Character Flaws

By: Patrice L. Leonard

If we have learned anything from this past NHL season, it’s what a team with heart and character can accomplish. What we have also learned is that this Philadelphia Flyers team is a team with a severe deficiency in this area. Was it an internal flaw or is the explanation right under our noses?

We just watched one of the best Stanley Cup Finals in recent memory. One single quality that stood out above all else is the strong leadership and character possessed by both the Hurricanes and the Oilers.

Throughout the playoffs, teams with vocal, strong leaders succeeded. Those without withered and died. The Flyers’ flower died early and in dramatic fashion. It was unfathomable to me, and to just about anyone with half a brain, why no one on this team stood up and was a man. This is, after all, the sport of men. These athletes proclaim to love the game and that the Cup is all they seek. Well, everyone sporting the orange and black must have gone blind. In addition, deaf and dumb, for that matter.

Carolina had Rod Brind’Amour. Edmonton had Ryan Smyth. Carolina had young players that rose to the occasion, as did Edmonton. All the way through the post season you saw veterans and rookies step up and play like their very lives depended on it. What you did not see was that happening here in Philly. Call me bitter, call me outraged. However, do not call me wrong. The Flyers seemed to be the ONLY team in the playoffs who just could not get it together, with the solitary exception of the NY Rangers. From the Detroit Red Wings right down to the Buffalo Sabres teams were in it to win it. These teams played like there was no tomorrow and for most of them there wasn’t. Our team played like there was only a tee time in the morning.

I have never witnessed, in my twenty plus years of watching this team such acts of retreat and submission. A scattered few showed they had the fight in them. That fleeting vision of heart and determination came in the form of Mike Richards, Jeff Carter, RJ Umberger, and Freddy Meyer. Therefore, I have to ask. Where were the Peter Forsbergs, the Robert Esches, the Eric Desjardins, and the Mike Knubles? Some guiding forces our veterans are, huh?

The only thing they showed the young guys is how to lie down and roll over. Forsberg did put the team on his back for a couple of games, but, for a player of his experience and caliber it was just not enough. But the rest of them? They were too busy booking their flights to the Bahamas from the bench it would seem. Now, you could argue that just about every player on this team had an injury to contend with. That may have been part of the issue. Nevertheless, come playoff time that should become a non-factor. Hockey players are supposed to play through anything. Only death can keep them away. Just ask Mr. Brind’Amour. He proved that the only way you were going to get the Stanley Cup from him this year was to pry it from his cold, dead hands.

Therefore, now you have the off-season. The time of players coming and going. If you thought this team had problems with trust and uniformity last season, you just wait. We have lost some guys, most notably Kim Johnsson. We have picked up a few. Not one of the new Flyers appear to be in position to make much of an impact on the character and heart of this team. Maybe the players returning have experienced some enlightenment out on the golf course this summer. Maybe they have found their voices and their guts. If they haven’t we are once again doomed.

Roenick, oh Roenick, where for art thou Roenick? Oh, yeah, he just resigned in Phoenix. There’s another one we missed.