Everything is different now, but Flyers still the same

by Bob Herpen
The Phanatic Magazine

I had to wait a full weekend to really digest what went on in and around Flyerdom at last Wednesday’s trade deadline. Here are the facts:

The club traded Scottie Upshall (7 goals, 21 points) and a 2011 second-round draft pick to the Phoenix Coyotes for Dan Carcillo (3 goals, 10 points, 174 penalty minutes). In a smaller deal, the Sharks sent AHL defenseman Kyle McLaren here for a sixth-round pick in 2009.

The Flyers celebrated the Upshall-Carcillo trade on Thursday by going out and playing absolutely scrambling, disorganized hockey against the rejuvenated Calgary Flames in a 5-1 home loss. That was made to look even worse as the Flames got creamed in succession by Carolina (6-1) and Atlanta (5-2), on Friday and Sunday, respectively.

Scottie Upshall was revealed on several news programs, and now in perpetuity on blogs and YouTube, to be holding back tears when asked his opinion on the deal which wrenched him from teammates with which he forged a special bond.

The McLaren deal was later reversed over the weekend because the 31-year-old veteran, who was released by San Jose prior to the season, failed a Flyers team physical.

In two games with Philly, Carcillo has given the move its usual old-school hockey PR boost, with several good hits, a fight, and…oh yeah…one point in an assist during Saturday’s 4-1 win against Nashville.

In two games with Phoenix, Upshall has scored two highlight reel goals, and has been the typical pestering, high-energy presence he was touted to be when Paul Holmgren brought him in from Nashville two years ago. He has exactly one penalty for two minutes, and it was far from the “stupid” variety team brass trumpeted about in the weeks before his departure.

Meanwhile…

The New York Rangers, who can’t score, can’t play defense, and can’t come up with consistent efforts from anyone on any given night score big.

They get a new coach, and a Stanley Cup winner at that – also someone who knows how to endlessly pull and prod key personnel. They overhaul their defense, add some goal scoring to take the burden off their star goaltender, and clear out a ton of deadwood in the process.

East-leading Boston steals a top-six defenseman from Anaheim, then pulls another coup by snagging Ageless Wonder Mark Recchi from the radioactive pile of steaming wreckage that is Tampa Bay.

Last year’s Cup finalists, the Pittsburgh Penguins, upgrade with a veteran forward in Bill Guerin, and a good skater with skills and a mean streak in Chris Kunitz.

The Devils simply get Martin Brodeur back from a four-month vacation, fully rested and armed to rewrite the NHL record book.

The Florida Panthers have suddenly crept up into the fifth spot in the conference playoff standings by really doing nothing but winning and keeping defenseman-slash-Holy Grail Jay Bouwmeester.

All this as the Flyers are still meandering around with the same well-worn questions about salary issues, upgrading the defense and the never-ending saga of Who Wants to be The Starting Playoff Goalie?

The word from certain media outlets in the last four days has been to give Holmgren and the organ-eye-zation a break; to judge all the moves as a whole and reserve the stinging criticism for now.

In these situations, I tend to go with my gut more than my brain. Once again, the gut is right.

For the sake of something complex like crooked numbers with a lot of zeroes behind them, the team ripped out a part of its heart and soul and a vital part of its skill. I feel confident in saying, regardless of how Carcillo fits into “the room” from here on out, that the Upshall deal is Holmgren’s first major failure – a move which realistically has cost this team a better shot to win the conference.

I think that’s fantastic this means Claude Giroux won’t have to be shuffled back and forth across parking lots from now until April 12. We wouldn’t want to hurt his feelings.

Taken with the lack of readiness to anticipate that Ossi Vaananen and Glen Metropolit would not clear waivers last week, plus Lasse Kukkonen’s yo-yo status, and the Jean-Sebastien Aubin $1 million shotgun contract, it’s fair to say that this season isn’t going to go down as one of the great ones in his GM tenure.

And that simply can’t happen now – not when the club did so much to erase the memory of the 2006-07 season so quickly. Not after a conference finals appearance last year did much to get the fan base Hungry For More.

Perhaps this is a not-so-subtle signal that orders from the top are changing from Ed Snider’s dictum that the name of the game is to W-I-N, to the corporate demand that the ledger must be clean.

If not, Holmgren and his staff have got to get acquainted with the numbers side of the business, and do a far better job of placing the needs of a title against the needs of a salary cap.

As it stands now, the Flyers are locked into finishing no higher than the fourth spot in the conference. They will not catch the Devils and win the Atlantic Division. Up until this weekend, the Montreal Canadiens appeared to have a good grip on the five-slot, since they were not going to catch the Bruins in the Northeast.

As it always seems to be in the East, the orange and black are also a mere five points away from missing the postseason altogether. Unlike years past, though, the shift in play between conferences dictates that wins here come more as a result of goal total than grit and defense.

The Flyers just netted themselves negative-four goals and negative-11 points. The Carolina Hurricanes, who hold the ninth seed, reacquired Erik Cole and then go out and lay a nine-spot on the road while matching or breaking team records in the process.

You tell me who made the smarter and more profitable deal.

Heading into the season’s final five weeks, we have a general manager who has a tough time adding, a man behind the bench who is about to be consistently out-thought and out-coached by another division rival, and players smarting from a major disruption to their overall chemistry.

Time for another surprise deep run through the postseason. Or most likely not.