Oh man, two more days and the market bell will ring. The landscape has changed ever since the NHL instituted the salary cap. You could never accuse the Flyers of being cheap; they always threw dollars at top free agents. Unfortunately, those days are gone forever. So while Ilya Kovalchuk is the top name, there’s no chance he’ll be wearing orange and black any time soon. Of course, offense isn’t the biggest issue for the Flyers. Instead, for the 100th time in the last 20 years, we’re looking for a goalie.

We’re not capable of changing the past (yet). We know what happened. Chicago won the Stanley cup, on Philadelphia ice. Leighton let in a soft goal, and was pretty bad in the Finals.  But sports fans always love playing the “what if?” game. If this were different, that were different, the outcome would be different. It’s a fun argument, but one  that can never be resolved. Still, here goes…

In sports, stability is a key component of  successful franchises.  Yet, somehow, ever since 1994-95, when the Flyers returned to prominence, we have seen the starting goalie change on a consistent basis.  I may be missing a few, but since that time we’ve had Ron Hextall, Dominic Roussel, Garth Snow, Sean Burke, John Vanbiesbrouck, Roman Cechmanek, Robert Esche, Antero Niittymaki, Jeff Hacket, and Martin Biron.  Now, we have Ray Emery.  He had great numbers and a winning record in Ottawa, and of course a Cup Finals appearance.
His off the ice issues lead to a stint in Russia, where he had [...]