sarsippius

In case you missed it, kids didn't get booed as they were drafted. If they did you would have a point, but they didn't

@Irishjim No offense to San Jose, but teal is unacceptable.....combined with freakin' orange with that hideous sleeve/shoulder logo, that would have been cause for a fan revolt @ImpendingDOOM39 No bad, keeping things pretty much the same just working the black and orange around a bit. This I could deal with

I work just a couple miles from the Skate Zone, I may try to cut out early and hit the Tuesday 4:30 session.....we'll see how that play out

If you can swing the $ its well worth it IMO. Over the years I've had tix for the Flyers, Eagles and Phils, and the Flyers go far and above the others to take care of their fans. I'm not a STH at present, 5 kids I've got to invest money elsewhere at present, but I certainly will be again in the future. Definitely miss it!

AdamFlyers is Poulin20's bro, I'm just the guy that shows up for a beer once in a while!

Nice work Jack, let's hope that one sticks about 3-4 years from now!

@canoli My pleasure, I get so much good insight here it's nice to be able to give a little bit back. I'll say it again, Hexy is preaching what we've all been wanting to hear since forever, I feel good about the philosophy and the direction he's taking us. I am more than happy to be patient while he does his thing, scout well draft well and bring 'em along at the right time. What a concept!!

Aw cmon man, Briere and Hartnell are both gone!

I agree with the idea Grump, but it really is tough to tell at the time what's a phantom head snap and what's not, especially where stick contact misses by an inch. That's why I think the idea of video review at the league office is the only way to stop this. And make it a suspension for the first offense, none of this warnings and fines crap.

From your mouth to God's ears brother!

Outstanding, this is LOOOOOONG overdue, video replay ala hitting infractions is the only way to enforce. And agree with DGG, start suspending guys for this garbage, it makes the game look like a joke

Ya I'm going to agree with that. Honestly when I watched the video it was on my phone, so I thought I was watching either guys in bear suits or some sort if video equivalent to photoshop....not cool to say the least

Shockingly, it might just be a real thing.... http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/europe/10/23/russia.skating.bear.death/

@Bertmega I have no idea what I just watched....but i enjoyed it tremendously

I remember going to see them at the Spectrum (the old Wings before the current 90's reincarnation), I thought Doug was playing both hockey and lacrosse at the same time, maybe lacrosseseason was in summer....but honestly I can't be sure.....Imma see what the interwebs have to say about it.... Edit: Looks like he did in fact play for the Wings in 1974: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philadelphia_Wings_%281974%E2%80%9375%29

