We live in a non-stop war for your attention span: It’s estimated that 518,000 hours of video is uploaded to YouTube, over 23 million videos are uploaded to TikTok per day and and over two billion people use Facebook and Instagram per month. The point being, there is a lot going on out there in the world trying to capture your interest in hopes of eventually selling you something.
One of the natural recourses to buffering said struggle, and I’m speaking from experience here, is to delay your pursuit of gratification. These apps provided uniquely tailored experiences based on your personal preferences and are designed to keep you enamored and scrolling. So, to counterbalance, firm controls need to be in place to psychologically build discipline. It’s not hyperbole to say David Foster Wallace’s vision of Infinite Jest is a reality now.
Delaying gratification is a real challenge and one of the core tenants of the heavy social media user. I can say this as someone with eye-watering amounts of screen time every day between my work and my doom scrolling. Working for a tangible, satisfying reward is the end goal of any behavioral modification tied to attention span.
Now, you might be wondering what this has to do with the Philadelphia Flyers’ pursuit of the last playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. For much of the sports world, as its embraced the efficiency revolution of the 21st century there is a real incentive to bottom out in years winning a championship isn’t a likely outcome. That presupposes sports as a binary goal based outcome: Winning the championship or not.
But, being that of the NHL’s 32 teams, only one team can win the Stanley Cup, we have to find meaning in other outcomes. For those more preoccupied with the ultimate goal, the Flyers bringing a Stanley Cup back to Philadelphia, limping into the postseason as the last team in after an underwhelming regular season might seem self defeating.
Qualifying for the playoffs under less than ideal circumstances could validate some of the bad decisions or habits from the 2025-26 regular season. With a front office itching to show some signs of progress to ownership, making the playoffs and surviving a tight race would be something to hang its hat on.
As an outcomes person and knowing how challenging it is to win a Stanley Cup, there is a real inclination towards being frustrated that the playoffs are even on the table. In the grand scheme of trying to win, making the playoffs and getting a worse draft pick is a worse outcome. The difference in value between picks past 15, through the mid-20s is minimal.
Yet, it’s hard for me to sit here and begrudge a team of professional athletes trying to do what’s best for them. Players, coaches and yes, even front offices, have a vested interest in the quality of a team’s draft pick in the sense that it could help make their job easier in the future. At the same time, there is no guarantee that the pick will even get used or said player, coach or front office will be in place to reap the benefits of the pick’s talent.
All of this is to say, if the Flyers get into the playoffs, you shouldn’t feel bad. If anything, after years of tire spinning hockey, signs of life, even false ones would be a welcome relief. Rooting for a hockey team shouldn’t feel like paying penance for a divine reward.
If anything, the improbability of the Flyers even making the playoffs in the first place based on where they were as recently as a month ago should make you take stock of the moment.
Now, I personally don’t fan police. I think everyone should be able to root for their favorite team however they’d like, anyone presumptuous enough to lump all members of a diverse fanbase into a monolith has too much hubris for me. Would it be better in the long run for the Flyers to miss the playoffs and get a modestly better draft pick this June? Absolutely.
Would it be far sicker to have the Flyers playing a home playoff game at Xfinity for the first time since 2017? Unquestionably.
It’s incumbent upon the Flyers to seize the opportunity before them. Philadelphia is priced at +230 on FanDuel Sportsbook and the various statistical models have them between 22% (Money Puck), 18 % (The Athletic) and 25% (Evolving Hockey). Those aren’t great, but around 1 in 5 is far better odds than I’d have given the Flyers a month ago.
It’s time to embrace the chaos and deal with the potential consequences later.