👋 Good morning! 🎶 Skinnnnneerrrrrr!!!! Skinnnnneerrrrrr!!!! 🎶

Every successive game for the Flyers, playoff hockey comes back to me. And man, I forgot what a delight it is when the entire arena derisively chants a struggling opposing goaltender’s name.

Also, put this baby in the Mona Lisa.

The Flyers are up 3-0 on everyone’s least favorite hockey team, and they did it in style on Wednesday in front of a raucous South Philadelphia crowd. Let’s get to it!

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🟠⚫ Flyers 5, Pittsburgh 2: More on these guys below.

Man, we need the Orange and Black to keep this going. Because I want nothing to do with…

⚾ Chicago (NL) 7, Phillies 2: Eight losses in a row, 8-16 on the season.

They just get their butts kicked every. single. day. It is truly something.

Dave Dombrowski has lived a pretty charmed life running the Phillies. Back in 2022, ol’ Dave threw a whole bunch of John Middleton’s money around. Kyle Schwarber was a great signing, but it was not all good money. In that calendar year, Dombrowski also spent…

Two huge swings and misses for ol’ Dave. In the final, merciful year of his failed spending spree, here is what the Phillies have received from his investments:

Two years ago, when Walker was also the worst starter in baseball, I wrote this title of a newsletter: If Taijuan Walker makes another start...

Walker did in fact make more starts in 2024. But funnily enough, it did not matter that the Phillies lit every fifth game on fire with Dombrowski’s free-agent acquisition… or some other overmatched pitcher because Walker could not cut it. They won 95 games, because they were such a good team in every other facet.

Well, the Phillies are a terrible team in every other facet right now. Ol’ Dave does not have the safety net to play it conservatively with his failed signings anymore.

And yet, the Phillies keep trotting out Walker for an automatic loss every fifth day. Just because the rest of the team is failing does not excuse continually going to Walker. It’s an insult to everyone involved. The Phillies tried to give Walker an opener to get away from his first inning woes, so he just gave up four runs in the next four innings. For opposing batters, it must look like a beach ball coming out of his hand.

My friend Tyler, who is a super smart baseball guy and a much more well-adjusted baseball fan than I am, said the following.

When you have lost Tyler, it sure feels like time to pay Taijuan Walker to go away.

The NBA rightfully has the reputation of a league whose regular season feels like a totally different sport than its playoffs. But sneakily, when you look a little closer, the NHL is not too far behind.

It would be impossible to play this hard for 82 games.

The speed and intensity of the NHL postseason is not even in the same stratosphere as its regular season. Case in point: On the NBC Sports Philly broadcast last night, they showed a stat late in the game: In all three games of the Penguins series, the Flyers had over 40 hits. Their regular-season high? 36.

And the Flyers are a physical team in the regular season! The Orange and Black averaged the fourth-most hits in the entire NHL. But their average (22.95) is nowhere near what they are doing on a nightly basis to an older Pittsburgh team when it really matters.

But again, that is playoff hockey.

I would argue that “hit” is not a sufficient description of what guys like Sean Couturier and Garnet Hathaway are doing. They are laying the friggin’ wood. And after the Penguins went up 1-0 and got the better of play for the first 10 minutes, it felt like that increased physicality got the Flyers back in the game. It was not unlike a boxer landing body blows in the early rounds, which tire out the opponent and ultimately pay off later. The Flyers are the younger and tougher team in this series, and they sure are playing like it.

Hathaway snarling at Sidney Crosby from the penalty box, after Crosby rightly got sent to the box for embellishment, was as good as it gets. We are getting the glorious, cartoonish theater that comes from this old-school brand of Flyers hockey. But these guys are walking the walk before the whistle, too.

The Flyers’ fourth line — Couturier, Hathaway and Luke Glendening — is absolutely on fire. They were on the ice for both of the Flyers’ five-on-five goals last night, and each one was the result of gritty, hard work from those guys in the offensive zone.

Wait, did someone say cartoonish theater?

With the Flyers down 1-0 in the first period, Travis Konecny sure got under Bryan Rust’s skin… because Rust pretty much jumped him. After a bunch of punching and kicking on the ice between those two, when they both got up, Konecny wanted to drop the gloves. Rust did not. More theater.

Just a wild scene. It took the officials 10 minutes to send pretty much everyone on the ice into the penalty box. Looked a little cramped in there! Rust got an extra two minutes, and on the ensuing power play, Trevor Zegras fired a laser one-timer in the upper-right corner to tie things up. Konecny and his teammates celebrated in the penalty box, hilariously.

That was a perfect shot, one that Stuart Skinner had no chance against. But the Flyers’ next two goals? Ehhhhhhhh.

🎶 Skinnnnneerrrrrr!!!! Skinnnnneerrrrrr!!!! 🎶

The Penguins online fan base, a group that delights in “1975” comebacks, finally have to deal with something that has been a fact of life for the Flyers for pretty much my entire life: Their goaltender is worse. Like, way worse.

And that makes Dan Vladar’s third-period injuries pretty concerning.

