Classic Article on the Hakstol Hiring

[AlaskaFlyerFan]

Remember when Berube took over for Lavi?  During the presser, Mike Sielski (from the Inquirer) asked a question that really ticked off Snider.  His response was ""We don't need a fresh perspective. We have a pretty good culture and we know who we're dealing with."

That same Mike Sielski wrote the following instant classic:

http://www.philly.com/philly/sports/flyers/20150519_The_upshot_of_the_Flyers__decision_to_hire_Hakstol.html

Mike Sielski, Inquirer Columnist

Posted: Tuesday, May 19, 2015, 3:01 AM

Culture change.

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And one more thing:

Culture change.

msielski@phillynews.com

@MikeSielski

[flyerrod]

LMAO

 for any of you not old enough to have seen the movie being John Malkovich, here you go .....

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6Fuxkinhug

 

 So even when Sielski is being original, he is copying someone.....

[murraycraven]

I thought it was a bit douchey honestly. Like a little 10 yr old brat saying "I told you so.."

He is right but ridiculous that he is actually getting paid to "write" this... Obviously the editor is at fault as well. And here I thought an Ivy league journalist would actually be a true journalist and not just another philly media hack....

[flyerrod]

murraycraven, on 18 May 2015 - 7:24 PM, said:

I thought it was a bit douchey honestly. Like a little 10 yr old brat saying "I told you so.."

He is right but ridiculous that he is actually getting paid to "write" this... Obviously the editor is at fault as well. And here I thought an Ivy league journalist would actually be a true journalist and not just another philly media hack....

Posted at 3 in the morning, do you think there might have been a beer or 2 involved in the story? It's like the guy sitting in the corner laughing his butt off at some inside joke from years gone by. In his mind and context, he found it hilarious and ran with it. To anyone else around who was not in on the original joke or the rest of the story it just looks foolish and childish. It should have been up to his editor to reign him in and say, yes that was amusing but how about a real article......

The editor may have been ticked about not having a clue as to what was coming(the signing of Hakstol) so he just left it run as a shot at Flyer management for not letting them in on the scoop....

edited so I could correct the spelling of the new coach.

[AlaskaFlyerFan]

@flyerrod,

I don't think the timestamp is accurate. It says tomorrow at 3:01am....

[hf101]

I guess Mike Sielski was that original silly.com poster

 

Lang Lang Lang Lang Lang Lang...

[murraycraven]

Posted at 3 in the morning, do you think there might have been a beer or 2 involved in the story? It's like the guy sitting in the corner laughing his butt off at some inside joke from years gone by. In his mind and context, he found it hilarious and ran with it. To anyone else around who was not in on the original joke or the rest of the story it just looks foolish and childish. It should have been up to his editor to reign him in and say, yes that was amusing but how about a real article......

The editor may have been ticked about not having a clue as to what was coming(the signing of Hakstol) so he just left it run as a shot at Flyer management for not letting them in on the scoop....

edited so I could correct the spelling of the new coach.

What AK said... The timestamp is not accurate. If he is a journalist and is drunk at 3am and posts that he deserves to be fired... Douche bag or not....

[JackStraw]

That's Pulitzer Prize material right there.

[ruxpin]

I guess Mike Sielski was that original silly.com poster

Lang Lang Lang Lang Lang Lang...

That made me laugh as hard as the article itself!

I'm not a big fan of Sielski by any stretch of the imagination, but I got a kick out of that article. Anyone poking Ed Snider in the eye is fine by me.

[Bakanekimiwa]

That's par for the course of philly.com reporting as far as I'm concerned. I learned about as much with that article as any other I've read from philly sports beat reporters. Total disservice to the readers and the fans. The entire editorial staff should be fired for that one. 

[King Knut]

thought it was a bit douchey honestly.

 

The Philly sports media doesn't take you seriously until you've done some seriously douchey things. 

[LegionOfDoom]

I posted this on the comments to that article: C'mon get it right!

