Beautiful Losers

by Dirk Hoag on Aug 10, 2005 12:37 PM EDT

The other day I noted the Pittsburgh Penguins as having a successful offseason. Now, in order to balance out the yin & yang of NHL team assesments, here comes our first loser - the Philadelphia Flyers.

*gasp* But what about the big names, you say? Forsberg, Hatcher and Rathje all make for sensational headlines and will sell a lot of jerseys, but if you look at this team compared to the one which fell just short in the conference finals against Tampa Bay, you don't see much improvement. It's like a guy in a rowboat with just one oar - there may be a lot of splashing, but not much movement in a particular direction.

Arguably their best player from last season signed with Pittsburgh during the summer of 2004, veteran scorers John LeClair and Tony Amonte were bought out, and Jeremy Roenick was unceremoniously dumped in LA in order to clear cap space. Backup goaltender Sean Burke signed on with the Lightening, putting the team's future on the young shoulders of Robert Esche, who remains unsigned as a restricted free agent.

Bottom line, the Flyers have replaced one set of All-Star caliber players with another set, but in reality the new blood has just as many questions as the old. Can the new defensemen (each 6'5" and 230 lbs.) keep up in what is expected to be a faster-paced, up-and-down type of game? Will Forsberg stay healthy and motivated? What about longtime Flyers defenseman Eric Desjardins? His offensive production has steadily declined since 2001, and at age 36, that trend should only continue.

Not all is gloom and doom in Philly, of course. Michal Handzus and Simon Gagne are two forwards in their prime that any team would like to have, and Keith Primeau can hopefully springboard off his first truly productive playoff run to lead the Flyers with confidence.

What you'll see in most other NHL coverage, however, is a focus on the fresh talent walking in the door, rather than a comparison with what has left. On balance, I don't see Philadelphia as a markedly better team. If anything, their defense will be slower, the talent at forward less deep, and unless they land a quality backup, the goaltending will be a question mark. There will plenty of excitement in Philly as the season gets started, but I suspect that by the Olympic break fans will regret these signings, because in the salary cap era, the fix won't be as easy as just loading up at the trading deadline for a Cup run.

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I think you're selling the Flyers *way* short. One area you've not covered is their "new" talent from the Phantoms, their Calder Cup winning AHL team. In addition to players who have seen NHL time like Pitkanen, Seidenberg, and Sharp, they're adding young talent like Jeff Carter and Mike Richards - two players who joined the Phantoms after their junior teams were elimintated from the playoffs. These two were arguably the best players on the Phantoms roster during the playoffs, and the expectations for them in the NHL are very high.

Sean Burke will be replaced by Antero Niittymaki, the Phantoms goaltender. In the AHL and in a brief stint with the Flyers, he's shown that he's more than ready to be a backup to Esche, who has grown in to a very underrated starter.

I think the team has become dramatically better than they were in the last season. The main reason they lost to Tampa Bay was injuries on the blue line (Desjardins, in particular). They're now very deep in that position, and should have fresh bodies all season (although I disagreed with their decision to move Markov).

Recchi will be missed, but the arrival of Carter and Richards will pay immediate dividends - these kids are the real deal. Don't be surprised if rookie Carter is on a line with Gagne and Forsberg.

While I agree that the new rules that supposedly will eliminate clutch-n-grab (we've heard that before) may be problematic for Rathje and Hatcher, don't mistake the Flyers' defense as being slow. Those two will each be paired with a faster skater, such as Pitkanen, Johnsson, or Desjardins. What the Flyers defense has lacked in recent years (since the departure of Luke Richardson) was a physical, crease-clearing defenseman. That won't be a problem this year.

The Flyers will maul their division this year, which appears to be very weak. I've been a Philadelphia fan too long to guess about playoff success, but I see no clear obstacles to them coming out of the East.

by dave-tx on Aug 12, 2005 2:47 PM EDT reply actions

For the purposes of these appraisals I'm just looking at free agent/trade activity, but even so AHL superstars don't necessarily become NHL performers. Martin Lapointe used to dominate the AHL, but whenever he came up to the Red Wings he couldn't score more than 16 goals a year.

You're certainly right about the Flyers division - the Devils are in a free fall, and the rest just stinks. I just think that in the rush to ogle the new, big names walking in, most analysts aren't considering the talent that has left, and on balance, I don't see the Flyers as an improved team. But hey, it's still AUGUST. Just wait until I start ripping on their training camp!

by The Forechecker on Aug 12, 2005 11:37 PM EDT reply actions

"Just wait until I start ripping on their training camp!"

[You're] talking about practice man. We're talking about practice. We're talking about practice. We're not talking about the game. We're talking about practice.

Heh, heh. ;-)

by dave-tx on Aug 14, 2005 1:10 PM EDT reply actions