You can make one move, which do you choose:

1) Make a small trade to change up the roster a little....say like Edmonton and the Kings did last month.

2) Call up someone like Lindblom or Vecchione.

3) Fire Head Coach

4) Fire Lappy

5) Make a big trade like Simmonds, could significantly alter roster.


For me, right now I am at either 4 or 1.
- J35Bacher

If any I would choose 4 but I don't think it's going to happen. The first thing I would do is reluctantly break up the top line.

Bill, hello.

Reaction to Hextall’s comments?
- funmaster18

Typical meaningless GM speak. Did you really expect him to say:

"Well, lets face it, except for Couturier and maybe Giroux, our vets are playing like crap right now. Voracek is playing like he recently had a lobotomy and Simmonds needs to just admit he's hurt and come out of the lineup for a game or 2. I wish I had never acquired Filppula or signed Weise because both of them are playing like crap too. The kids, other than Provorov, are all having the usual ups and downs and that is to be expected, it's up to the vets to pick them up and help the team win some games and they've failed miserably".

Hextall goes on,

"The coach certainly needs to do a better job too, especially in just settling this team down and with our PK which is simply atrocious right now. I love Lappy, but he's just about out of chances here. As far as our goaltending goes, Elliott has been fine but Neuvirth needs to get his head out of his ass. Look, it's not easy to win in this league when you are missing your only 2 legit veteran NHL dmen, hopefully AMac can get his game back to where it was prior to his injury soon and Gudas, well, if he can't stop being a (frank)ing moron when he gets back, I'll ship his ass out of here as soon as possible." So yeah, I'm (frank)ing frustrated right now, we may or may not be a playoff team, but there is no excuse for playing as bad as we played tonight and I don't even want to hear that they were tired."

Good luck ever hearing a GM say something like that.

He stated that the team isnt playing poorly. That statement shows the fans that he isn't seeing what they are seeing.

You can twist his words all you want but what he stated doesnt reflect what we are seeing.
- ggunky

I haven't twisted any of his words. I don't agree with some of the things that Hextall has said. Overall they're not playing well. There have been periods of good play. In the first period last night the first 5 minutes or so they were the better team. We know that's not good enough. They played well for a lot of the Pens game but had a disastrous start to the 3rd period. We know that's not good enough. They have lost 9 straight games. Hextall is not wrong in stating that they've been in a lot of those games.

You can make one move, which do you choose:

1) Make a small trade to change up the roster a little....say like Edmonton and the Kings did last month.

2) Call up someone like Lindblom or Vecchione.

3) Fire Head Coach

4) Fire Lappy

5) Make a big trade like Simmonds, could significantly alter roster.


For me, right now I am at either 4 or 1.
- J35Bacher

Who would even be a part of a small trade? Weise ? Lehtera? Nobody wants. Raffl? He's playing well. A kid ? And what if they pan out elsewhere ? We're built of 3 types or players. Useless vets, really good vets, and kids. We don't have depth players atm outside of raffl filpula.

I think the current leadership group is experienced enough to where they should be the guys. On the flip side, there's no one with a knack for relieving pressure. Timonen used to be able to say something as simple as "Everyone just needs to relax" and he'd say it with such confidence and conviction that the others would buy in.

On Twitter yesterday, I recounted a story about Jagr where he feigned being upset over being credited with a hit the previous night. He said, "When I get to 100 career hits, I'm gonna have to retire."

Everyone laughed and the room became a lot more lively. Mind you, this was during a time where there were a lot of tensions, especially with Bryzgalov and the team.

Sometimes a team could also use a Pronger-like personality -- someone who isn't necessarily well-liked but is respected -- who is the bad cop. Simmonds is very emotional and not afraid to say things in a very straightforward way, but I get the sense it's more of a colleague-to-colleague dynamic.
- bmeltzer

I would love to have a guy like Jagr here right now, this team could use his presence.

You can make one move, which do you choose:

1) Make a small trade to change up the roster a little....say like Edmonton and the Kings did last month.

2) Call up someone like Lindblom or Vecchione.

3) Fire Head Coach

4) Fire Lappy

5) Make a big trade like Simmonds, could significantly alter roster.


For me, right now I am at either 4 or 1.
- J35Bacher

4)

They sucked last year on the PK and they suck again this year

Typical meaningless GM speak. Did you really expect him to say:

"Well, lets face it, except for Couturier and maybe Giroux, our vets are playing like crap right now. Voracek is playing like he recently had a lobotomy and Simmonds needs to just admit he's hurt and come out of the lineup for a game or 2. I wish I had never acquired Filppula or signed Weise because both of them are playing like crap too. The kids, other than Provorov, are all having the usual ups and downs and that is to be expected, it's up to the vets to pick them up and help the team win some games and they've failed miserably".

