Lindbergh31

Flyers goalie prospect Anthony Stolarz and his London Knights start their quest to win the Memorial Cup as they play against Jammer2's Windsor Spitfires. Should be a good series. Flyerscanuck: Looks like your Barrie Colts will be facing the Sudbury Wolves in the first round, eventhough I live in Sudbury I don't see the Colts losing to the Wolves. The Wolves have sucked the last month and aren't playing as a team.

Agreed Jammer and FC, it sucks living in Ontario and having to listen to Leafs fans when they beat the Flyers but Mason rebounded well from a shaky first 5 minutes of the game to give the Flyers a chance to take it to overtime. It's pretty bad when all of the offense tonight came from the defensemen.

Maybe Snider in his warp way is saying this stuff to give Giroux a bug up his butt for being left off the Olympic team and goes out and prove everybody wrong. Everybody knew that Yzerman was going to choose St.Louis to save face and St.Louis was the sentimental favourite amongest Canadian fans. Hopefully Giroux rests and gets ready for the remainder of the regular season. Who knows maybe Crosby will get hurt and have to miss the rest of the season

@jammer2 I think you can add the conference finals in '08 to screwing the Flyers out of a proper rebuild, it gave Snider and Holmgren a false sense that they were "Just this close" to being a contender again after the dreaded 06/07 season. Course the hockey gods didn't help that the Flyers didn't end up with the first pick overall and drafting Patrick Kane (how would he look playing along side Giroux). Holmgren either needs to quit or get shown to the door and let someone else take the reigns. Since the eastern conference is a crap shoot after Pittsburgh and Boston why not play the young guys and see what they can do. If you make the playoffs great if not you get a high draft pick to keep building. I'm tired of the close but no cigar building of a team, build thru the draft so you have a contender (like what Boston and Chicago did) for a long time.

@fanaticV3.0'3.0 The problem was JVR didn't fair well in Philly because he was picked 2nd in the '07 draft behind the guy who should have been in Philly, Patrick Kane. I think a lot of Flyers fans and management thought that he'd turn out to be a version of Kane but JVR didn't and Flyers management didn't have to patience to wait and see if he would. When the JVR/Schenn trade went down I thought for sure Holmgren would be getting Schenn + for JVR but Burke took him to the cleaners and now JVR is blossoming in Toronto where Schenn is panning into the Foote-type defenseman we were hoping for. It's been said time and time again on here, I think it's time for Holmgren to resign or get fired and let someone else build this team.

@murraycraven Awesome post, you nailed everything when it comes to the Flyers this year. Holmgren and Hextall have to sit down during the Olympic break and figure out their next moves going forward. For starters they have to trade Timonen and Mez to teams who can use a veteran defenseman for a playoff run and get draft picks back. Maybe this off-season look at trying to get rid of Hartnell who seems to lost his edge when it comes to playing, maybe send him to Edmonton who could use some veteran leadership. Flyers fans have to realize that this team isn't close to being a contender let alone a playoff team. They have to start building thru the draft and make trades that will benefit the team now and long-term not just for a quick fix or because they need to trade someone for the sake of trading.

Jammer, Marleau is what 34 years old and making $6.6 million where as Giroux is 25. If the Flyers trade Giroux then who will they build around. Flyers fans have to realize that it's going to be like the early 90's where there is a good possibility of the Flyers missing the playoffs for multiple years. Get rid of Holmgren and let Hextall take over and build thru the draft.

@AJgoal Besides in another 2 years time Martin St.Louis will be 40 years old and Vinny will be 35 so if Marty retires than maybe the Bolts would consider bringing Vinny back to be that veteran presence and retire as a Bolt. When it comes to sports today, anything is possible.

It wasn't Holmgren's typical long-term contract that he usually gives out. Hopefully his best days are still ahead of him but the cap hit is reasonable since the cap is suppose to be going up.

@murraycraven I think a lot of Philly fans were hoping that Luke Schenn would grow into an Adam Foote type defenseman because Foote wasn't a real strong skater but a great stay-home defenseman. As for the Richards/Carter trades, I still believe that Carter was traded to free up cap space to sign Bryzgalov but Richards was traded because he was groomed to be the captain and face of the franchise yet he didn't fulfil the off-ice stuff that a Flyers captain should do. He would have issues with the media and all of this stuff didn't sit well with old man Snider.

@ Samifan I agree Mason has been the mvp of this team so far, so what do think he'll be asking for in his next contract, hopefully the Flyers don't sign him to a long-term deal, 4 years would be nice at a reasonable price.

Merry xmas to everyone and hopefully the Flyers have a good second half.

#fanatic V3.0 Fans are looking at Hextall because he has been away from the Flyers family for a number of years and he learned how to build a team from the bottom up with Lombardi. So if he does replace Holmgren then hopefully Snider lets him build the team his way. Hexie also knows how Snider is as an owner so he'll know how to handle the situation if it ever arises.

It wouldn't surprise somewhere down the road when Richards is near the end of his career, never liked seeing him get traded as for Carter I didn't care if he went.

This is like groundhog day going back to the 2006/07 season, now all we need is for Holmgren to resign or get fired.

I guess another way at looking at this trade is Downie is an UFA after this year so the Flyers don't have to resign him they can promote Laughton to the big team to replace him. Where as Talbot has another 2 years @ $1.75 cap hit after this year. Like you said Radoran, Talbot hasn't produced what the fans thought he would. I always liked him as a player but it free up some cap space after this season.

As much as I like Giroux, getting a number one defenseman in Weber would be hard to pass up. It would be interesting to see what would happen if Nashville offered Weber but wanted Giroux in return what Holmgren or Hextall would do.

That's what sucks considering Lupul did nothing when he played in Philly and JVR was never this consistent in Philly as he is in Toronto.

@brelic, Calgary just lost their captain who's a defenseman for 6 to 8 weeks so maybe they'd be interested in Meszaros for a pick.

That's why it would be a good idea to either tell him to step down or fire him. He has to see the writing on the wall when they bring in Hextall to be the assistant GM.

That's the main reason to get him to step down or fire him before he makes trades to save his job.

I've been a fan since '73 and no doubt this team has frustrated the hell out of me but I continue to be a fan thru good and bad. I was hoping last year they would have lost their last 7 games to get a higher draft pick but they didn't accomplish that. Maybe this year they'll get it right and finish dead last, get the first pick overall since the draft is in Philly next summer and do the rebuild right. Holmgren or Hextall has to pick their core guys going forward and build the team that way. Mason has looked very good so far this year and hopefully he keeps it up.

I know some Flyers fans wanted Holmgren gone a long time ago but somehow thru all of the **** he does he still keeps his job. So based on the latest events of this team, how long does Holmgren have before Snider tells him either step down or fire him. Just curious to hear other fans comments.

Thanks

Memories of the 2006/07 season when Hitchcock got replaced and Clarke stepped down. Now that Lavi got replaced hopefully this means that Holmgren will follow what Clarke did back then and step down. Let's see what Hexie can do as a GM because he can't be any worse than Holmgren. I would rather see that before Holmgren starts making panic moves and the Flyers give away young players for some more quick fixes.