Coaches take one step up.
October 23, 2006
With Ken Hitchcock gone, Flyers Assistant Coach John Stevens took over head coach duties. Craig Berube who was head coach of the Phantoms gets promoted to replace Stevens as Assistant Coach of the Flyers. Kjell Samuelsson who was Assistant Coach for the Phantoms gets promoted to head coach of the Phantoms.
Interim General Manager Paul Holmgren on the announcement.
Craig will be a good fit for John. They have worked together the last couple of years with the Phantoms and they have a real good bond. Terry and Craig also have a good relationship, so I'm very happy that we're able to do that and get those guys all together here tomorrow morning for practice.
We’ve also appointed Kjell Samuelsson the head coach of the Phantoms. I think that is a good move for Kjell, as well as a good move for the organization. Last summer, when John moved up to the Flyers, it was a very difficult decision to make between Kjell and Craig in terms of who was going to be the head coach. They are both very qualified coaches and good hockey guys.
Craig Berube
I'm thrilled. Any time that you have the opportunity to be in the NHL, especially in the Flyers organization - a place where I've lived and played for a number of years, it's exciting.
It was fun (coaching the Phantoms). I really enjoyed it. I learned a lot. I would like to do that (run a team) again someday. I have worked with John (Stevens) before with the Phantoms for a few years. I played for Terry (Murray) and I think that it's going to be a good mixture.
Kjell Samuelsson
I have been here for seven years and I think I have a lot of experience. I will continue what we started and play with hard forechecking, using the speed and skill that we have.
Reactions from around the Internet
October 22, 2006
A coach being fired in the NHL does create some interest around the league as the firing of Ken Hitchcock does. But the news of Bob Clarke leaving the General Manager position of the Philadelphia Flyers left some wondering if today was actually April 1st.
I had to look outside to see if I saw any winged bacon flying through the air. I along with many other people thought peace in the Middle East would come before Clarke would leave the position while Snider was still alive.
So obviously this has created some buzz around the Net. Below are some links to what people have had to say. If you have some comments on your blog about the Flyers change of the guard, let me know. If you have a hockey blog and I don’t have you listed in my blog roll also let me know.
Confessions of a Hockey Fanatic
More quotes
October 22, 2006
More quotes from Ed Snider, Bob Clarke, John Stevens and Ken Hitchcock
Ed Snider - "This is a hard day in the history of the Philadelphia Flyers and it's a very difficult day for all of us. I want to announce that Bob Clarke has decided to step down as General Manager after a very, very successful career and he will be replaced by interim General Manager Paul Holmgren and we have decided to appoint John Stevens as head coach of the Flyers replacement of Ken Hitchcock.
It's a very tough day. Clarkie and I had some fabulous times together and great years together. Bob Clarke I think more then any other person in this room is responsible for the success the Flyers have had over the years. To me when a man can sit up here and say that he hasn't done the job, it just shows what kind of person he is. He had come to that realization himself and he is man enough to come in and say he's not ready to do it any longer. I am sure Bob is going to take a break, get his thoughts together and decide what it is he wants to do with his future. He is a great hockey man and right now he feels he is not doing the job the way he wanted and he decided to step down."
Bob Clarke - "I went to Peter Luukko (President/COO of Comcast-Spectacor) about 10 days ago and said that I had enough of being General Manager and I no longer wanted to make the decisions that General Managers have to make. I felt it was time to step back. I talked with Mr. Snider and explained it to him. He said 'sleep on it' to make sure this is what I want to do for sure. I told him I know exactly what I am doing and why I am doing it. I felt strongly that by the end of last season that, I don’t know if the right word is burnt out or tired or something, but the decisions that had to be made...I know I didn't do the right job for this organization. Mr. Snider who's my friend and the best owner in professional sports didn't deserve this, the fans didn't deserve this and certainly our team did not deserve this.
Certainly it's been such a privilege to be part of the Flyers and to work for the Flyers for this many years. I regret not being able to bring the Stanley Cup here. We've been to the finals a number of times and we've been close but my responsibility is to try and win the Stanley Cup and I did not deliver. Hopefully with a new face on the organization and all the good young players that are on our team now and the others coming that there will be a Stanley Cup here. I believe there will."
