Final Angst

Go to Google, do a search for “goalie carousel”, click on images, and you’ll see tons of pictures of the Flyers. Our situation in net has been a laughingstock around the league for years, and we’ve done nothing to fix it.

Yesterday, when I was looking for someone to blame, I didn’t say it was the netminders’ faults. However, the way they were handled was a complete joke. And for, the blame falls squarely on the coach. Lavy can say whatever he wants, the organization can spin it a million different ways, but I know what I saw. And what I saw was a coach that panicked, confused his team, and didn’t put us in a position to win.

"Is it easier to know when you have a No.1 guy to go to every night?“To know that you got a guy that is [No. 1] yeah, yeah, for sure,” Laviolette said.As for the goalie carousel in the playoffs with so many switches, he said it worked last year and wasn’t ideal, either, and the Flyers made the Stanley Cup Final.“We went to the Final and came up a couple games shy,” Laviolette said. “It’s a carousel, this guy is going in and out and it’s moving. Would it be nice to have a guy come in and [be No. 1], yeah. Bob [Sergei Bobrovsky] might be that guy. Those questions will get answered this summer.”Tim Panaccio, CSN"

Last year was last year. You didn’t flip flop goalies because you felt like it. You had to out of necessity, because guys kept getting hurt. Are you saying that if Boucher hadn’t gotten hurt against Boston last year that Leighton would have come in anyway? Of course not! What the hell made you cause so much chaos this year?

I think Bob is the better goalie, but it seems the guys have more faith in Boosh. If that’s the case, then start him and stick with him. But since you decide to go with Bob, why did you give up on him so quickly? In a radio interview, Lavy mentioned that goalie coach Jeff Reese saw some flaws in Bob’s game down the stretch, and that those flaws were not corrected once the playoffs began. He said they felt it’s best to just get him away from the action, and into the pressbox so he could escape some of the pressure. It was a new situation for him, and they felt that was the best way to deal with him.

I say that’s complete bullshit. It’s pretty damn obvious that they kept trying to catch lightning in a bottle. They wanted to make wild guesses, and hope they get lucky by rotating goalies. That backfired in their faces. And now we sit at home after getting swept. Instead of allowing the players to focus on their opponent, and figuring out adjustments they needed, the players also had to think about which goalie was in net. Each skater has various levels of trust in each goalie, and it affects thier confidence. In addition to that, they have to adjust how the goalie plays the puck, how they communicate, etc. During the most important time of the year, they shouldn’t be thinking about that.

I don’t think we need to get rid of the coach. ot yet, at least. That will just cause more turmoil, unless we get very lucky. I just hope he gets his shit together, communicates better with his players, and makes rational decisions. If he’s not capable of doing this, then it’s time to move on after less than two years.

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