SB Nation Philly Editor's Pick
An Open Letter To Everyone
by mikefive on May 7, 2011 4:13 PM EDT
Email
PrintDear Community:
I love y'all. I really do. I'm as upset as all of you - if not more so - that the Flyers lost this series. I've seen my share of ups and downs with this team; I've been going to games since 1982. I know when the Flyers "have it" and when they don't, and despite all of their talent on paper, this year's team did not "have it." (By "have it" I mean having the proper collection of luck, favorable match-ups, healthy bodies, and overall level of play it takes to succeed.) You know what I mean. It never stops sucking when the Flyers fall short, much like it never stops being awesome when the Flyers go on a deep playoff run.
But this is neither here nor there. It's not why I'm writing this.
I understand that some folks' reactions are knee-jerk in nature. The Flyers lost and everyone is upset, so it's only natural to try to figure out what went wrong. I am writing this to counter some of the opinions that I've come across in the game recap thread - not to call anyone out, but just to add a little perspective to everything. Mind you, my points are not going to be supported by statistics or anything of the sort. I can only offer my experience of being a hockey fan for most of my life.
Without further ado:
- "We're never going to win unless we get this type of player / goalie!" Certainly there are situations where a team is one piece away from a Stanley Cup. The Flyers have experienced it a number of times. But adding one or two more players is not necessarily going to translate to a title. As I said above, everything has to break right for a championship. A team has to be healthy and playing well; it needs to avoid unfavorable match-ups; and it needs to get the breaks. Adding one or two players - even someone like Tomas Vokoun - gives you a better chance, but it guarantees nothing. This isn't the NBA.
- "Something is seriously wrong in that locker room!" Really? Why are you saying this? Is it because the Flyers haven't won the Cup with the current core? Well, that must mean something has always been wrong in cities like Washington, Los Angeles, Vancouver, and Buffalo because each of those clubs have fielded some very good teams over the years, yet they've never won a championship. May I remind you that lots of people were saying the same thing last year, and then the team surprised us with that memorable playoff run? I'll never forget when Arron Asham said: "We're a family, and we're finally starting to play like one." Ah, but wait! Are they not a "family" anymore, even though most of last year's players are still here? Do they miss guys like Asham and Ian Laperriere THAT much? Have they been lying to us this whole year when they've been saying how much they believe in themselves and in each other? They MUST have been in order to protect certain players, because...
- "Carter and Richards are teh SUCK! Trade them! They party too much and don't care!" If you can prove all of these things to me with evidence that does not leave any reasonable doubts, then maybe I'll join in this chorus. But I don't see that happening. Many articles have been written on this very site on Mike Ricahrds' excellence as a "heavy lifter," how much Jeff Carter has stepped up his game this year, and so on. And even our wonderful mainstream media representatives often talk about how much Mike Richards hates to lose. Again, if people can prove to me (and to the organ-eye-zation) how much Richards and Carter "don't care," then I'll be all for getting rid of them. But I doubt this severely. You don't come back from a sprained MCL if you "don't care." You don't play injured or sick if you "don't care." You're not the only guy on the ice hustling back to defend a possible empty-net goal against if you "don't care." Let's keep these things in mind when launching our criticisms, folks; perspective is everything. Speaking of which...
- "The Flyers weren't tired! That's BS! You don't get tired in the playoffs!" I'm assuming none of you have played 213 games from September 2009 to the present? That's 15 preseason games, 164 regular-season games, and 34 playoff games from September 2009 until May 2011. As has been said many times, that's more games played than any other team in the National Hockey League, and the barely three-month break between seasons was the shortest in Flyers' history. Let's also remember that this was the first season in which Laviolette instituted his "true" uptempo/attacking system, which has drained just about every team he's ever coached on the NHL level. Furthermore, just because the players themselves don't use fatigue as an excuse doesn't mean it isn't a factor. It's not like the Flyers didn't want to beat Boston. The main reasons they lost the series were because Boston was a bad match-up for the Flyers, from the goal on out; the Bruins had revenge on their minds after last year; and the Flyers simply had nothing left to give.
Again, I'm not trying to call anyone out. I know we're all upset. But let's have some perspective. There are reasons why things went wrong, true. But it's probably not because of all of the "sky is falling" shit that the media spoon-feeds to us.
