The Spring Of Our Discontent

This topic has absolutely nothing to do with politics, but I have to vent about it.

As an ice hockey fan who has followed the home team for many years (though I'm not nearly as involved with the team or the sport as I once was), I should point out to anyone who may be interested that we in this area are currently engaged in our annual ritual of wondering what we’re going to do now that the Flyers have flopped in the Stanley Cup playoffs again.

(Two caveats immediately: First, we didn’t do this last year because the season was cancelled, and second, we didn’t do it the year before that because the team progressed almost to the finals. Those, however, are two rather dramatic exceptions.)

I would probably be keeping my mouth shut (figuratively) if it weren’t for the fact that now, the sports media geniuses (and maybe the radio shouters also…I don’t know because I’ll never listen to them) are floating the idea that coach Ken Hitchcock could be canned.

That is utterly ridiculous (typical, but ridiculous).

Hitchcock has molded that team as best as he could from a bunch of disparate parts into one that, as I mentioned, legitimately challenged for the Cup two years ago. He has also won a Stanley Cup as coach of the Dallas Stars in the 90s, an era that remains somewhat in most people’s memory.

Also, the excuse has been floated now and throughout the year that injuries to top players Keith Primeau and Kim Johnsson had a lot to do with their early exit. OK, but I would argue that the play of the Buffalo Sabres, a chippy team I’ve never liked that happens to be built to win the way the game is being played now with the rule changes, was the deciding factor.

We go through this stupid ritual every year…early season pronouncements that the Flyers are going to seriously contend for the Stanley Cup because we have Player X now or Player Y now, and the team is highly competitive throughout the year, but they go down in flames when it matters (and it happened again this year…I admire Derian Hatcher, who was acquired to play defense, but he’s practically done and way too slow at this point – Peter Forsberg, when healthy, may be the best there is, but through no fault of his own he was frequently injured and only has a couple of years left before he breaks down entirely).

No, there is one person responsible for the fact that this team continually folds year after year (and last night’s 7-1 drubbing in the clinching game for the Sabres was truly a dark moment).

That person is Bob Clarke.

Yes, I know he seems to have a halo about him because he and goaltender Bernie Parent were chiefly responsible for the Cup victories in the 70s (might as well be the stone age now), but he continually assembles teams of big, slow, retread veterans built to make ONE RUN and ONE RUN ONLY for the championship. Hitchcock has done the best he could molding together a team of disparate parts (some talented young forwards, two fine goaltenders, forwards who probably wouldn’t even be in the NHL if they played for other teams, and immobile defensemen), but it isn’t good enough.

In the Buffalo series, the Sabres received offensive production from every single forward. The Flyers received production from their top line (Forsberg, Mike Knuble – a good Clarke acquisition, I’ll give him that – and Simon Gagne) and practically no one else. The Flyers had NO ANSWER WHATSOEVER for Buffalo’s speed and precision offensive play.

As a result of this latest debacle, I have a request.

For the next five years, I don’t want to hear the word “Flyers” and “Stanley Cup” mentioned in the same sentence again. That is about how long it will take to reassemble this team with the right players so that it can be truly competitive again. I’m sick and tired of this stupid shell game that our sports media vermin and Stepford Flyers fans play every year – I honestly try to avoid it, but it’s tough (and by the way, fans, the Flyers will have to genuinely stink for a year or two before they can be fixed to be Cup-competitive…are you willing to be patient enough for that to happen?)

And the person to reassemble this bunch through the draft and free agent acquisitions will not be Clarke. Hitchcock won a Stanley Cup in Dallas because team general manager Bob Gainey knew how to go out and get players who could get the job done (and I believe Clarke actually preceded Gainey in the job also).

This team will never win the Stanley Cup with Bob Clarke as the general manager. The sooner everyone involved wakes up to that reality, the better.

At least the Phillies have won three in a row. Let’s see if there’s any room left to jump onto that bandwagon.