OK, point by point comments on this poorly researched(outside of figuring out the ticket costs) blog designed to get hits:

- Yes, the Flyers utilized the compliance buyout feature of the new CBA to shed two contracts that would have severely hampered them under the artificially reduced salary cap. So did Montreal, the NY Rangers, Toronto, Buffalo and a host of other teams. Tampa Bay spent more buying out Vincent Lecavalier than the Flyers will be on Bryzgalov. Strangely, no criticism of Steve Yzerman in your blog.

-Pronger was signed to his current deal at age 34, and has been basically forced to retire because of a freak injury. Pronger's prior injury history gave no indication that his career would be over 2 years later. Age had nothing to do with his inability to continue his career.

-In the Carter and Richards trades, two of the players added (Jake Voracek and Wayne Simmonds) have outscored Richards and Carter since the deals were made. The Flyers also landed 2 young forwards with tons of potential in Brayden Schenn and Sean Couturier, as well as prospect Nick Cousins, who was among the leading scorers in the OHL last year.

While Carter and Richards played big roles in the Kings winning a Stanley Cup, they were not as vital as Jonathan Quick, Drew Doughty, Anze Kopitar or Dustin Brown, among others.

-You also totally ignore the impact/influence of Ed Snider's role. The Flyers went after Bryzgalov because Snider publicly demanded that Holmgren get a big name goalie. There's plenty of circumstantial evidence that the Carter and Richards trades had Snider's finger prints all over them, for off ice issues. There's a litany of news reports about those two, so I won't bother to rehash it.

Congrats on the added hits you'll get for criticizing the Flyers. Should easily dwarf the usual 15-30 comments you regularly get. I don't mind criticism, I mind poorly researched trashing of a team, just to get hits and drive comments

OK, point by point comments on this poorly researched(outside of figuring out the ticket costs) blog designed to get hits:

- Yes, the Flyers utilized the compliance buyout feature of the new CBA to shed two contracts that would have severely hampered them under the artificially reduced salary cap. So did Montreal, the NY Rangers, Toronto, Buffalo and a host of other teams. Tampa Bay spent more buying out Vincent Lecavalier than the Flyers will be on Bryzgalov. Strangely, no criticism of Steve Yzerman in your blog.

-Pronger was signed to his current deal at age 34, and has been basically forced to retire because of a freak injury. Pronger's prior injury history gave no indication that his career would be over 2 years later. Age had nothing to do with his inability to continue his career.

-In the Carter and Richards trades, two of the players added (Jake Voracek and Wayne Simmonds) have outscored Richards and Carter since the deals were made. The Flyers also landed 2 young forwards with tons of potential in Brayden Schenn and Sean Couturier, as well as prospect Nick Cousins, who was among the leading scorers in the OHL last year.

While Carter and Richards played big roles in the Kings winning a Stanley Cup, they were not as vital as Jonathan Quick, Drew Doughty, Anze Kopitar or Dustin Brown, among others.

-You also totally ignore the impact/influence of Ed Snider's role. The Flyers went after Bryzgalov because Snider publicly demanded that Holmgren get a big name goalie. There's plenty of circumstantial evidence that the Carter and Richards trades had Snider's finger prints all over them, for off ice issues. There's a litany of news reports about those two, so I won't bother to rehash it.

Congrats on the added hits you'll get for criticizing the Flyers. Should easily dwarf the usual 15-30 comments you regularly get.
- Jsaquella

Yeee buddy. lol.


In fairness to Bryz too, NO ONE could have envisioned Bryz's time with the Flyers going as poorly as it did. He was a Vezina finalist and had the 4th best goalie numbers since the start of the first lockout before he signed. I see the Flyers' logic when they signed him. Sometimes these gambles work, sometimes they don't.

LOL @ this blog

Yeee buddy. lol.


In fairness to Bryz too, NO ONE could have envisioned Bryz's time with the Flyers going as poorly as it did. He was a Vezina finalist and had the 4th best goalie numbers since the start of the first lockout before he signed. I see the Flyers' logic when they signed him. Sometimes these gambles work, sometimes they don't.
- Flyers_V88

Honestly, I think if Bryzgalov had been solely Holmgren's call, he would have been toast. But Snider knows his public statements helped drive the train to acquire Bryzgalov and that he shared the blame.

Yeee buddy. lol.


In fairness to Bryz too, NO ONE could have envisioned Bryz's time with the Flyers going as poorly as it did. He was a Vezina finalist and had the 4th best goalie numbers since the start of the first lockout before he signed. I see the Flyers' logic when they signed him. Sometimes these gambles work, sometimes they don't.
- Flyers_V88

They still vastly overpaid and admitted to bidding against themselves.

