"This is about making the playoffs. This is about the Philadelphia Flyers playing a brand of hockey that you can be proud of. And I don’t know how anyone could possibly be proud after the first, two periods. It’s completely unacceptable."
-- Peter Laviolette, as quoted by Tim Panaccio of CSNPhilly.com
8 months ago
Travis Hughes
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Hey coach, just the first 2 periods? Try the whole season, including your 7 or 8 games, has been unacceptable. Exempt I would call it embarassing..pathetic but hey you have yourself a Merry Christmas coach
Don't talk about... playoffs?!?
You kiddin’ me?
Seriously. No playoffs for us this year, coach. You inherited a train wreck.
Do you see what happens when you find a stranger in the Alps?
Janeane Garafalo does a comedy bit where she references being on SNL and that it felt like what it must have felt like for the Indians when they received the pox-infested blankets from the U.S. soldiers. “Gee, for me? You shouldn’t have.”
Yeah, that’s how Peter’s feeling right about now. Sorry, Pete: no returns, refunds or exchanges.
Tonight...
… I’m going to the game. It will be interesting to see how the team responds to Laviolette.
We shouldn’t be having this conversation, for whatever it’s worth. Looks like those clowns on the Flyers did it again! What a bunch of clowns.
Do you see what happens when you find a stranger in the Alps?
It will be interesting to see how the team responds to Laviolette.
How many times has that line been said so far? If you cut “to Laviolette” out of the sentence, the number goes way up.
Broad Street Hockey - Makin' it look mean since 1967.
by Geoff Detweiler on Dec 21, 2009 12:26 PM EST up reply actions
Exactly.
That’s why I said “we shouldn’t even be having this conversation.” It’s getting to be ri-God-damn-diculous.
I’m not the only one who thinks so (emphasis mine):
“I don’t know why it’s been an issue,” Timonen said of the slow starts. “It comes down to the same thing I’ve been saying for three years now – it’s individual preparation. . . . Bad starts I think are mental. It’s a mind-set; making sure you’re ready to go. Don’t wait for Richie or Carts to score a hat trick every game. Make sure you do your own job.”
Timonen gets it. Why doesn’t anyone listen to him?
Do you see what happens when you find a stranger in the Alps?
That last line – “Make sure you do your own job.” – reminds me of what good teams say when they’re winning (and self-aware teams say when they’re losing). Not just in hockey, but in baseball and football (I have no idea what basketball players say).
Surely, everybody on this team has a job to do. Do that job, and only that job. Don’t try and do someone else’s job, because now you have two people not doing their job.
Broad Street Hockey - Makin' it look mean since 1967.
by Geoff Detweiler on Dec 21, 2009 2:04 PM EST up reply actions
From last Thursday's Courier-Post
I hadn’t seen this:
Gagne said the entire NHL has become a young players’ league and that places more responsibility on Richards and Carter, both 24 years old, to act like veterans, even though they have been in the league just five years. “It’s totally the opposite from when I started,” Gagne said. “Our top players were 31 or 32 years old. Now the players who make a difference are 22 or 23 years old. It’s a younger game today, not only with us but with other teams. We need them to be ready every day at practice and every night at games. It’s hard, it’s not easy. Sometimes you feel it’s never going to get better. You have to dig in and if you do, you’re definitely going to become better players. I think they understand.”
I’m not sure whether to follow this up with Timonen’s quote about everyone doing his own job to contribute, or whether to suggest that Gagne is damning Richards and Carter with faint praise. “We need these guys to work their asses off every day and every night. I think they understand.”
He THINKS they understand? Gagne is smart at both ends of the ice. He’d know if these guys were coming into games ready to play. Clearly they are not.
Do you see what happens when you find a stranger in the Alps?
Great find.
Could he be calling them immature (yet another person saying that) while trying to give them an excuse?
Broad Street Hockey - Makin' it look mean since 1967.
by Geoff Detweiler on Dec 21, 2009 4:37 PM EST up reply actions
Yup.
I read that as, “It’s not easy to put your nose to the grindstone and be all business every day when you’re 24 years old. But we need these guys to do just that.”
I do think Richards works hard, I really do. But I also think he and Carter feed off one another in a bad way.
Do you see what happens when you find a stranger in the Alps?
I agree with you guys. Additionally, I took the “I think they understand” part as sort of a “I think they know what they have to do (even if they aren’t doing it)”. Just my interpretation.
It makes me wonder whether or not the players have any sort of one on one mentoring thing going. Here’s what I mean: when Gagne came to the team as rookie, his road roommate was Eric Desjardins. He was set up in a mentoring relationship right off the bat, and it seems to have been very beneficial for Gags.
From a really old Daily News article during the 2000 playoffs:
Besides road roommate, Desjardins has been Gagne’s patriarch this season, answering questions, handing out advice when asked, offering perspective on what would seem to be an overwhelming amount of responsibility for a player who is younger than some of his teammates’ replacement teeth.
“When the season started,” Gagne said, “I felt like a little kid. Like, what am I doing here?”
This is what he is doing: Simon Gagne plays on the power play, plays in shorthanded situations, and by now is almost expected to score big goals or at least set them up.
He scored 20 goals this season and had 28 assists, and he got better each month without ever experiencing any puppylike confusion.
I tried to find find some info on current roommate pairings, and I didn’t see much. I see one source that says that last year Cote was with Carter and Richards was with Lupul. So there we have two sets of younger guys roomed together, and no possibility of a mentoring relationship like the one above.
Could this be a part of what’s missing? I can’t say for certain, but it’s an interesting thought.
by DragonGirl0583 on Dec 22, 2009 12:04 AM EST up reply actions
That makes me wonder who the pairings should be, if you’re looking to imitate Rico/Gags.
Because really, how many veterans do the Flyers have? Pronger, Timonen, Briere, Gagne, Asham, Betts, Laperriere.
And when you look at it like that, I’m sure you could match them up, but I think the team is lacking in this regards.
Broad Street Hockey - Makin' it look mean since 1967.
by Geoff Detweiler on Dec 22, 2009 8:58 AM EST up reply actions
The new CBA (I guess it’s not really that new anymore) requires players who have played a certain number of NHL games (or something like that) be given their own rooms. I’m sure as individual players they could opt out of that, but…that’s not going to happen.
by Ben Feldman on Dec 22, 2009 10:48 PM EST up reply actions
That sounds like something that should be dictated by a coach and should not be in the CBA. They make millions of dollars… are they really so picky that they can’t spend a night in the same room with a teammate?
Broad Street Hockey - SB Nation's Philadelphia Flyers Blog. Makin' it look mean since 1967.
by Travis Hughes on Dec 22, 2009 10:56 PM EST up reply actions
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