Flyers Can Take Lessons from Hurricanes’ Style and Patience

When the series ended between the Philadelphia Flyers and Carolina Hurricanes, the second step to Sunday night’s crowning moment for the Hurricanes, the two head coaches met at center ice in the handshake line.

Rick Tocchet had reached the mountaintop before as a player and an assistant coach. Rod Brind’Amour had been there as a player too, but as head coach, it had eluded him.

Brind’Amour had a message for Tocchet that night.

“Way to bring these guys back,” Brind’Amour said, referring to the fans in Xfinity Mobile Arena. “Take a minute.”

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Brind’Amour would fully understand what it means to be at the center of glory for a franchise, and then tasked with restoring it. From their Stanley Cup win in 2006 until Brind’Amour’s first year behind the bench as head coach, the Hurricanes made the playoffs just one time in 2009. In Brind’Amour’s first season as head coach in Carolina, they snapped a nine-year playoff drought.

It took eight years to reach the mountaintop again, but it was the ultimate test in patience. They had the right management – GM Eric Tulsky has been with the Hurricanes organization full-time since 2015. They had the right coach. And they had a lot of the pieces in place on the ice.

Since Brind’Amour’s first season as head coach, Sebastian Aho, Jordan Martinook, Jaccob Slavin, Jordan Staal, and Andrei Svechnikov have all been on the ride with him. Eight seasons. Eight trips to the playoffs. Eight years of trying to get over the final hurdle, to reach the Stanley Cup Final and ultimately win.

There have been plenty of examples of it in recent memory. The Tampa Bay Lightning in 2020 and 2021, the Colorado Avalanche in 2022, the Vegas Golden Knights in 2023, the Florida Panthers in 2023 and 2024 – it just felt like their time. And the same was true for the Hurricanes.

The Hurricanes were the true definition of team. It wasn’t a rebuilt team rooted in high draft picks. The only first-round picks actually made by Carolina that were in the lineup for Game 6 were Svechnikov and Seth Jarvis. But it was an accumulation of assets that ultimately fit the mold. A lot of players looking for second chances or changes in scenery, and fitting in perfectly.

It’s a testament to the people who oversee the operation as much as the players themselves. Sure, to win a Stanley Cup, you need buy-in. You need players who understand the task and follow through with it nightly. But you need to know how to assemble the mix of talent and will.

That’s the Carolina Hurricanes. On paper, it may not be a roster that jumps off the page the same as Vegas, Colorado, Tampa, and so on. But it is a roster that works so well as a unit, that they smother the opposition.

You can almost sense that in that message to Tocchet, Brind’Amour was trying to send another one. Not just a thank you for restoring playoff hockey in Philadelphia after five seasons. Not just a message to look at the fans and soak it in for a moment. But a message that what you’re trying to build can work. 

People may call it boring. But it’s really just a calculated and diligent approach to championship hockey. The Hurricanes have their system and they build their roster accordingly. The coach is a hockey lifer that is an outstanding motivator, and understands the modern way to approach athletes. The GM is the ultimate numbers guy. And together, they blended the two sides of the modernized game and created a team that could get to this level.

No true superstars, no Hart or Norris or Vezina nominees, just a collection of players that all understand the mission, all play their part, and now will have their names etched on the Stanley Cup.

When you look at where the Flyers are, it’s exactly what they are trying to build. No number-one center. No number-one defenseman. Not a lot of selections at the top of the draft. A defensive style that requires the ultimate commitment. It’s a path that requires patience, that can evolve from the scrappy group without a well-known star and change everything with one blockbuster trade or signing.

But for now, the Flyers are very much in the infant stage of what the Hurricanes have become. They got an up-close look at what they want to become in the second round, when they were swept out of the playoffs. And their efforts got the stamp of approval from an old friend. 

An ex-Flyer whose name hangs in the rafters in the Flyers Hall of Fame, but is immortal in Carolina hockey, hanging in the rafters with his number, and now on the Stanley Cup once as a player and once as a coach. Rod Brind’Amour made sure Rick Tocchet knew that his efforts, and those of Danny Briere, Keith Jones, and Dan Hilferty, were not without recognition. 

Now it’s up to the Flyers to stay the course, to practice patience with every aspect of the building process. Because it never stops, right up to the final moves a team makes before they reach the top of the sports world.

Kevin Durso is Flyers insider for 97.3 ESPN. Follow him on social media @Kevin_Durso.