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PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The vendor at the Flyers merchandise kiosk on the main concourse scrolled through his phone as disinterested fans breezed by the $70 Stadium Series sweatshirts and $250 jerseys that suddenly seem as unwanted as a face value ticket. Shortly before faceoff Womens Patric Hornqvist Jersey , customers! A Flyers fan stops by and spends $5.39 on a foam finger that is supposed to convey the home team is No. 1.At least one Flyers fan in the stands had a different digit in mind.The scoreboard cameras caught a man in the first period flipping Gritty the bird.Yes, even the beloved Flyers furball can’t escape the wrath of agitated fans in what has become one of the biggest debacles in franchise history. The only part of the season more surprising than the unexpected popularity of their rookie mascot has been the dizzying dip in the standings from a year ago. The Flyers crashed from a 98-point team that made the playoffs to the one of the worst teams in the NHL; they fired the coach, the general manager and play in front of a half-empty Wells Fargo Center where tickets bottomed out at $9 a pop on StubHub on Wednesday.Hey, for a night, the discounted ducats were worth the price — the Flyers snapped an eight-game losing streak with a 2-1 win over Dallas.But the win was just a rare respite for a franchise barreling toward the Feb. 25 trade deadline on the brink of another shakeup. The suit and tie guys are gone. General manager Chuck Fletcher was hired in November to replace Ron Hextall, who could not turn the Flyers into contenders after 4½ seasons, and he promptly fired coach Dave Hakstol after three-plus seasons without a playoff series win. Interim coach Scott Gordon is 4-7-2 in his brief tenure.That leaves the aging veterans in the orange-and-black sweaters, and perhaps some of the newer faces, on the market as Fletcher decides if the time is now for a full-blown roster revamp. Former All-Star forward Wayne Simmonds is in the last year of his contract and could be traded before the Flyers lose him for nothing. Simmonds, who has only 19 points this season, is perhaps the most important voice in the locker room and losing his leadership would hurt the Flyers as much as his point production. Just 30, Simmonds could be packaged for prospects and picks to a contender before he hits free agency.“Right now Phil Kessel Jersey , you definitely can’t look at the big picture,” Simmonds said. “Obviously, the big picture doesn’t look good, so you’ve got to start small and we’ve got to start making strides from there.”Hextall’s inability to turn things around was among the reasons he was unexpectedly dismissed Nov. 26. Philadelphia hasn’t won the Stanley Cup since 1975 and was ready to try to contend after several years of retooling.They instead enter Saturday’s game at New Jersey sitting 30th in the NHL standings at 16-22-6 (38 points).How did it get this bad?— Start in net. The Flyers tied an NHL record this week with Mike McKenna becoming their seventh goaltender to play this season. The Flyers became the fourth team in league history to hit that ignominious milestone and reached it in just 43 games. The Flyers banked on Brian Elliott and Michal Neuvirth to man the pipes while top prospect Carter Hart gained experience in the minors. Elliott and Neuvirth have been injured most of the season and patchwork effort was a bust, forcing the Flyers to call up Hart (3-4-1) last month to steady the team.— The farm system had failed to produce stars after a string of bad drafts last decade and expected cornerstones such as Nolan Patrick (No. 2 pick of 2017 draft; 22 games without a goal), and defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere and Ivan Provorov have yielded inconsistent results instead of serving as significant keys to a rebuild.— The vets have disappeared. Claude Giroux, the last holdover from the 2010 Stanley Cup final team, is again an All-Star. But Simmonds, Jake Voracek, van Riemsdyk and Sean Couturier have been hit by injury and inconsistency.“When times do get tough, it’s what’s in our locker room that really matters and what really counts,” Hart said.The 20-year-old Hart will be the anchor and has been an instant fan favorite. He’s been recognized a couple of times in public — he had to smile recounting a photo he took with an employee at a local Lululemon — but otherwise blends in like any other young kid walking a mall.The Flyers have averaged more than 19 Sidney Crosby Jersey ,000 fans a game each season since 1996 but the crowd has thinned and ticket prices have hit rock bottom at the same time a $250 million renovation is underway at the Wells Fargo Center. It hasn’t helped that the 76ers, a fellow tenant, pack the place every night.