4 Big Questions for the Philadelphia Flyers in 2020-21

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Despite their assumed success, the Philadelphia Flyers are not a team devoid of questions.

The City of Brotherly Love is just a better place when the Philadelphia Flyers are good.

Sure, this is, was, and will forever be an Eagles town, and even a four-win Birds squad will dominate the headlines over a Philadelphia Union squad that just turned in their best season as a franchise, but that doesn’t mean the Flyers are still held in high regard. No, ever since the days of the Broad Street Bullies, Philly’s lone orange and black-clad franchise has held a special place in a blue-collar city’s heart.

And, in a miraculous turn of events, the Flyers are actually really, really good.

2019-20 marked the first time in a decade where the Flyers scored points in 64.5 percent of their games, and very well could have been the franchise’s first 100 point season if it wasn’t for the league stoppage limiting their season to only 69 games.

But hey, it’s cool; the Flyers still ended up with the number one seed in the East thanks to an exemplary performance in the league’s Round Robin tournament and made it all the way to the second round before being bumped by the New York Islanders in route to their own eventual loss to the Stanley Cup-winning Tampa Bay Lightning.

With another season under their belts under veteran head coach Alain Vigneault, the Flyers are not only favorites to make it back to the playoffs for the second-straight season, but to represent the new East Division in the Eastern Conference Conference Finals.

(Photo by Dilip Vishwanat/Getty Images) /

4. What will Gritty get up to without fans?

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For a time, it looked like Gritty wasn’t going to be allowed at Philadelphia Flyers games this season.

It was bad. Kevin Hayes publicly threatened to sit out the 2020-21 season. Change.com petitions were made to seek leniency from the NHL’s commissioner. It was a whole thing.

While the ruling was eventually reversed, and the Gritster was eventually re-classified as an ‘essential worker’ – presumably along with the rest of the league’s mascots – this season is going to be a weird one… in a lot of ways.

With fans barred from attending games at the Wells Fargo Center for the foreseeable future and the entire atmosphere of what we’ve come to expect from a hockey game very much in flux, how will Gritty operate?

Is he still going to come down from the rafters a la Miley Cyrus and/or Sting? Will he still wear fun costumes like his Wonder Woman suit or maybe a Cupid costume for their dance with the Devils on February 13th?

In a way, this is both the least and most important question surrounding the Flyers this season, and I’ve got to say, it will be fascinating to see how things shake out – especially since the big orange guy has been weirdly silent on social media over the past few weeks. The calm before the storm?

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