 

Not an actual Culture Change but an actual BLAST FROM THE PAST.
This was done before, the Flyers actually have been an outside of the box organization for several decades here and there. I could site examples such as:
hiring non NHL coach before, being one of the first to draft Russian players, looking at outside the box coaching styles. It's just that people tend to forget or weren't around in those days to know of the past examples that they've done this.
The only strategy we haven't tried is tank for several seasons to acquire first overall picks.

 

 

Update: for a second there I felt like Meltzer, that dude always digs up interesting factoids and removes the ignorance from blanket statements, with his Pulitzer research skills. In a future article there will be an Ode to Meltzer, one of the last true journalist.....banzai danielson...banzai!

 

[canoli]

thought it was a bit douchey honestly. Like a little 10 yr old brat saying "I told you so.."

 

exactly. Plus it's not even true. This is not a "culture change" for the Flyers. They fired their HC and hired another, O the humanity!

 

From all accounts Haxtol will bring a familiar style of coaching to the Flyers - somewhere between Lavi's All Attack All The Time and Berube's Whoever Don't Backcheck Don't Play.

 

The only thing in recent history that even comes close to qualifying as a culture change for the Flyers was hiring Hextall to replace Homer.

[ruxpin]

From all accounts Haxtol will bring a familiar style of coaching to the Flyers - somewhere between Lavi's All Attack All The Time and Berube's Whoever Don't Backcheck Don't Play

 

This new general will bring a familiar style to our military.  Somewhere between Blitzkrieg and scorched earth.   What?  They're polar opposites?    Good, then my statement can't help but be right.

[canoli]

sorry rux, elaboration required - there's a jibe in there somewhere but i can't quite pin it down.

[ruxpin]

sorry rux, elaboration required - there's a jibe in there somewhere but i can't quite pin it down.

Not really a jibe. Just that, too me, it read like "there's very little difference except for the fact they're nothing alike."

I do think it's a culture shift. Hextall was more of one, I agree. But this says loud and clear that they are shifting to development.

That's very different from Berube,in particular, and different from Flyers past.

[canoli]

" shifting to development" .... not sure about that one - as it relates to Haxtol anyway. Feels to me more like the usual off-season move for a team that didn't make the POs - fresh face behind the bench. Hextall's moves have been about "shifting to development" but hiring Haxtol has none of the "culture change" feeling to me. He seems to me like - what I said before - a combination of the 2 recent styles the Flyers had for coaching - an amalgam if you will make sense now?

[ruxpin]

" shifting to development" .... not sure about that one - as it relates to Haxtol anyway. Feels to me more like the usual off-season move for a team that didn't make the POs - fresh face behind the bench. Hextall's moves have been about "shifting to development" but hiring Haxtol has none of the "culture change" feeling to me. He seems to me like - what I said before - a combination of the 2 recent styles the Flyers had for coaching - an amalgam if you will make sense now?

Actually no because to me they are diametrically opposed. That was the point to my first post

And Haxtol, to me, screams development, which is, to me, the whole point to hiring an NCAA coach. He will be willing to play the kids that are coming rather than bench them in favor of The Geriatric du Jour.

For me, he completely represents a culture change. (not saying you're wrong; just saying my take is entirely different).

[JackStraw]

Actually no because to me they are diametrically opposed. That was the point to my first post

And Haxtol, to me, screams development, which is, to me, the whole point to hiring an NCAA coach. He will be willing to play the kids that are coming rather than bench them in favor of The Geriatric du Jour.

For me, he completely represents a culture change. (not saying you're wrong; just saying my take is entirely different).

I don't see how anyone can say that Hakstol will bring about a culture change for the Flyers since, for starters, he hasn't coached a single game yet and nobody really knows who he will or won't play. As far as playing the "kids coming up", Berube played every "kid" that Hextall brought up- Ghost, Manning, Laughton, Cousins... He gave them all decent playing time. And Hextall specifically said that the timetable for bringing prospects up is not going to be effected by the choice of a head coach. Which is as it should be.

Hextall is the one stressing patience, holding on to draft picks, building from within. That's the big culture change thus far.

