and October. But a lot of people stuck with us, and I just wanna thank everybody who watched the shows all summer. Our numbers were pretty darn good, given the fact that it was the summer. And also like the Flyers didn't really do anything. - They didn't do anything. - It blows me away. Our audience has been tremendous, so thank you all. And thank you all for joining us today. That'll do it for us, but stay tuned. After I wrap up here, we're gonna throw it to Jonesy's interview on The Gargano Show. So if you missed that, check it out. If you wanna see Charlie on The Gargano Show, watch The Gargano Show, I'm not playing both. All right, my name's Bill Matz, that's Charlie O'Connor. I will see you all in Alan's hands. Stay loose and sexy, Philly. - Hey you. - And let's welcome the President of the Flyers. Oh, look at that picture, that great. He's on the phone with us right now. He is the great Keith Jones. Jonesy! How you doing, Ant? - Dude, we're pumped up, man. And like, what is the last time that you got requests to talk about a rookie the first day of the first rookie game of care? - Well, I can tell you the entire time that I did radio at your old station, we never talked about a rookie that was coming to town. So that was over 20 years that I was there. (laughing) It never came up. Even when Juru was drafted, he was drafted in the 20s. Became a great player, but the expectations weren't necessarily that he was gonna be the player that he became. So this is different for sure. It's fun, it's exciting for all of us. And it's just a really neat time to be a part of the Flyers franchise. - What pops about, man? Like, now that you've gotten a chance to be around them, to kind of just see him, just skate. Like, what pops about him? - Well, his brain is off the charts as far as how he sees the game offensively. I believe that he's extremely committed to being great. I mean, most of us just wanted to get there, but he wants to be great. So there's a willingness, kind of, to do whatever it takes so far and what I'm seeing from him. And everything he does on the ice, whether he's out there by himself, whether he's skating with future teammates, everything he does is with a purpose. It's something that, it's just something unique. It's something you don't see all the time. I play with great players. I played on the same line as Forsberg and same line as Sakic, same line as Lindross, LaClaire. And they all had those qualities, but I've never witnessed the 19-year-old come in with it. Like, I'm sure they did. I'm sure they had that, but I played with them when they were in their prime. So this is kind of a neat thing to watch and try to project, but at the same time, keep expectations in check just because of his age. - Of course. And listen, I know that's gonna be like part of the messaging that, hey, everybody, you can't expect too much too soon, but I love what you just said, because being around great players, and it doesn't matter what sport, there is a uniqueness about how they attack it, right? Like Kobe had these qualities from very young. Like I can imagine Forsberg who still has some things to say, right? Like the guys showing up in the middle of the night, they shoot pucks and all kinds of things. Like all those guys that did things differently, and it stands out to you, right? Like no matter what sport it is, there's a quality stands out. There's a vibe about that. It sounds like Michkoff has this vibe about it. - Yeah, and that's one of the unique things about this whole situation is the flyers for many years, especially prior to the salary cap, brought in those type of players, but they were in their prime. They'd already, or in some cases, pass their prime. You know, the Jeremy Ronix, the Yarma Yageru came in and was so impressive by not just what he did on the ice, but how he led by example off of the ice, how he made sure he, you know, went the extra mile with everything he did in the gym, everything he did to dedicate himself to be the greatest player that he could possibly be. And, you know, that's what you hope for from players. It's, you know, I think everybody approaches it differently, but superstars do have something about them. And Kobe Bryant's a great example of that. But, you know, we're hopeful that that's what the type of player Michkoff becomes, but all early indications are that he has, you know, the talent and the willingness to do whatever it takes to get there. So it's good to be excited about it. - Yeah, you know what's interesting is like, and you nailed it. Listen, the flyers, you know, especially when Ed had the flyers, when OA, they always tried, right? No matter what. And every great player in the NHL, like beginning with Darryl Sitler, right? At some point, Paul Coffee became a flyer, right? Like at some point, but then we actually got like a young prospect, like a talented player. And the last one's Lindross, Jonesy. - Yeah, there's no doubt about that. And, you know, you saw the great lengths that the team had to go to to get him. You know, that was, he wasn't their draft pick. It was a huge trade. It was battled out with the Rangers to see who eventually was going to get him. There was a lot of money involved. They insist there was so much that went into getting Lindross here. To be able to draft, you know, Meachkov with a seventh overall pick was, you know, something that we feel very fortunate about. So we don't take it for granted, and we know that it's important for us to, you know, make sure that we bring him up in the right environment, that we have players around him to insulate him, players that he can learn from. And I think there's going to be players that learn from him. I think it's awesome that he's out there with all our rookies that he's going to play in the game tonight. They get a chance to see how he operates, you know, how he prepares, what he puts into, you know, the process of getting ready for a game. And then what he does when he's out, most importantly on the ice. So it's great for our younger guys to have a good opportunity to get to know him and good for him to have the chance to get out there and show us stuff as this, you know, the early part of training camp gets going. - Did, has it helped to have in his mom and his little brother with him? - Yeah, no doubt. I think it's a huge thing. And, you know, unfortunately, his father, you know, tragically