A Flyers offseason must-do, Kevin Willard’s take on the Big 5, and other thoughts
The primary problem has been that the Flyers’ poor goaltending has made it more difficult for the team to assess everyone else on the roster.
First and final thoughts …
The Flyers, according to two sources within the organization, are well aware of two things heading into the offseason: A) The team needs a veteran goaltender; B) It will be tricky for them to acquire one.
Tricky, but not impossible. Tricky, but essential. For all the justifiable concerns about whether John Tortorella was the right coach to guide the Flyers through this rebuild, the biggest impediment to their progress over the last two years has been their goaltending. It has been, not to put too fine a point on it, terrible, and the awfulness has tainted every aspect of the organization’s talent-evaluation process.
The waves from Carter Hart’s sexual-assault charges and his departure last June haven’t stopped fanning out and causing their damage. Back-to-back seasons now, the Flyers have ranked last in the NHL in save percentage. Samuel Ersson has shown himself to be a time-splitter at best. Ivan Fedotov has been a marvelous and inspirational story just for what he endured to reach the NHL — his arrest and compulsory service in the Russian military — but the Disney-movie nature of his journey hasn’t helped him stop the puck. And Aleksei Kolosov simply isn’t cut out for hockey’s highest level.
The Flyers’ failure to get competent play from their goalies cost them victories, sure, but they could always live with a lower spot in the standings because of its potential long-term benefits (i.e. better draft picks). The primary problem has been that the team’s poor goaltending has made it more difficult for Danny Brière, Keith Jones, and the team’s decision-makers to assess everyone else on the roster. Defensemen, for instance, who don’t or can’t trust that a goalie will make the saves he should make start to overcompensate, try to do too much, and often end up out of position. In turn, it becomes harder for a coach or executive to determine whether those defensemen actually know how to play sound, smart hockey.
So who might the Flyers get to stabilize the situation? Good question. The pickings are relatively slim. Several prospective free-agent goalies signed long-term contracts during the season with their current clubs, which means the Flyers might have to make a trade to acquire the kind of goalie they should be looking for — not a franchise centerpiece necessarily, but a guy who can calm everything down, let his teammates play with clearer minds. It would go a long way to helping the Flyers figure out exactly what they have and what else they need. It has to be a priority, maybe their highest.
Willard weighs in
Minutes after his introductory press conference Wednesday, Villanova coach Kevin Willard was asked about his perspective on the Wildcats’ place in the Philadelphia hoops landscape. A Long Island native who admittedly wasn’t intimately familiar with Big 5 history, Willard spent a good bit of his 12 years at Seton Hall subtly and not-so-subtly pushing the Pirates away from a couple of their traditional rivalries (e.g. Rutgers, St. Peter’s). Seemed fair game to raise the question of whether he might do the same at Villanova.
“I look at the Big 5 as a great opportunity for everyone to see a great partnership between schools,” he said. “I don’t look at it as, ‘Is it good for us? Is it bad for us?’ It’s part of our DNA. So we’re going to embrace it. We’re going to love it. I’ve just got to figure out how the system works. I’m excited to be part of that Big 5. We’re going to embrace it. We’ll do whatever we have to do to keep it going.”
» READ MORE: Kevin Willard was honest about his task at Villanova. Villanova was honest about the pressure on him.
That Big 5 was a little off-key. But we’ll take Willard at his word for now, and at least he’s on the record with his commitment to keeping the City Series intact.
It actually was OK to be like Mike
April 22 will mark the 30th anniversary of one of the most infamous and misunderstood draft decisions in Eagles history. With the seventh pick in that ‘95 draft, the Eagles selected defensive end/linebacker Mike Mamula from Boston College. And ever since his career ended after the 2000 season because of injury, he has lived with the reputation of being a “workout warrior,” a guy who goosed his draft status through his combine drills and who never lived up to the hype around him.
Was he a bust? Really? The numbers aren’t nearly as bad as one would think. In fact, compare Mamula’s six seasons with the Eagles to the first six seasons of Brandon Graham’s career:
In 80 games, Graham had 23½ sacks, 137 solo tackles, 38 tackles for losses, and 11 forced fumbles.
In 77 games, Mamula had 31½ sacks, 156 solo tackles, 15 tackles for losses, and eight forced fumbles.
Funny. Between an all-time Eagle and a purported waste of a pick, the gap for a while wasn’t so great.