- Thread starter
- #1
wbon22
Well-Known Member
- 1,563
- 176
- 63
- Joined
- Jun 28, 2011
- Location
- Cherry Hill, NJ
- Hoopla Cash
- $ 1,000.00
- Fav. Team #1
- Fav. Team #2
- Fav. Team #3
The Philadelphia Flyers have a tradition of being the toughest team in the league. At least they have liked to present themselves in that light. This kind of preoccupation with "toughness" leads to trading away skill for grinders, drafting size over skill and labeling players who don't play a grinding style as soft. Players who are injured are labeled as soft and their "toughness" is questioned.
I have grown up with this team. When I was a child, watching the Bullies beat up the rest of the league was fun. The fact that it was the skill players that made that team win and not the goons was lost on me as much as it was on so many others...but I learned. I grew up. I learned how to play this game. I learned that you can't be beaten shorthanded if you aren't in the box. You can't score if you are busy mugging your mark along the boards.
Holmgren was a teammate of Bobby Clarke. Clarke was a very skilled player who was better for his work ethic and personal toughness. He was also one of the dirtiest players in the league. Holmgren was a tough/physical player who had the skill to do more than just throw punches. These are the minds that assembled this team over the last decade. All of Clarke's picks are gone (I think). But the philosophy that he brought to drafting persists. The only other explanation is that Ed Snider himself is behind the decisions.
Regardless. This mindset alone is a major hurdle for the team. As long as the team as a team looks down on skill first and tries to embrace the reclamation projects and bruisers they will be on the wrong side of the PP/SH ratio, the more games they will loose ugly.
imho
I have grown up with this team. When I was a child, watching the Bullies beat up the rest of the league was fun. The fact that it was the skill players that made that team win and not the goons was lost on me as much as it was on so many others...but I learned. I grew up. I learned how to play this game. I learned that you can't be beaten shorthanded if you aren't in the box. You can't score if you are busy mugging your mark along the boards.
Holmgren was a teammate of Bobby Clarke. Clarke was a very skilled player who was better for his work ethic and personal toughness. He was also one of the dirtiest players in the league. Holmgren was a tough/physical player who had the skill to do more than just throw punches. These are the minds that assembled this team over the last decade. All of Clarke's picks are gone (I think). But the philosophy that he brought to drafting persists. The only other explanation is that Ed Snider himself is behind the decisions.
Regardless. This mindset alone is a major hurdle for the team. As long as the team as a team looks down on skill first and tries to embrace the reclamation projects and bruisers they will be on the wrong side of the PP/SH ratio, the more games they will loose ugly.
imho
