After being told that this Blog was to be written on a subject of our choice, I felt it was my responsibility to voice my opinion on the changes necessary to put the Philadelphia Flyers back in Stanley Cup contentions for the 07-08 season. As any hockey fan very well knows, it has been a rough season for the Flyers to say the least. After a stellar season and an admirable playoff run, the last place you would expect to see the Flyers the following season was last place. Yet shocking as it is, that is exactly where they find themselves. The Flyers have not seen a more dissapointing season in over 25 years. Despite this pitfall, I feel there are a minimal number of changes needed to be made to put the Flyers back on top for the next hockey season.
First I'll start with what the Flyers are finally doing right at this point in the season. They fired the teams general manager Bobby Clarke. The man was a legendary hockey player, but had no business sense, nor could he adapt to the changing NHL. The next step in the right direction made this season is serious talk about turning Peter Foresburg into a free agent. At the salary he is making, he is simply not delivering what was expected from a player of such high regaurds; he misses too many games and has failed to adapt to Flyers hockey. With this salary free to spend, the Flyers could draft other players who can benefit the team. The biggest hole the Flyers have finally filled was putting a new man between the pipes. Nittamaki and Esche have been having less than stellar seasons in goal, and the introduction of a new and promising goalie from the farm league named Michael Leighton, may be positive foreshadowing of things to come.
Now for the revisions to the team not yet made, although it is a short list, here are necessary changes the Flyers need to make by next season. Defense, Defense, Defense, you can’t stress it enough. The Flyers need new defensive pointsman. They have been allowing far too many pointless zone clears, neutral zone errors, and worst off, defensive zone turnovers. The Flyers also need a strong center; another Eric Lindros to get in the crease and fight to punch the rebounds in, or create deflections. Last but not least, they need to improve communication, in Hockey you have to talk a lot, and with so many players on the team speaking different languages this is a big problem. So despite the popular opinion, the Flyers are not a dying team by any means, they are simply a team that had to break down completely to finally see the faults they had been neglecting to fix.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Ok. Now that you have cleared that up, do you think you could write about the class??? The syllabus says "Each blog entry should be two or three paragraphs in length and be a reflection on the readings, the assignments, the presentations, etc. Also reflect on the uses that blogs may have in education as well as industry or for personal use. Blog topics may be designated as one of the assignments for the week."
Let's hear it for the Colts!
So now Write-On!
Post a Comment