Filling the Holes in Swiss Cheese - Part Two

The year that started all wrong... then went downhill

Forwards:

Over the off-season Clarke traded Michal Handzus to Chicago for Kyle Calder, both players were going into the final years of their contracts, followed by pending UFA status. Although Keith Primeau was still under the effects of post concussion symptoms and would eventually retire, Clarke felt that he could still move 'Zeus' for a promising center/winger with a huge upside... Clarke, in an attempt to sign a potential long term shutdown center to replace Primeau, made an Offer Sheet to Vancouver's Ryan Kesler for three years at $1.75 million per year; this got him nothing but hard feelings, and another notch on his reputation as a hard nosed GM, as Vancouver begrudgingly matched the Offer Sheet and paid much more than they were prepared to pay... The Flyers now had no viable option for that all important shut down center in coach Ken Hitchcock's system. Without Primeau and Handzus the forward slots were hurting. Forsberg was to miss a couple of months as he was recovering from surgery to re-form his congenital malformed feet, but it was determined that only one foot's correction was required. Foppa would again be in and out of the lineup, yet another year, and his drama was detrimental to the team on many fronts... Simon Gagne was to play hurt for a part of the season and didn't have Forsberg around as much to feed him; he still did very well considering everything... Mike Knuble, after playing all 82 games the year before suffered two freak accidents and was not able to put up the points he would have with a full season... Calder was a total bust the first half of the season and was a fan whipping boy the entire season... Petr Nedved who was brought in at the Trade Deadline the prior season was Hitchcock's designated project to replace Primeau as the SD center... Geoff Sanderson was brought in by Clarke to provide speed and points off that speed... Turner Stevenson was bought out due to the deteriorated health which rendered him almost useless for a great part on the prior season... Sami Kapanen was brought back and provided energy, though his scoring touch was no longer a major factor in his game... The great duo of prospects, Mike Richards and Jeff Carter, were back, but still on a learning curve, as was RJ Umberger. Clarke also filled in the team with the likes of Randy Robitaille, Niko Dimitrakos and Boyd Kane.

Defence:

Kim Johnsson was coming off a season ending concussion with its Post Concussion effects and was still looking for a huge contract; Clarke allowed him to leave... Eric Desjardins was retiring after another injury plagued season; his decade of being the Flyers anchor on defence, as well as their puck carrying offensive D-man, was now at an end. The Flyers were now greatly hurting on the blue line... Clarke signed a career minor leaguer in Nolan Baumgartner as the potential replacement for Johnsson, who was to be the successor to Desjardins. He was signed at $1.2 million and was expected to follow up his one decent NHL year with a new career as the Flyers puck carrier... Lars Jonsson was brought over from Sweden to also carry the puck from the back end. He had a good upside but a propensity for turning over the puck through indecisive puck handling... Also on the horizon was Jussi Timonen, the younger brother of NHL star, Kimo. He was an unproven, raw commodity with some talent but nowhere near that of his brother's.The main cog in the Flyers future at D was Joni Pitkanen who was coming off of a mixed season; all star quality the first half, and not so much the second -- the half were Peter Forsberg was out so often -- Also returning were Derian Hatcher, Mike Rathje, Freddy Meyer and Randy Jones; not a defense without some talent... but hardly a good one with any depth.

Goal:

Between the nets were Robert Esche who had displayed flashes of a real nice NHL career in the past, and second year goalie, Antero Niittymaki who had a brilliant stretch when Esche was hurt during the last year, but he was ran to the ground and played injured until he had not much left. 'Nitty' was counted on to be the main go-to goalie in the duo in '06-'07 but during camp he was injured with a torn labium on the left side, the opposite side from the one last year which was repaired in the off season. He ultimately was to play the entire year with cortisone shots to ease the inflammation.

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The season did not get off to a remotely decent start with a 4-0 shutout loss to the Penguins on the road, followed by a home shootout loss to the Rangers... The return match at the Garden in New York proved to be a better result with a 4-2 win... They then returned home only to find their offense again letting them down in a 3-1 loss to the Habs... On the road again, they were defeated by the Devils 3-2.

Then came the game that would set the wheels in motion that would forever change the course of the Forty-Plus year franchise... The Fly-Guys traveled up to Buffalo to play the team that beat them the previous year's playoffs in a six game series that was nowhere near as close as the number of games would lead one to believe. The Flyers were soundly defeated by the much more talented and speedier Sabres; Hitchcock left Esche in goal to be humiliated as he was hung out to dry... It was a total team loss with much blame to spread around and no praise to be shared by anyone.

