BearOnIce

CP20 is making the picks. He will be assistant GM then GM within 3 years. Book it.

Oh there is absolutely no doubt... NO DOUBT... not even a *shred* of a doubt... that neither had any idea of Bryz' game and didn't either bother to look. Scary, isn't it? You are bringing in a player, who is supposed to become a cornerstone of your roster (and not just for a few years but for many years), and signing him to a gargantuan contract without even having familiarized first with his game. Plain pathetic and borerline criminal negligence...

That was a typical reaction-type move after Snider got fed up by the goaltending issues. And that's fine. Getting pissed is fine. There is nothing wrong with not being indifferent. I can't accuse the Flyers for the lack of caring. If anything, this is one thing the Flyers can never be blamed for. Problem is, they often go about doing things without drawing a road map how to do it. Their scouts seem to be abysmal also, which doesn't help either. Homer should be able to rely on what his scouts are telling him before he is ready to pull the trigger on a given player. They failed miserably on Biron and now on Bryzgalov. Those are the people who I would have fired many years ago.

There is no plan. There is no road map. There is no farm system. There is no brain trust. Every Flyer fan needs to wake up, smell the coffee, and see what we have here. This is a broken, dysfunctional organization that rewards good players by making them scouts, assistat manager's management. Blind loyalty. Homerism of the worst kind. There will be no positive change until Snider and Holmgren are gone, and an outside group is running the team. This may take years.

The man is what, 80 something years old, correct? Wrong or right, he doesn't have time to be patient. It might screw the team up for years, but if I were a breath or 2 away from taking a dirt nap, I'd be trying to win asap - and damn the consequences too. We may not like it, but he doesn't give a crap about that. Its 'do or die' vs. 'don't and die' for him, so I'd strap in and be ready to catch the kitchen sink!

The next Flyer parade will be when they take Ed down the load to Lemon Hill to pot him with the rest of the Snider's..

It was he who forced Holmgren to sign Bryz, there were no other teams interested in signing Bryz

And by the way one of the Vezina finalist is Bobrovsky, oh we had him

Mario, that is a nice thought but with all respect not possible. Ed is like a junkie to the needle. He tries to win at all expense without the patience to create an organization with the internal structure to develop a Stanley Cup winner the way it is done today. He listens to the player relics of his past. If they were great players they must be great management. How many organizations would allow a failed GM to maintain a position as a Senior VP in the same organzation? The most painful event of this coming year for Mr. Ed will be when the team tanks and he has to fire Holmgren mid-season. Mark it down. Or what will probably happen first Peter Laviolette gets fired as the scapegoat. It has been a lot of years trying to be a fan of this franchise. Manybe this is the last for me because it is fundamentally flawed.

You're named GM, Now you have to make these key decisions, who ya got or what do you do...

1) Who do you buyout, if anyone?

With 50% of this forum not exactly on the Holmgren bandwagon, his leash should be pretty tight...

@BearOnIce

You guys are making me thirsty.

Merlot. More and do not stop pouring...

i agree with you totality, it's definitely snider because he doent want to change, this team has talent, the problem is fo and snider dont want to fix the problems with the team and coaching.

And so unfortunately the frustration will continue.

i agree with you totality, it's definitely snider because he doent want to change, this team has talent, the problem is fo and snider dont want to fix the problems with the team and coaching.

