I read this article too. And quite frankly I didn't get it. He starts off by saying, “If I’m defining Flyer hockey, it’s not the Broad Street Bullies from the ‘70s and ‘80s. Times have changed. You can’t play the game that way anymore, so we have to be realistic when we say that,” Ok, rough hard hitting teams with slower bruising type players wont get it done. I can agree, so what is the solution? He then says, “To me, Flyer hockey is a team like John Tortorella is trying to build right now. A lot of character, competitive, guys that work hard every single night. At the moment, it’s been a little more trying scoring goals. We have a hard time scoring goals and creating offense. That’s gonna come eventually. But we want to build our culture. Guys that are working hard, guys that are competing every single shift. And we’ve seen that a lot more of our team this year, but it’s far from being a finished product. We still have a lot of work to do. But that’s how I would define Flyer hockey.”
The only thing I got from that last quote is they need to score more goals. Ya think? And here's my issue. Those teams from the 70's and 80's didnt have problem scoring goals. In fact, most fans would argue the lack of a true number one goalie was the difference. And I'm sorry, but the Flyers teams I remember were all about "character" guys who worked their asses off every night. Danny's "culture" are guys that work hard every night and compete every shift. Again what does that have to do with the teams from the 70-80's?
As I read this BS he is sllnging, I come back to the same conclusion, the three "UNwisemen". The culture has allowed them to chase outdated ideals and hand out bad contracts like they are unlimited. When they got good players they could build around (Carter/Richards) they coddled and entitled them, essentially creating the wrong culture.
I still dont think Briere was the right choice. But he's THE choice, so I hope he does a good job. I will be happy to be wrong. But right now he's doing a lot of talking but he isn't saying anything