Back in Philadelphia, Ed Snider was not happy in the least -- to make a colossal understatement -- Armed with information only he knew, which I will discuss a little later, Snider took the team in his irate hands and through assistant GM, Paul Holmgren, waived three players and sent them down to the AHL Phantoms; Petr Nedved, a veteran and one time star player in the NHL... Nolan Baumgartner, Clarke's great hope on D... and Niko Dimitrakos.

The following Sunday morning, after two more road losses to Tampa bay and Florida, the Flyers called a press conference that shocked the NHL and the City... It was announced that Bob Clarke was voluntarily stepping down from his positions with the Flyers and would no longer be the GM. It was decided that Paul Holmgren would be the interim General Manager and that there would also be a Head Coaching change; Assistant Coach, John Stevens, who had coached the AHL Phantoms to the Calder Cup during the Lockout year was tapped to replace Ken Hitchcock who they did not lay blame upon; it was also, at that time, on an interim basis... Stevens was very familiar with the young players on the squad and had a good relationship with them as well as the veterans, many of whom he coached the prior year with the Flyers. He was a highly regarded head coaching prospect throughout the NHL.

What was not known before was that Clarke had come to Snider and told him that he had lost his desire for being a GM in the NHL -- he was burned out -- He felt that he was no longer able to perform his duties as Flyers GM... Snider asked him to go home and sleep on it for a while before he made an official decision. Snider and only Snider was aware of this situation when he waived the three players; he was essentially the GM in Clarke's mental absence.

It is my humble opinion that Clarke was no longer able to handle the NHL as it now was; it was now a hard hearted 'business' where management must forget the personal aspects of the game, the players' situations, and work only on a bottom line basis... that is not Bobby Clarke the former player who played with his heart on his sleeve, but even more so not the Bob Clarke who managed with his heart and had his players as his top concern, right next to winning.

Soon after this, Mike Rathje's game went totally south with all his lower back pain; the top veteran Shutdown D-man was lost for the season... The D-partner who made Joni Pitkanen able to play like a future star. 'Homer' as GM was faced with a major task ahead and no commitment of a job in the future; he pushed the uncertainty aside and rolled up his sleeves and began to get down to business.

Part Three will address how the bleeding was halted and the tailspin was corrected... and how the foundation was formed for '07-'08.

Notable Philadelphia Sports Fans

While you eagerly await Part Two of the Flyers analysis, I thought of something that I would like to share with you; 'Notable Philadelphia Sports Fans', from a private weblog I tinkered around with a little way back... It may not be totally hockey related, but I hope you find it enjoyable just the same.

I've been a die-hard Philadelphia sports fan for almost a half century now and I've encountered quite a lot of fellow fans over that span... I will relate to you below a baker's dozen of the most famous, more interesting, or merely the personal favorites of mine -- by groupings, but otherwise in no particular order:

THE MASCOTS [the unofficial chief fans]
1) Phillie Phanatic/Swoop/Hip-Hop/Phlex
Their leader, of course, is the Phanatic who is arguably the best in the business, and one of the very first. With the possible exception of the San Diego Chicken, he is in a league of his own and we have enjoyed him since the early days of the Vet... While the others are fine, they are really just afterthoughts to the good ol' Phanatic.

THE PHILLIES
2) The WhooHoo Man
He is a causality in the move across the street to Citizen's Bank Park... He was the guy who sat behind home plate, the one who you would always hear being picked up over the microphone saying, "Whoo Hoo, everybody hits" or something on those lines. He was not the first, but he was the most famous, he took over from the original many years ago, and he made it his own... We wonder what happened to him in the new park; he may still be there but unheard since the microphones no longer capture his yells.

3) Uniform Lady
She was not famous but was amazing non-the-less... She would don the uniform shirt of the current Phillies batter, quickly changing after each batter; on defense she would wear the pitcher's shirt, changing with each relief pitcher... I found it amazing that she would have them all, and tote them there, and store them at her seat in a way as to quickly retrieve them; even with an obscure pinch-hitter.

4) Charge Buglers
Prior to the days of the organ/synthesiser or recorded versions, fans would bring bugles to the ball park. These musicians would trumpet, 'charge' at just the appropriate moment, without any given cue... There were always at least one there, but I don't recall any after the move from Connie Mack Stadium; I sorely miss them.

5) The Dancing Usher
There was an usher, who I'd would see in the Right Field stands, who would always dance to the music played between innings; he danced well and became fairly famous... One day, after a ball game, some idiots beat him up very severely in the parking lot, causing permanent damage to him... Quite a while later I did see him at his post, dancing, there were visible scars on his head and I thought that it was such a shame that there are idiots around that would do such a senseless thing.

