Thursday, November 03, 2005

Thursday Links

- mike florio suggests the seahawks might be waiting until the end of the season to offer shaun alexander a contract. interestingly, he mentions that the eagles might have interest if they decide not to sign westbrook to a new deal. i hadn't thought about that before. do you suppose it's possible that the birds aren't offering westbrook the contract he wants because at the end of the season there will be so many free agent backs that they can upgrade for the same money westbrook wants? seriously, who in their right mind wouldn't consider alexander an upgrade over westbrook? i think there is some nugget of reality in this somewhere.

- phil anastasia says the birds have lost their "invisible edge"

- birds drop to 19th in DVOA, giants, cowboys, and skins are at 3, 9, and 11 respectively

- let's hope gillick is as good now as he was when he was fleecing bill giles and paul owens

- jim salisbury tries to identify issues gillick should tackle

- apparently, ryan howard will be named rookie of the year

- go jack mccaffrey. "'Our goal was simple -- to find the right person,' David Montgomery said. 'And I am pleased to announce that we’ve done that.' If their goal was to hire the next Ed Wade, their performance was award winning."

- the devil lost his opening game with the knicks

- hitchcock says the team is still taking shape. uh, i'd say the team has come into pretty close focus for me... i.e. it's the same as every other team bobby clarke has put together (including olympic teams). big team, not enough skill, too slow, goaltending not good enough. benjamin franklin once said "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results." we've been watching the beloved bobby clarke build the same team over, and over, and over, and over, and over... coaches have come and gone. star players have come and gone. pretty clear at this point whose fault it is. isn't it? CLARKE MUST GO!

- i'm always surprised by how much coverage penn state gets in new york papers

- wow.

3 Comments:

Blogger Big Dog said...

Pete, I intend on commenting on the Ruben Amaro issue later this morning, but I totally disagree with the Clarke assessment. This is not the same old Flyers. This is a younger, faster, team that is hungrier. It has some veteran leadership (Hatcher, Primeau, Forsberg), some excellent open ice hockey players (Forsberg, Gagne), young, talented studs (Sim, Carter, Richards), not an over-abundance of slow, lumbering cycling mucker and grinders, plus the best fighter in hockey (Brashear). They also have a great coach, a young goalie who they are getting ice time instead of Sean Burke, deep lines, good skating defenseman who can move the puck up ice (Pitkanen, Johnsson), veteran defenseman who can take the point on the power play (Desjardin, Hatcher) and some nice role players, like Handzus. I don't see how you can say anything else except that Clarke has changed his philosophy and does everything that he can to win. Maybe all of the pieces weren't in place, but like the Eagles, the Flyers seem to me to have a clue and could be the next team in the city to win a championship. Oh yeah, they have one of the best players in the world in Forsberg. I know it's hard, but give this year some time. They are close and just need the goaltending to pick up, but pretty much are kicking ass this year.

6:49 AM EST  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I think last night's Caps game proves your point Big Dog (Steve or Phil?). 8-1. EIGHT? Granted Kolzig is gone, but I think the rule changes this year have been pounced on and raped by Hitchcock. I think he was able to get players that can really take advantage of the rule changes. Our power play is starting to take off, and Esche is doing a good job. I'm suprised how happy I am that hockey is back...

- Joe

11:08 AM EST  
Blogger The Mean Guy said...

big dog is pete barr, joe. i hope you guys are right. maybe clarkie has finally learned. if i am wrong, i'll be man enough to admit it, but i'd advise not using last night's game as proof. i watched most of that game and i think last night's result had at least as much to do with washington's lack of effort as anything the flyers did. they did play a great game, but games against the backmarker teams in this league won't be a good measuring stick.

the ottawa game was a very positive indicator. let's see them continue against the other top teams.

8:06 PM EST  

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