Read some of my old editorials. They're pretty amusing. It's amazing how much the Flyers have changed since 1998.
By Joy Kim
February 13, 2002
As preliminary round play in Salt Lake City comes to a close, many hockey fans around the world are probably wondering, "What went wrong?" Other hockey observers are probably muttering, "What didn't?" Mostly due to complications arising from the involvement of the National Hockey League, the men's hockey portion of the Salt Lake City is quickly becoming an embarrassment. It's a situation where everyone involved loses, and everyone involved in the decision-making is culpable.
The idea of having NHL players in the Olympics has always raised two questions, one of philosophy and one of logistics. In other words: Should they play? And how should they play? I'm not going to tackle the thorny question of whether NHL players should be allowed in the Olympics. There are compelling arguments on both sides of the issue, and a thousand different points to consider. (What's truly an amateur? What's really the spirit of the Olympics? And so on.) Frankly, it's a topic that's been beaten to death by many wiser than I am. So let's look at the second consideration...
When the NHL, National Hockey League Players' Association, International Ice Hockey Federation, and International Olympic Committee decided that NHL players should be allowed to play at Salt Lake City, they created a huge logistical problem. There are many proposed solutions floating around the hockey world. Shorten the NHL season and take a longer break. Limit NHL involvement to players under 25. Simply lengthen the break. Move the preliminary round to the fall before the Olympics.
Of course, all these proposals have obvious flaws. The integrity of the NHL season is a major concern. On a financial note, NHL owners, dependent on ticket revenue, would never agree to the loss of home games. Teams have never been overly willing to release players for international play during the season--every year a teenage phenom stays in the NHL while his country's national team toils at the World Junior championships--especially if they happen to be struggling for a playoff spot. No one wants the Stanley Cup playoffs to last until July--they're long enough already. And it would be a crime to rob some national team players of the Olympic experience in the name of the NHL by moving the preliminary tournament to the fall.
The current setup tried to take all these considerations into account. No one liked the arrangement, but all parties involved--the NHL, NHLPA, IIHF, and IOC--agreed to it. And hockey people around the world tried to make it work. Peter Stasny, GM of Team Slovakia, basically become a travel agent in his attempt to shuttle players in to Salt Lake City for this game or that one. Various NHL teams were willing to allow their players to miss games so they could play in the preliminary round; these teams include Philadelphia (Ruslan Fedotenko, Ukraine), San Jose (Marco Sturm, Germany), Carolina (Arturs Irbe, Latvia), Colorado (David Aebischer, Switzerland). Other teams consented to tortuous travel schedules for their players: Los Angeles's Ziggy Palffy, Ottawa's Marian Hossa and Zdeno Chara. All the people involved--national team management, NHL management, and the players--understood the facts. These players had important commitments to the NHL teams, but the opportunity to play in the Olympics was once-in-a-lifetime and not easily dismissed.
Then things fell apart.
An unidentified, cowardly Eastern Conference team prevented Sturm from missing San Jose's game against Carolina. Arturs Irbe was told that he could play for Latvia; a little later, the NHL told him that he could not. Ziggy Palffy was told he could play in Slovakia's second game but not in its first. Dressed but not playing, Palffy watched his team fall behind against Germany. Then he defied his team, played eight minutes, and was consequently ordered not to play in their game against Latvia. All in all, the Slovakian shuttle system was a disaster. Meanwhile, a double standard courtesy of Gary Bettman soon became obvious. Some players could miss games; other players could not. Goalie Aebischer played; Goalie Irbe did not. Bartecko missed NHL games; Sturm and Fedotenko could not. And as preliminary round teams got eliminated, fingers began to be pointed--here, there, everywhere.
There's just one problem with all this finger pointing. All those parties pointing fingers are partly responsible for this mess. They agreed to an arrangement that was unclear and unfair. Some nations were favored over others, and the status of NHL players for preliminary round teams was never clearly laid out. I'm not sure that any arrangement could have fairly balanced all the issues at hand. Someone was going to be unhappy. But there's no way that any of the parties involved should have ever agreed to an arrangement that was not crystal clear on every last detail.