OK here's the rest of the Hexy transcription from the weak but semi-workable audio I recorded of his talk - I'll tack on this on to the end my post of page 1 of this thread too. On following up with draft picks: We have 2 development guys…Kjell Sammuelsson is full time development and John Riley is full time development…one’s forward and one’s defensemen, so they’ll follow our guys …actually some of these coaches in junior and in college will actually let them go on the ice…so they’ll take the development camp lessons and go to Calgary next year, Kjell will go to Calgary with Travis go to a couple games and watch them on video…so there is quite a big follow up…Kjell has been over to Sweden a couple of times to see Robert Haag…so there’s a lot of follow up, you can’t just draft them…we have expectations on players, starting with development camp for 2 days, and we map out our expectations in terms of fitness levels…and nutrition, playing hard every night and the different lessons , and working on their weaknesses of their game, their skating, puck handling, passing, puck protection, whatever it might be, but it’s an ongoing process to make these players better…John Riley, we just hired him a couple months ago…Kjell was kinda teetering between development part time and full time[sound of ice machine starting up drowned the rest out] What are you comfortable sharing with us about VLC’s situation / attempts to move up in the draft: Well, I expected him to be here in September, and we have to find a way to get the best out of him…The thing that everybody forgets, or a lot of people forget is that Vinny scored 20 goals for us, it wasn’t a total disaster…Vinny played some good hockey for us…Vinny likes to play the middle, and he likes to play the right side, unfortunately you look on right side and you’ve got Voracek and Simmonds, and Vinny..you need him your top 6, so it’s hard to play him on the right side….in the middle with Schenner and Simmonds didn’t work real well…Chief and I talked about different combinations, we don’t know exactly where it’s going to shake out, but yeah I expect him to be back and expect him to be a productive player You mentioned before the draft a lot of previous #1’s hadn’t hit, how do you evaluate our current draft: I like our current draft, I said earlier I was disappointed we didn’t get a goaltender, it was high on my priority list…there were a couple kids we liked, they fell between our 1st and 2nd pick so…sometimes you want to step up on a guy but you only want to step up so much…that was the one thing I was disappointed about, but I like the rest of our draft…part of hitting on kids late, is character…because a kid that’s a real hard working kid, a really dedicated kid, likes to play the game, those are typically the kids that separate themselves in the 6th and 7th round…part of my mandate to our scouts is getting better at, you’ve got to get to know these kids…if they play a game when you’re out in Seattle, you gotta go down and meet the kid, talk to the kid, ask him how he feels like he played, try to challenge him for the next night, do different things with him, get to know the kid’s character….typically in the end it’s the character with late round picks the allows them to turn oout, because they put in the extra work and the extra time that it takes to become a pro. But I also think scouts maybe…the 1st round there’s so much pressure, they gotta get out there, they have to, if they don’t it’s pretty obvious right?…they think they gotta focus on that [#1] pick…or one through 7, uh-uh, go 11….we got a pretty good [scouting] group, got alotta young guys in there now….Mark Grieg out West in young guy played for the Phantoms, Anterro Nittimaki….I like our group…it’s the hardest job in hockey, harder than mine for sure. How much do you plan on using analytics? I like analytics, it intrigues me, I think it is where we’re going, but I think it’s a piece…if I were sit here and you I were going to make a trade based on analytics, not a chance…would I like look at some as a team that we can do better? Absolutely….one thing I’ll share is zone entrance…a top team…I was discussing this with a guy….a top team enters the zone 93 times a game, our average last year was 73…so I mean they were 92 we were 73…. That’s an area where we’ve got to get to bottom of it and find out why….when you actually start showing players this type of data, there’s a reason why we entered the zone 73 times, we’ve got to make it a goal this year to get into the offensive zone…83 times…and that’s data, it doesn’t lie, it’s a fact…rather than coaches saying, you know, ‘we gotta get the puck’, we gotta create more turnovers, get the puck up ice and get going…you gotta do that more to become a better team….all of a sudden you say a top team does it 92 times and we’re doing it 73…we gotta get better, it’s data, it’s fact…so those are the types of ways you can use analytics, but you’ve got to be really careful, hockey’s not a static game like baseball, you’ve gotta be careful how much you put into it…there’s no question in my mind that it does have a place, and it can assist you, you just can’t use it as your top job

@flyercanuck With the what Hexy's saying and the way he's saying it, I haven't been this excited about the future of the team since.....god, maybe when we got Lindros some linemates to play with and Leclair turned out to be a stud on that line, what 20 years ago? But even that wasn't like this, I can't remember being preached the good word by any GM in memory.

@brelic Pass the kool aid to left hand side! That piece of audio stuck out to me too, more than anything else I heard last night. It’s what most of us have been wanting to hear for as long as I can remember. I really believe that if Hexy is left to do his job, this is what we will see…..I thought that from his first public comments after being named GM and his words last night just reinforced it for me @radoran Interestingly, when Chief was asked who he envisioned as the top line LW this season, his first response was Umberger. And you picked out my second favorite piece of Hexy’s talk, let them have full time roles on the farm and EARN it instead of getting 6-8 shifts a night @pilldoc On Hartnell, from memory a fan asked about the Flyers lack of team speed and the dumb penalties that come as a result, and direct quote Chief says “That’s why we got rid of Hartnell”. Ouch! He did go on to soften that comment talking about how he liked Scott and he was a good team guy yada yada

