first off before I continue with a rampage on a joke of a hockey team: congratulations Canadiens and go Isles!!! and isn't it just amazing how the Canes have secured top place??
these playoffs are very interesting so far except for one team.
So King Clarkie has decided now Barber must go. He's got Ed Snider (who I've come to believe knows nothing whatsoever about hockey and is merely a shrewd businessman) fooled into believing that he can adequately manage a team so that his job is secure. Meanwhile he has signed a bunch of 30+ guys.. who are overpaid and spoiled and refuse to play for any coach that makes them work.. with no-trade clauses. So basically they're stuck with the likes of LeClair who pulls an amazing vanishing act every damn year come playoff time, and the only teams who could afford to pick them up are Detroit and the Rangers and why the hell would they want them??
Meanwhile, the moment the playoffs are over, all the players decide to jump out in the open about how horrible a coach Bill Barber is and the awful things he's done this season, saying they only kept quiet before because his wife just died of cancer and they didn't want to hurt his feelings. So now the playoffs are over and he's done grieving??? give me a break.
then the players are called into private conferences with Clarkie and Snider today and come out bashing Barber even more openly (keep in mind this is a guy who goes back with the Flyers a long way...winning two Cups with them as well as coaching their minor league affiliate to a Championship win) and then later in the day a press conference is held to inform the public that Barber has been fired.
WHY??????? He is not a bad coach!! Neither was Terry Murray, or Ron Neilson, or Craig Ramsay, or Wayne Cashman!!!!! None of them are given adequate time to put a team together that can play well with each other before the plug is pulled by an antsy Clarke, who is now, I am convinced, doing so merely to shift the blame so he can keep his job. He knows that if Snider ever develops a brain in that head of his, he'll realize the shitty moves he's been making the past couple of years are to blame for the team's early exits so instead he'll blame it on Barber (who he's had a disagreement with about God-knows-what going on for the longest time).
My summary (like you care at this point!
): the Flyers exist purely for the money, it has nothing to do with winning anymore; Clarke is a pretty sad GM who has made enemies out of a lot of people; and Snider isn't going to get smart and fire him for quite awhile longer. I'm sick of them, sick and tired, I just wanna watch some good hockey from people who care about the game
oh and I'm not reading over what I wrote so I have no idea if it's coherent or not, maybe I'll go take a nap now
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the Flyers are actually just Bob's Country Club....
-some reporter