The hammer finally fell unfairly on Hitchcock and deservedly on Clarke. I figured they’d wait until a weekday but better now so the new coach, John Stevens, has a chance to get this batch of schmucks together to salvage what’s left of the season. The upside for this guy is that he coached 11 of them from the Calder-winning Phantoms in 2005 (they were awful last season because the Flyers gutted all the reserve talent for injuries). So Stevens will have the ear of the younger talent: Umberger, Richards, Carter, Meyer, Niitymaki, Picard, Kane, so on. As for the “pros,” I think he has his work cut out for him and if the ownership and new GM are serious, they will trade Gagne, Forsberg and Pitkanen because they share a large chunk of the blame. The Flyers can’t unload Hatcher and Rathje due to the pricetags and lack of talent, I mean speed. I take solace about Forsberg only having this season left on his contract, I still dislike him and now he gets to add Ken Hitchcock to his list of coaches he threw under the bus, see Marc Crawford and Bob Hartley, he’s a big baby who can’t lead and shouldn’t be wearing the C. It’s wishful thinking, but I really doubt Keith Primeau would’ve let his support waver no matter what he was feeling.
Anyway, I’m glad to be rid of Clarke as GM. He made horrible trades ever since the lockout ended. As I said before, he paid too much for Gagne and now Philly is stuck with him being partially snakebit. Will the interim guy be better? Maybe but this I know, even if the Flyers somehow make the playoffs in April, this is a damaged season. I’ll keep watching to see how they’re doing yet with the car trouble I developed this afternoon, I think I may let the whole Dish thing go for the year. I need the mobility for work and life more than seeing the Broad Street Bullies play like they’re the Baylor Bears getting pounded by the Texas Longhorns in football yet their club hockey games are equally lopsided.
I know it’s just a game but when one is paying for “professional” hockey from a favorite team and its opposition, you expect some effort. I would be equally bored if my Flyers had an 82-0-0 season because the rest of the NHL played at the NCAA Division III level.