There's no place for inconsistency of interpretation or any other subjectivity of that sort in sports. Sports fans abhor that type of uncertainty. We hate to lose, but even more, we hate not knowing who really lost. When the certainty of victory and defeat is taken away from us, we get upset. (See file for Jamie Sale and David Pelletier, Olympic pairs skaters from Canada.) Now we can only ask of the Olympic tournament, "What if?" Was Germany going to win its group even if Slovakia had all its stars? Could Slovakia have upset one of the six elite hockey nations if it advanced? Will the final medal standings be different because of all this? We'll never know.
The next two weeks will bring a lot of exciting hockey to Salt Lake City. With NHL stars flying in from around North America, the six elite teams will finally begin their share of the Olympic hockey action. It will be easy to get caught up in the hoopla surrounding what is virtually an All-Star tournament at this point. But we should also remember a few other things. Ziggy Palffy standing forlornly in street clothes as he watched Team Slovakia get eliminated by Team Latvia. Arturs Irbe fuming on a bench in San Jose, when he could have been in goal for his team in the same game. Olympic hockey is a joy to watch, with and without NHLers, but we can't let ourselves forget that we'll never know what might have been.
On January 12, 2002, Eric Lindros made his first and much anticipated return to Philadelphia as a Ranger. Just recently returned from his seventh concussion, Lindros was a non-factor in the Philadelphia win. He shied away from contact, was booed incessently, got no points, and managed to receive a two minute unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for diving to embellish a Mark Recchi hook. It was an underwhelming performance, but it accomplished one singular thing: it made me feel sorry for him.
All week, Lindros tried to deflect the attention, but that was impossible. This was too obviously a game of great significance. First place in the Atlantic Division was a consideration, but also Lindros's legacy in Philadelphia. Some fans defiantly wore their 88 jerseys; some particularly classless ones called for blood. And in the middle of all the hubbub was Lindros, dazed and distracted, trying to be one of the guys when he was the man of the hour.
There was John LeClair and Luke Richardson, patiently answering the same old questions. They didn't want to criticize management; they didn't want to be disloyal to their team; they didn't want to be disloyal to their still-strong friendships with Lindros. That's a tough situation, folks--for Leclair, Richardson, and Lindros alike. For one thing is clear: Lindros may have wanted out of Philly by the end, but he left a little bit of himself there. He left his best years as a player, his health, and the dream of playing for one team from beginning to end. The First Union Center is the house that Eric built, but now it will never be his building again.
So I pity Eric Lindros. I think he's made his share of mistakes in this past couple years--waging that Toronto-only campaign, keeping his father as his agent--but they were mistakes of immaturity rather than of malice. Criticize him all you want, but Lindros never actively tried to hurt Philadelphia when he was a Flyer: he only did that incidentally and accidentally.
Frankly, I'm glad Eric Lindros is no longer a Flyer. I'm a Flyer fan first, and he was a distraction. But I don't wish him ill. So here's my message to him. Stay healthy--I hope you bounce right back up after that next hard check--and play well. Grow up, put all this mess behind you. You weren't the savior of Philadelphia hockey, but that was a role no one man could ever fill. All the best. Let's hope everyone can take something positive away from this otherwise unmitigated disaster.
Click here to read a very in-depth look at the first-round of the 1998 draft.
With every day the speculation intensfies. Who will be chosen? Which elite NHL players will proudly wear their country's colors at the 2002 Winter Olympics? The cream of the crop have already been chosen, but dozens of other NHL stars are still hoping for that phone call from their country's braintrust that will tell them yes or no.