Although it took about two years too long, Feaster did actually start the rebuild in Calgary.

Probably not the best person to have rebuilding your team but I understand what Calgary is doing far more than what Philly is doing.
- aeberg

What is Philly doing wrong?

Looks like at some of the pluses from Homer.

Signings:
Briere, Timonen, Hartnell, Jagr, Matt Read, Ray Emery (x2), Erik Gustafsson, Sergei Bobrovsky....

Acquisitions through trades-
Hartnell, Timonen, Meszaros, Carle, Coburn, L. & B. Schenn, Simmonds, Grossmann

Not a bad group of players, eh?

Wow - overly sensitive Flyers fan, eh? I lived in Philly for 5 years....a city of facking losers.
- kcNYI

Cute.. and Islanders fan talking about losing.

Matt Karash: Which is more ridiculous? The Flyers/Paul Holmgren situation
- CarolinaMatt63

Flyers - joke of the NHL

first off Karash, as a hurricanes blogger shouldnt you be worried about the hurricanes? you know that team in a non hockey town, that finished 26th in the league last year.

While Holmgren has undoubtedly made some questionable deals, many of the ones you brought up worked out well for the flyers. Forget the Bryz deal-DISASTER.
briere was signed after philly watched him and buffalo knock philly out of playoffs twice. Briere put up numbers that were incredible in the playoffs. you know what those are right? you see when a team is good they go to the playoffs. hurricanes have gone ONCE since 06-07. Flyers have missed the playoffs twice in that same time.

the richards and carter deals were brilliant. allowed the team to be younger, cheaper, and turned leadership over to Giroux.
pick one of the following two groups for the next 5-10 years please. take into account the salary costs.

simmonds, voracek, couturier, brayden schenn or richards and carter.

im taking the first group everytime.

and if pronger doesnt get injured he is still possibly a top pairing dman, or at least top 4.

Ill gladly take a GM with the balls to make the difficult trades/signings over a GM who is too afraid to make a big move.

Flyers - joke of the NHL
- BingoLady

We're more like Comedians. For example: We "stole" Briere from you guys when you thought for sure he would chose The Great and Almighty Canadiens... ya know.. the whole francophone thing..... He beat the piss out of you guys in the playoffs.. a few times.. and led us to a Cup final.

THENNN, we bought him out so that you guys could pick his shell up.

That is a funny joke.

Matt, I'm a good guy and I'm gonna give you the benefit of the doubt on this blog.

Are you based in Carolina?

You might want to take a few days off and get yourself a nice weekend in OBX. Just to get away from writing about hockey and relax before the season starts.

I read this article without looking, thinking it was Meltzer's. I thought he went nuts at first. Thank god its just an article from the one of the many dodos who post for other teams.

As a Leafs fan I would rather have a guy like Ed Snider than a tool like Richardie Peddie calling shots.

Is it Trolling for Hits Week on Hockeybuzz?
- Atomic Wedgie

- Crimsoninja

- Flyskippy

I noticed a whole lot of empty seats in that picture.

OK, point by point comments on this poorly researched(outside of figuring out the ticket costs) blog designed to get hits:

- Yes, the Flyers utilized the compliance buyout feature of the new CBA to shed two contracts that would have severely hampered them under the artificially reduced salary cap. So did Montreal, the NY Rangers, Toronto, Buffalo and a host of other teams. Tampa Bay spent more buying out Vincent Lecavalier than the Flyers will be on Bryzgalov. Strangely, no criticism of Steve Yzerman in your blog.

-Pronger was signed to his current deal at age 34, and has been basically forced to retire because of a freak injury. Pronger's prior injury history gave no indication that his career would be over 2 years later. Age had nothing to do with his inability to continue his career.

-In the Carter and Richards trades, two of the players added (Jake Voracek and Wayne Simmonds) have outscored Richards and Carter since the deals were made. The Flyers also landed 2 young forwards with tons of potential in Brayden Schenn and Sean Couturier, as well as prospect Nick Cousins, who was among the leading scorers in the OHL last year.

While Carter and Richards played big roles in the Kings winning a Stanley Cup, they were not as vital as Jonathan Quick, Drew Doughty, Anze Kopitar or Dustin Brown, among others.

-You also totally ignore the impact/influence of Ed Snider's role. The Flyers went after Bryzgalov because Snider publicly demanded that Holmgren get a big name goalie. There's plenty of circumstantial evidence that the Carter and Richards trades had Snider's finger prints all over them, for off ice issues. There's a litany of news reports about those two, so I won't bother to rehash it.

Congrats on the added hits you'll get for criticizing the Flyers. Should easily dwarf the usual 15-30 comments you regularly get. I don't mind criticism, I mind poorly researched trashing of a team, just to get hits and drive comments
- Jsaquella

Well said my friend!!