I agree, but let me suggest that Ed Snider believes in his heart that he and his organization are truely doing the right things and the right way. He has no one to challenge him otherwise. He has created this adoring homerism of a culture in his Flyers organization. He confuses this dysfunctionism with being a Flyers Family. His team makes the playoffs consistently. His team is right up there in the NHL in wins. He has a loyal fan base. His Wells Fargo Center consistently sells out. He looks to be successful with the Flyers by most measures. But, the one thing that must be hard for Ed Snider and his entire organization to get their arms around is why after 38 years of doing what they think they are doing right they do not have another Stanley Cup. Because nothing except that matters. Nothing. Thus, as the thread started and suggested the excuses come every year and all the time. It is always something. There is always an excuse. There are many business organizations like this today. Usually the stockholders clamor for change when the results are not there. Unfortunately, the Flyers are an Oligopoly with Ed The Ringmaster pulling the ropes. That is why there is such a negativism by so many people on this forum that truly understand hockey and a pale over the team and organization going into the summer and the upcoming season. Clearly organizational change bedrock up is absolutely necessary. Who stole my cheese, all change is very difficult. Especially as you get older and entrenched in your thinking. That is exactly what we are seeing lived out with the Flyers, and Mr. Snider.

i think what it comes down to, is not getting a gm that knows how to put a winning championship team together, i know this isnt baseball but the thing that the phillies did right that finally got them to win a world series title was pat gillick, he was a world series winning gm, it's the one thing that philly teams never do is actually try to get a gm from a winning organization that knows how to win, instead from bad teams or refusing to change them in the last 40 years.

for once i like to see the sixers and flyers make a freaking change for once in their lives or else i dont know how long fans will put up with nonsense of not trying to win it all instead of favoring the same losing mentality front office.

And you cannot keep putting unqualified people with no demonstrative results in positions of management, authority, and decision-making always from within this organization in unwavering homerism because they were once great Flyer players and have Snider's man-love. In fact, the real issue, the true deal breaking issue as many of us believe it to be is simply Ed Snider. For all the good he has done, and there is quite a bit to give him credit for, his failing legacy, and what will unfortunately at some point end up on his headstone is that he did not have the right vision or ability to assemble a truly capable organizational management from top-down to win the big prize. The Flyers are a stagnant organization living on their self belief that they are a model hockey organization becuase they "try" all the time, but the reality is that they have nothing to show except playoff appearances and season wins, nothing over 38 years since winning a Stanley Cup with a style of play has has long since become antiquated. It is a pity, really.. But Flyer Fans, you can all chose with your wallets and purses. I can tell you that I am watching some great teams play some great hockey in these playoffs.

Congratulations on the new job. I hope it goes well.

Homer may be facing some unpleasant realities. And I have to wonder if good free agents who might have come to the team in past years reckon this is a time to stay away.

Stay thirsty my friend.

Howie:

Thank you,.

I hope that this team and this managment find a way out of the darkness right now.

I am watching the playoffs and seeing tremendous skillsets and talnted lines rolling one after another. It has rekindled my love for the game, no matter what team.

Stay thirsty, and well, my friend.

Bear

These reporters are probably going to "pay" for their candor with reduced access to the team. I also suspect Homer's recent outbursts show frustration...and the fact that he has to take some of the blame for what's happened. Plan B (no Weber, etc.) must have been lacking.

Work is really tiring me these days..the merlots help but not too much. Middle-age and budget cuts are taking their toll.

Good to hear from you...

Howie

Howie:

I hear you with the middle-age thing. I just changed jobs. Much better place now.

Merlot does help.

This will be an interesting summer. Is there a perfect storm brewing for Paul Holmgren?

Take care my friend,

Bear

Greetings All:

I've found the articles in the Inquirer and elsewhere on Snider and his frustration with the season to be very interesting. I have a link to one; there have been others.

http://us.yhs4.searc...sson-shea-weber

In so many words, Snider is "teflon" like, and blames the schedule, injuries, and God-knows what else for a bad season. The broader design issue, and his short-term outlook, receive no attention. The upshot as Carchidi and others note, is that we have an owner who does not understand that his decisions (Buying Bryz's services is perhaps the most recent) have led to one of the longest droughts in championship among the major leagues.

I also thought the poll last weekend about "stay" and "go" in the Inquirer was telling. While the majority of voters wanted Lavy to stay, the majority wanted Homer to go.