I'm looking forward to a productive off-season and more desirable results next year. This too shall pass, my friends.
Let's go Flyers!
This item was written by a member of this community and is not necessarily endorsed by Broad Street Hockey.
50 comments
|
21 recs |
Do you like this story?
Comments
Kudos, sir.
Man-crushin' on Boucher since 1999 and Matt Calvert since May 2010
Broad Street Hockey - Makin' it look mean since 1967.
SB Nation Philly - Associate Editor
My question is:
Are Carter and Richards the only 20-something hockey players in the NHL who seek to “spend some time” at places where other extremely smoking hot 20-somethings in the league tend to hang out?
Yeah, probably not.
I am sure that the stars for every other team in the league playoffs are capitalizing on their stardom and “spending some time” with other extremely smoking-hot 20-somethings every on off nights.
That’s 15 preseason games, 164 regular-season games, and 34 playoff games from September 2009 until May 2011. As has been said many times, that’s more games played than any other team in the National Hockey League, and the barely three-month break between seasons was the shortest in Flyers’ history
I still have an issue with this. How far back do games effect the current play? If any of these guys weren’t completely rested after a summer off, regardless if it was short in overall standards, it’s ridiculous. I’m going to assume (may be wrong) that by the time the Finals roll around, one of the other teams will be near our game total over the past 2 years. Will they be able to perform?
I'm kind of a dick.
I’m going to assume (may be wrong) that by the time the Finals roll around, one of the other teams will be near our game total over the past 2 years. Will they be able to perform?
Of the current field, the only team who will come close to our total number of games played will be the Sharks, who made the Western Conference Finals last year. And we won’t know for sure unless they get to the Stanley Cup Finals this year. If they get there, it will be interesting to see how they hold up. Last year, the Flyers didn’t look tired to me until Game 5 of the Finals; this year, they looked that way in Games 3 and 4 of the Boston series.
To be fair, I was saying that the Flyers’ fatigue came from a combination of their 213 games played and their playing Laviolette’s uptempo system all year long, which has been proven to drain just about every team he’s ever coached. In that sense, it’s tough to look at how other teams will perform because different coaches use different systems – many of which are not as physically demanding as Laviolette’s.
Do you see what happens when you find a stranger in the Alps?
I don’t think it’s as much about rest as it is about training, or the lack of ability to do both.
I’m not going to pretend to be an expert, but I have a good enough idea of what happens to be concerned. A lot of hockey players train hard, really hard, in the offseason to bulk up or develop strength that they’ll need to get through the next season. But they have to stop and heal first. So the players who had surgeries in late June just after the finals ended (Carcillo, Leino, Backlund, Betts, and Pronger off the top of my head), so they didn’t have time to both heal and train. According to Hockey Canada’s strength and conditioning coach, it’s harder for cup final teams to do that to begin with:
A few decades ago NHL training camps were the place where hockey players got into shape for the season after a long relaxing summer. If a player were to do this today he would not make it past the first day of physical testing. If the player were lucky enough to make it past the first day, he would likely fatigue faster and get injured more easily. So what do the players do to prepare for a grueling training camp and an even more grueling eighty two regular season games with the possibility of a dozen or more playoff games? The first group of athletes I asked Ryan about were those players that are on teams that do not make the playoffs or are eliminated in the first round. For those players, their season is over in mid to late April at the latest. I asked Ryan what their off season would look like in the five months from May to September when training camp begins:At the time those quotes were made, that guy was training the Canadian women for the Vancouver Olympics, so I’m inclined to trust him on what NHL-caliber players really try to do. Based on his words, it sounds like the guys who just barely finished their surgery rehab in time for training camp are at a pretty big disadvantage if their team goes really far in the playoffs the next year.
"Every player no matter when they finish needs to take some time off. This transition phase can be anywhere from 2-4 weeks. During this phase the athlete will perform static recovery and transition into active recovery. Rehab of injuries, etc. After this transition phase, the athlete will move into a phase of preparation and gradually build on their fitness throughout the summer. The difference is that some players will have a long training period than others who go further in the playoffs. If you go to the cup finals, you need rest and recovery, injury rehab. Once that is finished then they can start training. But they have to start training at the level other athletes started two months prior. They will be behind slightly in terms of off-ice training. That being said they also had an extra couple months of on-ice work. The age of the athlete is also important. Older athletes who have been training longer may not need as much volume of work in the off-season as a rookie."
by DragonGirl0583 on May 8, 2011 2:42 PM EDT up reply actions
// Starts slow clap...
while single tear forms in corner of my eye. //
Flyers Fans: We've survived Lock-outs, Lindros and Cooperalls. If you want to get rid of us, you'll have to split an atom or two.
