THE LATE Sparky Anderson - manager of baseball's Big Red Machine in Cincinnati in the 1970s - once said: "People who live in the past generally are afraid to compete in the present."
While Flyers coach Dave Hakstol hasn't earned anywhere near the reputation of Anderson, he has his team playing with a similar mindset. And as cliché as it is, the Flyers are living and thinking only in the present.
Forget last season, when they competed well against the upper-tier NHL teams but went 0-6-5 in their final 11 games against non-playoff teams before finishing 14 points out of the playoffs themselves.