At what point does Paul Holmgren get held accountable for turning within one game of the Stanley Cup and third-leading point total teams, respectively, into this heaping pile of dog mess with an inconsistent offensive, porous defense and annoying goalie? Everyone was singing his praises for magically turning Mike Richards and Jeff Carter into all this young talent, but where, exactly, has that gotten the Flyers? Should we wait another year or two for the master to plan to all come together? [I’m guessing that signing the $51 million goaltender two years ago wasn’t a win later move, however.] Nah. Given their track record over the last, I don’t know, 30 years, rebuilding is not an option… so they’ll trade at least two of the young guns by mid-summer. And at that point we can talk about how the Flyers turned their former captain into Wayne Simmonds, Brayden Schenn a mid-level defenseman and a future draft pick that they’ll trade away. This is how the minds of Type OB’s work– they’ll track a line of succession for a decade until the string of moves finally turns into a superstar… or a cap-manageable, gritty winger with huge upside… who will get traded away.

While fun and exciting, the haphazard way with which the Flyers operate, with their fingers constantly on the panic button, has once again cost them. They had really good teams in 2010 and 2011 (full years), and have parted ways with Richards, Carter (third in league in goals), James van Riemsdyk (sixth in league in goals), Jaromir Jagr and Sergei Bobrovsky– all of whom are having equal or more success elsewhere. They replaced those guys with mostly a bunch of younger, more inexperienced forwards and a cap-crippling, underachieving goalie, all while ignoring a rapidly aging and injured defense. Now we’re seeing the results of those knee-jerk reactions. With the exception of Jagr, every one of those guys was considered to be part of the future, and three of them were given contracts to reflect that. But, because they didn’t develop as quickly as Mr. Snider liked, they were jettisoned. We’re left with sometimes exciting and talented young forwards, who struggle to play at the other end of the ice… a hilarious defense anchored by old man Timonen, one of Andrej Meszaros’ legs, and Luke Schenn, who is a disappointment in life… you already know my thoughts on the goalie… and a superstar in the making who appears to be in over his head as captain.

So are you surprised the Flyers probably won’t make the playoffs?