The Flyers have as many--or more--Olympic hopefuls as any other NHL team. Consider these possibilites:
At one point, the Flyers had as many as 10 strong candidates for various national teams. Their mediocre start, however, has undoubtedly cut down that number. John LeClair and Jeremy Roenick are already assured their slots, but Brian Boucher's hopes are lessened by his hamstring injury. That's despite shockingly good numbers on his part--he leads the NHL in GAA and save % despite not having played in three weeks. Right now, Simon Gagne seems the best bet to make Team Canada, followed by Mark Recchi. Keith Primeau and Eric Desjardins only have four goals between them, and the current and former team captains have to be considered long shots to wear the maple leaf. How could Gretzky and company justify choosing Primeau over someone like Ryan Smith? Desjardins over Eric Brewer?
On the European side, Kim Johnsson still has a decent shot of making Team Sweden. Sweden lacks Canada's depth on the blue line, and Johnsson's numbers are still good despite his recent slump. Jiri Dopita was voted the best Czech hockey player in the world this past summer--he'll make the team. But Cechmanek has certainly not played better than Hasek and Turek, and Hlavac hasn't proven that he's any better than the other shifty Czech wingers who populate NHL teams.
Say LeClair, Roenick, Gagne, Johnsson, and Dopita play for their teams. That's already five core players that will get two weeks of work instead of two weeks of play. All Flyer fans wish the best for the players--who desperately want the chance to strut their stuff on the international stage--but let's face the fact: The Flyers will be better off if only five members of the Orange and Black go to Salt Lake City. If more players go, more players will be tired and worn down come playoff-time, and that's not a good thing. Don't believe me? Then look in your history books for the 1998 playoffs that followed the Nagano games. The Flyers sent more than their fair share of players that year: Eric Lindros, John LeClair, Eric Desjardins, Petr Svoboda, and Janne Niinimaa. They also lost in the first round of the playoffs. And fatigue was a factor--especially for someone like Desjardins, who annually looks exhausted by the end of March.
Perhaps this is the one positive consequence of the Flyers' disappointing start to this season. Perhaps in April they will be more fresh than their elite competitors--for the better the team, the more likely it is to be affected by Olympic letdown. But there's another side to this story. Great players take challenges like the Olympics and flourish from them. Imagine if Roenick, LeClair, and Boucher came back with gold medals around their neck. Would it cause tension in the locker room? I doubt it--we're no longer living in the Lindros era. But it could be a challenge and an inspiration to their teammates--winners beget winners. The gold medal winners won't be the ones feeling fatigued in April: the tired players will have been on that unlucky team that came in fourth, on a shootout.
Are the Olympics a win or lose situation for the Philadelphia Flyers? That's impossible to say--until we know who wins in Salt Lake, that is.
Like their NHL affiliate, the AHL Philadelphia Phantoms face the burden of great expectations this year. For this squad nothing less than the Calder Cup will be acceptable--especially after a subpar 2000-2001 campaign on Phantoms terms. For the first years of their brief existence, the Phantoms were annually expected to challenge for the division and make deep inroads in the playoffs. In their second year they went all the won--winning the Calder Cup. Most of the players from that team are long gone. A few like Neil Little lingers, but the majority of those players haven't been seen in Phantoms colors in a long time. Little's backup in that cup run, Brian Boucher, is now Roman Cechmanek's backup across the parking lot. The coaches of that team, Bill Barber and Mike Stothers, have also made the jump to the big show. In their place, the Calder Cup winning captain, John Stevens, is now the coach, and old friends like Andy Delmore, Paul Healey, and Mike Maneluk have gone away. So in their fifth year, the Phantoms hovered near .500 as they broke in a large number of prospects, especially on D. Joe DiPenta, Bruno St. Jacques, and others were all rookies last year--now they're vets expected to lead the Phantoms back to the heights.
This time the Phantoms are challenging for supremacy in a much larger AHL. With the downfall of the IHL, the AHL accepted a number of new squads and realigned their divisions. The Phantoms are now playing in the Southern division of the Western Conference--along with old friends Hershey, Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, and Norfolk.
Here are some faces to keep an eye on this season:
Now that Eric Lindros is Glen Sather's problem, let's take a look at what the future holds. Boy, does it look great! In the course of one summer, GM Bob Clarke has taken a squad that was utterly walloped in its last playoff game and transformed them into one of the league's elite. Once again the Flyers will challenge the Devils for the right to come out of the East. This time they might actually have a chance to beat them.
