The way Wayne Cashman was chirruping about the virtues of being
an assistant coach last week—"I love working closely with
players!" he said—you could almost forget he'd just been
publicly emasculated. After being fired as Flyers coach by
general manager Bob Clarke on March 9, Cashman was still behind
the Philadelphia bench as an assistant. For as long as he's
there, he will symbolize his failure and the Flyers'
desperation. "I've never been around a situation like this,"
says center Joel Otto. "We feel bad for Wayne."
If Cashman's demotion after only 61 games wasn't demeaning
enough—after all, the Flyers had a 32-20-9 record—consider
that it came about largely because he couldn't get the NHL's
biggest club, which plays before the league's most bloodthirsty
fans, to play tough. Cashman was replaced by Roger Neilson, 63,
a highly respected tactician who nonetheless has been fired six
times and has taken a team past the second round of the playoffs
only once in 12 seasons.
Neilson is Philadelphia's third coach since the Flyers were
swept by the Red Wings in the Stanley Cup finals last June.
Under Cashman the Flyers were a combined 0-7-1 against the
league's premier clubs—the Avalanche, the Devils, the Red Wings
and the Stars—which caused Clarke to panic.
For Cashman, who has accepted his reassignment with equanimity
because he wants to stay involved with a contender, these
shenanigans probably mean he won't be taken seriously as a
candidate for another head coaching job. For the Philadelphia
players, who went 2-0-1 in their first three games under
Neilson, including last Saturday's 6-1 win over Detroit,
Cashman's presence behind the bench provides a vivid and
unsettling reminder that management is playing scared.
Issue date: March 23, 1998
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