• Signed Ray Emery to be a back-up / goon.
Seriously, though, the BSB mentality never really went away: the Flyers' bread and butter is, like Bobby Clarke famously said, to take the shortest route to the puck and arrive in ill humour. Size and toughness will always be an important ingredient – emphasis on ingredient – in the success of an NHL roster. We heard how the scouts keyed on Morin's toughness and mean streak in episode 1 of Flight Plan.
Now, if by BSB mentality you mean brawling every game or swinging sticks, the significant rule revisions since the 1970s make this a failing approach. That part of hockey is gone, probably forever, in the NHL. But this isn't the only metric of toughness: the Flyers kept at the Penguins every game in 2012 and the Penguins came apart. That's the refined method of the new-and-improved BSBs: make it difficult for the opposition to play, make them grip their sticks a bit tighter when they have the puck, make them fight for every inch in your zone. This, too, is what is largely missing consistently from the recent line-ups. Opposition teams are enjoying puck possession and movement in the Flyers end. But I digress.
