Laviolette roasts Flyers; what will GM do?
The Philadelphia Inquirer Blog - Flyers Report: Broad Street Bull
Laviolette roasts Flyers; what will GM do?
Sam Carchidi, Inquirer Staff Writer
Nine games into his Flyers coaching tenure, Peter Laviolette sharply criticized his team's inability to play 60 hard minutes in their 2-1 loss to the visiting New York Rangers Saturday.
He called their performance "unacceptable."
Defenseman Chris Pronger called the developments _ 13 losses in their last 16 games _ "mystifying."
The Flyers are back to being the Legion of Gloom.
After just 5:16, Laviolette called a timeout following a Claude Giroux turnover that led to a Rangers goal. During the timeout, Laviolette chastised his players and it seemed to wake them up.
For a while, anyway.
They dominated the rest of the first period and held a 16-5 shots advantage in the final period. But they were listless in the middle period.
“It was a poor start. There’s no excuse for it. I can’t think of one reason why we would come out flat, and we did,” said Laviolette in a measured, angry tone. “And we needed a timeout to try to refocus. I would have thought we would have ripped the hinges off the gate tonight to get out on the ice. We were so far from that, in my opinion, to start the game, and we got what we deserved. We’re outshot, 6-1, we turn the puck over and it’s in the back of the net.”
Henrik Lundqvist was the difference in the game. The Rangers goalie made 36 saves, includng a pair of eye-openers in the final period on James van Riemsdyk.
The Flyers are 2-6-1 since Laviolette replaced John Stevens.
“This is about the Philadelphia Flyers playing a brand of hockey that you can be proud of, and I don’t know how anyone can possibly be proud after the first two periods,” Laviolette said. “It’s completely unacceptable.”
Simon Gagne returned to the lineup after missing nearly two months because of hernia and abdominal surgery. The left winger had an assist as Pronger scored a power-play goal with 11:47 left in the first period.
For the rest of the game, the Flyers couldn't solve Lundqvist. They have scored more than three goals just twice in their last 18 games, and they have eight goals in their last nine losses.
There is a holiday trading freeze in effect until after Dec. 27. One wonders if GM Paul Holmgren will exhibit patience or make a major shakeup _ Jeff Carter, who had eight shots Saturday but continued to be snakebitten, is his most coveted player _ before the Winter Classic on Jan. 1.
that smell coming from South Philly ain't the refineries...its the tenants of the Whateveritiscalledthisyear Center.— bobcitydoc- Well let's see...since Holmgren's an addict (take it from someone else who is), he has serious control issues, so the worst things get, the harder he tries to make it perfect; trouble is, it's done in his fantasy world of magic where he's judge and jury, so the outcome is predictably selfish and one-sided, IOW, all about him. So though he may claim to be objective and open to all ideas about how to fix this unfixable excuse for a hockey team, the truth is, he's gonna do exactly what he wants to do. Just as he once paid no heed to the criticism of his costly penalties when he was on the ice, he now isn't about to listen to anyone else in the office, even though it impedes any progress this stinko team might hope to make. I FINALLY see someone else mentioning the name Bowman (THANK YOU!!!!), albeit too late for numerous reasons, among them 1) Scotty's too old and has heart problems, 2) Ed Snider's ego has no room for Bowman--that's right, IOW, Snider would rather be right than happy, aka "right addiction:" keep someone like a Bowman out of the office because it threatens his desperate need to control (a loser) even though his presence might even yield a Cup or two. So we have a bunch of overmatched addicts, control freaks, egomaniacs,co-dependents and partiers firmly in control of a colossal LOSER. And it's going to get much worse. The only thing that could turn this nightmare around, and which has always been beyond any Philly sports franchise's grasp, is a complete housecleaning: spoiled players GONE, GM GONE, assistant coaches and directors GONE, owner GONE. Problem with the preceding is that it takes a tremendous amount of courage to accomplish it, and where in this God-forsaken city of co-dependency is the person to step up to do it?— birdssuckagain
- I've recorded the last five or six Flyers games to watch when I come home from work, but then I hear the score and don't bother. So I sit with my wife and watch another House Hunters Internationl or the latest on Tiger's mess and I just want to vomit. Please contact a specialist on clinical depression. Not for me...for this team. They are in the kind of jam that only a slump-buster can fix.— Blvd Al