It’s interesting, I never understood why this isn’t brought up and maybe there is a reason for it but say a player gets roughly 20 minutes of ice time a game, multiply it by 82 games and divide by 60 minutes…you get roughly 27 hours a season in which the player is on the ice. For the whole year. Add in practice time and a player probably works in a season what most of us do in a month. And I don’t know how many of us get a few months off in between seasons.
"You can commit no mistake and still lose. That is not a weakness. That is life." - Jean-Luc Picard
Huh? Color me confused, I don’t understand what you’re getting at there…. are you trying to say that hockey players, whose ice time is basically at a full sprint, plus travel, practice, training on their own time, team meetings, etc; is less taxing than me sitting at a desk in front of my computer for 40 hours a week? Or someone who does construction or labor for 40-60 hours? Or were you getting at a different point?
by DragonGirl0583 on May 8, 2011 3:21 PM EDT up reply actions
I’m saying that there are people who work much harder jobs for a lot more hours than these athletes do, get paid a fraction of what they are paid and they don’t get to use being tired as an excuse for not performing.
"You can commit no mistake and still lose. That is not a weakness. That is life." - Jean-Luc Picard
But they only get credit for working the hours that they’re on the ice, and not the hours that they’re on the bench? Guys like Richards who play 20 minutes as a forward are just catching their breath when they’re on the bench so they can go right back out, it’s not like they switch into “off” mode during the other 40 minutes. I think you’re selling short the number of hours that they’re working, because I think all their training and traveling and stress need to be accounted for, that stuff isn’t rest time. I guess it seems really easy for us to sit here and point fingers and say their job isn’t hard, but I don’t think that makes it correct.
by DragonGirl0583 on May 8, 2011 4:30 PM EDT up reply actions
I didn’t say their job wasn’t hard, I said that being tired isn’t an excuse for not performing. At least it shouldn’t be.
"You can commit no mistake and still lose. That is not a weakness. That is life." - Jean-Luc Picard
I don’t know what you do for a living, but try keeping track of your productivity for a couple of days. I’m not asking you to quantify everything; just try to make mental notes of how much you get done on a given day. Then put that in context with how you were feeling on each day.
For me – and for a lot of people, I’m sure – my most productive days at work are the ones where I’m feeling good. I’m well-rested, I get some exercise in at the gym, I have a good breakfast, and consequently I come to work and get a lot done. On days where I’m feeling sick, tired, sluggish, or am struggling with my depression, I am a lot less productive.
So, you may be right that “being tired shouldn’t be an excuse for not performing,” but it happens all of the time in every job. I even notice that with my workouts – if I’m not feeling well-rested or as energetic as I’d like, I cannot train the way I’d like to. I have to be less intense because my lack of energy can lead to physical and mental mistakes, as has happened to me in the past. I’d much rather ease up on my workout than risk hurting myself.
As for the Flyers, they cannot ease up if they’re fatigued and in the playoffs. If they do, they get burned. But if they don’t, they get burned anyway because their lack of energy leads to mistakes. This is largely what we saw in this series.
Do you see what happens when you find a stranger in the Alps?
I don’t disagree with any of that. You are absolutely right, I have my good days and I have my days where I feel like total crap. Sadly I get to deal with chronic insomnia which many times results in migraines but hey I deal, such is life. But honestly this isn’t about me. I work 10 hour days and get every other Friday off which is fantastic. My work schedule isn’t really that bad and I spend most of my day in front of a computer, which doesn’t help the migraine issue.but it’s certainly not all that stressful. But at the end of the day I have to get my work done, if not there are consequences. However take my wife as an example…she works 3, 12-13 hour shifts a week as a Pediatric RN, then she teaches clinicals for one of the local colleges here, so that’s a 12 hour, once a week job, then 12 hours of paper work, then she takes a class once a week at night, that’s 4 hours but roughly 10 hours a week of studying/home work. So each week she is putting in 78-80 hours a week of work/homework/class/teaching etc. But she can’t perform badly as she is literally dealing with people’s lives whether it is teaching future nurses or at her job where she works with sick and dying kids.
