Things I liked on breakup day:
That general manager Paul Holmgren finally gave coach Peter Laviolette an endorsement for next season.
The feeling among the media was that Holmgren's tepid responses in past weeks that he "expected" Laviolette back meant that he had to first run it by club president Peter Luukko and especially club chairman Ed Snider.
To blame Laviolette solely for the disastrous season is looking for a scapegoat and I feel Luukko made that point to Holmgren and Snider. Laviolette is not like Ken Hitchcock who would go into Bob Clarke's office and say, 'I can't win with this guy. Get me so and so.'
Lavy lets the GM do his thing. And the GM failed miserably last summer and steadfastly refused to recognized the problems on the back end.
It infuriates FLyers fans to hear Holmgren said, 'I like our team.'
How can you possibly like a team that doesn't make the playoffs? It's insulting to the fan base but it's because Holmgren protects his players and uses code words such as "like" which mean nothing because two hours later, that player he liked could just as easily be traded which has happened already.
It amuses the media he doesn't see a major rebuild on the back end because as Scotty Bowman told us in March, he would not be able to win with the kind of defense the Flyers have.
“We’re always looking to get better on the back end," he said. "Get bigger. Those are the areas you tend to focus on.
“I still like our team. When we are healthy, we’re a good team. We had a lot of unhealthy players this year. I think we will better next year. We will look around and makes ourselves better. Let’s see what we can come up with."
I predicted a Shea Weber Group II offer sheet last summer when Ryan Suter took the contract offer from Minnysnowda and not the Flyers.
I think there is better than a 50/50 chance the Flyers will make a very tough offer for St. Louis' Alex Pietrangelo. Why? Because the Blues have 4 RFA defenseman PLUS Jay Bouwmeester's cap hit which is almost $7 million.
If the Flyers want to blow the Blues out of the water for a No. 1 d-man, they can.
When I asked Holmgren about an RFA offer sheet, he responded:
“My job is to make this team the best it can be. So I will look at any and every way to do that."
Three times in Flyers history they have done this: Chris Gratton, Ryan Kesler, and Weber. The Flyers don't give a damn - nor should they - how they are perceived around the NHL.
Let's be honest about it. A lotta old guard still see the Flyers as the Bullies of the league, trying to get their way. David Poile and Paul Holmgren used to be very good friends.
That friendship is now strained because of the Weber offer last summer that might as well bankrupt the Preds because without making the playoffs, they're going to lose money. Every playoff round is about $2 million profit to most clubs.
Nashville doesn't charge as much on season tickets as other clubs. Given their cap hit of almost $58 million - and it will be $64.3 million next season, they're not going to go much higher. Therefore, their ability on profit margin based on what they charge is always going to be less.
Anyway, the point is the Flyers still need to target a No. 1 d-man and it needs to be a younger play not an older UFA like Mark Streit, who they could have had many times in the past and didn't jump at.
I like what Scott Hartnell had to say about the Flyers defense simply letting everyone down and about Kimmo Timonen. He was honest. The Flyers know they need to find a new No. 1 and drop Kimmo to what he already is: No. 2:
“I guess you could always say you need a No. 1 D,” Hartnell said. “Kimmo is at the tail end of his career and we have to see if we can replace him somehow. But the way we play our system, we have to play it.
“If we don't play it, that's when we really look bad. That was the main thing this year. When we got away from what we were doing, we looked like a terrible hockey club and it was pretty plain to see.”
On the defense in general, Hartnell again, was blunt. Mind you, he had a poor season, as well, but he would be the first to admit he didn't live up to offensive expectations coming off a new contract. That doesn't mean he can't be honest about the rest of the team.
“I think probably the biggest area of concern for me is our D-zone," Hartnell said. "You know, I think it was – I don’t if it was we were soft or what it was. I think we were one of the top teams on the power play and one of the top few teams on the penalty kill.
"Our 5 on 5 play was absolutely terrible. We didn’t score as many goals as we did last year. But we gave up way too many 5 on 5 goals. When you do that you’re not going to win hockey games. I think that aspect of our game has to be adjusted the most.
“For our team, we had a lot of guys who can make plays and be offensive. In (D-zone) we tried to be like a couple other teams in our division. It was, we’re not used to that system. It takes a little adjustment time and this year we couldn’t afford that adjustment period.
"You start off 3-10 or whatever we were and we dug ourselves a hole. It was frustrating to watch, to play it. I think as the season went on . . .if this were an 82-game season, we would make it for sure. Our last 15 games, I think we won 11 or 10 of them. If we played 30 more games, we’re right there.’’
His comments, Holmgren's downplaying the problems on the back end, only make it all the more painful to watch video of Seth Jones and wonder what that kid would look like in a Flyers uniform.
Wow, can that kid play two ways.
We'll have more on the Flyers in the weeks ahead.
For full, exhausting coverage of everything that happened on breakup day and since, check out CSNPhilly.com:
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