Phanatic Hockey Editor
From the opening home game on January 19 against Pittsburgh to the finale this past Saturday at Ottawa, the 2013 season for the Philadelphia Flyers felt like nothing less than a soap opera with multiple sub-plots weaved throughout.
Though the club managed to record more wins than regulation losses for the sixth straight season, they failed to reach the playoffs for the second time in 19 years, and that's not good enough, lockout-shortened schedule or no.
Unlike the Summer of 2007, when Paul Holmgren was given a blank check and the confidence of Peter Luukko and Ed Snider to pull the Flyers out of a dead-last situation thanks to an increased salary cap, the roster reshaping that must occur this time around presents more challenges than the organization has faced in the cap era.
The front office is no stranger to making tough choices, either by individual resolve, by committee or under some type of undefined coercion, but with a $6 million reduction in cap ceiling, they're facing a test they've never seen before and may never see again. An advanced math exam which will plot the course of the franchise for years to come.
What went wrong: Well, seemingly everything.
The realization that Chris Pronger's career is over and the resultant hole in leadership both on and off the ice that entailed. Spectacular failed bids to snag Shea Weber and Ryan Suter via free agency to fill the gap. Failure to meet Jaromir Jagr's salary demands as he headed to free agency while continually praising his Philadelphia experience. The naming of shooting star Claude Giroux as team captain after two years of unchecked rise to league-wide prominence. The failure of the remaining veterans to aid the transition. The failure to provide even adequate backup help for embattled starter Ilya Bryzgalov for three-quarters of the season. The horrible 2-6-0 start. The inability to get over the invisible, barbed-wire barrier that was the .500 mark. Whipping Bryzgalov like a plow horse as starter. Blowing a 4-1 first-period lead at home to the Penguins and losing. Peter Laviolette's intractability when called out by Snider on the type of hockey the club needed to play. Injuries to forwards which necessitated multiple stop-gap moves that involved bringing back more former Flyers. Injuries to the defense which left only two regulars without serious consequences. Peter Laviolette's intractability when those injuries made it impossible for the replacements to adequately adjust to his system. More man-games lost to injury than any other team in the NHL. Danny Briere's scoring drought in his sad presumed farewell to the city. Watching Sergei Bobrovsky move Columbus on the verge of the playoffs and attracting serious Hart Trophy and Vezina Trophy consideration while doing it.
What went right: More than you might want to admit.
The eventual return of hockey in January for an actual season. Beating the Penguins, 6-5, in Pittsburgh in late February. Jakub Voracek's rise to the occasion when getting top-line minutes whether his teammates were injured or not. The Phantoms defense (Erik Gustafsson, Oliver Lauridsen, Brandon Manning, Matt Konan) rising to the occasion when called up en masse due to injuries and meshing well due to their familiarity at the end of the season. Trading organizational yo-yo Michael Leighton and getting Steve Mason in the transaction. Mason's performance on a restructured contract in a new city and environment. Bryzgalov's handling of the constant mainstream media scoop-driven idiocy all the way to a potential team MVP nod. Kimmo Timonen holding it down both on and off the ice as a consummate professional. Wayne Simmonds carrying the club through the early doldrums and keeping his play at that level for the entire season.A strong finish when the albatrosses of who will be traded and bought out were lifted off the team's collective shoulders.
What needs to change: The entire core of the defense, including a shift in personality away from Pronger-like and a shift in responsibility away from Timonen, who will be looking to be neither worn out nor injured in his final North American campaign. A sweeping out of the Flyers' Alumni reunion that sprang up on the bottom-six forwards. More reliable veteran assistance for Giroux and Voracek. Expectations moderated towards every key player from the juniors on up to the veterans. The goaltending rotation and how many games are allotted to each man. Laviolette's intractability.
