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Flyers STH Townhall 2014 Recap


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Hi All,

Tonight was the night of the STH Townhall and I had the pleasure of attending with @sarsippius this year as my usual partner in crime (and little brother) @Adamflyers was not available to join me.  It began with dinner for the STHs followed by a tour of the Flyers locker room.  We were then herded into our little room in the bowels of the arena to hear the speakers.  This is a new old format for the meeting as the last few years they had been making the fans walk all over the arena to different stations to hear from various Flyers VIPs. This year we were back to sitting in a room and letting the VIPs come to us.

First up for our group was Chris Pryor, Director of scouting.  Appropriately the first question asked was how did we come to choose Sanheim at #1 and how extensively he was scouted.  Pryor replied that he was scouted by Western scout Mark Greig (whom you may remember from the late 90s/ early 2000s as a career AHLer w/ occasional call ups to the Flyers).  Greig was really impressed with Sanheim in Calgary and kept a close eye on him.  Then he excelled at the World Juniors which really helped push him higher up on the Flyers draft board (Pryor said this is similar as to what happened with Sam Morin last year how he started out low and shot up quickly).  He was at the top of their board at pick 17 so they took him.  This led to the next question about why Kapanen wasn't picked when he was there at 17.  Pryor said that Ilkka Sinisalo was scouting Kapanen and didn't give him high marks.  Pryor said that Kapanen is a good player and wishes him the best except when he plays us of course but that Sanheim was ranked higher by the Flyers and thus was taken.  He also stated that he could care less about mock drafts and who says what, as it is all speculation. Just because someone says that Kapenen is the best player in Europe Pryor said it doesn’t make it so.  Pryor went on to say that all of the prospects in the pipeline are coming along nicely and many will be going from Juniors to the AHL this year which is a pretty good league in his opinion.  He said that the jump from juniors to NHL is very severe and very hard on players and they do not want to rush players to the NHL.  He didn’t think that Laughton or the Ghost would be with the big club this year.  He preached patience which was the theme of this year's STH meeting.  This was a nice change from the "just lets get to the playoffs and anything can happen" mantra that was pushed last year.  There was a complaint from a fan who said that she attended the draft and she was mad that the Flyers didn’t have enough draft picks because we traded them all away and that the Rangers had quite a few.  Pryor seemed to think we had a fair amount and that we drafted well.  There was also a question if we were going to target McDavid next year.  Pryor said that he should go #1 and we are not planning on drafting #1 next year and if we do then he may not have his job anymore.  He "joked" that we will be drafting at #30 next year.

