...dazu ein Bericht:
Stretch Dive: Flyers Lack of Killer Instinct Will Prove Fatal This Spring ... Again
March 22, 2003
As a Flyers fan and American it will be easy to remember this week for obvious and not so obvious reasons.
This past week America waged war on Iraq. As far as historical events go, that's a no brainer. I won't get political here, although coming from the point of view of a fight sight, you might be able to figure out where The Bully stands on these issues. And don't even get me started on these jackass Peacenik protesters.
But something else happened of interesting proportions too this week in Flyerville that is not so well known. The Flyers all but lost the Stanley Cup playoffs this week. Strange statement since the playoffs don't begin for three weeks or so. But I am confident that the events of this week will seal their fate yet again ... an early exit form the post season well short of the Cup finals.
Just a couple weeks after stealing Tony Amonte away from Phoenix, a move I thought was brilliant, it really doesn't look like it will matter much in the final analysis. Call me crazy for what I'm about to say, but ... I see the writing on the wall: These jokers are not built to win anything of substance this year. They are not winners. They might be someday ... but not now. All the proof I need to substantiate my opinion I saw this week. The Flyers started the week by beating New Jersey for the first time all year and later beat Mario and his traveling troupe of winless girl scouts, but ..... They were embarrassed 5-2 by Buffalo, the worst team in the league, and then tanked against the arch-enemy and mediocre New York Rangers on national television today.
"So, they lost 2 games?" you might be thinking. "Big deal." But it is just that because losing these games underscore serious character and commitment issues among the players. Sure, Hitchcock can sugar-coat the loss with niceties afterwards for the daily press to regurgitate, but does he seriously believe that educated fans don't know that he must have his own very private concerns about this club too. I have been a believer in the club just as many die-hard fans have and overlooked poor performance after poor performance on a season after season basis for decades. Maybe it's time for Flyers fans to finally wake up. Instead of pouring untold emotion and devotion and subsequent grieving into this team, let's turn the tables here. It's time for these millionaire athletes to earn my loyalty. Prove you are champions. Until then, my statement stands as fact: These guys are not winners; just also-rans with a list of poor excuses.
By burying the Rangers, the Flyers could have dealt a serious blow to the blue shirt's playoff hopes. Instead, the Rangers are alive and play on. More importantly, failing to put the Sabres and Rangers away, cost the club four critical points with the New Jersey Devils in the race for the Atlantic Division title and second playoff seed in the Eastern Conference. I am predicting the Flyers, because of this week's mediocre performances in particular, squandered the second seed. Beat these lowly clowns and you stay tied with the Devils. Lose and well, keep saying there's time to catch them again. But there really isn't. Therefore, this week's lackluster play has sealed the Flyers fate: they will play the retooled Toronto Maple Leafs in the opening playoff round... Instead of the Bruins or Islanders. Common sense here folks on who you'd like to be paired with, regardless of future quotes you will read from players in the daily rags about "We don't care who we play." Yeah, OK. .
Likewise, the Flyers .500 performance this week could allow Toronto to overtake them for the fourth overall conference seed, which would cost the club home ice advantage and untold millions of dollars in lost ticket sales, lost concessions and lost merchandising and advertising etc. because the difference could result in the loss of one home game per each seven game playoff series. And if so, it can all trickle back to two New York teams the Flyers failed to beat on an otherwise quiet hockey week in March.
Plain and simple: the Flyers even with LeClair and Amonte beefing the lineup have yet to prove anything close to the killer instinct needed to put games out of reach in the playoffs ... or the regular season for that matter. They haven't done so all season like Detroit and Colorado have, racking up goals and skating hard in lopsided games to ensure victory. The Flyers are good, but far from great and most of that has to do with their players ... not the brass like Bob Clarke that helped construct the team. Clarke, Holmgren, Ryan, Snider and company cannot make these guys winners. All they can do is work to assemble the talent under one promising roof and pay the bills. And this year that job has been done better than perhaps ever before as far as the number of big name players on one team together.
While the Flyers have the firepower and defensive ability to beat Toronto, how can anyone seriously think they can play consistent enough to win a seven-game serious when you're taken behind the woodshed by the NHL's worst team a single night after you dominate one of the NHL's best teams? It's lunacy. There is no consistency whatsoever. The Flyers win a big game and then struggle against the league's jokers by playing down to that team's level ... instead of dominating. Hockey fans call this the "let down" syndrome. And the Flyers are giving a clinic on it this season. They cannot skate and destroy the madiocre teams and it will haunt them.
The path to success in this upcoming post season is much longer and promising for the team that does not have to face Toronto in the first round. Toronto, not known for sportsmanship in the playoffs, will certainly apply their questionable poor-man's thug tactics in the playoffs and whether right or wrong, that will leave a team less healthy for any ensuing playoff rounds when it's all said and done. Just ask Michael Peca. So why even play these guys if you can avoid it? That's the whole point of the column here. The Flyers could have avoided it but they just weren't hungry enough. Their heart wasn't in it. The implications of this are troubling, no doubt. These are not the hallmarks of any championship team.
In life, there's the easy way to do things and the hard way. The Harder way is supposed to eventually give way to experience through the years. Despite this, the Flyers players, especially the core veterans, in all probability this week squandered a chance to take the easier and alternate route through the playoffs. And by playing down to lackluster teams that are normally and easily silenced at this time of year by hungrier competitors, they may have very well pissed away any chance of making it to the Cup Finals as well.
If you can't manhandle teams like the Sabres, Rangers, Panthers and Capitals in late March with a healthy lineup ... it is quite likely you won't be playing in May or June nor do you have any business doing so. I could be wrong, but ... think about it. The missing puzzle piece on the Flyers is not a sniper or a puck-moving defenseman. It's a collective killer instinct to finish or punish opponents. Without that, no team can win when it matters most.
...wie wahr wie wahr!! Wenns gegen die Leafs geht wirds end
!!
Méschda Hoschbess holy
...und nichts ist wie es scheint!!
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Centurion 
