Flyers PoHo Keith Jones on:

🔔 If Flyers miss the playoffs this season, is that a failure?
🔔 Could Porter Martone join the team at the end of the season?
🔔 The ongoing concern about the lack of centers: "There's options coming…"

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6980861/2026/01/19/flyers-keith-jones-q-and-a-michkov-martone/

9 comments

  1. > **Even with the recent struggles, you’re still in the thick of the playoff race. I suggested recently that the Christian Dvorak extension earlier this month meant anything short of the playoffs this season would be a failure. Do you agree or disagree, and why?**

    > I wouldn’t agree with that, but I do think it’s a strong message to the players in that room that we are changing the thought process towards the (NHL trade) deadline and into the latter part of the season, where we want them to push for the playoffs, and we want to help them get there.

    > But, if you look around the league, this is a very competitive environment. The division and the Eastern Conference, you’re three wins away from being at the top and three losses from being at the bottom. There’s no time to take your foot off the gas. But we want to continue to push our players this year and make sure that they learn to play in big games, and important games. We’re definitely in a position where we should have that type of meaningful hockey at the end of the season.

    The very last line gives me trouble. It’s like the Flyers decided in advance “In Year 3, we need to push for the playoffs and play meaningful hockey.” No re-evaluating where things stand now, no course corrections, no elongating the timeline. Year 3 just *has* to be meaningful hockey time, even if there are much larger issues that still loom.

  2. Seems like they don’t really have a Plan B for Ersson based on the way Jones was talking there.

  3. The never ending rebuild continues. This organization is a clown show. The same issues exist today that existed 5 years ago. I am curious what the consensus thoughts will be next year when we are in the same boat and year 4 of the current regime. At some point this team either needs to tank, or make a run in the playoffs. Being stuck in the middle year after year is tiresome. It seems that no regime wants to commit one way or another. It is just mixing pieces here and there, which results in a mediocre season.

    Then we have the comments here of “at least we aren’t Buffalo” which I do not get. Buffalo has a better roster, and we have been irrelevant since 2013, so what gives? We are in the same boat as Buffalo.

  4. We can still make the playoffs. The long Olympic break coupled with the fact that we do have enough talent to get on a heater means we ain’t out of it.

    But there is something about this playoff drought that feels like the front office/ownership does not know how to compete in the modern NHL.

  5. This team certainly doesn’t look like it’s making a playoff push.

    Vladar and unsustainable overtime wins are the whole fucking reasons we’re in a race.

    Otherwise it’s a middling team with a Michkov free falling and a coach who seems utterly clueless 

  8. I listened to all this and thought to myself…

    Af least we got Dvorak locked up long term…

  9. its insane the flyers dont seem to understand the need for a generational goaltender

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