[ruxpin]

I don't see how anyone can say that Hakstol will bring about a culture change for the Flyers since, for starters, he hasn't coached a single game yet and nobody really knows who he will or won't play. As far as playing the "kids coming up", Berube played every "kid" that Hextall brought up- Ghost, Manning, Laughton, Cousins... He gave them all decent playing time. And Hextall specifically said that the timetable for bringing prospects up is not going to be effected by the choice of a head coach. Which is as it should be.

Hextall is the one stressing patience, holding on to draft picks, building from within. That's the big culture change thus far.

I'm usually with you, but in this instance I disagree with almost every word of that.

First, seeing a coached game really isn't necessary for the discussion. The intent from hextall in hiring a college coach is presumably because he'll be good with youth. He'll (in theory) have some insight into how to coach and nurture their development, rather than just stick them in the lineup with no direction and call it a day. The intent is black vs. White with Flyer history of the last 20+ years. That's culture change all by itself. "having coached a game yet" is immaterial.

And Berube didn't really utilize the youth. MDZ sat for a month while geezers playing less than half as well played.

Umberger continued to get a regular role while youth was moved all over the place.

I don't think Berube had any interest in playing the kids or, more to the point, had any idea how to move them forward and DEVELOP them. Just sticking kids in a lineup with no direction other than "play harder" is not development.

Hextall's hiring of his coach goes hand in hand with your last paragraph. Of course the coaching choice is indicative of culture change.

It's not the START of it; it was already in progress. It just brings it into stunning and obvious relief.

I don't think ANYONE is saying Hakstol will "bring about" culture change. We're saying he evidences the culture change.

[JackStraw]

First, seeing a coached game really isn't necessary for the discussion.

 

It isn't? What discussion are we having? (just so I understand) I was responding to the idea (which I think you wrote) that Hakstol will bring about a culture change. I'm saying that a) it's impossible to say what he will do or who he will prefer to play until he actually starts coaching the team. If you feel otherwise then can you also please PM me with the winning Powerball numbers? Thanks.

 

And Berube didn't really utilize the youth. MDZ sat for a month while geezers playing less than half as well played.

 

MDZ is not youth, imo. He was benched because he wasn't playing the way Berube wanted him to play ("join the rush, don't lead it"). He got back in the lineup, played Berube's way, and that was that. Everything that I've heard about Hakstol suggests he would do the same thing. He tells his players what he expects, if they don't do what he expects, they don't play.

 

I don't think Berube had any interest in playing the kids or, more to the point, had any idea how to move them forward and DEVELOP them.

 

The only real highly touted kid Berube had was Laughton. He played a lot but struggled some. Maybe Berube wasn't a good teacher, hard to tell when there aren't really many students to teach. I do expect Hakstol to be a good teacher, everyone in the know seems to say that about him.

 

Hextall's hiring of his coach goes hand in hand with your last paragraph. Of course the coaching choice is indicative of culture change.

It's not the START of it; it was already in progress. It just brings it into stunning and obvious relief.

 

Right, and it's Hextall who is responsible for bringing about said culture change, no? Not Hakstol, who kind of isn't actually even here (or there) yet.

[Podein25]

I don't think ANYONE is saying Hakstol will "bring about" culture change. We're saying he evidences the culture change.

That's the way I see it. It might just be semantics, but yeah hiring him is further proof of an an attempt to change a culture. Which takes time, of course.

[JackStraw]

I don't think ANYONE is saying Hakstol will "bring about" culture change. We're saying he evidences the culture change.

 

Ok, maybe I missed that part. Even so, I'm not sure that he really does but I can go with it...

[ruxpin]

That's the way I see it. It might just be semantics, but yeah hiring him is further proof of an an attempt to change a culture. Which takes time, of course.

Exactly. And I don't think it's semantics. And I also think it's absolutely what the article was going for.

[jammer2]

@ruxpin  I'm very interested to see who Hak hires as an Asst Coach that is responsible for the defense. Considering how are prospect pool is set up, the asst in charge of defense is going to a major contributor from the get go AND must be a strong teacher. The other big hire will whoever is in charge of the power play, both will play huge roles.