Originally Posted by
PhillyFlyers
The blame for the abysmal season the Flyers are having falls squarely on the shoulders of general manager Paul Holmgren.
Peter Laviolette is an attack oriented coach. His system activates both defensemen on the offensive rush through the neutral zone and into the offensive zone.
He is attack, attack, attack and then attack some more. The problem is that Holmgren did not provide his coach with the proper personnel to play such a system.
Instead, Holmgren went out and signed guys like Ruslan Fedotenko, Kurtis Foster, Bruno Gervais, and Mike Knuble. Knuble and Fedotenko are past their primes by a good 3 seasons or more and Gervais and Foster suck donkey dikk.
Guys that were actually making good contributions and had value to the team, he let go (Tom Sestito). He also let Jaromir Jagr and Matt Carle walk and got nothing in return for them.
He stupidly extended Kimmo Timonen's contract next year for $6 million. Timonen has arguably been the worst defenseman on the team this season (along with Braydon Coburn). He is being carried every game by Luke Schenn and is, in fact, dragging Schenn down.
It's just one bone-headed move after another with Paul Holmgren. You cannot expect the coach to teach them to be thoroughbreds when you give him clydesdales to work with. It simply cannot work.
I could go on for another two weeks about all of Holmgren's missteps but I need to stop now because I can feel my blood starting to boil.