passed away about a year and a half ago. So that way is, you know, in a position where he's, you know, being there for his mom, as much as she's being there for him and he's being there for his younger brother as well. So he's impressive in the way that he cares about the ones he loves. And I think that's going to be the type of player in person he's going to be here with our team. So he's a special young man. - That's awesome. - Who else, Josie, are you looking forward to? Libetchenko will be on the ice with him. He's very fast. How do you kind of look at his game so far? - Yeah, the best part about his game is it's mature already and he's really young. You know, he was one of the youngest players in the draft last year. He has a, the makings of a complete player as far as his ability to play in all three zones, which is so critically important for a sentiment. He's very sound defensively and he is one of the fastest players in our organization. So we have some speedsters like, oh, and Tippet, there's no question that he can flat out fly, but Luchenko is going to, as he continues to get stronger, he's going to be right there with Tippet and maybe even, you know, go past him, which seems impossible because I think Tippet had one of the fastest shifts in the NHL or rushes up the ice last year as far as the way they record those things now. So Luchenko is like a very important player for our future. We need sentiment and we need guys that can play with top players. And I do believe that's what he's going to develop into. It's going to be interesting to watch his development and we'll be watching him closely, but I really appreciate the things that he already has in his game. And I think it's going to translate well to the NHL and then we'll see how far that ceiling is, but there's a lot there. - Oh, well, I got me excited, man. Listen, we've been trying about speed and skill forever. Right? We've been trying, we got to get fast. We got to get speed. And man, I mean, skill and speed, you're adding to it. Like this has got you, you wonder why there's, you know, a couple hundred people waiting for practice. You wonder why it's week two of the NFL and I'm like, we got to get jolty on, man. We got to talk about this. - Yeah, it's great. And I really appreciate you talking about it as well. So I know how much of a battle it can be in the city to get hockey on the radar. But I do believe that the excitement around this kid is going to be worth it. And I do think it's going to be the start of, you know, helping us put the flyers back on the map. I thought last year was a really good stepping stone as far as getting things established, as far as, you know, where we spent a standard for our players to play and work to. And, you know, the probably all too often used word culture, but yeah, those things do matter and help people feel around our locker room and how our coach drives these guys to come in incredible shape like they're in right now. All those things will give us an advantage this year. And I'm really excited about where this is all heading and but also patient at the same time and recognizing it's going to take some time. - Hey Keith, VG here. After the Mijikov move, my second favorite move that you did was reinstalling Van Halen's "Ain't Talking About Love" as the goal song. Will that come back this year in 2024? Will we have one again? - You know it, buddy, and I'm not the music guy, but I'll give you the truth behind that. Brian Boucher texts me after one of the early games in the preseason last year and he hated the goal song. And I said, I don't know anything about music. You tell me, what do you like? So he sent me his choice. So if you don't like it, that's Brian Boucher's fault because he's not-- - I love it, I love-- - That's what that game from. So we're willing to listen. There's no doubt about that. Even students get to say in what's happening as far as how we celebrate that. - That's fabulous, that's fabulous. Hey Joseph, who else kinda are you excited to watch this weekend for people to kind of follow along? Who, I know you love McDonald. I mean, he's a monster. Who else are you anxious to see? - Yeah, all of her bonk, someone, I think our fans are gonna really appreciate watching as well. He's developed in last year, it was probably even greater than what we could have projected after we drafted him. He's a pro. It's gonna be a difficult thing to keep him heading back to juniors, but that's ultimately where I see him going. But I wanna make sure that he comes in here and understands that the world is his oyster, that he can do some special things on the ice. So he's somebody we can really focus in on. I really like a couple of the young kids from last year that played in the minors. Two of them all is one that's really showing that he put the work in this off season. Emil Andre looks great, he looks-- - Wow. - And kind of in a different type of condition. It looks like he put a ton of work in in the off season to get himself ready for things that he learned that he needed to work on last year, which was so important to come over and develop in the American Hockey League, that that league is a great league for players to develop at all positions. And I think it's an important part for a lot of our young guys to go down there and learn what it is going to take to be a professional athlete. So I think there's some good things that have been learned from a lot of our young players. And there's a lot to look forward to. There's been two years in a row that I feel like we've come away with some really important pieces to our future through the draft. And these guys are continuing to develop. So it's an awesome time of the year. - It is, brother, it's the best. Listen, the journey begins tonight. It's all, this is awesome stuff. We're gonna have a lot of fun. And, too, there's nothing better than following a team from the beginning or on the ride, right? Like the ride, it's like a roller coaster. And we're just getting out of the gate. So it's a lot of fun to follow along with young players and see a team build. So this is fun, man. So I wish you a ton of luck, brother. - I appreciate it, man. Thanks for having me on, guys. Keep up the great work, dude. It's awesome. Good job. It's been a voice. (upbeat music) ♪ No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no ♪ (upbeat music) (upbeat music) You
