Flyers Week to Come

Coming off a 3-0 home shutout loss to the Boston Bruins on Saturday, the Philadelphia Flyers (4-7-1) have an 11 a.m. EDT practice on Monday at the FTC in Voorhees.

Per Elliotte Friedman, Flyers goaltender Samuel Ersson is estimated to miss one week with the lower body injury he sustained in the first period of Saturday's game. That's a tough blow to the Flyers on two fronts: 1) Ersson had been red hot last week right up until he was forced to leave Saturday's matinee, and 2) the Flyers have a very challenging southern road trip ahead of them this week: Tuesday in Raleigh against the Carolina Hurricanes (8-2-0), Thursday against the Tampa Bay Lightning (7-5-0) and Saturday in Sunrise against the defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers (9-3-1).

On this week's Mondays with Meltzer edition of Flyers Daily, Jason Myrtetus and I go in depth about our concerns for what we've seen from the Flyers over the first 12 games, especially in regard to issues that arose near the end of last season and have thus far remained unfixed. The own-zone defensive structure has been a lot better over the past week but many other problems still remain beyond just not finishing scoring chances.

Jason and I also pay tribute to the late Jay Greenberg. On Saturday, the Flyers dedicated press row in the pressbox to Jay's memory. Jay's wife, Mona, daughters Stephanie and Elizabeth and his young grandchildren (born after Jay's Aug. 2021 passing) were among those in attendance, along with a host of Flyers Alumni and people like Blake Allen (son of legendary Flyers general manager Keith Allen), longtime colleague Larry Brooks and many more.

As I said on Flyers Daily, it would have meant more to Jay for his grandchildren to be there than for Jay himself to be physically present. At least he lived long enough to know that both Stephanie and Elizabeth were expecting.

Jay was my favorite hockey writer when I was growing up. Later, he became a mentor and a dear friend not just to me but to many others. If I needed a set of eyes on a hockey article to be sure I had the right tone or offer a suggestion on a transition sentence to shift from one point to the next, I'd ask Jay. If I needed career-related advice, I could always approach Jay and count on wise and well-reasoned counsel. If I was working on a long-form piece and needed a call back from a hockey luminary such as Harry Sinden or Glen Sather, Jay would help out (and the call ALWAYS came).

On a random game day lunchtime after a morning skate, Jay was my favorite company. He told the best stories, hockey or otherwise. He had the best pressbox quips, too.

I visited Jay for the final time at his New Jersey home shortly before his passing from an ultimately lethal case of West Nile Virus. By this point, Jay was bedridden and could hardly speak above a whisper. He got tired easily and needed to rest, so it was a short visit. In order, he asked how my wife and kids (whom he never met in person) were doing, how work was going, and what was going on around the Flyers.

After Jay's passing, Mona gave me a stack of materials that Jay wanted me to have: research materials of his that could be put to future use. During his illness, he told me once -- remember that Jay wrote the 25th anniversary (Full Spectrum) and 50th Anniversary (Flyers at 50) histories of the franchises -- that he though I should be the author when the time came for the Diamond Anniversary (75 years) to be written. That was the most humbling and breathtaking career-related compliment that I ever could have been paid.

So, when that time eventually comes in about 18 years (God willing), I want to be the one to write it. The book will be dedicated to Jay Greenberg.



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A Personal Note

I have been with Hockeybuzz for 18-plus years. I've put my heart and soul into this site, turning down offers (sometimes for more money and, in one case, considerably more money that exceeded HockeyBuzz plus my Flyers Alumni Association content manager slot combined) to go elsewhere.

Why? Because, even when I began working for the Flyers, HockeyBuzz and my Flyers blog has been my home. I've always had the freedom to write as often as I want, whatever hours I want, and to balance it around my now-main gigs (Flyers/ Flyers Alumni) and my personal life.

This weekend, I went into my blog archives and reminisced about my two blogs of March 5, 2013, and my morning blog of March 7, 2013. What was so special about those blogs tied to mundane Flyers losses to the New York Rangers and Pittsburgh Penguins?