There were two separate incidents. Vladar seemed to tweak his groin when he did not realize that his skate blade got ripped off clean on a shot. And then it looked like his right arm or elbow got shaken up when Rust tried to score from in close. Vladar stayed in the game, but he looked to be in a decent amount of pain. I already know they will tell us it’s “an upper-body injury.”

So, I will leave you with this thought:

🕯️🕯️🕯️🕯️🕯️🕯️🕯️🕯️ Please be OK, Dan Vladar 🕯️🕯️🕯️🕯️🕯️🕯️🕯️🕯️

The news and notes of the day…

JT hurt: JT Realmuto got placed on the 10-day injured list with back spasms. Garrett Stubbs got called up from Triple-A to take his place.

I dunno, maybe Stubbsy will keep the guys looser? Don’t mind me, grasping at straws over here.

A real Dave Dombrowski quote: He actually said this to Gregg Murphy on the radio.

No Dave, you do not have a No. 4 hitter.

The VJ wink: How did I miss this? This is unbelievable!

When I worked at PHLY, one of my biggest weaknesses is that I did not always look in the right camera. And here this guy is, in the middle of hooping in an intense playoff game, finding the camera and winking right into it. How about that for court vision?

Man, there is just a lot of sports going on this week. The Flyers are showing more of a playoff pulse than we have seen (COVID-year excluded) in almost 15 years, against their biggest rival to boot. The Sixers’ young guards gave us at least one super encouraging performance, against their biggest rival to boot. The Phillies are at least trying to play baseball, bless their hearts.

And oh yeah, it’s the most important week of the year on Howie Roseman’s calendar.

There is just a lot happening. Seems like a decent week to launch a Philadelphia sports newsletter, huh?

Let’s talk Birds. This week is where your beautiful Lombardi Trophy from last year was won. Howie utilized every player-acquisition avenue available to build that juggernaut — A.J. trade, Saquon and Baun free-agent signings, etc. — but like many champions, that roster was mostly built through a multi-year draft heater. Go check out 2021 through 2024 again. That is about as good as you can realistically do, especially when you drafted your quarterback in the second round the year before.

But title windows close fast in that sport. The main way to keep them open is to keep hitting on picks, which is hard. That brings us to this week.

Some thoughts on where the Eagles stand headed into tonight…

All things equal, the Eagles should (and will) focus on offense. Early this offseason, Howie talked about the life cycle of a team. In this case, the Eagles offense is old and expensive while the Eagles defense is young and cheap.

That is the product of how the Eagles have drafted during Howie’s Heater: Since 2022, 9 of the 11 picks in the top-three rounds have come on defense. Now, those young studs on defense — Jordan Davis already, and then Jalen Carter, Quinyon Mitchell, Cooper DeJean and potentially four other guys — are due second contracts. Carter, Mitchell and DeJean in particular are due for big raises because they are all quite good at football. So, you gotta get younger and cheaper on offense to offset those big paydays. That’s The Circle of Life for an NFL team!

(If anyone wants to create a photoshop of Howie as Rafiki lifting the new draft pick up on Pride Rock to the delight of the rest of the Eagles roster, by all means.)

But you never know how the board will fall. If, say, an edge-rusher falls in the first round, maybe that ends up being the pick. Especially after how last year went, the Eagles sure could use some youth on offense.

With that in mind, watch the falling prospect. Especially early in the draft, Howie does not mess around anymore. In his draft primer, ZB offered a great reminder of the Eagles being the ones that actually do not stray from consensus. Four of their last five first-round picks have been higher on the consensus big board (an average of all the player rankings you see across the internet) than where the Eagles selected them:

Different guys fall for different reasons — Carter for off-field concerns, Campbell for an injury, etc. — but Howie has not really messed around since taking Jalen Reagor (41st on the consensus big board) over Justin Jefferson (18th on the consensus big board). It sure seems like a lesson was learned there. Hard to argue with the results.

I will add one more pick that was close to a first-rounder: Cooper DeJean, who was 24th on the consensus big board and got taken with the 40th overall pick. Of course, the Eagles had to trade up to get Coop (thank you, Adam Peters!). Speaking of that…

Watch out for Trader Howie: The man does not like to stick and pick in the first round, even if it’s not exactly a Wentzian move up the board. That was a lesson learned from the Marcus Smith bust back in 2014, when none of the players that the Eagles had targeted fell to them. Howie traded up one spot for Campbell and Carter, and two spots for DeVonta and Jordan Davis.

So, if you are keeping score at home, a likely outcome will be the following: The Eagles target a player who unexpectedly drops, with a small trade-up near the Eagles’ original pick at 23 as everyone around the league says, “Howie does it again! He can’t keep getting away with this!”

No guarantee that happens this time, but hey, it sure has happened a bunch recently.

If the Eagles do go offense, it could be future-looking. You could make the argument that the Eagles have “draft-proofed” their 2026 roster, with legitimate starters everywhere except three possible places:

You can dispute two of those, and the rest of the roster is in relatively decent shape. It might not be great in some spots. It certainly might be old in some spots. It might also have some massive injury risks in some spots. But when you look at the Ourlads depth chart, and the reality of weekly injury reports is 4.5 months away, you see at least reasonable starters at every spot perhaps except safety.