6) Longtime Vendors [honorary fans]
From the days when I was a little kid I would see these men and women at Connie Mack Stadium, and they also followed the team over to the Vet; they seemed to be there forever, the same ones it seemed... To this day I can picture them in my head, and they all had their own little 'things' that made them unique; The first female vendor, she sold peanuts, the guy who would toss the peanut bags across entire rows, the young guy who would pretend to hold a transistor radio to his ear and say, "How about those Phils?"... There were also there, security guards, who appeared to be retired cops, and they too had personalities of their own. These stadium workers became so familiar to the fans... as stadiums became larger, and prices increased, and trips to the ballpark became fewer and farther apart -- and I suppose the workers began to change jobs more often -- these vendors seemed to be lost to the past.


THE EAGLES
7) Sean Young/The Dirty Thirty/The 700 Level
The Eagle fans are a breed of their own; fanatics each and every one of them... The leader is a 'face painter' who talks trash like a pro-wrestler and seems to always be asked to speak for all the fans, which he gladly does... I believe that he is a part of the thirty fans put together by WIP and Angelo Cataldi, the morning drive time radio personality; 'The Dirty Thirty', as they are called, are most known for making fools of themselves on national TV by booing the Eagle's choice of Donovan McNabb... when they wanted the Eagles to choose running back, Ricky Williams, who was later suspended from the NFL for smoking marijuana and refusing to quit doing so... The 700 Level was a level in the old Veteran's Stadium where the rowdier fans would sit; they had a reputation for causing trouble and they relished having the rep. They were the main reason that the Vet had to have it's own jail, judge and courtroom.

8) Eagle Pep band
The song, 'Fly, Eagles, Fly' has become very popular among the people of Philadelphia, and it was made famous by the unofficial Eagles' band... You can catch them at many pre and post eagle game rallies... They raise up the frenzy of the already revved up crowd.

The Flyers
9) Sign Man
He was the most famous of the Flyers faithful for so many years... a teacher with a 'perm' hairdo... he would have professional type signs at each and every game -- very advanced for that time... and even better than any sign there today -- He would have them folded in two and open them up with both hands, high above his head, at just the right time, from his seat in the front row, directly behind the goal. The signs would read, "Insert here" [with an arrow pointing down]... or, "Next Goalie"... always clever and always photographed for the papers, or captured on the TV cameras... You still see him but he no longer has the 'perm', and the signs are fewer, and you hardly notice them anymore -- in fact I can't remember seeing them anymore, hmmm.

10) Hair Man
The unofficial team heckler, he would come to every game, heckle the opposition's fans and the players during the pre-game warm-up skates... He wore an orange 'third' jersey with, 'Hair Man' written on the back, a 'punk' style orange and black spiked wig... and he would roam the arena and try to be a cheerleader in the stands... After the 'strike year' he came to less games and now I hardly ever see him there at all.

11) Tambourine Ladies
These elderly ladies could be seen at every game in the section next to my old section #6 in the Spectrum. They had tambourines that they played as they cheered their team on... Come to think of it, they may not have really been that elderly, but sure seemed to be in the days when I thought everybody older than Forty was ancient. They weren't famous to many people but they were notables to me and the people around them.


12) The Long Island Season Ticket Holders
One day on local television the Flyers ran a piece on a couple who lived in Long Island, NY and were Flyers Season Ticket Holders for many years... They would travel down for each and every home game in Philly; snow, sleet, rush-hour traffic... they attended them all. They showed them on TV and interviewed them; the very next game I went to I saw them in the concourse... What great fans, I thought... I wonder if they still drive to each game, past the Islanders' Nassau County Coliseum, past the Rangers' Madison Square Garden and past the Devils' swamplands... I wouldn't recognize them now so I like to believe that they do.

13) Jersey Guy
This is my son, Anthony and my favorite fan... Like most of the above names, we anointed him with his fan name... He is a large fairly young man who Anthony said looks like a young version of Alfred Hitchcock. He comes to each and every game alone and sits in the upper level at mid-ice. He has a gazillion Flyers jerseys and wears a different one to every game; he chooses them according to who was the star of the previous game -- if Gagne scored a couple of goals he may wear a #12 Gagne jersey, if it was Kapanen who excelled he might wear a #24 one, etc. -- Last season we knew he is upset over the state of the team and that he was protesting because we observed him wearing a Phantom's AHL theme jersey the one game. It was an old style Flyers jersey that the Phantoms wore one game; it had Joe Watson's name and number on the back and a Phantoms logo on the sleeve... Another game he wore a Forsberg Quebec Nordic's jersey... When the team playing much better we expected him to be back with the Flyers' current roster again, and he did... We always look forward to see what he is wearing every game; he has all-star ones, Olympic ones, a newer Reebok Practice one with Gagne's name and number... We even saw him at a Phantoms game during the strike year, and he was wearing a Phantoms jersey; and to top that, we saw him at a Phillies game with a Phillies uniform shirt on... We often wondered out loud if he attends all Philadelphia sporting events and wears jerseys for them all......... The best occurred one night; I was sitting in my living room when the phone rang, it was Anthony calling from the Survivor Series Pro Wrestling match at the Wachovia Center; he asked me, "Guess who's here?" and I knew who it just HAD TO BE, I replied to my son, "What is he wearing?" since I knew it was Jersey Guy... BTW: he had a Jeremiah Trotter Eagles Jersey. Even if we are the only ones aware of him, Jersey Guy has to be Philadelphia's all time greatest fan.