I’m not saying that being a professional athlete isn’t hard, I have never done it so I can’t really judge but what I am saying is that I think it’s a bit naive to write off a bad season, or bad playoffs due to being tired. The good majority of us have jobs that require a lot more time spent actually doing work and absolutely a lot more responsibility where the consequences of our actions, tired or not could have drastic effects. Athletes get paid millions of dollars for honestly a game that in the grand scheme means absolutely nothing. For what they get paid tired shouldn’t be an issue.
"You can commit no mistake and still lose. That is not a weakness. That is life." - Jean-Luc Picard
I think it’s a bit naive to write off a bad season, or bad playoffs due to being tired.
Which is why I pointed out some of the other things which are needed to win a championship – good health, favorable match-ups, high level of play, etc. The Flyers had none of these things going on; in particular, their level of play was partly due to the fact that they were tired and partly due to the fact that they were overmatched. I wasn’t trying to suggest that the Flyers only lost because they were tired, but that certainly was an issue.
Speaking of fatigue, I don’t know how your wife does what she does from week to week. Kudos to her.
Do you see what happens when you find a stranger in the Alps?
Thanks man, I honestly have no idea how she does it either. She can function on 3-4 hours of sleep and be fine. I worry about that a lot, at some point it has to catch up to her.
I agree with you, and I am not trying to point out a flaw in your post or anything but there are a lot of people using fatigue as some excuse and it bugs me.
Here is a question, and this really goes out to anyone, but I said at the end of last year and the beginning of this year that the Flyers were not the 2nd best team in the NHL last year and not the best team in the East, they were the beneficiaries of a lot of things last year like matchups etc…so if they weren’t as good as their overall ending indicated last year, then where do they fall this year? Were they only as good as a second round exit? Were they better than that? Were they worse? Does it even really matter/ I guess those are the questions the FO has to ask itself when trying to assess this team and figure out what to do to fix it.
"You can commit no mistake and still lose. That is not a weakness. That is life." - Jean-Luc Picard
The thing is, at the NHL level, little things (like a difference of letting in one goal per 100 shots at ES) make all the difference. Regardless of how many hours they “work” by your count, they have to be better at it than anyone else. Given that, maybe the difference between 24 and 27 and 30 hours, combined with all the training and whatnot, could be all the difference in the world between winning and losing.
Defending Carter until 2021...
Agreed with all of this. The effects of pro athletes being tired is far more noticeable than when I’m tired because, let’s be honest, I’m not on TV in front of millions of viewers while I’m at work. Championships are not won or lost because I am feeling good or sluggish on any particular day. Nobody keeps stats of my productivity, nor do I have the media questioning me about it. Agreed on the personal workouts too. I was mentally tired last week when I went out for volleyball, and made a number of mental mistakes because of it. I could feel that my body was there, I could move quickly, jump high and hit hard, but my brain made a lot of bad decisions. Even at the climbing gym two days later, I couldn’t finish a couple routes because I couldn’t see what the next move was (despite my wife’s advice from the ground) and my arms got burnt out while I was hanging there trying to figure it out. But again, no championships, media or TV audiences involved. And I can take it easy for a few days before I try it again. I don’t have to do better two days from now or risk being done for the season. I’m not saying it’s an excuse for them, but I think it’s a real factor and it makes a more noticeable difference for pro athletes than many of the rest of us.
Lightning strikes once, Hextall strikes twice!
this is such a bad statement I can’t even begin to pick it apart aside from “I’m saying that there are people who work much harder jobs for a lot more hours”
so you’ve played in the NHL then huh? So then you know exactly how grueling it is huh?
Didn’t think so.
You can’t even begin to quantify the amount of energy that is expended playing hockey, you take days off work or show up late for being sick or what have you….. YOU get tired from NOT playing hockey. How can you even try to defend your statement?