The bottom line is simple: the reporters and fans understand that short-term expedience will not yield a Stanley Cup. The articles also support my view that Snider and his minions do a good job keeping the Flyers in the upper-middle class (Snider takes pride in our Finals appearances) but the big enchilada is distant. FYI--the articles blame the fans in part--they expect winners every year...though the frustration this year tells me even the great unwashed are POed with where this team is heading.

Maybe we are seeing a change. Maybe the youngsters on the team stay...etc. But my head and gut say that Snider/Homer will stay expedient. That is a recipe for long-term frustration.

Best,

Howie

Howie:

You nailed it.

Thank you,

Bear

I for one am all about accepting responsibility for anything I do or am responsible for. I know Snider wants to win as he has shown a committment to winning more than any other Philly owner. I would love nothing more than for him to be able to hold the Cup once more. All that being said there are no excuses for the team this season. All teams had injuries and dealt with schedule issues. Bottom line was there were holes in this team that were not addressed in the offseason and contracts that hurt the team from moving forward.

They have an opportunity to do something about it this offseason but ridding themselves of some of the contracts. I bite the bullet and amnesty Briere and Bryz. While Snider and Comcast will still be responsible for paying out money for the contract it provides some much needed cap space to address the teams needs.

I think that with the amnesty of the contracts, making Mason number one, signing a potential free agent forward like Horton and possibly trading for a defenseman (even if it means giving up Couterier to get him) we can be right back in the hunt next season.

In the world of big business Comcast, thee is no way even Ed The Ringmaster can eat that kind of buyout money. Net net is the organization has to change from the outside in. Snider out. Holmgren out. Needs to be a cleaning house and the only player that can force that is Lukko from his Comcast power base.

Pantycakes is a Tool. You heard it here.

Yes boss.

That's what I think the Flyers will do. Keep him for an extra year and have him and Mason battle it out. But that depends largely on Laviolette giving Mason a fair shot at #1. Why didn't Mason play more down the stretch? He'd have a great game, and then Lavi would go right back to Bryz. Laviolette has a poor record of handling goaltenders in Philly.

But, the bigger question is how Bryz will react to being challenged for the #1 job. I mean, this is a guy who demanded to be #1 in Russia - ahead of Bobrovsky who has proven himself over an entire season to be better than Bryz. That tells me this guy puts himself above the team. So there is danger in keeping that kind of toxic personality around the team too long if he loses the starting job. They would be stuck with him until at least the end of the season before they can exercise a buyout.

I kinda go back and forth on whether they should keep him next season. Logic to me says yes... It gives you an entire year to put a succession plan in place, and you get a real good look at Mason. But emotion tells me to buy his ass out on day 1. Good riddance!

You assume Peter the Great will be after next year. I say he should be here but this organization will pin the tail on that donkey unless they get a Top 4 finish 20013/14 before Ed accepts that one of his home grown Mr. Holmgren should go. Scrape, rinse, wash, repeat....

Well, the buyout period ends before free agency starts, so they kinda need to decide what to do with Bryz before then if they want to use his cap space to sign another guy. Clearly, they have no intention of buying Bryz out this summer.

I will say that there weren't other teams that started out with the schedule the Flyers had. And then the team got off on a bad foot and was behind from the jump. That did happen.

That said, who was the idiot that decided to force the cancellation of half a season and then play a compressed schedule? Oh, right.

I do think this team is better off than many might. You've got to look for a couple of players not to have sophomore slumps as juniors and hope that the defense (which, after all, never played a game together as envisioned) doesn't see as many injuries and provides more stability.

Mason should get 20-30 starts next season (unless Laviolette again decides to run Bryz into the ground - check out the schedule for the first three weeks of February where Lavy played him in 11 of 12 games in 21 days including both ends of three of four (yes, three of four) back-to-backs).

How many times have we seen a team - any team - play four back-to-back games in three weeks? Did Pittsburgh do that? No. Did Chicago? No. 12 games in 20 days. Did any other team do that in the first six weeks of the season? How about at any time over the course of the season?