John Stevens - "First of all this is a bit of a bitter day for me because Bob Clarke is stepping down. I was drafted in 1984 when Clarkie was a young General Manager and he's had a great influence in my life and in my career. He has taught me about integrity, honesty and probably the biggest thing is that the team is most important thing. Moving forward here, I would like to thank Mr. Snider, Peter Luukko and Paul Holmgren for showing confidence in me.
I worked with [Holmgren] for the last six years as a head coach in the American League and we’ve had a lot of success dealing with these young players. We are very confident that things are going to turn around. My philosophy as a coach I think stems from my upbringing. I was the youngest of four boys; you always have this feeling that we are looking our for each other here. In my opinion, you look out for each other, the team is the most important thing, and to have that attitude you are capable of accomplishing great things here. Ten years here in Philadelphia I understand the fans expect a hard work ethic and effort every night and that is something we are going to continue to make our priority."
Ken Hitchcock - "It's disappointing personally I wasn't given the opportunity to turn it around because I felt in my heart it was turning around.
Both professionally and personally, this has been a tremendous experience for me. I am disappointed we were unable to bring a Cup. We had two tremendous runs …
I really liked working with Clarkie and working with Mr. Snider and Peter Luukko. The discussions were very emotional at times, passionate, like brothers going at it. They are like the city. It is a passionate, blue collar city. I can't say enough about working with Clarkie."
There are things that go on inside the locker room that affect performance. You have to recognize that, not based on personnel, but based on perception. We have to work through the perception and we were, in my opinion, working through it."
AP have reported that Hitchcock and Clarke would stay with the organization if their services were requested.
Forsberg reacts to changes
October 22, 2006
Peter Forsberg: "Obviously, I think everyone is a little shocked. It's not a good day. I feel sad with the way the team performed and Mr. Snider said something was going to come up. He wants to win and he made a couple of changes."
Do you think the team tuned [Ken Hitchcock] out?
"I think everybody knows Hitch. He demands a lot from the players, and he's been here for a long time. But, I'm not putting all the blame on Hitch or anybody else. I look at myself. I don't think we tuned him out, and I think Hitch is a good coach, but sometimes you need a change."
Some players here said they feel responsible.
"I feel the same way. When something like this happens, at first you send a few guys down…I'm not looking any further than myself. If we had a winning record things might have been different here. With Clarkie, I feel bad. He's a great guy. I guess he wanted to get out anyway, but it's just real bad that we have a losing record. I do feel part of it, and I feel brutal today. It's not a good day. We just have to make sure we turn it around and start winning again. I definitely feel really bad today."
On the changes made:
"Sometimes you need a change. Like I said, I don't think Hitch is a bad coach. He's a good coach. He's had a good record for a long time, but sometimes the team does not perform as good as we should. Sometimes it's good to get a change, it doesn't matter what you do. John Stevens is a winner, and the young guys like him, and he's going to be a good change for us. When I've dealt with him, he's been great."
"It's not like this season is a write-off. It's early and we can turn things around and I think we have a good team. We just have to go out and prove it."
Clarke and Hitchock gone
October 22, 2006
The other shoe has dropped.
Ken Hitchcock coach of the Flyers for 3 seasons has been fired.
But what is more shocking is Bob Clarke general manager for the Flyers for 13 seasons has resigned.
Flyers Assistant Coach John Stevens was named the teams new head coach. Assistant General Manager Paul Holmgren was named as the interim General Manager.
John Stevens led the Phantoms to the Calder Cup in 2005 and has been assistant coach to the Flyers since June 5, 2006. Given that over a third of players were on that 05 Phantoms team gives Stevens some good familiarity with the players and the expectations from them. Stevens was for the most part a career AHL defenseman, but did play some games for the Flyers and Hartford Whalers. Stevens was forced to retire in 1999 because of an eye injury. He served as assistant coach of the Phantoms for 2 seasons before being named head coach of the Phantoms in 2000 which he served for 6 years.
Paul Holmgren played 8 seasons with the Philadelphia Flyers from 76-84. He was an assistant coach for the Flyers from 85-88, then head coach for the Flyers from 88-92 before leaving to coach and serve as interim general manager for the Hartford Whalers. Holmgren returned to Philadelphia and served various positions, director of pro scouting, director of player personnel and assistant general manager.
