During the first day of end-of-season exit interviews on Friday, veteran Flyers right winger Garnet Hathaway relayed a story from his time playing for the Calgary Flames. For two seasons (2016-17 to 2017-18), Glen Gulutzan was the team's head coach. Hathaway was a young player at the time, trying to earn a full-time NHL role.
According to Hathaway, Gulutzan once addressed the players during a tough time for the team by telling them, "the obstacle is the way." The coach obtained the phrase from Ryan Holiday's best-selling book of the same name.
Brown University alum Hathaway recalls puzzling over its meaning. Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius wrote, "The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way." Over time, Hathaway began to understand what it means and how it applies to hockey.
The central idea: It's only through experiencing adversity and learning from the things that cause one to fail or stumble that an individual or group can ultimately succeed. It's not through denial or avoidance. By turning these impediments instead into an opportunity to become more resourceful, one becomes better for the experience in the long run.
Hathaway then related these ideas to how they relate to the Flyers' current reality: The team has not made a playoff appearance since 2020. Rather than downplaying or denying the reality, the 33-year-old player believes unity is the key to recognizing and then seizing opportunities for improvement.
"What we went through this year will help us get to where we want to be," Hathaway said. "We wear our jersey with pride, just as the fans do."
Flyers players such as Ryan Poehling and Bobby Brink are two examples of people who made the most of opportunities to play expanded roles on the team this past year. Hathaway does not believe there should be an artificial "ceiling" placed upon their potential to improve that much further in the future.
Poehing, a frequent Hathaway linemate, played a fourth-line role for most of his NHL career despite being a first-round pick in his draft year and showing flashes of potential on the offensive side of the puck.
With Brink, it was the opposite. As a player with a small frame but clear puck skills, he was pigeonholed into "points or bust" territory. This season, Brink showed he can contribute in other ways even when the points aren't coming in bunches.
In Hathaway's own case, the player missed 15-games due to an injury sustained on Feb. 27. A penalty killing regular, Hathaway could only watch from the sidelines while the Flyers' PK tried to cope with his absence, and the trade that sent Scott Laughton to the Toronto Maple Leafs. Eventually, with Hathaway's return being one of the catalysts, the Flyers' penalty kill somewhat stabilized again over the final few weeks of the season.
Hathaway takes encouragement away from the ongoing unity -- teammates playing for teammates, drawing closer during adversity rather than pointing fingers -- he's seen even in the toughest times. Numerous well-liked and well-respected teammates (and a central team leader in Laughton's case) departed via trade. There was a coaching change late in the season and there is current uncertainty about who will be behind the bench in 2025-26.
Situations such as these can fracture a team. Instead, Hathaway sees determination among everyone associated with the Flyers to turn the obstacles into fuel for prouder outcomes. That goes, too, for the fans who've stuck with the team through frustrating times.
"Being a Flyers fan is tough this year, more than other years," Hathaway admitted.
"Trust us (players) that we are trusting our management and we're putting in our effort on the ice in order to be Stanley Cup champions," Hathaway said.
Hathaway, who signed a two-season contract extension last year rather than seeking free agency come July 1, 2025, has never played beyond the Conference Quarterfinal in his NHL career. His goal over the next two seasons to be part of a team -- a Philadelphia Flyers team, specifically -- that returns to the postseason.
Between now and then, there are many things that will need to go right: good decisions, a dose of good luck and a whole lot of hard work that bears fruit. Hathaway, for one, does not shy away from the huge challenges ahead.
He is someone who has not defied the odds on the ice throughout his career: an undrafted player on a minor league contract who later debuted in the NHL (against the Flyers) on Leap Day 2016 at age 24. Nine years and 606 NHL regular season games later, Hathaway is still playing and succeeding in the league with a physically demanding role. He doesn't just talk about turning the obstacle into the way. He lives it.