Shaking my head over here on this on.
http://restorations.bandcamp.com/
Your statement is worse. I’m doubting most NHL players have ever had a regular job aside from hockey, and I’m guessing you’ve never played professional sports, so how can YOU compare the two? Shaking my head……
I'm kind of a dick.
so because they’ve never had to cushy life that means they are exempt from getting tired? that makes less than zero sense.
http://restorations.bandcamp.com/
still none of what you have said counters anything I have just “tell me how you are qualified… blah blah blah”
http://restorations.bandcamp.com/
this is such a bad statement
Tell us why.
so you’ve played in the NHL then huh? So then you know exactly how grueling it is huh?
Didn’t think so
What NHL team did you play for?
You can’t even begin to quantify the amount of energy that is expended playing hockey
I played organized hockey growing up, so I can take a guess. Can you?
you take days off work or show up late for being sick or what have you
April thru December I work around 28 days a month, and I get paid a LOT less than these guys.
How can you even try to defend your statement?
Call someone out without presenting any real argument …blah blah blah…go fuck yourself…
I'm kind of a dick.
Ok
1. My opinion is you cannot compare a professional athlete to a common worker. 2 completely different worlds here. Not even doing construction is as hard of labor as hockey is. Unless you work for a chain gang in prison busting rocks all day. Most manual labor jobs have heavy equipment for the real hard work. Hammering nails all day is NOT hard to do.
2. Did you? Didn’t think so, so keep trying there.
3. Yep I did and Yep I can.
4. Compensation means nothing. And how “exhausted” are you from that work schedule? Probably far less than a PROFESSIONAL athlete. But for shit’s and giggles what do you do?
Nice you can’t have a discussion with out telling someone to “go fuck yourself”. Grow up you little baby.
See I can do that too but it adds ZERO. Why not try adding instead of subtracting.
http://restorations.bandcamp.com/
you take days off work or show up late for being sick or what have you
Right, because we’ve never seen a player sit out a game for the flu, or anything like that.
You can’t even begin to quantify the amount of energy that is expended playing hockey
Ha, nobody on this site has ever played hockey. And also, hockey is the only action that anybody does that expends energy. Nobody else’s work requires energy.
I'm kind of a dick.
I do believe I posted saying aside from a few days off here and there for hockey players.
Why don’t you compare a policeman’s job to that of a trash collector next?
http://restorations.bandcamp.com/
Mike, I just thought of something I wanted to add to your total… I would say 220 games instead of 213, because that would include the 7 games from the Olympics.
I still think it’s a moot point. I had a week last year where I worked 84 hours. That week is not still taking a toll on me. I think it’s ridiculous that anything that happened last season (barring severe injuries) is still having an effect on a professional athlete. We’ve had games recently where we looked fantastic, where was the fatigue then?
I'm kind of a dick.
But do you get Saturdays and Sundays off every week? Or even one of the two? Look, I’m not trying to say that none of us work hard because I’m sure a lot of us do. Being drained is not the only reason for their collapse, and it’s not supposed to be an excuse that makes them less accountable, but it’s certainly a contributing factor to what we saw these last two weeks.
by DragonGirl0583 on May 8, 2011 6:19 PM EDT up reply actions
I think it’s ridiculous that anything that happened last season (barring severe injuries) is still having an effect on a professional athlete
In my opinion its apples and oranges to compare professional hockey to any other “normal job” when your talking about fatigue/hours/etc. Yeah sure they may only spend 27 hours on the ice per season, but in every minute of those 27 hours they are exerting every ounce of their your bodies can muster, while simultaneously getting the crap kicked out of them.
Let’s not forget the HOURS of tape watching, practice time on the ice and media crap. All told they “work” from 9am-10:30pm just about every other day with no days off aside from one here or there till the season ends, then what do they do? take 2-4 weeks of vacation and start working again.
It’s not just all physical, it’s a very mental sport as well. People act like hockey players don’t think about their jobs 24/7, they get what a 2 hour break out of an 11 hour day? And have to exert tremendous amounts of energy.
Normal and even above normal people don’t exert that much in a year let alone one day of work.
http://restorations.bandcamp.com/
Excellent post. You forgot to mention how nice the Richards and Carters contracts are. I agree with Mike this is 95% about the matchup. I don’t buy the fatigue accept from a mental stand point where from all the goalie changes to Tim Thomas standing on his head in game 2 and the frustratingly strong D of Boston completely demoralized this team they weren’t able to get anything going. The Flyers never were able to build momentum and and played from behind way too much.