Yep, folks--once again the Flyers have started their annual "Stanley Cup or bust!" campaign. And after twenty-six years of bust--who knows what will happen?
Let's begin with an overview of one of the franchise's busiest offseasons in memory. At the end of the season, Bob Clarke was an embarressment. He cursed like a sailor whenever Lindros was mentioned; he even argued with his old coach and trading partner Pat Quinn; he seemed completely unable to control himself or the Lindros situation. At the hands of Lindros's family--and due to his own big fat mouth--Bob Clarke had gone from the franchise's greatest hero to the franchise's greatest embarressment. And let's be clear about this: Bob Clarke embodies orange and black. Many players with more talent have worn that flying P, but no player has ever had more heart. Only a fiasco of these Lindrosian proportions could have blackened Clarke's name--and boy did it ever. Now--just a few weeks later--Bob Clarke looks like an utter genius. He convinced Johnny LeClair to stay, persuaded Jeremy Roenick to jump aboard, snared some help on the blue line for Rico, resigned our RFAs, stockpiled some first-round draft picks by trading Langkow, and oh yeah, got rid of that headache named Lindros. Not bad for a bit of work between rounds of golf!
You have to go back, way back, to find a Flyers team with more depth than the current squad. In fact. you have to go to the pre-Lindros era. The big trade that brought Big E to Philly effectively robbed the organization of all its depth--it lost Mike Ricci and Peter Forsberg and the draft picks that normally would have been used to replace them. These new Flyers have three lines packed with firepower. It's anyone's guess what the line combos will be. Just as a random guess, consider this: Gagne-Primeau-Recchi; LeClair-Roenick-Tocchet; Hlavac-Dopita-Williams; Fedoruk-Manderville-Ranheim. And then there's Ruslan Fedotenko to plug in somewhere--and plenty of Phantoms eager to add themselves to the mix. Last year, Justin Williams made the squad because there was no one else available to take his spot. This year, Williams is going to have to do well in training camp or face a demotion to the AHL.
The blue line has also improved, although it probably still can't compare to those of Colorado or New Jersey. The additions of Weinrich and Johannson dramatically up the quality of the pairing. Neither player is an elite offensive defenseman, but they can handle the puck with some skill--a dramatic improvement over the disappointing Michael Sykora and Andy Delmore. Johannson also adds youth, which is important considering the ages of Desjardins, Weinrich, and Richardson. And Jeff Woywitka, Jim Vandemeer, Jason Beckett, and Joe Dipenta are all in the system, ready to fight for spot number 7 (though Woywitka will probably spend another season in juniors.)
I expect both Pavel Brendl and Maxime Ouellet to spend the season in the AHL with the Phantoms. Brendl needs to prove himself to the organization. If he improves his work ethic under the Flyers trainers, expect him to get a taste of the big show. The Flyers' general depth at forward, however, suggests that Brendl won't be pushed to make a premature appearance in the NHL unless there are serious injury problems. As for Ouellet, he needs plenty of playing time to continue his development. He won't get that as Cechmanek's backup, making a full season in the AHL ideal. If Boucher gets traded (which is quite likely, considering his general unhappiness), Ouellet might show up as the Flyers' backup.
A few forwards are going to be in a battle for an NHL roster spot in training camp: namely Ruslan Fedotenko, Justin Williams, and Todd Fedoruk. Williams is a skill player who needs to play with skill players. If he can't nail down a spot on the top three lines, he'll probably find himself demoted. Fedotenko's development seems to generally be ahead of Williams: right now he's got the inside trak on a winger's slot on the third line.