“The winning side of it is a lot more fun than the losing side of it, but we can only deal with the circumstances that we have and right now,” Gordon said.Gritty has provided the Flyers a mainstream buzz they would have missed had it not been for his burst of supersized jersey full of fun.Gritty kicked a field goal at a recent home loss blindfolded both in a nod to “Bird Box” and a shot at Chicago Bears kicker Cody Parkey. Flyers fans saved their loudest cheers for the skit and accompanying Eagles highlights.Once play resumed, they could have used the blindfold. As an expansion team, the Vegas Golden Knights have defied all sorts of odds.Long shots to even make the playoffs seven months ago, they are a favorite to hoist the Stanley Cup in June. Behind the stellar play of goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury, the Golden Knights completed a sweep of the Los Angeles Kings to move into the second round against San Jose.That puts the Golden Knights in some rare company as they became the first expansion team in NHL history to sweep a series in their inaugural season . The Pittsburgh Penguins recorded a sweep in their first playoffs appearance in 1970, which was their third season in the NHL. Not to be overlooked are the St. Louis Blues, who made three straight Stanley Cup finals beginning in 1967-68 after the league expanded and threw all the new teams into the same division. The Florida Panthers also had early success, going to the 1996 Finals three years after entering the league.”We’re just trying to be as good as we can be Dougie Hamilton Jersey Womens ,” Vegas general manager George McPhee said. ”No one knows what exactly is going to happen. We think we’re a pretty good club, but we’ll keep trying to do what we’re doing and see where it takes us.”After a few days off, the crew gets back to work with the Sharks looming.Asked if the down time was good for his squad, McPhee responded: ”This is not like the bye week where they have five days off and they’re not skating or they’re not training. We’re not going to Mexico.”A look at a few of the expansion/charter teams that found success early:CAROLINA PANTHERS & JACKSONVILLE JAGUARSCarolina went 7-9 in its inaugural season in 1995 with Kerry Collins leading the way. The Panthers made it to the NFC championship game one season later, losing 30-13 to Brett Favre and the Green Bay Packers. Jacksonville followed a similar path. The Jaguars went 4-12 in `95 and then caught fire and made it to the AFC championship game the next season behind QB Mark Brunell, before a 20-6 loss to New England.MILWAUKEE BUCKSOK, their first season wasn’t all that dazzling at 27-55 in 1968-69. But then the Bucks drafted a center named Lew Alcindor – now known as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar – with the No. 1 pick. In 1970-71, the Bucks captured an NBA title by sweeping the Baltimore Bullets. Oscar Robertson wasn’t too bad for Milwaukee, either.ARIZONA DIAMONDBACKSStarting in 1998, the Diamondbacks got off to a 65-97 mark. Three seasons later, with Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling leading the rotation, they were World Series champions. Arizona beat the New York Yankees in Game 7 http://www.officialsharks.com/authentic-adidas-brent-burns-jersey , with Luis Gonzalez bringing home the winning run with a single off closer Mariano Rivera in the bottom of the ninth inning.D.C. UNITEDThe Major League Soccer team was the best of the best in the charter league. The squad captured three of the first four MLS Cups – 1996, ’97 and ’98. Their first coach was Bruce Arena.PHILADELPHIA/BALTIMORE STARSDonald J. Trump owned the New Jersey Generals in the fledgling USFL, which ran from 1983-85, but the Stars ruled. The Philadelphia/Baltimore Stars reached the championship game all three years, winning the title twice. They lost to the Michigan Panthers in the 1983 championship game, then beat the Arizona Wranglers to cap the 1983-84 season. After relocating to Baltimore, the Stars beat the Oakland Invaders for their second straight title in the league’s last hurrah. The team was coached by Jim Mora and their quarterback was Chuck Fusina, the former Penn State standout who finished runner-up to Oklahoma’s Billy Sims in the 1978 Heisman race.—AP Pro Football Writer Arnie Stapleton contributed.—