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You probably have heard by now about the Sunday Morning Massacre where Flyers chairman and founder Ed Snider fired head coach Ken Hitchcock and general manager Bobby Clarke. The official version of the story is that Clarke resigned but I don't believe it for a second.
Bobby Clarke said that he decided weeks ago that he was "burnt out, for lack of a better phrase." If that is true then why did he look so depressed at the press conference instead of a little bit relieved? I think it was because Ed Snider pushed him to resign by making him an offer that he couldn't refuse: resign and continue to work for the Flyers Family in some other capacity or be fired and have nothing to do ever again with the only team he has loved. Clarke, I suspect, chose to resign.
This may sound like a scene out of The Godfather but it reveals what is the true problem with the Flyers - loyalty. Mr. Snider values loyalty above all other characteristics including hockey knowledge and expertise. I lost track of the number of times Mr. Snider said the word loyalty at the press conference but I don't remember him using the word expert or competent (or any such words) in regards to the new head coach or interim general manager.
John Stevens, the new head coach, has done well in the AHL (a minor league) as head coach of the Philadelphia Phantoms (owned by the Flyers) however he has no experience in the NHL - but he is loyal. He was drafted by the Flyers over twenty years ago. John could turn out to be a good head coach but I suspect that he's more like Fredo, loyal but incompetent.
Paul Holmgren, the interim general manager, played for the Flyers in the 1980s (he was the goon who ended the fights that Ken "the Rat" Linseman started). In the late 1980s Holmgren was head coach for a Flyers team that failed to even make the play-offs several seasons in a row at a time when only a few teams missed the play-offs. He was a horrible head coach yet he now sits as the team's interim general manager (after being Clarke's assistant). Why? He is loyal to Ed Snider and I expect that the interim will be dropped soon.
Everybody else in the Flyers Family moves up: Craig Berube despite a lack of NHL coaching experience is John Stevens' assistant along with Terry Murray. Berube and Murray are both former players for the Flyers. Kjell Samuelsson, former Flyer and loyal to Mr. Snider, is now the head coach of the Phantoms.
What about Ken Hitchcock, you say? It's unfortunate that the only person with hockey expertise in the Flyers Family has to be sacrificed so that a loyal made-man like Bobby Clarke doesn't have to take all the blame for the Flyers problems. Don't feel bad for Hitch, he recently signed a contract extension and the Flyers still owe him several million dollars. Furthermore he certainly will be a head coach in the NHL again and he will probably win another Stanley Cup before the Flyers.
What has this loyalty-over-all-else system gotten the Flyers? Nothing. They have not won the Stanley Cup in over thirty-five years. In the last twenty years they have been to the finals just twice.
In conclusion, loyalty is an admirable quality. I'm sure that it served Ed Snider well in the early days of the Flyers when he was a hands-on owner but now that he spends most of his time in southern California sipping wine in his mansion on the hill the Flyers need competent hockey experts to run the team, not a bunch of kiss-ass yes-men. I don't expect the Flyers to contend for Lord Stanley's Cup anytime soon.
Related Links
- Philadelphia Flyers (official site)
- Ed Snider (at Wikipedia)
- Bobby Clarke (at Wikipedia)
- Ken Hitchcock (at Wikipedia)