Bonus Fan... Shawney, The Dancing Guy

The latest addition is Sean... He arrived on the scene, I guess mid-season or so... He is a regular season ticket hold who attends every game and sits in the nose bleed section at the far end, upper level, directly behind the goal that the Flyers defend twice... He wear the same orange shirt every game and is a full figured dude... He gets up and dances at the stoppages and is often picked up on the Jumbo-tron and the fans go crazy cheering him. He has very quickly became a fan favorite and people await the third period stoppages where he struts his stuff for the Fan Cam... The Flyers have even picked up on it and use him for season ticket promos by filming him around the city with kids and other people dancing with him; it aired on the local television channels.

Filling the Holes in Swiss Cheese - Part One

PART ONE - THE BEGINNING OF THE TAILSPIN

There are many reasons why the Flyers regressed into the horrible team that was iced before the reversal began in mid-season this past year. It actually started before the Lockout took place... Clarke, sensing the great change on the horizon, decided to hold off on re-signing all his UFAs with the exception of Keith Primeau. Keith had decided to buck the NHLPA and forgo Free Agency, and a possible jackpot contract in order to take a lower, longer contract to stay with the Flyers.

Clarke felt that he should wait and see what the market would be before he could determine what to offer his FAs... He did however make low ball offers to the likes of Zhamnov, and a couple others, which were quickly and flatly refused. He sat down with Mark Recchi and honestly told him that the Flyers wanted him back but could not make an honest offer until he knew what the 'rules' would be in the new CBA. Recchi in turn told Clarke that he wanted to retire as a Flyer and in the area, BUT he had to do what he had to do... for himself and for his family -- quite understandable -- Pittsburgh offered him a sweet contract that he could not refuse; a main piece of the core of the Flyers was now gone.

Going into the Lockout the Flyers had a nice team that got within one goal of a winnable Stanley Cup Finals seat and they looked like a team that would be a force in the future... As we all are aware, the Lockout killed the following season and many players contracts were then to expire.

Meanwhile, the Flyers AHL affiliate, The Phantoms, had a nice year and won the Calder Cup. They were manned with many Flyers prospects and young players unaffected by the Lockout... Prior to that Clarke had figured that some prospects would push the Flyers for spots, now he believed that he could man his team with many young and inexpensive players that would fit well in a capped league as the NHL had now become; a miscalculation on his part.

Coming out of the Lockout Clarke quickly signed what he believed to be the top defensive duo that would anchor the D for the better part of the decade; Mike Rathje and Derien Hatcher, then Coach Hitchcock's captain in his Dallas Cup winning team. Clarke was counting on the usual occurrence of the NHL only calling the obstruction penalties at the beginning of the season... and then allowing the game to be played as it had been before. Rathje and Hatcher together would be monsters in a defense under those circumstances... Along with stud prospect and a past third overall pick, Joni Pitkanen, a puck carrying D-man who played the pre-Lockout year, and returning mobile D-men Eric Desjardins and Kim Johnsson, the Flyers were well set on the blue line... Or so it seemed.

Then Clarke got the phone call of a lifetime... Peter Forsberg's agent called to inform Clarke that his client had decided to sign with the Flyers. Clarke was under the assumption that he had been done with his post-lockout major moves, so he had to scramble to make moves to free up cap space in order that they may sign him. The major move was to ask Roenick if he was willing be moved in order that they may release enough money for Foppa... JR, being the team player that he was, agreed to be traded to Los Angeles-- he said that Forsberg was the best player in the World, and that he would trade himself to sign him... if he was faced with the decision (paraphrased) -- Clarke sweetened the pot with LA and tossed in a pick for them taking the salary dump.