Saying a fond, but unemotional farewell to Andreas Lilja, Danny Briere, Ruslan Fedotenko and Mike Knuble are good starts. Keeping Adam Hall for his faceoff and penalty-killing prowess. Not moving towards the safe, known route of ex-players for additional help. Giving into the known unknowns and unknown unknowns of actually making trades body-for-body instead of player-for-pick, starting with Braydon Coburn and Matt Read. A greater emphasis of keeping things under control at 5-on-5.
The temptation will be to keep some of the late Phantoms' call-ups on the NHL roster after an impressive camp and wait until they either play themselves into or out of the lineup. However, with the faith Holmgren professed in Terry Murray, why not ship those guys to Glens Falls until the point they prove there's no reason to keep them in the AHL anymore? Of course, it means the club will have to spend on a puck-mover and another D-man of size, but so what? That's the organizational modus operandi anyway. Formulate a plan and stick to it for more than one year,
The following is even tougher to admit, and can only be written in spaces like these.
From the top down, the organizational philosophy and presence in positions of power must be altered. The illusion of good soldiers who know how to identify, promote and formulate "Flyers hockey" from drafting to free agency to scouting into the on-ice product has to be shattered and the power structure changed.
Snider should be busy continuing to bronze himself with his acts of kindness in the community under the organizational banner, but, as in the case of Pope Benedict XVI, should know when to close the book and gracefully decline. At 80 years old, we recognize that he's getting antsy for one last shot at glory and the manner in which he seeks that goal has become meddlesome and intrusive. The events of June 23, 2011 still stand out as his greatest indictment. Any man who can move Paul Holmgren to public bursts of emotion regarding player movement possesses too leaden a grip. His legacy is secure. No one will try to wrestle the empire away from him, but a permanent move to the simplicity of mountains and sea found in Malibu is just what the doctor ordered going forward.
Holmgren's greatest test as general manager (and more to the point, someone who can add and subtract as a functional adult) comes with the roster reshaping vis-a-vis the shrinking salary cap. If he cannot do it to the point where the Flyers return to the playoffs in 2014, it's time to find someone who embodies not only the Flyers ethos, but someone with fresh ideas about the kind of player who can be successful here, a new way of looking at how the club can compete on a macro level, and most importantly, a man with an actual degree in business, finance and economics. We should be lucky the club was only five years behind in evaluating Division-I college-level talent.
The era of former players brought up in the "school of hard knocks" is over. That also means sweeping out additional remnants of the old guard, including John Paddock, Barry Hanrahan, Don Luce and Bob Clarke.
Dave Poulin, Joe Nieuwendyk and Brian Burke are at the top of my list for the next GM, and all three would work in Philadelphia ONLY with a revamped power structure above and around each man.
Holmgren's wish list of "getting bigger" as told to the media in Voorhees on Sunday doesn't sit well, and is endemic of persons who have been too long in a position of power with no additional outside influences or hints of displeasure from those above.
The merry-go-round of coaches inside the organization must cease as well. No team which features a former fight specialist as an assistant coach has ever won a Stanley Cup, and I gather never will, so Craig Berube may be better off honing his craft back down with Adirondack. We shouldn't wish to see Murray back up as an assistant, nor should he even be considered as an interim replacement should Laviolette somehow falter over the course of next season. Neither should Paddock be brought in, or John Stevens returned to the fold. Another example where too many soldiers are present and not enough generals.
This is the era of working smart, instead of working hard. Being consistently good for a long period of time keeps the fans coming back, but more and more, they want more for their dollar, for their interest, for their time and emotional investment. If the goal is to win, as Snider memorably spit into the phone during a WIP interview on one wintry day in 1995, mission accomplished.
If the goal is the Stanley Cup, there is a lot to be desired from those in charge. Let's go forward quicker and with a steeper ascent than in years past. It's not easy, and it requires self-examination and willingness to change actions and perceptions that I'm not sure Holmgren and others -- including Laviolette -- truly possess.
Hell, I'm getting sick of writing the same thing year after year, but at least I'm approaching the same information from a different angle.
The postseason, draft and free agency await. Let the roller coaster begin.
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