Flyers can see the light at end of five-year plan

Sporting News, The, May 26, 1997 by Larry Wigge

Just think of Eric Lindros as Brett Favre and the Philadelphia Flyers as the Green Bay Packers. The Packers won a championship in the fifth year of a five-year plan, and the timing is perfect for the Flyers to follow suit.

Lindros, like Favre, is the quarterback and leader of his team. And like Favre, Lindros leads with a linebacker type of mentality.

"When you play the Flyers, you have to be prepared for hand-to-hand combat around the net," Devils defenseman Scott Stevens says. "It begins with Lindros, but they have a lot of big bodies, and they use them to wear you down. That's one reason why they are so good in the third period."

The Flyers' Eastern Conference finals matchup against the Rangers is a test of general manager Bobby Clarke's philosophy: If the Flyers lean on opponents with those big bodies, they can't help but win--eventually.

After the Devils exposed the Flyers as a one-line team two years ago in the conference finals, Clarke began to work on making his forward lines deeper. Last year he added Dale Hawerchuk, Joel Otto, Trent Klatt and Pat Falloon. It wasn't enough.

Florida again took advantage of their lack of depth and eliminated the Flyers in the second round of the 1996 playoffs.

Like the Packers, the Flyers were making slow progress. Now, alter more fine-tuning, the Flyers have the depth to put four lines on the ice and play six solid defensemen.

The depth was obvious in Game 1 against the Rangers when rookies Dainius Zubrus and Janne Niinimaa scored the first two goals in a 3-1 victory.

"We've never had rookies to step in there and make big contributions like that," Lindros says, looking confident. "They used their young blood to energize the whole team."

Even though linemates Lindros and John LeClair both had three assists in the game, others stood up to provide a spark. That's something new in Philadelphia.

"It used to be our line that was counted on to energize the team," LeClair says. "Now, however, you can go up and down the lineup and find players who have contributed big time in the playoffs."

Entering the series, 14 Flyers had at least one playoff goal; only eight had scored for the Rangers.

While Clarke was building this team, he refused to deal off such key components as Rod Brind'Amour, Shjon Podein, Zubrus and Niinimaa to make it successful.

"This isn't a team of older players," Clarke says. "We wanted to build a solid foundation that would last.

"I remember a lot of people criticizing us at the trade deadline because we didn't go after this guy or that guy to make us stronger. But, if the same people heard some of the proposals I heard, they wouldn't have been so willing to trade, either."

Some say Clarke didn't pay the price to make his team better. Those people haven't been watching.

Although Clarke may not have the best team money can buy like the Rangers, it has been built on a solid foundation--and will win a Stanley Cup.

That might even happen in the next few weeks.

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Pre-playoff speculation suggested that Flyers coach Terry Murray needed at least a trip to the finals to earn a new contract and that Rangers coach Colin Campbell needed to win at least two rounds. That tells you how misinformed some owners are--using coaches as scapegoats.

"In every coach's situation, your most difficult opponent is expectation," Campbell says. "Terry Murray and I have walked the same tightrope, gangplank, whatever you want to call it."

Even in Detroit, speculation has run rampant that Scotty Bowman will not fulfill the last two years of his contract, that he will be forced to announce his retirement after the playoffs.

In case you've lost count, there already are coaching vacancies in Boston, Montreal, Pittsburgh, Phoenix and San Jose. Don Hay and Al Sims were fired after one year on the job.

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Another case of mismanagement surfaced in Buffalo, where G.M. John Muckler was rendered powerless by orders from ownership to cut payroll. Bad blood between Muckler and coach Ted Nolan developed when Nolan asked for a player or two to help for the playoff run. When Muckler refused, a feud ended up costing him his job, even though the Sabres won the Northeast Division.

"One day I get named executive of the year by THE SPORTING NEWS and it s a vote of the other general managers. I'm pretty proud of that," he says. "And the next day I'm fired. When I get the award, who do I thank?" Good question.

An interesting twist is that Buffalo probably will not get into a bidding war to keep Nolan, who could become a free agent July 1. Nolan could be Detroit-bound.

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Huh? Whalers/Hurricanes owner Peter Karmanos says his team must average 15,000 to break even in Raleigh?

He expects 15,000-16,000 per game the first year the Hurricanes play in Greensboro, but the team will have to do some selling. The minor league Raleigh IceCaps averaged 3,100 per game, the Carolina Monarchs averaged 4,200 in Greensboro and the Charlotte Checkers drew 7,188 per game.

"You don't move to a small market unless someone does something heroic," Karmanos says. Yes, Peter, but putting an ultimatum on a city after you've just failed miserably in another doesn't make dollars or sense.