Clarke struck fast and hard and many hockey pundits were hailing him for the moves, and many had placed them among the favorites to win the Cup... The Flyers had a good goalie going into the Lockout in Robert Esche, and Antero Niittymaki, the Calder Cup MVP, coming up... Keith Primeau returning as captain after a career playoff... the defense I have mentioned above, and Gagne back at wing after a breakout playoff... Also signed along with Forsberg was Mike Knuble a late blooming stud and Turner Stevenson, a mainstay with the Devils Cup teams... Can't miss prospects Jeff Carter and Michael 'Captain Canada' Richards, who was targeted as the future captain of the Flyers, were being counted on to step right in.

The future look bright... Then things started to fall apart; their captain went down, with a career ending final concussion, and only got nine games in during the season. The uncertainty would not play itself out through the entire season and into the next one. Also, the officials threw a curve ball and held tight in making obstruction calls throughout the entire season, thus hindering the big two D-men's usefulness... By mid-season, after the All star break that found the Flyers with the most points in the NHL, the bottom fell out and injuries began to take a huge toll... Not the least of which was the constant visits to the Injured Reserve List by superstar, Peter Forsberg... A concussion put an end to Kim Johnsson's Flyers career and his season, and Eric Desjardins' injuries made him unavailable for most of the second half of the season and the playoffs. Stevenson was also hurt most of the season and ended up being of no at all, finally being bout out at season's end... Niittymaki was felled by injury also and the team tailed off through the end of the season and flopped greatly in the playoffs.

This all set the table for the total collapse that was to be last year.

Part Two will analyze the initial disaster of a start in 2006-07 and the beginning of the pull out from the tailspin.

Let Me Entertain You, Let Me Make You Smile

Please allow me to introduce myself; I am ForeverFlyer16, a regular of HockeyBuzz... I will attempt to blog with both content and humor... Please watch out for thick slabs of sarcasm in my blogs as well as more than a few dashes of silliness and fun... With some serious rants tossed in for balance.

A little history about my love for hockey in general, and the Flyers in particular... I am not a talented hockey player -- although I wish I were -- rather, I'm a die hard fan of the greatest sport on Earth, hockey... Prior to the 'First Expansion' in the NHL Philadelphia hockey consisted of watching the 'Original Six' teams on National TV and minor league Philly teams of various levels. I attended some 'Philadelphia Rambler' games and watched few TV games; I was far from a knowledgeable hockey fan back then... Then came the Flyers.

I was a big Philly sports fan so I adopted the new team into the fold of 'my' teams. They started off their existence while I was away in the service, in Vietnam and other places, so I had to follow them and my other Philly teams as best i could, with 'old' Inquirers that were sent to me and other less than ideal sources... I was taken in by their first year and their battle to win their Conference although they had to play their crucial stretch of 'home' games in NYC and mostly Quebec due to a wind storm that blew a major portion of their roof off at the newly built Spectrum... They won the conference and almost played .500 in the process; they would have been over .500 had they been able to play at their real home, no doubt since thay were only one win short... The seeds had been firmly planted and the city of Philadelphia and myself had taken to the upstart team, and the NHL, and hockey in general.



To make a long story short; I moved across the river upon discharge from the service and resided in the area of most of the players' residences... My love for hockey and the Flyers grew with each passing game... I was newly married and had two young children so my free spending money was not great; I could not afford to get in on the ground floor as a season ticket holder so I had to buy games where I could in a tight market where the tickets were hard to come by and sellouts were the norm... There was a long waiting list for season tickets... I bought seats in various location until the mid-Seventies when I was able to find someone who was willing to sell a fairly nice amount of games each year... That quickly turned into an official partnership in the season tickets that started at a quarter share and evolved into a half share as some partners left the group... I started taking my son when he was old enough to appreciate the sport and the Flyers; he is now as large a fan as I am.

My passion grew by leaps and bounds each year, although I didn't think it could since it was so huge to begin with... I am now at a fanatical point where the Flyers family is as much a part of my life as anything could be that was not a flesh and blood member... And I have learned to really appreciate other teams as well over the years... And with HockeyBuzz, I have now learned to really like very many opposing fans.

Being a Flyers fan has spoiled me greatly... This past year has brought my feet down to Earth; I will not take winning for granted any longer.

Living in South Jersey, and being a member of the Flyers Fan Club, and traveling to road games has given me the chance to meet many Flyers players and management, both past and current... I will use all this experience in composing my blogs here, and I hope that you can appreciate my love and passion, since my only aim is that you do.

The humor was not present in this first blog, as promised... It will be in the future ones, you can count on that.

I will use the Flyers as a base much in many of my blogs, but I will also look at the NHL and the World of Hockey in depth also... all of which will be, IMHO.