After the Flyers’ overtime loss to the Rangers, Al Morganti said the team has “a lot of good signs beyond the goaltending.”
NEW YORK — The Flyers decided to swing for the fences with this season's victory prop.
Following wins, the team-selected player of the game throws on a Flyers baseball jersey, grips up a bat and shows off their stance.
"With the run that the Phillies are going on, we thought it would be a good idea to implement that into our postgame wins," Travis Sanheim said Tuesday at Madison Square Garden. "It's been great and the Phillies are doing great, too."
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The idea was spurred by a trip to Citizens Bank Park. A handful of Flyers went across the street in September to take batting practice and meet some of the Phillies.
Did they get the bat from the ballpark?
"Yeah, after I hit a couple of home runs, whatever," Kevin Hayes said humbly.
Hayes did go deep. He had the right lumber: Kyle Schwarber's bat.
NHL
Good choice with the National League home run champ.
"No one was hitting home runs and then he let us use his bat, so maybe it was juiced," Hayes joked.
"Schwarber came out and chatted with us for like 40 minutes, honestly. He was the man."
Sanheim, somewhat reluctantly, complimented Travis Konecny's swing.
"T.K. was actually surprisingly pretty good," he said. "I don't want to say that, but he was better than I thought."
After batting practice, the Phillies gifted the Flyers with bats to take home. Why not use one of them to toast victories, right?
"It's always nice to support a local team in the city," Konecny said. "They're doing well, so we just rolled with it."
The Flyers' equipment team makes sure the bat and jersey travel on the road.
And that "Ferrari" by James Hype and Miggy Dela Rosa is playing in the background after a win.
"The Phillies are doing so well," Hayes said, "it kind of led us that direction."
Victus Sports, a local company that makes and designs bats, saw the Flyers' victory choice. It's going to send the team a new custom-made bat that the Flyers will debut later in the season.
But back to batting practice: did Hayes actually think he'd be able to go yard in a big-league park?
"Yeah, I've gone deep before," he said.
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