First off I'd like to thank @Adamflyers for letting me use his ticket for last night's event, much appreciated. And @Poulin20 good to hang as always, you must have a photographic memory I couldn't top that write up if I had recorded the whole thing! But yeah I did use my cell to record to Hexy's piece, here's a summary, there was more but....well, unless voice to text technology gets better this was my best shot! I tried to go word for word on what I did post here, but I hesitate to use quotation marks, I've seen too many Carchidi screw ups to get caught in that mess On the defense: We are missing a true #1 defenseman. If you look around the league there aren’t too many other teams that can’t say the same thing. For us to go out and get a #1 defenseman, you guys would say to me ‘how are you going to fill those 3 or 4 holes you just created?’ What we’re going to do is we’re going to develop our defense from within (as well as our forwards)….we’ve got the 4 kids now, they’re prospects, they’re not [NHL] players right now, but they’re really good ones…they’ve got a lot of upside…they’re big, they’re strong, good poise…they may be here but more likely up in Allentown….it’s probably going to be a couple of years. On patience with the prospects: In our pro meetings there wasn’t one guy that we said ‘he spent too much time in the minors, and he got hurt by it’…Do we want Scott Laughton here playing 8 minutes, or we want him in Allentown playing 20 minutes? Well I’ll tell you where I want him, up in Allentown. If he pushes up our lineup then it’s probably a different conversation, but he’s not going to be handed anything.. None of these young guys are. They’re going to earn it. Part of earning it is getting that extra training in the minor league. On Expectations: As far as the Stanley Cup, I think I have a realistic expectation. I don’t think we’re in that top half a dozen teams….I’m not going to make a move because people in our building are getting antsy. I’m going to make a move because it’s the right move for this franchise, not only for today but for tomorrow. I have ALONG TERM VIEW, I don’t view things in short boxes…I really like what’s coming, I also like what’s on the ice too. I think we’re going to be a competitive team this year. Like I said I don’t view us as being a top half a dozen contender… but I wouldn’t have viewed the Rangers like that 3 months ago either. On philosophy / team makeup: In Glens falls last year we had 2 guys who were our draft picks….it’s not enough…this year on my board in my office we’ve got a dozen guys who are our draft picks who are going to be in Allentown . We have to have that every year. You have to have young players coming up from below. #1 because of salary and salary cap reasons. And to have guys who were drafted by the Flyers and brought through the system. It’s special. I was one of those guys that was drafted and brought through the system. And Philadelphia will always hold a special place in my heart. Those are the people you want playing on your team. That doesn’t mean you’re going to have your team filled only by guys that were drafted by the Flyers. But we would like our core to be born and bred Philadelphia and come through the system. Not be a guy at the tail end where he’s taking his last paycheck or whatever, but really care about this franchise. I know sometimes you guys aren’t that patient, but in my position you’ve got to be patient. I can’t sacrifice two years from now to win a few more games this year. On McGinn: The thing with Tye is he needs waivers. Anybody who needs waivers we could lose. So rather than taking the chance….Tye is a good player, he’s going to play in the NHL. In terms of numbers, we could have lost him for nothing. So rather than lose him for nothing, I gauged the market, a third round pick was fair. We made a good, they got a good deal Answering why bring in Schultz as a 7th Dman, will it be keeping a young player from getting a crack: First of all, if young guy comes in and knocks us over the head, I’ll make a move. It’s easy to move a defenseman. I’m not concerned about that. What I was more concerned with was leaving that spot there, and HAVING to bring in a kid. I don’t want a kid sitting the bench….I want to develop these kids at the pace and the right time and bring em in when they’re ready. It’s a long season. Players get hurt and if a players gotta go to the minors, even for a month because we’ve got 7 defensemen, too damn bad. EDIT/ADD On following up with draft picks: We have 2 development guys…Kjell Sammuelsson is full time development and John Riley is full time development…one’s forward and one’s defensemen, so they’ll follow our guys …actually some of these coaches in junior and in college will actually let them go on the ice…so they’ll take the development camp lessons and go to Calgary next year, Kjell will go to Calgary with Travis go to a couple games and watch them on video…so there is quite a big follow up…Kjell has been over to Sweden a couple of times to see Robert Haag…so there’s a lot of follow up, you can’t just draft them…we have expectations on players, starting with development camp for 2 days, and we map out our expectations in terms of fitness levels…and nutrition, playing hard every night and the different lessons , and working on their weaknesses of their game, their skating, puck handling, passing, puck protection, whatever it might be, but it’s an ongoing process to make these players better…John Riley, we just hired him a couple months ago…Kjell was kinda teetering between development part time and full time[sound of ice machine starting up drowned the rest out] What are you comfortable sharing with us about VLC’s situation / attempts to move up in the draft: Well, I expected him to be here in September, and we have to find a way to get the best out of him…The thing that everybody forgets, or a lot of people forget is that Vinny scored 20 goals for us, it wasn’t a total disaster…Vinny played some good hockey for us…Vinny likes to play the middle, and he likes to play the right side, unfortunately you look on right side and you’ve got Voracek and Simmonds, and Vinny..you need him your top 6, so it’s hard to play him on the right side….in the middle with Schenner and Simmonds didn’t work real well…Chief and I talked about different combinations, we don’t know exactly where it’s going to shake out, but yeah I expect him to be back and expect him to be a productive player You mentioned before the draft a lot of previous #1’s hadn’t hit, how do you evaluate our current draft: I like our current draft, I said earlier I was disappointed we didn’t get a goaltender, it was high on my priority list…there were a couple kids we liked, they fell between our 1st and 2nd pick so…sometimes you want to step up on a guy but you only want to step up so much…that was the one thing I was disappointed about, but I like the rest of our draft…part of hitting on kids late, is character…because a kid that’s a real hard working kid, a really dedicated kid, likes to play the game, those are typically the kids that separate themselves in the 6th and 7th round…part of my mandate to our scouts is getting better at, you’ve got to get to know these kids…if they play a game when you’re out in Seattle, you gotta go down and meet the kid, talk to the kid, ask him how he feels like he played, try to challenge him for the next night, do different things with him, get to know the kid’s character….typically in the end it’s the character with late round picks the allows them to turn oout, because they put in the extra work and the extra time that it takes to become a pro. But I also think scouts maybe…the 1st round there’s so much pressure, they gotta get out there, they have to, if they don’t it’s pretty obvious right?…they think they gotta focus on that [#1] pick…or one through 7, uh-uh, go 11….we got a pretty good [scouting] group, got alotta young guys in there now….Mark Grieg out West in young guy played for the Phantoms, Anterro Nittimaki….I like our group…it’s the hardest job in hockey, harder than mine for sure. How much do you plan on using analytics? I like analytics, it intrigues me, I think it is where we’re going, but I think it’s a piece…if I were sit here and you I were going to make a trade based on analytics, not a chance…would I like look at some as a team that we can do better? Absolutely….one thing I’ll share is zone entrance…a top team…I was discussing this with a guy….a top team enters the zone 93 times a game, our average last year was 73…so I mean they were 92 we were 73…. That’s an area where we’ve got to get to bottom of it and find out why….when you actually start showing players this type of data, there’s a reason why we entered the zone 73 times, we’ve got to make it a goal this year to get into the offensive zone…83 times…and that’s data, it doesn’t lie, it’s a fact…rather than coaches saying, you know, ‘we gotta get the puck’, we gotta create more turnovers, get the puck up ice and get going…you gotta do that more to become a better team….all of a sudden you say a top team does it 92 times and we’re doing it 73…we gotta get better, it’s data, it’s fact…so those are the types of ways you can use analytics, but you’ve got to be really careful, hockey’s not a static game like baseball, you’ve gotta be careful how much you put into it…there’s no question in my mind that it does have a place, and it can assist you, you just can’t use it as your top job