So who was more at fault Hitchcock or Clarke? It’s really hard to say. The signings of Hatcher, Rathje, Stevenson were just horrible. Trading Handzus for Calder, has not worked out so far, the signings of Murray and Cullen, keeping goaltending controversy in the locker room by not moving Esche. Clarke has definitely made some mistakes the past couple seasons. Hitchcock simply lost the team. With Primeau out of the picture no one was there to pickup and preach Hitchcock’s system. He couldn’t keep the players motivated, no heart. That is given with the players he had to work with. Hitchcock was and still is a good coach, but the chemistry for his style of coaching between him and the team simply disappeared. While Clarke will probably stay in the Flyers organization, Hitchcock probably will not. Good luck to Hitch I hope he does well in his next venture.
How is Stevens and Holmgren going to do? How are they going to clean up the mess and get the Flyers back on track? We shall see what happens this week. A clean slate and I am very happy to see it.
Some quotes
Owner Ed Snider
It's difficult to let a coach of his caliber go. It was not done frivolously.
Over the last several weeks it has become clear that it was time to make a change. Bob came to me last week and told me that he had decided to resign. I asked him to take some time and think about it, and in the end we agreed that it was time to make a change. This is not easy for anyone involved, but we have to do what is best for this team.
Bob Clarke has been the heart and soul of the Flyers for nearly 40 years. Bob was the driving force behind our Stanley Cups as a player, and as president and general manager, he built the Flyers into one of the premier franchises in hockey. I will always think of Bob as the ‘Ultimate Flyer’ and there is always a position within our organization for Bob Clarke.
John Stevens has quickly proven that he can coach in the National Hockey League. He worked very closely with many of our younger players when he coached them as Phantoms. We believe that we have a core of great young talent and we think that John is the right guy to coach this team.
Bob Clarke
This is by far one of the hardest decisions that I’ve ever had to make. I met with Mr. Snider early last week and told him that I felt that it was time to step down from running the team.
I deeply regret not being able to bring a Stanley Cup here. I didn't deliver.
I recognized myself that I hadn't been very good. It wasn't because of our record, I can guarantee you that.
The team has to come first and I was letting the team down.
Panthers beat Flyers 3-2
October 20, 2006
The Flyers lose another game this time to the Panthers in Florida 3-2. Simon Gagne scored the only 2 goals for the Flyers. Special teams killed them by going 0-5 on the power play, giving up a short handed goal and only killing 4 of 5 penalties.
Antero Niittymaki got the start in goal for the second straight night, he stopped 23 of 26 shots. Niitty played an ok game. The short handed breakaway and the 2nd goal were shots he probably should have stopped.
While the pylon was on the ice for 2 of the Panthers goals so were 5 other Flyers so I cant complain too much about him specifically.
Lars Jonsson and Peter Forsberg were out with injuries but should be ready to go next Thursday against Atlanta.
Van Ryn , Belfour and Gagne were the 3 stars.
The Flyers have 5 days off until their next game against the Thrashers, next Thursday.
AND there is a lot of talk about a change. Not just more players waived or brought up, but coaching and managerial changes. With 5 days off this would be an ideal time to make a coaching change. Personally, I think a change would be good. The Flyers are 1-6-1. A coaching or GM change can’t possibly make the situation any worse then it is now.
Lightning beat Flyers 4-1
October 20, 2006
The Flyers lose another one this time to the Lightning in Tampa last night 4-1.
Sami Kapanen scored the only Flyers goal short handed late in the third.
Derian Hatcher was worse on the team again in +/- with -3. Hatcher who is now last in the league in +/- with -10. 602 players in the league have a better rating, and yet the Flyers when deciding which defenseman to sit/waive decide on the only defenseman that was NOT minus with Baumgartner.
Antero Niittymaki got the start in goal again and was solid even with giving up 4 goals. While shots on goal where comparable the quality of shots favored the Lightning. The Flyers are not taking enough shots in the center of the ice. This is obvious on the odd man rushes, the majority of the shots where from the faceoff dot and out toward the boards at sharp angles.
