With a thin defense, an alarming drop in offense, questionable goaltending and an 81-year-old owner that is coming off cancer treatments, the Philadelphia Flyers are in the midst of a miserable season in which they are falling back as a franchise.
Last year’s playoff run may end up proving to be the worst thing that could have happened to the Flyers, as it may have given them a false sense of security and prevented them from taking a more serious look at their defensive deficiencies.
The Future is Now
Flyers owner Ed Snider founded the Flyers during the NHL’s Great Expansion of 1967 when it doubled in size from six to 12 teams. The Flyers became the first NHL expansion team to win the Stanley Cup in 1974 and repeated the feat in 1975.
Although Snider built them into one of the greatest and most respected franchises in professional sports, the fact remains that 1975 was the last time that the team hoisted hockey’s Holy Grail. It is no secret that Snider desperately wants one more championship in his lifetime and that has become part of the team’s culture crisis. Philadelphia has been so focused on Snider’s immediate demand for a Stanley Cup that it has ignored the long term and bigger picture along the way.
A Hex on Ron
General Manager Ron Hextall was seen as a savior after taking over for the beleaguered Paul Holmgren on May 7. Holmgren was a favorite whipping boy among Flyer faithful. But Hextall is now discovering the reality of working for Snider and dealing with his incessant demands to win now. Even in their glory years of the 1970s, the Flyers rarely developed their own defensemen and would instead trade for their blue line corps. That lack of development at the back end has been especially costly in this “3-2 shutdown league” era.
Snider’s Rants
Philadelphia was 11-13-1-4 and out of position for a wild card spot in the weak Eastern Conference. Snider blew up last week. “I’ve never seen anything like it in all the years I’ve been in hockey,” he said. “Even when we were an expansion team, somebody chipped in here and there. We have two of the best forwards in the league, but two players can’t turn around a team. What happened?”
What happened is that the Flyers lack the defense to be a realistic Stanley Cup contender and lack the dominant goalie to compensate for that. What happened is that the Flyers have failed to plan long term in their attempt to appease Snider’s immediate desperate demands.
