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Philly has its Mark, but there's still a way to go

Sporting News, The, March 22, 1999 by Larry Wigge

Mark Recchi was expecting a big, life-altering announcement sometime this month, but he didn't think it would be a trade from Montreal back to Philadelphia. "I thought I'd finish the season in Montreal," says Recchi, who will be a free agent July 1. "When the phone rang at my hotel room in St. Louis, I thought it was my wife. We're expecting our first child. Instead, it was (Canadiens G.M.) Rejean Houle.

"Needless to say, I quickly went from thinking about a birth to a rebirth of my career."

Expectations? They are extra high in Philadelphia after getting Recchi last week. But, beware, because the more things change, the more they stay the same with the Flyers--a team that teases you with talent and then let's you down each spring.

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Ten of the Flyers' 18 regulars were not with the team on opening night as G.M. Bobby Clarke has played "Let's make a deal" nine times this season. But the signing of free-agent goaltender John Vanbiesbrouck last summer and the latest deal for Recchi along with the other countless deals have not come close to adding the speed and puck-moving skills on defense a championship team must have.

"Even if I was looking," Clarke says of acquiring a quality offensive defenseman. "I'm not sure they're out there."

For a guy who has reacquired three former Flyers this season--right winger Mikael Renberg, defenseman Karl Dykhuis and Recchi--Clarke is beginning to look more like a used car salesman than an architect of a champion.

Don't get me wrong. Recchi is a terrific acquisition. Three times in his 10-plus seasons, he has scored 100 or more points. And to reacquire the guy who still holds the team record of 123 points in one season for a guy like Dainius Zubrus who had--at the time of the trade--19 goals in his three-year NHL career ... that's a steal.

Recchi, 31, came back to the Flyers for struggling Zubrus, 20, along with a second-round draft choice in 1999 or 2000 and Montreal's choice of a seventh-round pick in '99 or a sixth-rounder in 2000.

"Getting Mark Recchi is like trading for Cal Ripken; Mark shows up every night," Avalanche goaltender Patrick Roy says, referring to Recchi's consecutive games streak that ended at 570 on December 12--and only then because he had been playing with pneumonia for three weeks. "For his size (5-10, 185), he never stops competing. He's got great speed, he's a good playmaker and goal scorer."

Forget the 12 goals and 35 assists he had in 60 games before the trade. Recchi's intangibles as a great communicator and leader could help get the Flyers, who have gone 2-11-1 since they ended a dominating 16-1-7 record that began in mid-December, out of their late-winter funk. He gives Philadelphia the most balanced scoring the team has had in years.

"Their size and talent only mean something if you give them too much respect," Penguins fight winger Jaromir Jagr says. "Speed beats size when the team with size isn't playing with confidence-and that's the case with Philadelphia right now."

Jagr made those comments last Saturday after Pittsburgh, which was missing defensemen Kevin Hatcher and Darius Kasparaitis and No. 1 goalie Tom Barrasso, beat the Flyers, 4-0, to extend Philadelphia's slump to 0-7-3-and 0-2 since obtaining Recchi.

The Flyers' size, talent and legacy as the Broad Street Bullies mean little right now.

"Fragile," coach Roger Neilson says. "We fall behind 2-0, and the next thing you know it's 5-0."

The Flyers' history in the last four seasons shows first-place finishes in the regular season twice, but despite all of Clarke's manipulations, the team has been haunted by too many soft goals, no production from the second line and too many brain-dead passes from plodding defensemen. Missing three important ingredients like that can only mean disappointment in the playoffs.

In fact ... the Flyers lost in the Eastern Conference finals against New Jersey in 1995 because they didn't get any production from the second line. Ditto in '96, when they scored only 11 goals in six games against Florida in the second round. In 1997, the team rode the strong play of Lindros to the Stanley Cup finals before running into a wall--Detroit's leftwing lock forced turnover after turnover by the slow Flyers defense--and lost all confidence when goalies Ron Hextall and Garth Snow allowed some of the most hideously soft goals in finals history. Last year, the Flyers' lack of speed and error-prone defense knocked them out in the first round of the playoffs against Buffalo.

Vanbiesbrouck presumably solidifies the goaltending and Recchi should give the Flyers more balanced scoring, but there's no logical defense for the way the team's defense looks each night.

Maybe Clarke thinks that 16-1-7 stretch is more indicative of the team than its recent 2-11-1 mark. If so, he's only fooling himself.

"You can't win it all without defense that stops the other team and then turns the puck the other way," former Flyers coach Mike Keenan says. "When you get stuck in your own zone, only bad things can happen."

Philly has its Mark, but there's still a way to go

Sporting News, The, March 22, 1999 by Larry Wigge

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