The big injury news is Captain Peter Forsberg’s wrist injury in the first period. The injury came when his hand was jammed into the glass along the boards. He will have an MRI on the wrist today to rule out having a fracture. If there is no fracture then it is just a sprain which would hopefully keep him out less then a week. He wont be available for tonight’s game against the Panthers.
Coach Ken Hitchcock on the game
We have to start capitalizing on our scoring chances. There was a real good work ethic and a lot of determination from a lot of people. But we made a couple of mistakes in the second period down low and they capitalized on it."
The three guys called up saw some action. Ruzicka finished even with 16:38 of ice time and 2 shots. Picard finished minus 1 with 17:48 of ice time with 1 shot. Ben Eager who was also minus 1 saw only 4:22 of ice time but did have a great fight with Dough Janik.
Mike Rathje also played last night returning from injury and was not that bad. I really wasn’t a fan of Rathje last year, his injury really affected his play. If he is playing healthy now I will be giving him a couple games before putting him in the doghouse with Hatcher.
Stars for the game were Denis, Fedotenko and Lecavalier.
3 waived 3 called up
October 18, 2006
The Flyers have waived Petr Nedved, Niko Dimitrakos and Nolan Baumgartner and have called up Alexandre Picard, Ben Eager and Stefan Ruzicka.
Something had to be done after the poor start the Flyers have suffered and the pummeling they had last night. Nedved and Dimitrakos will be sent down to the Phantoms and Baumgartner will stay with the Flyers.
I feel a little bad for Nedved the role they put him into really did not suit him. He showed some effort, but he is just not a defensive checking center. Nedved was picked up last year from Phoenix for Dennis Seidenberg. Nedved was suppose to fill in for Primeau but has really not been a big impact in Philly. -7 so far this year tying Derian Hatcher for last on the Flyers with +/-.
Niko Dimitrakos only played 2 games averaging 8 minutes of icetime. Dude takes one bad penalty and is benched for entire 3rd period. I don’t quite get it, the line of Umberger, Carter and Dimitrakos was the 2nd scoring line late last year. I’m not sure why he really wasn’t given a chance this year.
Nolan Baumgartner being put on waivers I REALLY do not understand. The Flyers have 3 players that are not minus in +/- at 0. They are Robitaille, Baumgartner and Knuble. Now granted he hasn’t scored, but neither has any other defensemen. . He does have 1 assist which is 1 more then Hatcher who is sitting at -7. Baumgartner is the only guy to fight this year sticking up for I believe Kapanen. So, why is he being waived? I just don’t get it.
If anyone on D should be waived it should be Hatcher, followed by Rathje.
Rathje is slated to return to the lineup Thursday which means the Flyers will be slower on defense. Nice.
I will be interested to see how well Eager, Picard and Ruzicka do along with how much ice time they get to see.
Embarrassed and humiliated
October 18, 2006
The Flyers lost a humiliating game to the Sabres in Buffalo last night 9-1.
While the game was scoreless in the first, the Sabres buried the Flyers in the second period scoring 6 goals on 12 shots, 3 of those goals coming from the power play. Jeff Carter scored the only Flyers goal early in the third only to have the Sabres answer scoring again 24 seconds later. Add two more after that for the Sabres and you have a 9-1 Buffalo win. No hat tricks with all those goals with 7 different Sabres scoring.
Robert Esche was in net giving up 9 goals on 37 shots. Interesting that he was not pulled in the second or third which would normally happen when a goaltender is getting lit up. So why wasn’t he? Could it be that Hitchcock left him in because of Esche’s ‘Hitchcock has an empty head’ comment? Eh, could be. Another reason would be Niitty’s hip. It’s obvious by the play of the two goaltenders that Niitty is the #1 guy, why play him and take the chance of him aggravating his hip over a loss? Also the majority of the goals can’t be put on Esche. Odd man rushes, blown defensive coverage’s, multiple second chances all were huge in the game for the Flyers and they happened often.
My favorite defensive whipping boy did not disappoint. Derian Hatcher finished a -3 and was on the ice for 6 of the 9 Sabre’s goals. Can’t blame the game on Hatcher the entire team sucked ass. Hatcher was just the worst of the bunch. The Flyers actually out shot the Sabres 38-37 but the quality of chances Buffalo created were a whole lot better then what Philly could do.