That is where you want to be. You do not want to be drafting to fill a current need. That is how mistakes often happen. When you draft to fill a spot, you often make The Danny Watkins Mistake. No, you draft to add talent for the next 5-10 years.

With that in mind, the tenuous near-term future of the Eagles offensive line is staring Howie in the face. Lane Johnson and Landon Dickerson very well could retire after this season. I hope they both play well and stick around, but it’s at least on the table. Hopefully that trip to (*Vinny Chase voice*) Medellín will do Dickerson and Cam Jurgens some good, but I have no idea what to expect from those guys. And since those three are all injury risks, drafting a backup right now very well could turn into drafting a starter in October.

So, if they go offensive line, who might they take? Since I was not talking to scouts at the Senior Bowl in Mobile and did not have the stopwatch out at the combine in Indy, I cannot really speak about too many of these players. In an ideal world, my guess is that Howie prefers an offensive tackle. That is a premium position, and one that will become even more important due to Lane’s potential retirement.

Offensive Tackle of The Future, or OTOTF.

The good news is that, in what seems like a fairly underwhelming draft at the top, offensive tackle is one of the strongest position groups. It kinda seems like the top-two guys, Utah's Spencer Fano and Miami's Francis Mauigoa, are probably gonna be off the board.

That leaves two guys who could fall into trade-up range for Howie, two guys who a ton of people seem to have mocked to the Eagles:

I think I want Proctor, but either one of them sounds good to me. And then there are three tackles who could be available if the Eagles do stick and pick at 23:

I will not get too deep on them, since frankly, I do not know a ton about them. But the second that pick gets made, I am gonna be deep into my friend Fran Duffy’s draft guide to learn everything I can about that player.

(Actually, I lied: I do know that Fran wants absolutely nothing to do with Blake Miller. Despises him. But that’s all I got.)

What are some of the other positions of need? Safety is the one open starting spot and there are three first-round talents: Ohio State’s Caleb Downs, Toledo’s Emmanuel McNeil-Warren and Oregon’s Dillon Theineman. But for all of you Downs fans out there or those of you who want to reunite the Toledo Boys in Philly, it would be surprising if the Eagles go safety in Round 1. They just do not seem to value that position quite as much — Reed Blankenship and C.J. Gardner-Johnson would agree — and there are other glaring near-term needs on the roster.

Just like tackle, the interior of the line could use some addressing. And a long-term WR2 to pair with DeVonta Smith would be nice as well.

Then there is tight end. While that is perhaps not the most important in terms of positional value, the Eagles have strayed from their normal succession plan.

Is this the year? Oregon’s Kenyon Sadiq is the potential first-round tight end, and that is one that would excite the Eagles fan base. For good reason, too: Sadiq could contribute this year and be TE1 moving forward. But there is an opportunity cost with spending your 1 on a position where Pro Bowlers and solid starters often come from the middle rounds. If Sadiq is not the pick, expect the Eagles to take at least one tight end later on.

The one position on defense I could see the Eagles taking in the first round is edge-rusher. Does someone like Auburn’s Keldric Faulk drop to them?

Could they also trade for a vet? Yes, maybe a safety or edge-rusher.

Could they trade a vet? Yes, all eyes on Tanner McKee this weekend. Do they cash The Mormon Missile in and deal him to some QB-needy team?

And finally, who are the Day 2 picks that literally everyone keeps predicting? By Monday, we will be all caught up on the guys that the Eagles select. There are just so many options that I am gonna wait for the picks to be made until consulting the Duffys and the Bruglers of the world.

That said, there are two Day 2 picks that everyone keeps bringing up. I might as well mention them:

Happy draft, everyone!

Quick little reminder: At the end of the week, I am locking this baby up. If you would like to still get the newsletter Monday through Friday after that, subscribe here.

The Phillies need Cristopher Sánchez to be a stopper today in the worst way imaginable (2:20 p.m., NBC Sports Philly). He owns the Phillies’ last win, two Mondays ago. In his one start in between, Sanchy lost a game in which he gave up zero earned runs in six innings… and even the unearned runs he gave up were the result of brutal Phillies defense and some of the worst batted ball luck imaginable.

Heading into last night’s game, the Phillies starters not named Sánchez had a 6.57 ERA on the season. Plenty of bad luck in there, but also just not even close to getting it done. I do not feel particularly confident that any one of them besides Sanchy is gonna give them a quality start. You are rolling out Painter-Wheeler-Nola in Atlanta against a Braves team that will happily sweep you again.

But I will be watching, because I am a glutton for punishment. And you, dear reader, are getting not one, but two of my award-winning memes today.

And the sports gods gave us a perfect break in the schedule for the first round of the NFL Draft (8:00 p.m., a million different channels). At least the city of Pittsburgh gets to host the draft, good for them.

Oh yeah, the hidden Trivia Thursday:

Let’s make it a good one.