Philly in danger of a playoff-less year

NOT TO RAIN on any parades down Broad Street, but there is a black cloud covering our silver lining.

Now, it's not time for panic mode. But the Flyers' slow start to the lockout-shortened NHL season does not have them in a comfortable position among the eight Eastern Conference teams that will qualify for the playoffs.

And that doesn't bode well for the postseason fortunes for fans of Philadelphia sports.

Since the Union arrived, the annual cycle of professional "major" sports here has begun with the start of the Major League Soccer season in March and ended with the completion of the NBA season in June of the following year.

So for argument's sake, the 2012-13 NHL and NBA seasons will complete the current professional sports cycle in Philadelphia.

The Union, Phillies and Eagles all failed to qualify for their respective playoffs.

The Sixers are within striking distance of sneaking into the NBA playoffs. But with their injuries and inconsistent play, their postseason hopes lie more with what teams ahead of them may not do as opposed to what they can do.

So that leaves us with the Flyers as the only team capable of controlling its own playoff fortunes. And if they come up short, there is a good possibility Philadelphia will go a complete sports cycle with no playoff teams for the first time since the 1991-92 cycle.

During that cycle, the 1991 Phillies finished 78-84 and third in the National League East.

The 1991 Eagles finished 10-6, but that was only good enough for third in the NFC East, and they were edged out for the final wild card by the Atlanta Falcons on a tiebreaker.

The 1991-92 Sixers ended the era of Charles Barkley by going 35-47 and missing the playoffs. It was the start of a run when they won fewer games for five consecutive seasons.

The 1991-92 Flyers celebrated the franchise's 25th season by finishing 32-37-11 and last in the old Patrick Division. Almost immediately after the season ended, however, they made the historic trade for Eric Lindros.

In 1993, three of the four teams missed the playoffs, but that was also the season the Phillies made their surprise run to the World Series.

The last time only one team made the playoffs was in 2006 with the Eagles.

This is scary stuff. When you consider how many playoff chances there are for a city with five teams, getting shut out would be another level of futility.

Philadelphia has gotten used to not winning championships, but we're almost always in somebody's playoffs.

The baseball playoffs are still the hardest to make, and when the Phillies finished 81-81 and couldn't qualify for either of the two 2012 wild cards, it ended a franchise-record string of five consecutive playoff appearances that included the 2008 World Series title and a 2009 World Series appearance.

Pitchers and catchers reported to Clearwater on Tuesday, with the Phillies looking to make one last run at glory before rebuilding begins in earnest.

The Union has been around for only three seasons, but did make the playoffs in its second. A series of self-destructive player transactions by former team manager Peter Nowak crushed the 2012 campaign and leaves the franchise struggling to rebound in 2013.

Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie badly miscalculated when he gambled that Andy Reid had one last playoff run in him for 2012. In Reid's 14th campaign, the Eagles flamed out to a 4-12 record, ushering in the Chip Kelly era.

The Sixers entered the season with their brightest prospects since reaching the 2001 NBA Finals. The trade for All-Star center Andrew Bynum last summer was supposed to transform the franchise.

Unfortunately, it did. With Bynum and his bum knees yet to play a game, the Sixers have slipped back to obscurity.

So for all intents and purposes, hope rests almost exclusively with the Flyers, which comes as no surprise.

In a city with a sports history as bad as Philadelphia's, the Flyers have most often carried the playoff torch during the darkest hours.

For three cycles from 1972-73 through 1974-75, the Flyers were the only team from Philadelphia to make the playoffs. The same held true in the 1987-88, '94-95, '97-98 and 2005-06 cycles.

So as the new sports cycle begins with the Phillies and Union, remember that the last one hasn't yet ended.

It will likely again be on the Orange and Black to keep 2012-13 from being a complete playoff failure for Philadelphia.