Quite simply, I was not in Philly on these dates for a very important reason: My wife was due to give birth to our daughter, so I went back to our place in Texas (my wife is a native Texan, while I was born and raised in Philly). On the 5th, I wrote a game preview in the morning. I watched the game broadcast and wrote a wrapup/analysis piece. Around 3 a.m. on March 6, I drove my wife to the hospital and we checked in. I brought some clothing and I brought my computer.

Lily Claire Meltzer was born early that evening. I did not write on the 6th proper. That time was strictly for my wife and our baby. However, early the next morning -- from the hospital room reclining chair near Leigh's bed and our 14-hour-old newborn -- I wrote the next game preview blog. I was battling a stubborn cold (turned out to be an upper respiratory infection, although I was unaware until the following week) but I was over the moon with happiness.

If anyone were to ask me what HockeyBuzz has meant to me, I think the preceding paragraphs sum it up. I have written 360-plus days of most calendar years. Offseasons, I still write daily. Vacations, I write. Family birthdays or special occasions, I get up even earlier than my normal 4:10 a.m. and I write. Sick with the flu? I write, rest, then write some more until finished. I write from airport terminals and planes with no elbow room.

None of that makes me unique or special. That's what writers do if they are serious about a career in this business.

At the end of September, after being integral to HockeyBuzz from Day One of its foundation during the 2004-05 lockout, site business manager/ COO Eric O. (known to many around here as Capt. EO) and IT manager Chris DeGroat reluctantly left HockeyBuzz. Each did so for legitimate personal reasons that will remain private.

Both losses tore at the heart and soul of HockeyBuzz. That was especially true in Eric's case, because of his practicality, unfailing honesty and trustworthiness, business sense, tireless work ethic, and the relationships of mutual trust and friendship he's forged with advertisers and bloggers alike. Chris, meanwhile, did yeoman work maintaining our databases, operating the HockeyBuzz fantasy game and making tech-related fixes despite working full-time at his main line of business.

When Eric and Chris left, Mike Augello, Dwayne ("Eklund") and I formed a new three-person management arrangement. Mike and I tripled our respective workloads specific to HockeyBuzz. I reassumed daily Dallas Stars blogging chores (for the first time since 2017) in addition to writing the Flyers blog, worked daily interfacing with our blogger roll call (editing for some new/young bloggers as needed), and hiring a couple of new bloggers. Even after departing HockeyBuzz, Eric coded in the new bloggers (voluntarily) so they could log in and write.

A few words about Mike. I like to think that I have a pretty good work ethic but Mike -- commuting regularly over the years from his Buffalo home to Toronto and back -- is truly on the next level. He not only writes the daily Maple Leafs blog (traditionally our highest-traffic blog), but he coordinates and leads the Buzzcast, and took over payment tasks from Eric. In tandem, Mike and I have monitored site finances -- every penny of incoming revenue, every penny that comes out of revenue -- on a daily basis since October 1.

Sadly, the new arrangement was simply not working out. Mike and I have each been putting in 100-hour work weeks between our other work (Flyers website and all Flyers Alumni content platforms in my case, Sabres-related freelance in Mike's) and HockeyBuzz. It's unsustainable.

As such, both Mike and I reached heartbreaking realizations. The time has come to let HockeyBuzz go and pursue other opportunities. I want to thank Dwayne for giving me a space of my very own on HockeyBuzz from which to grow and shape to my personal and professional needs for nearly two decades.

Beyond that, I need to express to my HockeyBuzz colleagues, both past and present, what an honor it has been to work alongside such a devoted and hard-working group. It's my heartfelt wish that I can work with many of you again in the not-too-distant future.

Most of all, though, my biggest thank you goes to each and every HockeyBuzz reader and our message board community (insane as it can get sometimes!). You can still read my work almost daily on Philadelphia flyers.com, watch the Mondays with Meltzer editions of the Flyers Daily podcasts and check out FlyersAlumni.net and the Alumni's social media outlets.

I hope to have some personal/professional news to share in the near future on my social media. We will see on that front. My goal was for HockeyBuzz to thrive -- not just survive -- for many more years and to remain my "home base". It is time now, though, to shift gears and focus my energies in another direction.

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