Gee, I wonder if Gritty will end up as the new Flyers GM?
As somewhat of a lapsed fan of the orange-and-black, I feel compelled to weigh in on the recent firing of GM Ron Hextall (here), for whatever my opinion is ultimately worth in these or other matters (I've followed the team on an ever-less-frequent basis since they made it to the Stanley Cup Finals in 2010 mainly because of the front-office screwups that frequently occurred before Hextall was named as GM).
Let’s see now – I believe, when Hextall first took the reins, the Flyers had previously unloaded Patrick Sharp, Dennis Seidenberg and Justin Williams since the team had ZERO patience with developing prospects (and all three went on to win Stanley Cups with other teams) and, in return, the Flyers, being stuck in their 1970s mindset, acquired bigger but slower and less-talented players who usually ended up getting hurt, waived or traded themselves.
Oh, and did I mention Sergei Bobrovsky? The guy who posted about a 2.40 goals against average in his rookie year and who was traded to the Columbus Blue Jackets? All he did was go on to win a Vezina trophy, that’s all.
The Flyers’ salary cap situation was a joke when Hextall took over. He got them out of deals where they had to pay off Vincent Lecavalier basically for NOT playing, as well as Chris Pronger and that Russian tragedy of a goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov (it was former GM Paul Holmgren’s brilliant idea to basically rip the team apart by trading Mike Richards and Jeff Carter to be able to pay for “Bryz” based on Pronger’s recommendation…I’ve seen Pronger’s name floated as a possible GM replacement, and great player though he was, I think he should be disqualified for that reason alone, though I have to admit that Holmgren, partly due to Richards’s drug issues, ended up doing all right with acquiring good players in both moves).
The team also didn’t have any younger talent coming up from the minor leagues to push the veterans, but now, players at Lehigh Valley such as Oscar Lindblom, German Rubtsov, Mikhail Vorobyev and Mike Vecchione have all either seen time with the parent club in Philly or are on the short list to eventually make the NHL roster for good. And Hextall deserves the credit for that more than anyone else. And I know fans are anxiously awaiting the callup of Carter Hart as the long-hoped-for answer to the ridiculous game of musical chairs the Flyers keep playing with goalies (worse than the band Spinal Tap going through drummers), but he’s at least a year away – he needs time to develop; the worst thing to do would be to bring him up too early and watch him flame out.
David Scott, one of the owners, spoke out publicly about Hextall’s firing and cited the evergreen “philosophical differences,” more or less, with Scott saying he wants to “win win win” now, as if that was somehow in opposition to what Hextall was doing (oh, and did I mention that, as a player, Hextall was the winningest goalie in Flyers history?). And of course now-team president Paul Holmgren, wanting to remain employed himself, went along.
Do you want to know what’s really going on here? Envy and spite, that’s what.
The Eagles just won a Super Bowl, even though they’ve now imploded themselves partly due to injuries and are now scraping for some way to win their division and get in the post-season (and somehow winning the NFC East is the only way they’ll do it). The Sixers have taken big leaps forward also, though they’ll have to find some way to resolve this situation with Markelle Fultz, who may end up as the biggest number one overall draft bust in NBA history. The Phillies have rebounded also, though, with the exception of Aaron Nola, they have some big-time pitching concerns.
And that leaves the Flyers. And short of coming up with another Disney-esque on acid, Muppet-ish mascot, they had to find a way to be talked about again or risk utter irrelevancy once and for all among the Philly sports/fan/media cognoscenti (or so they think they are).
Here is the bottom line: I don’t see a plan from this organization. The only person who had one (whatever you may think of it) was Hextall. He knew the parent club of course, he knew the minor league affiliates, he knew all the coaches, he knew the scouts (I’m sure he hired more than a few), he was (and still is) known and well regarded throughout the league and had contacts all over the place. And now all of that is gone, even though (by Holmgren’s own admission) the fans have kept attending the games and have shown more loyalty than I ever would have if I were a season ticket holder.
And even though he’s dead, I have to say it anyway – this move to fire Hextall for specious reasons at best (as far as I’m concerned) has Ed Snider written all over it.
And it seems that the purge continued today, as noted here – I definitely respected Gord Murphy as a player, and I don’t know enough to critique him as a coach, but the Flyers have been absolutely awful defensively this year. And apparently it was enough for Chris Pryor as a Hextall loyalist to merit him getting canned also, regardless of whether or not he did a good job as head of scouting.
The Flyers continue to act like they think they’re the New York Yankees. In reality, they’re a lot closer to the Charlestown Chiefs (here).
And as you watch this from last night, keep in mind that Ottawa statistically is at about the same place as the Flyers (and when it comes to the goalie carousel thing, Anthony Stolarz is innocent as far as I’m concerned – he’s basically a rookie anyway...that winning goal by Matt Duchene was a pretty amazing play I thought that you couldn't do much about)…
Update: And while the Flyers make headlines for stupid reasons, the Eagles make headlines for great ones (here).
Update 12/5/18: All the best to Chuck Fletcher (here) – not exactly sure why he decided to join the cast of this soap opera, but he’s innocent as far as I know.
Update 12/17/18: And who didn't see this coming?
…and now, I return to what is typically more normal fare for this blog…I admit that I touched on the GM layoffs yesterday, but I thought this was more in-depth commentary from Farron Cousins on that and our farmers getting creamed from Generalissimo Trump’s tariffs, as well as straight-up corporate greed of course as Cousins says…
…and Willie Geist of “Morning Joe” brings us the latest on the Gropenfuhrer’s declining approval with a panel including Eugene Robinson (I understand the numbers here are pretty positive for the Dems and they’re reported as such, but I still think the “Republican-centric” focus of this commentary/reporting is pretty disgusting…and I hate to admit it, but I think Sam Stein is absolutely right about the remaining Repugs being even more beholden to the orange lunatic after the election)…
…and Kyle K. reminds us of the true cost of befriending the country that produced 15 of the 19 9/11 hijackers…of all of the atrocities committed by our ruling cabal of fools and criminals, support for the Saudi regime has to rank as one of the very worst…
Update 11/29/18: Yeah, I think this says it all right.
…and Cenk and Ana tell us about the latest horrible anti-abortion bill being contemplated by Republicans, this time in Ohio, making it punishable by death – yeah, keep telling me that “The Handmaid’s Tale” isn’t a documentary for the life forms sponsoring this monstrous cruelty…by the way, laws like this already exist in South/Central America, where women are prosecuted if they even miscarry (here), to say nothing of trying to end a pregnancy on their own...and boy, is Cenk right from about 6:29 to the end…
…and sometimes I put up these holiday tunes in particular as a bit of a palate cleanser if you will as opposed to some of the other relentlessly bad news, and this is one of those times (dogs are great, but I don't have the patience to take care of them - sorry).
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