Hextall goes on,

"The coach certainly needs to do a better job too, especially in just settling this team down and with our PK which is simply atrocious right now. I love Lappy, but he's just about out of chances here. As far as our goaltending goes, Elliott has been fine but Neuvirth needs to get his head out of his ass. Look, it's not easy to win in this league when you are missing your only 2 legit veteran NHL dmen, hopefully AMac can get his game back to where it was prior to his injury soon and Gudas, well, if he can't stop being a (frank)ing moron when he gets back, I'll ship his ass out of here as soon as possible." So yeah, I'm (frank)ing frustrated right now, we may or may not be a playoff team, but there is no excuse for playing as bad as we played tonight and I don't even want to hear that they were tired."

Good luck ever hearing a GM say something like that.
- BiggE

No but he could of said when you lose 9 in a row obviously everything is being evaluated. We are evaluating everything and everyone but we're in this together still fighting. You can't over react to a win streak or a losing streak and immediately flip your whole dynamic sometimes you have to look at the entire body of work.

Would of rather heard that he came off as a jerk last night.

Yeah I don't think Morin - Whose problems tend to be letting games get away from him and untimely penalties or mistakes - would benefit from the current state of the team. For the first time this year I agree he should stay with the phantoms. Just don't show me gudas manning amac when gudas returns. That'll really piss me off.
- Tfaehner

I would be sending Martel back to the Phantoms also.

Who would even be a part of a small trade? Weise ? Lehtera? Nobody wants. Raffl? He's playing well. A kid ? And what if they pan out elsewhere ? We're built of 3 types or players. Useless vets, really good vets, and kids. We don't have depth players atm outside of raffl filpula.
- Tfaehner

Weal would probably be my guy. I think there would be some interest from other teams and i think you could find a fair swap.

Typical meaningless GM speak. Did you really expect him to say:

"Well, lets face it, except for Couturier and maybe Giroux, our vets are playing like crap right now. Voracek is playing like he recently had a lobotomy and Simmonds needs to just admit he's hurt and come out of the lineup for a game or 2. I wish I had never acquired Filppula or signed Weise because both of them are playing like crap too. The kids, other than Provorov, are all having the usual ups and downs and that is to be expected, it's up to the vets to pick them up and help the team win some games and they've failed miserably".

Hextall goes on,

"The coach certainly needs to do a better job too, especially in just settling this team down and with our PK which is simply atrocious right now. I love Lappy, but he's just about out of chances here. As far as our goaltending goes, Elliott has been fine but Neuvirth needs to get his head out of his ass. Look, it's not easy to win in this league when you are missing your only 2 legit veteran NHL dmen, hopefully AMac can get his game back to where it was prior to his injury soon and Gudas, well, if he can't stop being a (frank)ing moron when he gets back, I'll ship his ass out of here as soon as possible." So yeah, I'm (frank)ing frustrated right now, we may or may not be a playoff team, but there is no excuse for playing as bad as we played tonight and I don't even want to hear that they were tired."

Good luck ever hearing a GM say something like that.
- BiggE

I assume this is rhetorical since I haven’t offered an opinion yet 😬

A lot of his comments bother me. His gudas comment makes me want to vomit as he's been objectively horrendous this year. But I will say he specifically did not mention manning which hopefullymeans he's back to the press box come gudas return.

I get what everyone is saying about captain's and leadership but who you going to get ? You gonna sign an iginla? Doan as a 4th liner? C'mon. Leadership has to come from the people we have and somebody needs to step up. Whether it be a kid a vet a coach SOMEBODY.
- Tfaehner

Hextall is not going to say anything negative about Gudas no matter how pissed he may really be. He's counting on one of 2 things:

Gudas to come back after his suspension and play much better
or
He's looking to trade him

Either way, ripping him publicly isn't going to help with either option.

If any I would choose 4 but I don't think it's going to happen. The first thing I would do is reluctantly break up the top line.
- MJL

I think that might have to be the move.

So done.

Weal would probably be my guy. I think there would be some interest from other teams and i think you could find a fair swap.
- J35Bacher

For what? Don't trade Weal. Other than moving a spare part, don't trade anyone right now.

his comments suggest Morin is not one of the top 3 young d men, and 4 might be too many in his book. It will be sad if Morin goes elsewhere and proves Ronnie wrong.
- landros 2

Morin will be up once Gudas is traded which will likely occur at or near the deadline. By that time, they will be pretty much out of playoff contention and Manning, who is in the last year of his deal and probably not part of the plan going forward, will go back to being the 7th Dman. Hopefully Ghost will be playing better by then and Morin will have a better partner to work with as well.