The Flyers were held scoreless again on the power play going 0-5 while giving up 3 on 6 attempts on the penalty kill.
How about some quotes
Coach Ken Hitchcock
We're going to win as a team and lose as a team. This is not on Robert Esche. Robert Esche played great. He played great in the first period, he played great to keep it where it was, he did a great job.
Captain Peter Forsberg
I've never lost a game like this ever in my career. So it's a tough day. It's one thing if you can blame the goalie, but Esche wasn't the blame. Two-on-ones, three-on-ones, open nets. It was not a fun day. We do lack confidence here and we have to make sure we stick together. We can't just look around for anybody else, we have to look at ourselves and me personally. I need to make sure I lead the right way. The good thing is this is early in the season and we have time to recover. But we better do it quickly. This is not going to get us anywhere.
Robert Esche
We've got to get better, and get better in a hurry and that's all there is to it. Whether I had a bad game, good game, great game, it doesn't really matter. Our goal isn't to just show up and play well in games. Our goal is to win the Stanley Cup and we better get better in a... damned hurry.
Mike Richards
It just snowballed. It kept getting bigger and we didn't stop it. It seemed like we didn't have enough guys wanting to stop it. Typical Philadelphia Flyers hockey game there. We got behind the eight ball, we had a little bit of pressure on us, and we folded.
The character on this team is not showing right now. We're getting behind in games and we seem to implode. We've got way too much character on this team to be doing that.
Derian Hatcher
We have to realize [this loss] was a big thing, it's something horrible. And as much as we can't dwell on it, we have to look at this and figure out what happened.
What happened is the Flyers played like a group of individuals that didn’t care about defensive coverage and not a TEAM which is a big key to Buffalo’s success.
Vanek, Afinogenov, Miller were the three stars.
So this puts the Flyers at 1-4-1 and the Sabres at 3-0-3, well not actually but that’s how I am going to track the shoot outs. I never liked the idea of a shoot out. Creating an artificial breakaway to decide which team gets 1 point after playing 65 minutes for the other point is just down right stupid.
The NHL tries hard to compete with the other big sports in the U.S. and just doesn’t get it. Does MLB baseball have a homerun derby after 9, 10 or even 15 innings? Does NFL football have a field goal competition or let each team throw 3 balls for touchdowns at the end of regulation? Does NBA basketball have a 3 point competition at the end of regulation? Of course not since putting that much emphasize on a single artificial game type scenario is just plain dumb. The fans love it they say, sure some do.
The fans also love a good 5 on 5 game instead of the special teams affairs the new NHL has become. The fans also love a game with good flow without the continuing stoppages of play for the added penalties, along with the increasing amount of commercials that fans have to sit through. The fans also love the fisticuffs no matter what general ‘sports experts’ say. Even though fans love it, steps were taking to diminish fisticuffs and they worked. Why do this? It seems the NHL has tried to make the game more respectable with limiting the fighting. In theory this would draw more fans to the game. Has it worked? Given that attendance around the league is down I would say no.
I figure the changes in the game are a wash. They lost some fans with the new bullshit rules and picked up some fans with the ‘new NHL’ moniker. The problem with the NHL is it is an international game. Out of the 20 or so players how many can U.S. fans identify with? 24 of the 30 teams are in the U.S. But the majority of the players are either Canadian or European. This is the same problem open wheel racing has in the U.S. So what’s the solution? Nothing. While the NHL should continue to market the game to try to increase the fan base they should stop dickin with the game. The game survived for decades without the artificial breakaway or the extreme fisticuffs related penalties toward the end of the game and it would do fine in the future without these added ‘features’.
TSN Power Rankings October 16
October 16, 2006
Wow, what a slide.
It's bad enough that the Flyers need help for an inexperienced blueline. It's even worse when vets like Derian Hatcher and Joni Pitkanen are both minus-4 through five games.
Key Injuries: D Mike Rathje (back).
Down to 28 from 11. Third year in the NHL for Pitkanen and now he is a vet?
Add in Lars Jonsson to the key injuries.
Flyers @ Kings 1/3/09
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