@jammer2 I stopped smoking for 2 years once, first 30 days sucked but after I felt great. Then was having a shitty day at work one day, went out and bought a pack like a weak stupid idiot. I didn't really have a point to that story, just doing some public self-loathing

@jammer2 Yeah, I'm a sucker for historical reverence too!

I dunno, I kinda like the logo to the left of the sarsippius....

Yeah I thought was pretty damn funny too! It would just be nice to be the jokER instead of the jokEE once in a while!

from Broad Street Hockey: http://www.broadstreethockey.com/2014/7/7/5877705/shea-weber-bobblehead-night-predators-flyers The Predators are giant trolls, will hold Shea Weber bobblehead night against Flyers Well done, Preds. The Nashville Predators announced a portion of their promotional schedule last week, and .... well, OK, Preds. This is pretty good. Via the Tennessean: The Predators gave us a heads up on their bobblehead doll promotion schedule this year. They have six dates -- but one especially sticks out. It would be Dec. 27, Shea Weber bobblehead night against Philadelphia. They'll also hold James Neal bobble head night against his former team, the Penguins. But that's considerably less funny than having the Flyers in the building for Weber's night. We're out of jokes because we used up our best one last week. Oh well.

Good to see you Double N. Just caught that bit of news myself, seems he had surgery for a blown Achilles last Thursday. Ya gotta think that would at least help Hexy's bargaining position some, still not good though.