To me it's obvious, I've been saying it ad nauseum. Hextall has a plan and a philosophy, he is not going to deviate from it based on how this team is playing. The most telling comment he made is about putting a bunch of young kids in the lineup. He's right about that. They are going to slow cook and over marinate prospects both in terms of when they bring them up and what responsibilities they're given at the NHL level. There will always be outliers such as Provorov if they're special but that's what they're going to do.

Hextall is not going to say anything negative about Gudas no matter how pissed he may really be. He's counting on one of 2 things:

Gudas to come back after his suspension and play much better
or
He's looking to trade him

Either way, ripping him publicly isn't going to help with either option.
- BiggE

I truly think at this point gudas is here to stay. He kept going back to needing vets. This is going to be a story line moving forward cause we have all these kids. The kids hextall had to have couldn't trade for a single quality vet. And now he is worried about too much youth. It's mind boggling. Maybe Arizona gets dahlin at 1 and we get lucky and get 2 for svechnikov. Than we make a deal with Arizona for oel. Trading a kid for an established age appropriate vet. 😂

For what? Don't trade Weal. Other than moving a spare part, don't trade anyone right now.
- MJL

Right now he looks like a spare part.

Would you do something like Weal for Maroon? Just throwing a name out there. But he would add size and he does have good skill.

Out of a lot of guys on the roster I think he is easiest to move other then something big like Simmonds.

But my first option is to fire Lappy.

For what? Don't trade Weal. Other than moving a spare part, don't trade anyone right now.
- MJL

yup do nothing.... which from what Ronnie said is precisely what he intends to do.

No but he could of said when you lose 9 in a row obviously everything is being evaluated. We are evaluating everything and everyone but we're in this together still fighting. You can't over react to a win streak or a losing streak and immediately flip your whole dynamic sometimes you have to look at the entire body of work.

Would of rather heard that he came off as a jerk last night.
- Tfaehner

I agree.

He came off as out of touch with what is truly being seen by the fans. Hextall doesn't only have a responsibility to the Team, management and coaches. He also has a responsibility to the fans.

This doesnt mean we need to know everything, but sometimes you need to placate to the fan base. Show that you get their concern or passion or whatever.

Last night he basically told the fan base that we don't see what we see and what is playing out before us isnt reality.

Lets be perfectly honest here. Had Holmgren been responsible for hiring Hakstol it would be a lot easier for Hextall to fire him..... But Hextall is responsible for this hire. He went out on the limb and hired a guy with no professional experience to help with this rebuild...opp's retool and we are now seeing a coach that appears to have no answers. Hak's probably wondering why Hextall can't or won't try to help this years team if even a little bit.
- landros 2

I don't think Hextall will have any problem firing Hak at seasons end if this team doesn't at least show some reasonable improvement. GM's fire coaches they've hired all the time. Clarke did it to Keenan, Murray, Cashman, Neilson (sort of), Ramsey, and Barber. Holmgren did the same to Stevens and Lavi.

It's the nature of the business. However, once he brings in his 2nd coach, the pressure on him will ratchet up a few notches. With Snyder gone, this team is more of a business than ever. Back to back years without playoffs plus having to pay a new coach and the last 2 years of Hakstol's deal will not make ownership happy. Hextall will be under enormous pressure to get this team into the playoffs in 18-19.

The fact there was literally no push back or like frustration boil over to show like someone cared was the most disturbing thing they laid down and died. Like when teams are going through down swings like this and their confidence is low this is when having an actual physical presence really helps...someone who comes out and throws a wrecking ball type hit or has a big fight can jump start a team. This team is just way too soft

To me it's obvious, I've been saying it ad nauseum. Hextall has a plan and a philosophy, he is not going to deviate from it based on how this team is playing. The most telling comment he made is about putting a bunch of young kids in the lineup. He's right about that. They are going to slow cook and over marinate prospects both in terms of when they bring them up and what responsibilities they're given at the NHL level. There will always be outliers such as Provorov if they're special but that's what they're going to do.
- MJL

I get all of that.

My issue is with him dismissing the fans at last night's game.

My issue is with him claiming they have been playing well. you dont play well for 9 games and somehow lose them all.

He came across as tone deaf last night, as out of touch. he totally dismissed the fans as not understanding what they are seeing.

Consistently shooting yourself in the foot and making critical mistakes at critical moments does not equate to playing poorly......got it

- Just5

I'm guessing he is eluding to the fact that many of these losses are one goal overtime losses where the Flyers outplayed their opponent for decent stretches of the game. The problem with this line of thinking is that the NHL is more competitive than ever and the difference between the best and the worst continues to get less and less. I don't think you can say (what I think Hextall is saying) that being really competitive in a game is the same thing as not playing poorly. This is a dangerous game of being satisfied with less things than winning.

I would be sending Martel back to the Phantoms also.
- MJL

If they are going to continue to play him 8:30 minutes a night they might as well.