Still, if you objectively look at what kind of team the Flyers are, as opposed to what was expected of them, they are frighteningly similar to the Sixers.
The only difference between them right now is their levels of underachievement.
The Flyers were expected to be more than just another team in the playoff mix. They weren't the favorites in the Eastern Conference, but they were supposed to be much better than a team fighting to hold the sixth seed.
Two seasons ago, a dynamic, young Flyers team made a surprising run to the Eastern Conference finals, knocking off the third-seeded Washington Capitals and the top-seeded Montreal Canadiens along the way.
While Mike Richards and Jeff Carter were not at the level of Pittsburgh's Sidney Crosby and Washington's Alex Ovechkin, they were two of the most promising stars in the game.
It might have been unreasonable to expect the Flyers to progress automatically to the Stanley Cup finals last season, but finishing fifth in the Eastern Conference and getting wiped out in the first round of the playoffs was a huge step backward.
With a loyal fan base in a large media market, the Flyers are one of the big-boy franchises of the NHL.
Their tendency is to reload rather than rebuild.
The blockbuster acquisition of perennial All-Star defenseman Chris Pronger, 35, wasn't about helping a young team continue to slowly mature. It was about quickly jump-starting it to the next level.
Think of the Sixers after the 2007-08 season - when they surprisingly made the playoffs.
Do you see any similarity in purpose between the Flyers' trading for Pronger and the Sixers' signing of free agent Elton Brand in the summer of 2008?
An even better question is that, considering his production compared with his salary, is the 8-year, $52 million contract the Flyers gave free agent Danny Briere in 2007 looking like as big an albatross as the 5-year, $80 million one the Sixers gave Brand?
