Was he burnt out or was he forced out? That is still the question just two days after Flyers general manager Bobby Clarke abruptly resigned after the team’s worst start in over fifteen years. Clarke has seen everything there is to see with the Flyers, the cup years when he was a player, the Lindros mess, and now this disaster. He brought back the old school “Broad Street Bullies” mentality back to a franchise that was heading downhill since he left the game as a player. Just as ruthless as a GM as he was a player, Clarke created tons of controversy, including blacklisting, and then trading, Eric Lindros after a concussion-plagued season, and the biggest one of them all, out rightly firing Roger Neilson during his last few years in a fight with brain cancer.
Still, Clarke’s post-playing career came with some success; he was the brain behind the 1991 Stanley Cup run by the North Stars, who lost to the Penguins. During his first stint with the Flyers, he did put two Stanley Cup finalists on the ice, but both lost to the Edmonton Oilers during their remarkable run in the eighties. Clarke also was the man responsible for helping the Florida Panthers get off the ground, and head towards their only Stanley Cup appearance.
The bigger question out of all of this mess, is what is going on the Philadelphia Flyers? It was painfully obvious that Ken Hitchcock’s coaching style never truly fit this team, like it did when he made the Dallas Stars a powerhouse in the late nineties. Peter Forsberg has never been the same player since his 2001 spleen injury in the Western Conference semi-finals against the Los Angles Kings. Forsberg has shown flashes of brilliance though, teaming with Simon Gange to make a one-two punch.
Maybe, just maybe, the game has passed Bob Clarke by. The new NHL is for speedy forwards, defensemen who want to play in the rush, lethal power players, and master snipers. Meanwhile, Bob Clarke still wants to wear teams out through hard hitting. Teams like Carolina, Buffalo, Columbus, Edmonton and Atlanta were masters of the quick adaptation, while the Flyers look like they are still stuck in the early nineties. Oh, and there is that pesky salary cap thing that has hurt teams like Detroit, Philadelphia, Colorado, and Toronto.
Yet, maybe there was a hint that Clarke is just burnt out by one of the statements he made after resigning. “I felt strongly that from the end of last season on, I don’t know if I was burnt out or tired or something, but the decisions that had to be made, I was not willing to make them.” Some of this is true. During last year’s draft, Clarke handed the drafting reigns over to Paul Holmgren, the Flyers new general manager. Holmgren is also given the credit for bringing in Geoff Sanderson from Columbus, whom he coached when Sanderson was a Hartford Whaler.
Fans wanted someone’s head for the poor start. Hichcock’s was chopped off quickly after the embarrassing 9-to-1 loss to Buffalo Friday night. Fans only knew then that it was a matter of time before Clarke was right behind him. Clarke knew it too. It seemed that many of his once-considered “golden” moves had come to backfire on him. Fans even blamed some of his moves for them losing the 2003 Eastern Conference Finals to the eventual Stanley Cup Champion Tampa Bay Lightning.
Hitchcock was Clarke’s guy, and why not? The man had a proven track record, taking the Dallas Stars to back-to-back Stanley Cup Finals, and winning a cup. Of course, Hitchcock is also not a stranger to this situation either. In 2002, then Stars general manager Bob Gainey resigned to take the same spot with Montreal; Hitchcock was promptly fired and replaced with Dave Tippet. It looked as though he could bring the Flyers the cup, but would fall short each time. That, coupled with the slow start, Ed Snider and Peter Luukko had seen enough.
The Flyers need a massive change in philosophy if they are to get back into the new NHL. This is just the start. Bobby Clarke has let the game pass him by, and the burnout factor looks very, very credible. One thing is for certain; Bobby Clarke will always be a Philadelphia Flyer, if not with the team, always in our memories. He made the team in his image, and sadly, his image is just not what today’s NHL is all about.
