Flyers fire their coach & their GM resigns

[belak]

All is not well in the city of brotherly love

Link

[jay87]

without trying to start a debate, I think its the right move for the Flyers they seem to have been a bit stale for the past 4 years, the GM and head coach has struggled with finding a true starting netminder theirs been about a 5 that i can remember.

[Alf Garnett]

I suppose drastic measures were needed. We also underperformed at the back end of last year.


Good luck to the new incumbents, they're sure gonna need it!!

[glen]

i watched the flyers the other night the comentators said that hitchcock was on on borrowed time

[Alf Garnett]

Quote from the NHL article

'Many of the same problems they had last season have lingered, notably a plodding defense that has yet to score a goal.'

Add onto that a dismal PP return of 4 from 55 and the fact that Gagne has 33% of the entire teams goals it becomes evident that we were 1 dimensional.

The good news is that we don't have another game until Thursday giving the new head coach plenty of time to get his ideas across in training.

Too bad things didn't work out for Messrs Hitchcock and Clarke but they have had enough time post CBA to get to grips with the new era and haven't delivered.


GO FLYERS GO

[belak]

andyblath said:

Quote from the NHL article

'Many of the same problems they had last season have lingered, notably a plodding defense that has yet to score a goal.'

Add onto that a dismal PP return of 4 from 55 and the fact that Gagne has 33% of the entire teams goals it becomes evident that we were 1 dimensional.

The good news is that we don't have another game until Thursday giving the new head coach plenty of time to get his ideas across in training.

Too bad things didn't work out for Messrs Hitchcock and Clarke but they have had enough time post CBA to get to grips with the new era and haven't delivered.


GO FLYERS GO

The thing is Andy, the team will still have a "plodding defense" and your goalie situation still wont have been resolved. Hitchcock is rumoured to be on the way to New Jersey in the not too distant future.

As for Clarke, couldn't have happened to a nicer bloke

;D

[Rich]

Big step, much needed tho im afraid, I hope the new guys dont like being one dimensional and getting pushed around like pansies every night!

[newham]

Is it the wrong time to say 'i called it'?

Why didn't this happen in the summer? Now we've got all of Clarke's incumbents in the line-up still.

[belak]

newham said:

Is it the wrong time to say 'i called it'?

Why didn't this happen in the summer? Now we've got all of Clarke's incumbents in the line-up still.

At least you now have the chance of getting a general manager who isn't stuck in the 1970s. I think with some tweaking here & there you'll be fine this year.

Trade Esche for a competant & mobile defenceman would be a good starter, but it depends on whether anyone wants that big mouth.

[newham]

Well, Esche isn't quite good enough to be a number one goalie, but he's a bit too good to be a back-up, he's in a difficult position. Who needs an adequate goalie right now?

[belak]

newham said:

Well, Esche isn't quite good enough to be a number one goalie, but he's a bit too good to be a back-up, he's in a difficult position. Who needs an adequate goalie right now?

Esche hasn't even put up adequate numbers though. In two games he's got a save percentage of .776 and a GAA of 6.51

There are rumours of the Sharks moving either Nabakov or Toskala this season, either would probably be a good fit in Philadelphia but every GM in the league knows about your goalie situation so the price will be high and I don't think Esche for either Shark <as a straight swap> will go anywhere.

[newham]

Esche hasn't put up decent numbers for a while now. I'd love to see Nabokov, but then we'd be in a situation with two number one's again and we don't want that.

Thankfully for the Flyers, we do have players that we can trade away with Esche.

[Alf Garnett]

newham said:

Thankfully for the Flyers, we do have players that we can trade away with Esche.

Yeah like Rathje and Hatcher

All 3 for a D-man a back-up netty and a second rounder would be a reasonable trade for Philly.

[newham]

and Nedved, although who on earth would want them?

[roygbiv]

andyblath said:

newham said:

Thankfully for the Flyers, we do have players that we can trade away with Esche.

Yeah like Rathje and Hatcher

All 3 for a D-man a back-up netty and a second rounder would be a reasonable trade for Philly.

Rathje has been linked with the Leafs, but I seriously doubt any team would want a package of Esche, Rathje & Hatcher...Think of the contracts for a start.

Philadelphia have to buy out Hatcher as he's a pylon, no one wants him!

[Peacock]

This is the same argument, though on a different scale to Panthers.

Esche is a perfectly good nettie behind a reasonable D.

If the D go missing, the best nettie in the world will still post crap stats.

[newham]

Peacock, we don't have a reasonable D at all, we have an appalling D

[Peacock]

Yeah, that's my point.

There's nothing wrong with Esche, just the planks playing in front of him.

[roygbiv]

I don't think it's either one specific thing or the other with the Flyers.

They have two competant goalies, a defense with a few pylons and forwards who can't put the puck in the back of the net.

It's all a contributing factor that's affected the confidence of that entire team. That's obvious with Esche and Niittymaki...He suffers from the problem of guessing what the shooter will do. Great if he guesses correctly, terrible if he gets it wrong.

It's still early enough in the season for Philadelphia to turn it around but they have to do it quickly otherwise they'll fall too far behind interms of points.