Let's not pretend that the schedule at the start - and the bad start the team as a whole (Bryzgalov was 2.19/.924 in six games in January - and went 2-4 for his efforts) had no impact.

Bryzgalov actually had a better record for wins/losses once his numbers went South.

Still, 2.19/.924 and 2-4 in six games to start the season?

Must be the goalie.

Yea, must be the goalie. Of course. Snider is cunning and delusional. When half of Flyers Nation wants Holmgren gone that should be a clear signal that the fan base does not think this franchise is going anywhere close to the right direction. I mean all you have to do is watch the uninterrupted coverage of the NHL playoffs yesterday so see what elite status in the league really means. The Flyers are far from it. Snider The Circus Master Ringleader is tryng to spin more spin, like he has for 38 years. His MO is make sure we keeo the sell-outs coming.....

TPanotch wrong....????!!!! Unheard of! That said he is quite close to the team management in his CSN role so sadly he may be correct on this one

Pantycakes is a Tool. You heard it here.

Response on teh Twitter

no RT @kroberts4343: @tpanotchCSN Is there any chance that the Flyers keep Hall and Huskins?

------

Nothing really ventured in getting either player. Nothing particularly gained, either.

I like Huskins as a 7 much more than Gervais and I thought Hall did well as a poor man's Joel Otto or Kent Maderville.

Both gone. Bye bye. -_-

Interesting.... the way Anthony SanFilippo sees it, there is no goaltending problem. If I may be so bold as to sum up his loquacious post: Bryz was a victim of circumstance.

http://flyers.nhl.co...vid=DL|PHI|home

There are two ways you can look at the Flyers goaltending situation.

The pessimistic view would be to examine Ilya Bryzgalov’s numbers from the 2012-13 season, see that he ranked 36th in goals against average (2.79), 43rd in save percentage (.900), 47th in even strength save percentage (.907) and 26th in save percentage while shorthanded (.866) and determine that it’s a mess.

The optimistic view is to see that the Bryzgalov was actually really good until he was forced into duty every night and wore down. It’s to take stock in the fact that he actually posted those numbers behind a patchwork defense for much of the season. And that despite all the negative press he received, he still finished with a winning record.

Couple that with the addition of Steve Mason via trade April 3rd, and his impressive numbers, albeit over a very small sample of seven games (4-2-0, 1.90, .944), and the Flyers appear to finally have a worthy tandem in place.

I tend to lean toward the latter.

Could Bryzgalov have been better this season? Yes. But considering all the factors outside of his control, in reality, any expectation of betterment on his part could only fairly be slight. There really were only a few games that he played this season where you looked at his performance and thought it was not up to snuff.

Yes, it would be nice if he made more stops on breakaways. Yes, it would be ideal if he would come up with more big saves on high percentage chances by the opposition.

That is the common gripe by sensible detractors (as opposed to the non-sensible sort who just dislike him because they’re predisposed to hating all Flyers goalies) and it is a fair one.

And if that’s something you want to hang on Bryzgalov, it is probably deserved.

But for the love of Pete, the guy was the team’s best player for at least half the season, if not more. To condemn him is over-reactive.

Put a healthy and stable defense in front of him for a full season, and I’m betting on a different outcome.

There was also a ton of pressure on him as the season progressed, again because of situational factors that were out of his hands.

He had no reliable backup to give him a day off. He had to start 22 games in a row as the team tried to recover and make the playoffs, and although he needed a break, he plowed through, fighting his fatigue to try and perform at his highest level.

Sometimes, he did. Others, he didn’t. But it wasn’t for a lack of caring, or effort, or desire.

Bryzgalov is actually a very competitive goaltender who wants to win. Just watch his reactions on the ice at the end of close wins. It means a lot to him. He doesn’t take hard losses well either. Some of his most memorable post-game comments have come after particularly difficult defeats.

That’s the sign of a competitor.

And it’s the reason I think it’s likely that he’s back next season and is not a compliance casualty.