Next up was coach Craig Berube.  The first question to him was will Kimmo Timonen be on the 1st PP unit this year?  Berube said that this will be evaluated in training camp.  He said he would like to give Streit a shot at it (It was funny too that Berube basically said that he didn’t know how pronounce Streit's name he wasn’t sure if it was like street or St-right).  The next question asked was who was going to play left wing on the top line.  Again Berube said that this would be decided in training camp.  He seemed to be predicting and favoring Umberger.  He said that RJ is fast and should do well on that line.  He had really hoped that Raffl would have been better there but it just didn’t work out.   Someone in the crowd suggested that Jake move to left wing but Berube said that Jake is very uncomfortable there and doesn’t play well on the left side.  Getting back to Umberger Berube is really excited about his skating and the improvement that he will be over Hartnell in that area.  Berube told us that we didn’t help the Hartnell situation by paying him every time he fell down (which of course got a chuckle from the crowd).  Someone then asked Berbue what the team's on ice style is called as far as a lock or a trap?  Berube said it is a trap style called a center lock which he said is built on a system he saw used in Detroit.  He says that you need big centermen supported by big defensemen to clog up the neutral zone to take away time and space from the opposing players.  He was also asked which of his former coaches was the biggest influence on his coaching style.  At first he refused to name anyone and said his style is his own, then he said maybe Darryl Sutter whom he said seems goofy and doesnt know what he is doing but is actually a genius.  Berube was asked what he did to turn the team around last year to get them to start winning.  Craig said the primary thing was he got them to play as a team.  He said for the past year and a half they have not been playing like a team on the ice but a bunch of individuals.  He said that they had great chemistry off ice and liked each other but needed to better on the ice as a team.  He also said that he instituted practices his was which were hard and fast with few breaks in between as he is looking for constant motion.  That led to the next question about conditioning and training camp.  Berube said that that conditioning was a big issue last year and he is not going to let it happen again.  He said all of the players have been sent formal letters about conditioning and what shape they are expected to be in at camp this year.  The next question was if the Flyers observed what the Phila. Eagles and Chip Kelly were doing as far as their conditioning and sports science?  Berbue said absolutely they were paying attention to what was going on over there and that Berube attended some Eagles practices and has met with Chip Kelly on several occasions about this and that he considers Chip brilliant.  There were of course questions about Vinny and Berube said that his defensive style does not suit Vinny's game and that it was really hard for VLC last year.  He also said that Vinny was injured for most of last year and that affected his game quite severely.  He said that was a major reason why he was on the 4th line most of the time and that it was impressive that he actually got 20 goals for having such a crappy year.  He also suggested that he will try and get him back to center.  There was a question about fighting and what Berube thought of it in todays game as a former fighter.  Berube says that he loves it and that there is still a place for it albeit a reduced one in the modern game.  He says he loves how Simmonds especially uses it to stand up for other players and how he believes that Emery turned last season around with his attack on the Caps goalie.  Speaking of Emery he is very happy to have him returning to back up Mason.  He says that Mason and Emery get along very well and Mason loves having him around.  Then people turned to questions about the Rangers series and our play against them.  There was a question if the penalties we took vs the Rags were forced by their play against us or due to lack of discipline.  Coach said both.  He said we need to be more disciplined and that not having Hartnell was going to help in that area as he took a lot of penalties.  He then said he was not there to rip Hartsy as he gave us many years of good service.  There were also questions about why we collapsed around our net when playing the Rags and Berbue said it was due to their speed that we were running around in our own zone and it was an effect of the Rags and not a strategy.  He also attributed our poor passing in the series to the way the Rags attacked us.  He did say too that mental breakdowns also hurt us and it was something that he was still working on with the team.  He said that mental breakdowns are why the team takes periods off at times.  He said that we really only played 2.5 good games against the Rags in the series and that he thinks we may have won if we had Mason in from the beginning.  There was a question about Oliver Lauridsen and his future and it sounded like they felt he was a dime a dozen and nothing special.  There was also a question about what he thought about Andrew MacDonald and Berube said that he is a good young player and he would like to see him use his speed more.  Berube also suggested that Ghost and Laughton could make the team which contradicted what Pryor and Hexy said (as you will see below) This is all I can remember about Chief. 

