Devils! Ranger! Who cares?

We are going to have a short week on the blog this week- as Friday I depart New York to head down to Bristol for the Food City 500. Miss Food City is ready! Are you?

Now, the Philadelphia Flyers kick off their stretch drive to the play-offs with a pair of games that ought to get the juices flowing: home tonight with the New Jersey Devils, then a quick turnaround up the turnpike to visit those New York Rangers.

As I say- ought to get the juices flowing. Because I just don’t seem to care.

I used to complain last year that the Phllies were a boring team to follow because they simply did not defy analysis. They were exactly what they were. There was no sense or hope of dramatic improvement. Conversely, there was no feeling of dread or effortless collapse. They just kinda went out there- day after day- hanging close enough to the Astros that the fan had to check the box scores- but never close enough that I thought the Phillies seriously were getting in. They finished one game back- but all the same- it felt like five.

The Flyers feel the same way. No matter what happens this weekend- Philadelphia just doesn’t seem as good, recent New York slump aside, as the Rangers. The Flyers are certainly going to make the play-offs, almost certainly going to play Buffalo when they get there, and then just as certainly will get dismissed in six orderly games. They aren’t terrible- Philly is actually pretty good- but there is no greatness in them- and each day the calendar changes brings less hope the Flyers will find their way a couple rounds into the play-offs.

Veteran teams- like the Flyers, and the Phillies last year- sometimes at this point of the season- simply have a good sense of themselves. They have too much pride and too much future income at stake to tank it. But at the same level they know- looking at the slow, aging, injury-ridden defense corps and the gradually more okay goaltending for instance- that they cannot hang for two weeks with the better clubs. And a certain ennui can fall over even the Devils and Rangers.