Game 1 – Krejci scores 1:52
Game 3 – Chara scores 0:30, Krejci adds another 1:03
Looking at Buffalo series
Game 2 -Vanek scores twice in the 1st 10 minutes
Game 3 – Pominville scores at 9:38
Game 4 – Ennis scores at 2:24 and Vanek at 3:51
5 out of 11 games the Flyers were playing from behind before the 10 minute mark of the 1st period.
Were the Flyers didn’t looked tired were Game 2 against Boston when they scored 1st and Game 7 at Buffalo where they also scored 1st and dominated the entire game. So I am not going to say the team was fatigued or blame the coach.
For whatever reason the Flyers came out tight early in the games it showed they got burned and that was that. IMO the reason they came out tight was lack of confidence in the goaltenders. Looking at the Chara goal game 3 as the prime example with Versteeg overplayed coming back in the defensive zone overly collapsed and in doing so left the point wide open. Overly worrying about D that lead to bad D and mistakes.
Part of the blame goes on to Lavy because he seemed to be pulling numbers out a hat and his lack of confidence in the goalie passed onto the team. He should have came back to Bob in game 3 against Buffalo and never have went to Leighton ever.
2nd I blame the goaltending tiro which let is some soft goals early games in the Buffalo series which reenforced the about lack of confidence heading into the 2nd round.
3rd I blame the Lack of Pronger. Pronger is the ultimate settling force and calming influence on the ice if he was out there which he would have been to start most of these games I don’t think there would have been so much panic on the ice.
But all of those issues aside Boston was still the matchup I feared the most. They have a strong deep D and really strong goaltender in Thomas who pretty owns the Flyers. And they have a group of big forwards that over match our group physically as a Flyers fan I thought we would never see are team overmatched size was but we were.
Krejci – 6ft 177 lbs
Lucic – 6ft 4in 220 lbs
Hortan – 6ft 2in 229 lbs
versus
Richards – 5ft 11in 195lbs (playing Hurt)
Versteeg – 5ft 10in 185lbs
Powe?? – 5ft 11in 212 lbs
That is too much size to give away and that line ran us over looking Legion of Doom esqe in the process. We couldn’t get to the front of the Net played too much East West not enough North South in doing so played right into the hands of Boston’s transition game.
One little addendum...
Again, I am not saying that the Flyers only lost because they were tired; I’m saying that’s only one factor.
Know who else cites fatigue as a factor in games? Sharks coach Todd McLellan:
Do you see what happens when you find a stranger in the Alps?
I think it is the main factor.
What happens when you’re fatigued? Everything starts falling apart. You make wrong decisions. Your muscles have greatly reduced stamina so you can’t skate as hard or fast and get pushed off the puck a lot easier. The proof is all there. All signs point to fatigue and exhaustion.
Blown coverage? Fatigue. your mind can’t make decisions as quick, or even make the right one.
It’s like DUI. Your body just doesn’t react as fast. They are all humans, it happens. Even to professionals, who are human and suffer the same effects as all of us commoners, who get paid millions to try not to get fatigued. Shit happens.
http://restorations.bandcamp.com/
Comments For This Post Are Closed
Secondary Sidebar
User Tools
FanPosts
Community blog posts and discussion.
Recommended FanPosts
Recent FanPosts
SBNation.com Recent Stories
In Association With
Latest Puck Daddy - NHL from Yahoo! Sports
- Eulogy: Remembering the 2011-12 New York Rangers
- Stanley Cup Final: 5 keys for New Jersey Devils and Los Angeles Kings
- Friday’s Three Stars: Devils head to Final; Brodeur, Kovalchuk the difference in Game 6
- Devils eliminate Rangers in Game 6, ending fear of the past, setting course for the future
- Adam Henrique sends New Jersey Devils to Stanley Cup Final with OT goal vs. Rangers (VIDEO)
Latest stories and headlines from NHL.com
- Former Oilers Stoll, Greene grateful for 2nd chance when well-rested LA Kings face New Jersey
- Shinnimin named CHL's Player of the Year
- Capitals send left-wing Bourque to Bruins for centre Hamill
- Rangers look to get past hurt of loss to Devils
- Top-seeded Rangers have reasons for optimism after disappointing loss to Devils in East finals
