Thursday Links

- yeeesh. this leaves a bad taste in my mouth. will the stench of TO never go away?

- the eagles players who went to the TO "bash" didn't think it was a big deal. even though lito rated the party an 8 out of 10, it was supposed to be a big flop. first, someone on espn reported that zero hollywood types showed up and the biggest star that actually showed up was probably jevon kearse. second, apparently the party was cash bar. are you kidding me? that's pathetic.

- in the middle of this fluff piece on the flyers comes this nugget of truth that hopefully isn't also an omen of doom

Hitchcock said. "Like a lot of us, I thought the next step for the Eagles was inevitable.''

And yet Hitch lived his own version of this back in 2000, after his defending Stanley Cup champion Dallas Stars were upended by the New Jersey Devils in the Stanley Cup finals.

"We lost in Game 6 and I was physically sick for a month,'' he said. "I've never had a worse feeling in my life. And I've never had a greater challenge trying to get a team up and running again like we did in '01.''

Like the Eagles, the Stars seemed to have "50,000 problems,'' to quote Hitchcock.

"It wasn't a physical thing, it was an emotional thing,'' he said. "The tank was empty. And the hardest thing to do was fill it back up. I remember we got into all kinds of discussions about this. And finally the GM there [Bob Gainey] said, 'Look, let it fill up. I know this is going to be hard for you, but stop fighting it and let it fill up by itself. You can shorten up practices, you can skate them hard, you can sit guys out, you can change all the lines you want. But until they decide they want to get on as a group, you're going to have to drift along with them.' ''

Hear that, Andy?

Hitch, of course, never got them to the Cup finals again, and eventually was fired during the 2001-02 season.

- sixers escape with a win last night against the awful, but athletic hawks. c-webb's box score line looked pretty good, but he didn't have the energy he had the other night against garnett. where the heck did shavlik randolph come from? if dalembert played with half the interest that randolph does, dalembert would be a force in the middle. alas, he pretty much just mopes through the game as if he's too busy counting his money.

- mixed bag of sports thoughts

- screamin' a says the sixers shouldn't bring in artest. why not? i'm sure he'd be "black" enough for elmer j mondesire.

- mark d'onofrio coming to town as defensive coordinator of the owls. i remember him as a talented headcase of a linebacker at penn state. wonder what he's like these days?