Hockey World Blog

Philadelphia’s Unclear Future

Life is tough when you are losing, or is it? Mike Richards enjoying the company of a porn star.

Life is tough when you are losing, or is it? Mike Richards enjoying the company of a porn star.

What seemed to be the year for the Philadelphia Flyers quickly turned into a year that might just make Flyer’s fans sick.

Off season acquisition of Chris Pronger, pickup of goalie Ray Emery who has everything to prove, and the winning bid for the outdoor game on New Year’s day started the season on quite a high. The team won their first 3 games and ended up 6-4-1 in the first month. Adjusting to their new lines, shaking the rust off, the Flyers had a good start to the hockey season. November looked brighter, as the Flyers came out winning their first 4 games. Yet the team still ended up slightly over .500 for the month with a 7-6-0 record, totaling 13-10-1 for the season. Jump forward to today, the team is 13-13-1, 5th in the Atlantic Division, and even worse, third to last for 13th position in the Eastern Conference.

So what is the problem? Was it the coaches fault? John Stevens has been fired and replaced by Peter Laviolette. Is it the leadership on the ice? Mike Richards has vocalized his position of captaincy after the firing of Coach Stevens. Or could it be the goaltending as Don Cherry has indicated? Ray Emery is near the bottom of goalie stats, but he does post a .900 save percentage and currently has  a winning record.

So what is the problem? I’m not sure, but when a coach is fired, a Captain in question, and you have Ray Emery in the locker room, all on a losing season, something internal is happening that we do not know about. The team is young and the Flyer’s season is teetering right now. On one side you have a change in the system that positively affects the team to start winning again with hopes it is not too late for a playoff spot. On the other end, the team self destructs and late night partying from young players is more frequent, the golf bags come out early this year, and next year a makeover of the entire team.

Time will tell. For me, I hope they turn it around. For now though, if you lack faith in a turnaround, dump your Flyers while you still are able to.  If you wait to long, you will be stuck shopping players at a reduced price.

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