It’s fair to say that, on the whole, the Flyers have been an unlikeable group for quite some time. The negative vibes reeking from the roster mixed with their atrocious on-ice product has led to doldrums the franchise has struggled to get out of.
One of the most important things any team needs is a player that resonates with the fanbase. Someone who the vast majority, if not every single person, can agree upon liking. It’s great for the camaraderie of the players in the room, unites the fanbase, and does a fair amount of business in the form of jersey sales.
The Flyers haven’t had that guy in a long time.
The best recent example was Claude Giroux, but even he had his detractors, mainly in the form of boomers as he got a little too close to Bobby Clarke’s records for their comfort. The last man to truly fill that role was Wayne Simmonds. The scrappy, dirty goal scoring, power forward embodied the spirit of the Flyers and became a fan-favorite because of it. He hasn’t played for the Flyers since the 2019 trade deadline and the peak of his career came in 2016.
Yet as the 2023-24 season gets off to a better than expected start, there’s a new hero rising up the charts, and his name is Bobby Brink.
Brink may not be the net-front tough guy that Simmonds was. He’s listed at just 5’8 and 170lbs, after all. But he put his name in contention for the open spot of “beloved good guy” on the roster when he scored his first (and second) NHL goal in his sixth game of the season and 16th game of his NHL career against the Wild on October 26.
His reaction on the bench after Torts congratulated him was priceless.
He’s got an absolutely contagious smile, a moment that is even better seeing Tortorella break character and show some positive emotions, too.
It’s a great moment for a team in a long stretch of shrouding darkness. The positive vibes resonate at a level we haven’t seen since Samuel Morin scored his first and only NHL goal in March of 2021.
In a clip shared by the team the following morning, Brink’s return to the locker room after being named the first star of the game is just as good.
The 22-year-old underdog in his first sustained taste of NHL action earning the trust of the coaching staff and stealing the hearts of the fanbase. He’s such an easy guy to root for, and, especially under the guise of a rebuild, shows a new pillar of the franchise for the next decade. It’s a huge positive development and exactly what the organization needed- a new hero to build with for the new era of orange.
By: Dan Esche (@DanTheFlyeraFan)
photo credit: nhl.com
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