For those of a certain age who remember game night regularly featuring Trivial Pursuit may remember a quote on the side of the box \u2014\u00a0 the original blue box, Genus I version, and not any of the ancillary or updated colored boxes of cards for the game \u2014 from Lewis Carroll’s lyrical poem The Walrus and the Carpenter.<\/p>\n
The poem, written in iambic pentameter, had only had the opening portion of the key stanza written on the box:<\/p>\n
“‘The time has come,’ the Walrus said, ‘To talk of many things …'”<\/p>\n
\u00a0For the Philadelphia Flyers, the time has come, indeed.<\/p>\n
The rest of the stanza goes like this:<\/p>\n
Of shoes \u2014 and ships \u2014 and sealing-wax \u2014<\/p>\n
Of cabbages \u2014 and kings \u2014<\/p>\n
And why the sea is boiling hot \u2014<\/p>\n
\u00a0And whether pigs have wings.\u2019<\/p>\n
And each line pertains to what the Flyers are experiencing at the moment, as nonsensical as the poem sounds.<\/p>\n
Because suddenly, improbably, undeniably, the Philadelphia Flyers are back in the playoff conversation.<\/p>\n
It was just one month ago that I proclaimed their season over\u00a0in this very space.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n At the time, it was a concession. After all, it was about six weeks earlier that I made a bold declaration that the Flyers would make the playoffs.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0Now, like the Walrus said, I may have to put on my shoes and walk back the take that the loss to Washington in the first game after the Olympic break doomed them to miss the playoffs for a sixth straight season.\u00a0<\/p>\n Moneypuck\u00a0says\u00a0their odds are still long<\/a> at 18.5%, but with each passing day those odds have slowly creeped higher and higher.<\/p>\n After Saturday\u2019s 5-3 win over the Detroit Red Wings, the Flyers sit just three points out of a playoff spot. Three. Not buried. Not dreaming. Not \u201cwait \u2018til next year.\u201d Right there, within striking distance, with a pulse that\u2019s getting stronger by the shift.<\/p>\n \n Noah Cates – Philadelphia Flyers (17) \u2014 NHL Goal Videos (@NHLGoalVideos) March 29, 2026<\/a> <\/p>\n The Flyers aren’t quite a wagon. They don’t have the talent for that descriptor. But a ship, one that keeps moving slowly in one direction (North?) through choppy waters, is the one that fits this literary analogy nicely.\u00a0<\/p>\n They are a team with flaws, but they don’t try to hide them. They know they are imperfect, but they embrace their goals through that imperfection, and it has them on the doorstep.\u00a0<\/p>\n They’re going to have to continue to kick down one door at a time to get there, and if there’s a setback, they won’t dwell on it and try another door until they either get through the last one or they run out of sealing wax to close it one behind them that they already burst through.<\/p>\n \u00a0(See what I did there?)<\/p>\n There are going to be doubters still, because it’s easier to be a doubter than a believer, and honestly, they may still be right. This isn’t an easy path, yet the Flyers are inching closer to where they can make this happen themselves without help, but for now, help is still needed.\u00a0<\/p>\n As for cabbages and kings?<\/p>\n Well, that’s a nonsensical juxtaposition by the poet, comparing things that are humble, earthy and ordinary, like cabbage, to something powerful, and elevated, like kings, or better yet for the hockey perspepctive, playoff teams.<\/p>\n The Flyers truly believe they belong in the latter, so let’s start there.\u00a0<\/p>\n Delusional or not, this team believes in itself.<\/p>\n You can see it in the way they play, in the way they respond, in the way they refuse to let a bad game snowball all of the sudden \u2014 something that plagued them earlier in the season. There is a stubbornness to this group now, a refusal to fold that has turned what once looked like a lost campaign into something compelling.<\/p>\n They could have faded in January, when the schedule tightened and the losses piled up. They could have cashed it in when the standings widened and the math got ugly. Instead, they dug in.<\/p>\n And now? They\u2019re making teams in front of them uncomfortable.<\/p>\n That belief is contagious. It shows up in the details \u2014 the backcheck that arrives just in time, the extra pass that finds a better lane, the willingness to absorb pressure and counterpunch. It\u2019s not always pretty, but it\u2019s purposeful.<\/p>\n And it\u2019s working.<\/p>\n Want proof?<\/p>\n Let\u2019s talk about Owen Tippett.<\/p>\n Because if the Flyers are writing a late-season push, Tippett is holding the pen \u2014 and lately, he\u2019s been writing in bold ink.<\/p>\n \n OWEN TIPPETT HATTRICK!!! ARE YOU ACTUALLY KIDDING ME!?!?!? WHO IS THIS???? WHERE DID THAT COME FROM???? 4-0!!#LetsGoFlyers<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/OmBmMsWAm9<\/a><\/p>\n
Power Play Goal pic.twitter.com\/23Tyjc1jYz<\/a><\/p>\n