Where do you go from here?

By: Patrice L. Leonard

In the words of the rock group 311, ‘I would swallow my pride, I would choke on the rinds but the lack thereof will leave me empty inside. Swallow my doubt, turn it inside out. Find nothing but faith in nothing. Wanna put my tender heart in a blender; watch it spin around to a beautiful oblivion……’. That has to be how all Flyers fans are feeling right now. After last night’s fiasco against the Toronto Maple Leafs many of us are left scratching our heads begging for answers. There aren’t any that make sense. Without sounding like the usual excuses anything this organization can tell at this point would be futile.

The main reason for the poor performance of the Flyers last night, I feel, is that Coach Hitchcock went against everything he has previously said to us. He did not use the “hot hand” in goal. He started Antero Niittymaki instead of keeping Robert Esche in the net. Esche has had a tremendous few games. His confidence growing with every stop of the puck. He has left a few crowds silent after some spectacular saves. In comes Niittymaki, out goes the Flyers groove.

This team has become accustomed to playing with Esche in goal. They have grown used to his way of handling things. They have had the same lineup for several nights now. Granted both Peter Forsberg and Petr Nedved were out with groin injuries---again.

For the most part, this team was whole. At this time in the season you have to make a decision to go with a goaltender and stick with him. Let your team find it stride and keep at it, only improving. Hitchcock really threw a monkey wrench in the works possibly costing his team two desperately needed points.

So, the question now is where do we go from here? If you look at it rationally you will come to the conclusion that the Flyers will not catch the NY Rangers. Is that a bad thing? Probably not. There is firm belief in the NHL that the playoffs begin a whole new season. Everyone begins on an equal playing field. Anyone can win a series at any given time. That old saying is most certainly true. So, how important is playoff positioning? If you look at the Flyers record it’s not too terribly important. They have proven that they have a better record against the teams which hold the top four seeds as we speak. The lower ranked teams are where our problems seem to be occurring.

If we find ourselves matched up against the likes of Ottawa, Carolina, or the Rangers we’ll probably take the series. On the other hand if we end up matched up against the Sabres or the Devils we’ll be sure to have a hard time making it past five games.

I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t touch on how horrendous the special teams are. I have not seen, in my recent memory, a Flyers’ team with a more horrible specials teams rating. I mean, what’s up with giving up five power play goals to a team who has no business on the ice with you basically. I cringe when I think about what will become of this club when we can’t hold a team at bay because we love to take stupid penalties. We need to make it a priority to stay out of the box. Some things are easier said than done, but at least give me a conscience effort.

I’m going to need to see a better effort from out defense too. Mike Rathje hasn’t had any impact in weeks. Denis Gauthier is proving himself to be pretty one dimensional, even if that’s why Clarke picked him up. Derian Hatcher is not a one man show, he needs help. He is getting a good enough effort from Freddy Meyer though. A good enough job that we may not see Kim Johnsson back in the orange and black next year. Eric Desjardins is showing his age in spite of a great start once he came back from injury. These guys need to have a gut check and come to play EVERY day.

Scoring is balanced enough. We just need more of it and more often. That’s the name of the game, right? You get more goals, you win. Sounds simple enough. Getting to that point is a lot harder than you may think. The league has gotten considerably better. The talent pool is larger. Skilled players are abundant, while the “goon” types are going out of style. You have to keep up with the times. The Flyers have done a pretty good job keeping up with the Joneses. With the signing of Peter Forsberg, the grooming of Mike Richards and Jeff Carter, and the emergence of Simon Gagne they have done a decent job of countering the rest of the league’s offensive power.

As of now this team has one and a half weeks to come up with the cure for what ails them. As long as they right the ship before the Stanley Cup Playoffs begin that’s all that truly matters. We’re asking all the right questions. The answers won’t come quick. The results will vary. How the Flyers deal with their frequent shortcomings remains to be seen. We’re all waiting with our hearts in that blender.