5 Steps

By Michael Rushton

The great thing about sports is everyone thinks they are right. Doesn't matter if you are a 13-year-old kid with nothing more than playground experience or a 45-year-old Wall Street junkie, everyone knows how to fix their favorite sports team.

I'm lucky enough to be part of a phantastic blog (we don't use the f key a lot around here) that allows me to expand my ideas beyond the lunch room.

So, how do we fix the Philadelphia Flyers? Here is one man's suggestions. I also invite you, our readers, to email your ideas as well, either to rushpac@comcast.net or phanaticmag@comcast.net for future use. Include your name, age and location if you dare.

1) Trade a goaltender.

It's not often that a poor team's most pressing position isn't goaltending, but that is the case for the Flyers. One reason is because Robert Esche and Antero Niittymaki have been successful before. The other is that Philly's defense is so bad, most goals can't be faulted to the netminder.

Bottom line is the Flyers are two deep in a position where you start one player. Niittymaki has gotten the bulk of the starts this year because of an injury to Esche, who hasn't played much since coming back either. With this in mind, it looks like the Flyers are going to go with Niittymaki and his painfully slow glove for the future or Esche and his fragile psyche.

So dump Esche, who will start on most other clubs, and get some decent pieces to the puzzle.

2) Keep Joni Pitkanen.

It happened quickly, but Pitkanen went from a future savior to a town whipping boy. He has just one goal this season and is a minus-23.

But lets be fair. Pitkanen is a 23-year-old anchor of an even younger, less experienced group of defenders. He has 23 assists so far this season, which is 10 off his career high and is so busy backpedaling into his own zone, he doesn't have time to look for things offensively. If the team wants him to score 20 goals a year, move him to wing.

So, keep Pitkanen and make a push for free agent defenseman Kimmo Timonen, a fellow Fin, in the offseason. That would finally give Pitkanen a player on the ice he can be comfortable with, something that appears to really impact the youngster.

3) Develop chemistry.

Former coach Ken Hitchcock was notorious for shuffling his lines all season, even in the middle of the game. To be honest, with the Eagles excitement recently, I haven't' really been noticing how new coach John Stevens has been handling his lines.

But I'll offer my suggestion anyway; don't do what Hitch did. It's time the Flyers start developing something known as line chemistry. Let's get our own Thornton-Cheechoo, Jagr-Lemieux, Legion of Doom thing going.

Stevens has all season to figure out which players click with who. Figure it out and stick with it.

4) Figure out what is wrong with the special teams.

Every year it is the same thing. The Flyers can't score on the power play. They bring in new point men, stuff different people in front and claim "we're trying to score to many pretty goals." Yet, like a high-school girl with low self esteem, they keep going back.

This year, the Flyers are 29th out of 30 on the power play at 14 percent. Only Chicago and its 11 percent is worse. Philadelphia has scored just 33 power-play tallies and have given up 10 shorthanded ones, tied for the league high.

Get these guys some instructional DVDs and tell them to knock it off.

5) Decide the future soon, and respond accordingly with Peter Forsberg.

The Flyers need to decide very soon what direction they are headed in. On one hand, they can be stubborn, chalk this year up to bad luck and injury, and say they will contend next year with minimal changes.

If that's the case, don't trade Forsberg at the deadline and sign him to an extension.

However, if Philly decides it is some time away before being a power house again, move him immediately. As much as you hate to lose his leadership and unmatched talent, trading Forsberg will net you some nice, NHL ready players for the future.

As I wrote a few weeks ago, if the Flyers are rebuilding for the future, this team needs to learn how to play without the great Swede. Out of sight out of mind.

So there you ago, just some suggestions on how to rebuild the Flyers. Don't forget to send us yours.


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The Phanatic