As the pain begins to fade from another round one flameout, the question burns throughout Pred Nation... OK, what next? The team really seemed to address it's needs last off season, get stronger, get bigger, yet here the fans of the fang sit again, in the same place.

I've gotten a bunch of email from frustrated Pred fans during my vacation. Most of them laying the blame at the feet of the coaches and the blueline. It's hard to argue with the reasoning from a lot of these emails. Let's break it down an bit...

Coaching - The drumbeat for a change in coaching is growing louder from the fans. It's a obvious choice, however, I don't know if I agree... I keep asking myself the same question, If you fire Barry Trotz, who do you replace him with? This is a coach that has driven the team to improve consistantly year over year. If you really look hard at the situation, this is the first year that the team did not live up to playoff expectations. What available coach would be an upgrade here? Perhaps a change in philosophy? or a change in assistants? Brent Peterson and Peter Horachek are well regarded in NHL circles... While fans are chomping at the bit for an answer to this one, it is not an easy question with a simple answer, the team option expires on June 15, I expect the team to take most of that time to make a call.

Blueline - The d play was so very frustrating this year, Marek Zidlicky, quite frankly, had an awful year. Dan Hamhuis seemed to struggle at times with crucial giveaways, and the youth did fairly well as Greg Zanon and Shea Weber both had breakout years. There's a lot of talent in the system as well. Should the team re-sign soon-to-be UFA Kimmmo Timonen? My take? Only if the price is reasonable, I keep hearing about other teams ready to wave big money at Kimmo. Timonen and his family do like it in Nashville, however Philly has lots of cap space and would give him the chance to play with his little brother.

I'll talk about the forwards and goaltending in a future blog, however there is one thing that is really making me wonder. A lot of folks both inside and outside the organization are pointing to injuries as a factor. It's another obvious one. I wonder if it doesn't point to a problem in conditioning or off season preparation... or it just could be a bit of bad luck at the wrong time.

The questions remain, and the debate inside of Pred Nation rages on.

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