Thunder Comes Down From On High...

Take a gander at this piece from Panaccio, from CSN today.

It's just another angle of the somewhat rambling and philosophical piece I had going earlier.

Exactly why is it that the veterans (if they are really dogging it) are called out? Why is the warning nothing more than just a strong plea for more "attitude?"

And does Holmgren really understand (coaching change and coaching style which gets more out of players/trades which upgraded the roster) the reasons behind the Pens' resurgence? Both of the reasons in parentheticals, by the way, are two chief reasons the Flyers could have avoided this budding mess, but here we are...

Panaccio says the Pens have been playing with a sense of "urgency," Well...DUH! They're in the same position the Flyers were a year ago. It's natural to have to make a charge if you're out of the picture in late February.

Other than Simon Gagne (who I will admit to their credit that several of my non-professional friends said disappeared in the last 6 weeks), Holmgren has no basis to call anyone out. What more can Mike Richards and Jeff Carter do? What more can Knuble and Hartnell do? Holmgren and the cap mismanagement left them with two top lines and two lines of mush.

How about lighting a fire under the rear end of Dan Carcillo, supposedly the bargain replacement for Scottie Upshall? Or Riley Cote, to stop fighting after Carcillo fights, and maybe pump in a goal every 50 games or so instead of trying to save his job as fourth-line goon?

Maybe Paul Holmgren isn't as progressive as we thought. Maybe he's still a relic, albeit a less-weathered one, of the Clarke-Barber past, in that he thinks publicly lashing players for a nebulously logical "attitude change" is enough.

Maybe, somewhere behind those cold brown Nordic eyes, he recognizes that with Comcast controlling the purse-strings, he's hamstrung in terms of moves and therefore the only bullets left in the arsenal is to go to the press with a 5,000 volt shock to his troops.

If so, he'd better have some private meetings with the coaching staff, because that's where it all starts.

I never have, and never will buy the philosophy that says "A professional shouldn't have to have an outside source motivate him when the time comes to deliver."

Tell that the Montreal Canadiens of the 1970's. Multiple players have spoken some variation of this quote about former head coach Scotty Bowman:

"We hated him 364 days out of the year, but on Day 365, we got our Stanley Cup rings."

The Habs from 1972-79 were the last great dynasty, without a weakness from forward to backup goaltender. And yet, Bowman cajoled them into the realm of Hockey Gods with five Cups in seven years due to his curious brand of tinkering.

To push your players beyond where they think they can go, unlocking some extra-special talent and toughness in the process, is the mark of an intelligent, driven, successful bench boss.

Mike Keenan was a master motivator, a real hands-on psychological case who had every one of his players figured out within a week. Ken Hitchcock, though of the head-coach-handing-down-orders-from-the-throne sort, also kept his players on edge.

Both have won Stanley Cups, by the way, by taking some great talent and pushing it beyond their collective limit.

John Stevens, Craig Berube, Jack McIlhargey and Joe Mullen are the ones who really should bear the brunt of this potential tempest.

In short, you have a career AHL defenseman, two fighters and a 500-goal scorer who worked their way up the Flyers' ladder to where they are today. Doesn't sound like a recipe for success, eh?

Especially not when the staff's idea of getting these Sleeping Beauties back into the game last night was to pull Martin Biron with four minutes left and constantly mash up lines.

Some nights since Stevens' ascension in 2006, it's like Coaching For Dummies out there and you can't lay this at the feet of the players. Not when today's NHLer has been indoctrinated since juniors at age 15 to think, react and play systematically.

Simply, if you direct these guys to go somewhere, they will only go to that specific place with specific motions at a specific time. If the coaching staff doesn't change their own approach, or their motivational techniques, you eventually have a bunch of empty vessels in skates wandering around, low on physical and psychological fuel, waiting for direction when the usual method fails.

That's a recipe for disaster.

It might not be a stretch then, to think that certain veterans' "disappearances" or need for "attitude" adjustments may be the first public indication that the Stevens method of operation isn't sitting well.

But thinking is not the strong suit when you're fronting an NHL franchise. It's still an old boys' club, with a similar way of scheming and conducting business and a stock way to motivate the players you're shoveling money toward. Ken Dryden, Hall-of-Fame goaltender for Montreal, the resident deep thinker for the game and owner of a Juris Doctor basically got laughed out of the ranks, his relatively unspectacular era as Maple Leafs GM aside, for being book smart and not hockey smart.

True, there are only so many former head coaches out of a job who might be able to manage this special group of Flyers but you've got to admit that whoever they are, they are all of a better stock than Stevens et al.

Marc Crawford for one. He has experience as a young coach turning the young Nordiques/Avalanche franchise around in the mid 1990's. He also turned the Canucks from a smoking wreckage into the West Coast Express from 1999-2004. He'd bring the right mix of fire, hockey IQ, and ultimate success that could drive this engine and prevent its sputtering at inopportune times like this.

But all that is for the future, which we know will include hockey beyond April 12.

For now, you have a riddle of a team not yet solved by conventional minds, prodded along by a figurehead in a way that's reminiscent of the apes trying to smash open the Monolith with huge bones.

I can only hope when the femur lands on Paul Holmgren's head, it jolts his mind and eyes to see things more clearly.

Going down the path of exhorting your players to do better, work harder, or adjust their attitudes just doesn't cut it. Like when they're really not to blame.