I got the sense today in the Flyers dressing room that the players don't seem to think general manager Paul Holmgren will pull the trigger on a Brendan Shanahan signing.
Maybe they think he is merely trying to use the "threat" of signing Shanny as leverage to get the forwards to play better defensively.
Wish you could have seen the look on Holmgren's face when I presented that scenario. His reaction was priceless. And it said, I'm not kidding.
Mike Richards doesn't agree with the GM on the forwards' play. He thinks they're playing better and they have occasional lapses.
Said Holmgren, "We've have some games where we’ve been pretty good. If you look at our goals, we score a lot of goals. We got to do a better job away from the puck. the games we lost this year, I’m not sure our goaltending has been great, either.
“We’re not just blaming the forwards when I talk about this, but you can’t put all the blame on the defensemen. It’s a team game. We all have to do better. the way we play, we start strong in our own zone and we move the puck up. We have the ability to score. But we have to take care of our end. That's all five guys, plus the goalie, on the ice."
Again, I would rather see the Flyers package a deal to Florida and get Jay Bouwmeester in here. Now. I think beefing up defense is better than relying on one player, a forward, to make the team more defensive conscious.
Shanny played on a line with Chris Drury as a Ranger. Drury is a two-way player. Did that change the Rangers' entire style as a defensive-conscious club? Nope. I don't see this as the answer.
Change the system, Paul.
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