That, and Mason, who still has something to prove, is a guy who wants to be a No. 1 goalie again and who has renewed confidence in a new situation.

Bryzgalov may need to be pushed to be better. He hasn’t really had that in his two years in Philadelphia. Sergei Bobrovsky was a clear backup in Bryzgalov’s first season – primarily because of the shiny, new, nine-year, $51 million contract Bryzgalov was toting.

Then, this season, it was evident in both cases of Michael Leighton and Brian Boucher that they were veterans just happy to still have NHL contracts and neither had any plans of unseating the incumbent Bryzgalov.

But now there’s Mason, who repeatedly said during his one month with the team that his goal is to be a No. 1 goalie again. Like Bryzgalov, he is ultra-competitive.

Which is why I feel Bryzgalov should be back with the Flyers and shouldn't be part of the amnesty conversation this summer.

Over the course of an 82-game season, two goalies who care, who compete and who want to be the go-to guy can push each other to play at the top of their game.

Or, it could go sour, and lead to disharmony, and more aggravation.

But, like I said before, I’m an optimist. And I think the reason for that optimism is already in place – maybe you just need to look in the right places to see it.

To contact Anthony SanFilippo, email asanfilippo@comcast-spectacor.com or follow him on Twitter @AnthonySan37

Bryz is back. No question.

http://www.philly.co...e_can_stay.html

I think Gagne has been consistent this season and I'd like to see him stay. I know the cap is going down next year so at the end of the day it might be a numbers game. At least he is willing to come back for less. What do you guys think?

Hexy, I think Gag's will be back, agree to a little less say $2.5M and continue to add the veteran presence. I have a nagging fear that was an element missing this year and would not be surprised to see Holmgren go in that direction. Given this organizations orientatiob to take care of the kids they raise and nurse, I see Snider giving the thumbs up.

@FD19372

"The thing that scares me about that is I'm not sure that managment knows what a very good goalie looks like."

It could be raining good goalies and they'd get hit with the Leightons on the world.

I have a strong feeling that Homer will do something drastic to sure up the D in the off-season. Right now I am not too sure if that is a good thing or a bad thing.

Holmgren will be in complete panic mode since has has been since 1995 with the old man up his ass. Expect this board to light up like a Christmas Tree when he starts to pull the switches and players start flying out of Philadelphia... What a summer on insanity to look forward to!

If they determine it'll hurt the business more not to, yes.

Comcast will slap his ass and no one can eat that much goalie crow, even Ed.

here's the whole 'story' from Frank Seravalli

I guess the Flyers rode him too hard and often this year.... Sad now is that Mason will play, probably look lethal notwithstanding the slop in front of him, and the Flyers will win games. Then our pick goes out the window. Then there will be another raging goalie controversy all summer and all over this board until next Fall. You know they are not going to buy-out this guy until at best next year because too much money left on the table and crow to eat. :wacko:

Agreed, Danny had some good years for us and for that we are grateful but the time has come to part ways. I will say that Danny made me eat my words because when we acquired him, I was pushing hard for Drury instead but boy was I wrong with that call. In my defense, I lived in Colorado for a number of years and watched Drury through his prime and as one of the cornerstones to the Avs championships and thought he could bring that play to the Flyers but he didnt have much left in the tank at that point and kind of fizzled out with the Rangers and eventually retired.

The Flyers will do it with class because that is how Snider likes to do it for his players that have gone the distance for him. Right with you on Drury. Fizzled is a good way to put it. Nothing like Briere numbers.

So is Jonathan Toews a horrible captain because he's quiet? If you want to knock Giroux for not having a great year fine. But media circus ringleader is last on my criteria for being an NHL captain.

I did not say that. You did. It is not in particular a good comparison eiher. Giroux is the face of the franchise not Toews. Kimmo is the one who should be the captain of the Flyers because he would of been a better choice. Much better. Certain media go to Kimmo for just that reason.