OK, point by point comments on this poorly researched(outside of figuring out the ticket costs) blog designed to get hits:

- Yes, the Flyers utilized the compliance buyout feature of the new CBA to shed two contracts that would have severely hampered them under the artificially reduced salary cap. So did Montreal, the NY Rangers, Toronto, Buffalo and a host of other teams. Tampa Bay spent more buying out Vincent Lecavalier than the Flyers will be on Bryzgalov. Strangely, no criticism of Steve Yzerman in your blog.

-Pronger was signed to his current deal at age 34, and has been basically forced to retire because of a freak injury. Pronger's prior injury history gave no indication that his career would be over 2 years later. Age had nothing to do with his inability to continue his career.

-In the Carter and Richards trades, two of the players added (Jake Voracek and Wayne Simmonds) have outscored Richards and Carter since the deals were made. The Flyers also landed 2 young forwards with tons of potential in Brayden Schenn and Sean Couturier, as well as prospect Nick Cousins, who was among the leading scorers in the OHL last year.

While Carter and Richards played big roles in the Kings winning a Stanley Cup, they were not as vital as Jonathan Quick, Drew Doughty, Anze Kopitar or Dustin Brown, among others.

-You also totally ignore the impact/influence of Ed Snider's role. The Flyers went after Bryzgalov because Snider publicly demanded that Holmgren get a big name goalie. There's plenty of circumstantial evidence that the Carter and Richards trades had Snider's finger prints all over them, for off ice issues. There's a litany of news reports about those two, so I won't bother to rehash it.

Congrats on the added hits you'll get for criticizing the Flyers. Should easily dwarf the usual 15-30 comments you regularly get. I don't mind criticism, I mind poorly researched trashing of a team, just to get hits and drive comments
- Jsaquella

Excellent points.

Not to mention... Unlike, some smaller market teams, the Flyers organization has a ton of CASH. And, they aren't afraid to use it... But, access to a ton of cash is useless with the cap in place. But, Homer can attract more interest from UFA's with longer contracts. $28M going to Ilya and Danny, who cares? Good for them. It does not effect the Flyers Cap - which is the key variable for Homer to manage.

Homer Job is to manage the cap and put the best team on the ice... The cap management is fine. His teams made the playoffs every year, but this past year (injury filled year, short year...). Almost a Stanley cup 09-10. Completely revamped a team in 10-11 and still made the playoffs... Actually quite an accomplishment.

Since Holmgren took over full time, the flyers missed the playoffs once last year in a lockout shortened season. During that same time, Rutherford and the hurricanes made the playoffs only once. Why has a Carolina blogger written a blog bashing Holmgren?
- psuhockey

Why? Because it is a shameless attempt to drive hits through his blog by targeting and criticising the best hockey market South of the Canada/US border.

When Holmgren took the Flyers from 2nd last in the league to a playoff powerhouse in one season I thought the moves he made were genius.

Recently he is definitely worst GM in the league.

Gillis has got to be second worst.
- aeberg

Gillis, Sather, Feaster. Homer is Snider's puppet.

You can tell this blog was written by someone who knows nothing about the team. They see the Bryz signing, Carter and richards winning a cup and Bob being traded. He has no idea about the meddling ownership and their desire to sign a big name goalie.

Some Homer moves that you know nothing about:

Zhitnik for Coburn
Downie for Carle
Signing Timonen
Signing Briere
Director of scouting when the Flyers drafted Justin Williams, Gagne, Richards, Giroux, Downie all LATE in the first round.
Signed undrafted FAs like Matt Read and Bob

He took over a team in 06-07 with very little talent and no farm system and turned them into a perennial contender for the next 5 years.

Since Holmgren took over full time, the flyers missed the playoffs once last year in a lockout shortened season. During that same time, Rutherford and the hurricanes made the playoffs only once. Why has a Carolina blogger written a blog bashing Holmgren?
- psuhockey

Simple...There are more flyers fans on this site than Hurricanes....The blogger needs to get paid...THis is nothing more than a article to solicit hits.

What is Philly doing wrong?

Looks like at some of the pluses from Homer.

Signings:
Briere, Timonen, Hartnell, Jagr, Matt Read, Ray Emery (x2), Erik Gustafsson, Sergei Bobrovsky....

Acquisitions through trades-
Hartnell, Timonen, Meszaros, Carle, Coburn, L. & B. Schenn, Simmonds, Grossmann

Not a bad group of players, eh?
- jak521

Also, Homer worked for a while as Clarke's number 1 guy... You've got to believe that Homer was calling some of those shots with Clarke final say.