The Olympics may be an important factor in the Flyers' season--they'll be sending as many players as any other team off to Salt Lake City. John LeClair and Jeremy Roenick have both been named to Team USA. Desjardins, Primeau, Recchi, and Gagne all have a good shot of making Team Canada, particularly Gagne at this point. If the Primeau line stays together and continues to flourish, they'll certainly help their chances of making Team Canada as a unit. Roman Cechmanek and Jiri Dopita will certainly play for the Czech Republic; Jan Hlavac also has a good chance of going for the Czechs. The Flyers could be sending as many as nine players off to the Olympics and no less than four or five. If those core players are worn out in April, that could be trouble. Remember 1998, after all: the Olympic break may have been a factor in the Flyers' early playoff exit. Hopefully the mix of youth and experience on the team will minimize any post-Salt Lake City letdown.
All in all, however, the Flyers are posed to make a serious run at the cup. In 1999, they reached the conference finals more on spirit than on talent. In 1997, they had a nice run as well--aided by some fortuitous matchups. I think the Flyers will certainly make the conference finals in 2001-02. There's a very good chance that they'll make it to the cup finals as well. For the first time in years, the Flyers can challenge the Devils and company on paper. The next eighty-two games will see if they can challenge them on ice as well.
This summer will probably witness major upheaval in the Flyers lineup. Here's my predictions and wishes for a future Flyer lineup. It's a mixture of logic and wishful thinking. As in: I can see the Flyers' possibly signing Jeremy Roenick. I don't think, however, that they have a chance with Joe Sakic. I hope I'm wrong, but I think I'm right. Now without further adue...
These guys work great together. Each player brings a different dimension to the line: Gags has the quick, shifty moves; Rex brings passion and playmaking skills; Primeau dominates on faceoffs and down low with his enormous size. Give them an injury free season together, and they'll wreak havoc. Plus, Gags has another year of experience under his belt, which can only help. This is a elite-level line for an elite level team.
I think Justin Williams's development was a little overlooked at times this year. I'd like to see him get a lot of time with top players--not just marginal NHLers like Peter White--to help him build his skills and confidence. Just think of Gagne his rookie year--he got to play with Mark Recchi and Daymond Langkow on a regular basis. Roenick is an UFA and an elite centerman. It may be difficult to convince him to leave Phoenix, where I hear he's recently built a new house. Lapointe's an excellent winger, with great grit and feistiness--which this team could always use. He's also a bit younger than most UFAs, and much cheaper than say, John LeClair. I love LeClair, but 1) I don't think he'll resign for Philly and 2) He's asking an awful lot for someone with a gimpy back.
This was the Flyers' second line for much of this season. Although Fedotenko arguably had a better season than Williams in 00-01, I think Williams has a much greater upside and should be developed accordingly. I like Langkow a lot, but I don't think he should be anything more than a #3 center on a top team. Tocchet's getting long in the tooth and it's showing. I think he'll still be around next year--if only for leadership and sentimental value--but his ice time should be decreased.
Jody Hull probably won't be resigned. I'm pretty satisfied with Ranheim and Manderville on our fourth line, but another winger should probably take Hull's place, perhaps Todd Fedoruk, who Barber seems to love.
Desjardins needs steady partner on defense now--probably Therien or some free agent signing. The Richardson/McGillis pairing worked well this year and should be kept together. Some possible signings for the Flyers on defense would be Eric Weinrich (a solid acquisition) or Rich Pilon (though I hate him). Sykora's gone; McAllister should be a #7 and nothing more.
Should remain the same. Boucher needs to play well if he wants to be traded; he has enough of an upside that the Flyers shouldn't let him go for a song. Maxime Ouellet should be allowed a year of seasoning in the AHL before his true rookie season.
Peter White is a UFA and should not be resigned, even if he is Bob Clarke's son-in-law. Dean McAmmond wasn't much a pickup, though his speed is a plus. I hear Bill Guerin might be available from Boston next year--I'd love to see the Flyers make a run for him. He'll be a UFA after 01-02, and I heard he's building a house in Philly in an Al Morganti article. He's my favorite kind of player. Ditto for Doug Weight, who might be available from Edmonton for financial reasons. Guerin and Weight would both cost a lot of talent--probably Fedotenko or Williams, plus maybe a draft pick. I usually oppose trading young talent, but Weight and Guerin are guaranteed talent while Fedotenko and Williams are more potential.
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