Next we had Hexy.  The first questioner mentioned that we needed help at left wing and if we would go for someone like Morrow? Hexy basically said no way and that those days were over.   He was also asked how close we were to getting the #1 pick.  Hex said that he does not discuss trades that didn’t happen to protect the privacy of those who would have been involved.  He only admitted that they tried to move up but didn’t say how high.  He said there was a goalie he really wanted that was taken before the Flyers #2 pick but wouldn’t say who that was.  He was also thrilled that Lindblom was available in the 5th round.  He thinks that this was a steal.  He was asked about expectations for next year.  Hexy was very blunt in saying we will be competitive but not considered on of the top 6 teams in the NHL or anything.  He basically said the plan is that we have a goalie and a good young offensive core in place and that we now need a good defense and that the cavalry is on the way in the pipeline and we all need to be patient during their development.  He said he knows it is hard as we tend to be impatient as fans but we need to stick with it here.  He said that he does care about today as well but we always need to be focusing on moves that are good for both today and tomorrow.  He was also asked about when the young guys are expected to come up.  He said that they will come up when they are ready.  He says he never "annoints" young players into a spot.  Hex says that they will need to earn their spots on this team and if not will have to play in the minors.  He said that the minors and riding the busses around New England and not being on the charter flights and being pampered from the beginning is good for these guys.  He said giving too much too soon to a 17 year old can ruin their careers and he cares about the players careers and also what is best for the team.  He says that in order to make the team they will have to bust the door down.  When asked about getting rid of old dead weight, Hexy said again that the young guys will have to push the old guys out of a job and that he is not handing anything to anyone as this is not good for people in hockey or anywhere in the working world for that matter.  Hexy was asked about the Tye McGinn trade.  He said that he and the team loved McGinn and wanted to hold on to him but he was caught up in a numbers game and they were going to have to put him on waivers at some point (he also suggested that someone else may have to get put on waivers but wouldnt say who).  They didn’t want to lose him for nothing so they preemptively traded him and felt at a 3rd round pick was fair for both teams.  He was also asked about acquiring Nick Schultz as a 7th defenseman.  Hex said that he can play and may be better than a 7th.  Hexy was asked about the biggest lesson he learned from being on the Kings.  Hexy said that he learned that it was really important as to who you hired around you.  He said that the Kings needed a total house cleaning job and that Hexy got to see how every position and hire was important and how to go about doing it.  He also mentioned that he was working trying to acquire another "role player" but did not tip his hand as to whom he was interested in.  He also emphasized how they are trusting their amateur scouts and how those guys have the toughest job in hockey as they are trying to predict what a teenager will be like at 25.  He said most of us cant do that with our own kids so think of how hard it is for them.  Those were all the Hexy highlights I can think of now.

Finally we had Shawn Tilger (Senior VP) and Homer.  They were asked about the new 3rd Jersey and said that it would have some orange and some black in it :-).  They were asked about future NHL events such as Winter Classic and Stadium Series and they mentioned that the Flyers are very aggressive in requesting participation in these types of events every year.  Tilger and Homer said that because of the massive support provided by Flyers fans the NHL is listening to them very closely about all types of future events.  Apparently the draft went over very well with the NHL this year and Bettman loved the booing and attributed it to our passion.  Someone asked about a Flyers / Pittsturd game at PSU and they said they are still working on it.  Fans talked a bit about amenities at the building and how people liked some of the food changes and Tilger said that he agreed the old Pizza had sucked there and was glad that a local company was now supplying it.  They also said that there would be some renovations made to the WFC over the next 3 years but did not indicate what kind of renovations.  Homer was asked about his greatest achievement as GM and he said the run to the finals in 2010.  He seemed glad to be in his new role now BTW.  There were some fan complaints about game worn jerseys being given out at fan appreciation day and that those should be reserved for STHs only.  There was another odd complaint by an older retired guy who says he and his group of friends attend about 10 away games a year and stay at the team hotel (so that they can try to interact with the players).   He said that they love drinking with Coatesy at the bar (Homer and Tlger said they were not surprised about that) but when the players came around the team PR guy was restricting them from interacting.  He told Tilger to tell his PR guy to cool it.  Tilger said he would have a word (I actually don’t blame the PR guy as it sounded a bit stalkerish to me).  Finally there was a complaint about the Richards and Carter trades to Homer and how it is hard to watch them skate the Cup.  Homer said that both trades were made for different reasons (he did not specify those reasons BTW).  He said that if we still had them here it doesn’t mean that they would have won Cups here as we do not have Quick or Doughty on our team.   He said that Simmonds and Jake and Cooter could very well go on to win multiple cups with us.

Well, that is all I can remember.  If I think of anything else tomorrow I will add an addendum.

 

@sarsippius it was great going with you to the event!  As you recorded the Hexy part of the meeting on your phone please feel free to add on or correct things that I may have messed up!
 

Edited by Poulin20
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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

Edited by sarsippius
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@Poulin20

 

Thanks for sharing!  It is great to read your write ups every year.

