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 Inside the NHL
Posted: Tuesday March 23, 1999 06:16 PM A New Game In Town | Bust and Bargain In the Crease The Flyers seek professional help after falling on hard times By Kostya Kennedy
The NHL's most dysfunctional family is going for therapy. This week the Flyers planned to spend two days with the Matishak Group, a Calgary performance-enhancing service that has a program designed to build unity in sports teams. Exercises include players' helping one another negotiate obstacle courses blindfolded and falling backward off tabletops into teammates' arms. "We'll be paying attention," Flyers goalie John Vanbiesbrouck said last Friday. "We have to find a way to deal with adversity."
A glint of madness was certainly discernible in the eyes of coach Roger Neilson during a 5-2 loss to the Blues on March 16. Irate that referee Bill McCreary had failed to call a blatant penalty on St. Louis, Neilson stood on the Flyers' bench and hurled a stick onto the ice. Neilson nearly harpooned linesman Lonnie Cameron and was suspended for two games by the NHL. In another sign of Philadelphia's questionable mental state, Neilson's boss, general manager Bob Clarke, says, "Roger was right [to throw the stick]." In his five-year stint at the helm in Philadelphia, Clarke has pursued the Stanley Cup as obsessively as Ahab did the white whale, and his unchecked zeal seems to be undermining that pursuit. Led by star forwards Eric Lindros and John LeClair, Philadelphia entered the season as one of the favorites for the Stanley Cup. Yet Clarke has made so many roster changes -- nine new players have arrived through trades -- that this week's group therapy should begin with player introductions: Hello, my name is...and I'm a Philadelphia Flyer. "It takes time for players to get accustomed to one another," says Neilson, "but the guys we've traded for have helped us." One thing that didn't help was Clarke's panicked decision to call up 21-year-old rookie goalie Jean-Marc Pelletier to start against Ottawa on March 4, ahead of Vanbiesbrouck and veteran backup Ron Hextall. The Flyers lost 5-0, and Lindros called the move "a slap in the face to everybody in this room." Philly's players lament their recent lack of hitting and the mental lapses that continually plague them. "We're so tight," says Neilson, "we've forgotten how to execute. We have to come out of this as a team."
Low Scoring: Have you seen how the Flames have gotten into the playoff race with their (yawn) new passive forechecking scheme? Have you noticed how twice this season the Senators have so successfully clogged the neutral zone (zzzzz) that they have held an opponent without a shot on goal for a period? Apparently this constitutes progress in the NHL. "Coaching is much more advanced than it was 20 years ago," says Panthers coach Terry Murray, echoing an opinion held leaguewide. Better coaching, however, doesn't necessarily make for exciting hockey. Despite off-season rule changes intended to increase scoring, through Sunday the NHL's goals-per-game average (5.3) was unchanged from last year, and shots on goal, 55.9 per game, were much closer to last season's 54.7 than to the 60 or so that were the norm over the past two decades. Yes, the addition of six expansion teams in seven years has diluted the number of talented scorers (Inside the NHL, Nov. 9, 1998), but the curse on hockey comes from today's film-studying, scouting-aided, strategy-mad coaches. A sophisticated defensive system can make a winner out of a modestly talented club. Thus, teams have increasingly hired career coaches to guide them rather than former players, who tend to coach more viscerally than nonplayers. "NHL coaches are better today because they're usually professional coaches," observes Boston University coach Jack Parker, who was courted for the Bruins' job in 1997. "You see a lot more Scotty Bowman types than [former player and recently dismissed Blackhawks coach] Dirk Graham types." Six of the top eight teams as of Sunday, including Bowman's Red Wings, have coaches who never played in the league. Designing a throttling defense has become even more important with the close of the regular season approaching and playoff berths at a premium. Coaches are mindful that failing to reach the revenue-generating postseason could cost them their jobs. "Some teams are so defensive-minded that even when they get the puck, they want to get back," says Maple Leafs coach Pat Quinn, whose team is one of the few that plays a wide-open style. "You have a mental framework built in that almost takes the adventure out of the players." One immutable trait of NHL coaches, no matter how well schooled they've become, is their eagerness to follow a successful trend. "Everybody's playing the trap because that's what's winning," says Flames defenseman Derek Morris. "The straight offense ain't winning." No, but it sure would be fun to watch.
Chess-Playing Sharks: The Sharks' most avid checkers are more likely to do damage with their rooks than with their forearms. "We're total chess freaks," says forward Joe Murphy. "Either we're playing it, or we're talking about it." Murphy and his fellow pawn stars -- winger Owen Nolan, defenseman Bob Rouse and goalie Steve Shields -- have been battling for the title of team grandmaster since Rouse brought a chess set on San Jose's 17-day road trip last month. Shrugging off taunts from card-playing teammates, the foursome play on every flight and refine their skills at a café in nearby Los Gatos where chess players gather. One recent evening Shields became so upset at losing a best-of-five showdown to Murphy (who promptly went into a victory dance) that he stormed from the café. "The better you are, the more fun chess is," says Shields. "Some of the guys in the café are awesome. Of course, they don't know who we are. Chess players aren't big hockey fans."
Issue date: March 29, 1999
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