 

Personally, I think that things sound pretty good!  Although we may not be setting the world on fire next year, good things come to those who wait, and wait.  But seriously, it sounds like Hexy is on a good path!

 

Thanks again!!!

 

@sarsippius

 

More great information

 

Thanks!!!

Edited by fan4ever
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@Poulin20 and @sarsippius

 

Thanks for the great write ups! I gotta say, I'm drunk on Hexy's kool-aid. He sounds completely different from Homer. He's in touch with the new NHL.

 


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.

 

Love everything about that paragraph. Have your own draftees on the farm, and they will care more about the franchise than old guys collecting paycheques on their way through town, *cough*VLC*cough*.

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Thanks for the write up guys!

 

Something that stood out to me was Berube saying Jake "wasn't comfortable" on the left side... Was this the same guy that was saying that lifelong center VLC should be able to play any forward position the team wanted him to play? And that VLC was hurt "most" of last year? Under those guidelines, VLC's been hurt "most" of the last five years...

 

And 27-year-old (28 in September) Andrew MacDonald is a "good young player"? 28 isn't "young" in this league.

 

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.

 

Love this. Enjoying the Hextall regime thus far.

 

#homercoaster™

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@sarsippius

@Poulin20

 

Again, great write ups as usual.  Thanks for the great insight you guys are able to bring us......

 

Like Hexy's overall view on the franchise.  Bottom line...as most on here would agree, this team simply is not an upper echelon team right now.  We as a fan base must be patient and that means probably a few more growing pains.

 

Also like the fact we have to grow from within and no more band-aid type fixes. 

 

Finally I like the way Berube addressed Hartsy.  Simply put...he took too many damm penalties.  Not knocking Hartsny as a team guy.  I get that...however as Berube said, there has to be a mental discipline and for what ever reason, this team lascked that mental toughness at times and that included the likes of Hartnell.

 

Finally it seems like this ship is finally headed in the right direction......

 

Just seems that Homer had this team going in circles...not a bad guy who did some good things, but obviously had some issues.  I'm glad Hexy is not directing this team.

 

This should have happened 2 yrs ago!

Edited by pilldoc
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Great summary, I'm impressed you had that all to memory.

 

The only other thing I could add was that on the line of Hextall wanting to get a goalie, I believe he said as well that he was overall happy with this years draft but also would have like to have gotten a goalie. Don't know if it was the goalie you referred to or just in general.

 

Also I believe Berube also mentioned that he thought we hadn't seen all of MacDonald's potential yet which I thought was interesting.

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Something that stood out to me was Berube saying Jake "wasn't comfortable" on the left side... Was this the same guy that was saying that lifelong center VLC should be able to play any forward position the team wanted him to play?

 

Jake would have to change his game drastically if he switched sides. The puck possession game he plays wouldn't work at LW. It's the same reason why Jagr has refused to play LW.

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@Poulin20 and @sarsippius

 

Thanks for the great write ups! I gotta say, I'm drunk on Hexy's kool-aid. He sounds completely different from Homer. He's in touch with the new NHL.

 

 

 

 

Love everything about that paragraph. Have your own draftees on the farm, and they will care more about the franchise than old guys collecting paycheques on their way through town, *cough*VLC*cough*.

 

That paragraph is music to my ears. I really, really hope he follows through on that.

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Jake would have to change his game drastically if he switched sides. The puck possession game he plays wouldn't work at LW. It's the same reason why Jagr has refused to play LW.

 

Yeah, I completely agree that every left, right and center "should be able to" play every forward position. Not that every forward is only slottable into one position, but that with some if not most they are most effective in their "natural" role.

 

And I hope the Flyers have decided that as well, as it seems they may have.

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@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

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And 27-year-old (28 in September) Andrew MacDonald is a "good young player"? 28 isn't "young" in this league.

 

I'm 44 I think 27 is "young"   :D

 

AMac is entering the years where it should "all come together" and I took Berube's tire pumping of Andrew as motivation.  It seems Chief expects great things too...

 

@poulin20 

@sarsippius

 

thanks for the write ups guys, that takes time and I appreciate your efforts with sharing the experience.

Edited by mojo1917
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I'm 44 I think 27 is "young"  
 
AMac is entering the years where it should "all come together" and I took Berube's tire pumping of Andrew as motivation.  It seems Chief expects great things too...

 

46 looking right back atchya :D

 

#greatthings

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Thanks all for your kind words.  It is always fun to try and give you a window into these meetings.  Thanks too to sars for being my wingman and adding on to my recap with the Hexy tapes, I should start recording them myself in the future.

 

One other thing I remembered this morning which sars will likely get to in his second half of the Hexy part is that there was a question about metrics and how much the Flyers plan to use them.  Hexy said they will be used, but they will only be a piece of the puzzle.  They will not be the end all / be all factor in how the players are coached.  Hexy said that hockey is not a static game like baseball where stats can be heavilly relied upon.  One example he gave of metrics in hockey was offensive zone entries.  In a typical game the best teams enter the zone on average of 93 times.  The Flyers on the other hand only entered the zone last year about 73 times.  Hexy said these are facts and figures that you can put in the players faces and tell them that they need to improve upon.  Hexy said that the Flyers will be gunning to enter the zone maybe 83 times a game next year as an example of how they plan to use metrics.  If I think of anything else I will let you know.  I am also looking forward to sars' second Hexy part!

 

From the Homer / Tilger part also recall a question about the shootout and if it is going anywhere anytime soon.  Homer said unfortunately no it is not (as he hates shootouts as much as we do).  The only tweak being made in an effort to reduce shootouts is that teams will be made to change ends in OT to create the "long change" that is normally made in the second period in the hopes of inducing more OT goals.  Homer also commented about the schedule in how they may be looking to tweak it again.  Having every team play each other at least once didnt go over well last year amongst the teams.  The Flyers complained they they got stuck playing the Canes and Blue Jackets more than their rival teams.  The league may be looking into going back to the way that had it previously.

 

Overall though as you have noticed this was a breath of fresh air.  On the surface they are at least saying the right things.  Hexy seems commited to them and if they let him they could go somewhere.  Dare I say that they may finally get it as an organization and are going to try and do things the way you have to in the new NHL???  Time will tell!

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@Poulin20 @sarsippius

 

Thank you for the great write up. Very informative and gives me hope that this team is headed in the right direction. I hope Mr. Snider was taking notes...

 

So can we officially call him Old MacDonald? E-I-E-I-O

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Great summary, I'm impressed you had that all to memory.

 

The only other thing I could add was that on the line of Hextall wanting to get a goalie, I believe he said as well that he was overall happy with this years draft but also would have like to have gotten a goalie. Don't know if it was the goalie you referred to or just in general.

 

Also I believe Berube also mentioned that he thought we hadn't seen all of MacDonald's potential yet which I thought was interesting.

 

Yes you are correct!  That is the goalie I was speaking about...I guess he got picked before our 2nd round pick.

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@sarsippius it was great going with you to the event!  As you recorded the Hexy part of the meeting on your phone please feel free to add on or correct things that I may have messed up!

 

Phenomenal write up. Is there a way to "sticky" this for the summer (@hf101)? 

 

 

I do have to snicker at the lady (nothing sexist as @TropicalFruitGirl26 is smarter than half of us and certainly me). 

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Thanks all for your kind words.  It is always fun to try and give you a window into these meetings.  Thanks too to sars for being my wingman and adding on to my recap with the Hexy tapes, I should start recording them myself in the future.

 

Nobody asked about bellemere? I think he is a "sleeper". Not of the best player not playing in the nhl ilk, but still a sleeper. I think he is going to stun people in camp and I do not see him on the 4th line. 

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Nobody asked about bellemere? I think he is a "sleeper". Not of the best player not playing in the nhl ilk, but still a sleeper. I think he is going to stun people in camp and I do not see him on the 4th line.

Yeah nobody mentioned him at the meeting.

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