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Your Tuesday Morning Roundup
Published:
Flyers fans:
The Flyers officially fired Dave Hakstol on Monday in probably the worst way possible. The assistants ran the practice, but an official announcement had yet to be made. Anthony mentioned this would happen Sunday.
However, Joel Quenneville was not hired as head coach. He’s skiing in Colorado enjoying funemployment. And it doesn’t sound like he’s in a rush to coach again while getting paid $6 million to do nothing. And GM Chuck Fletcher hasn’t even talked to Q in two years.
Even worse, from later in the day, Fletcher wasn’t prepared to fire Hakstol:
A source close to the situation says Hakstol wasn’t initially going to be fired, but the head coach wanted a reassurance from his GM when he arrived at Flyers Skate Zone early Monday morning.
So with no Quenneville, Phantoms head coach Scott Gordon will lead the team for the rest of the year unless Fletcher makes another change. Gordon was the former head coach of the Islanders for two and-a-half years before he was fired. Kerry Huffman will be the acting head coach of the Phantoms.
Now comes the start of a new era in two ways. Post-Hakstol is one of them, but also the debut of Carter Hart. He’s expected to start tonight against the Red Wings at 7 PM on NBC Sports Philadelphia. I don’t like the move and would have rather had him spend more time with the Phantoms. But with the start, the Flyers will become the 2nd team in NHL history to have six goalies play before Christmas, joining the 2002-03 St. Louis Blues.
After you watch Gritty (or while you watch him), listen to a brand new episode of Snow The Goalie.
The Roundup:
After crushing the Cavaliers on Sunday, the Sixers got crushed by the Spurs last night 123-96 in San Antonio. Ben Simmons and JJ Redick led the team with 16 points, while Joel Embiid had 13 points and 11 rebounds. But a 21-point outing from Rudy Gay and 20-point nights from LaMarcus Aldridge and DeMar DeRozan pushed the Spurs to a win.
The Sixers will host the Knicks on Wednesday.
In Fultz news, could Ebony Fultz, Markelle’s mother, be a huge problem?
After the big upset win over the Rams Sunday night, which resulted in a ton of celebrations and Doug Pederson going Stone Cold Steve Austin, Pederson held his day after press conference. And not surprisingly, Nick Foles will start on Sunday against the Texans.
Meanwhile, video of Marcus Peters confronting a fan was posted.
The Phillies remain a betting favorite to land Bryce Harper, but this is something interesting:
It seems to me that the #Phillies interest in Bryce Harper is overblown if in fact they did not meet with him and Scott Boras in Las Vegas. If a player is one of your primary offseason targets and he is taking visitors down the street, you stop by and say hello.
— Steve Phillips (@StevePhillipsGM) December 18, 2018
In other sports news, Jose Mourinho has been sacked by Manchester United. I also enjoyed this tweet:
Hi @ManUtd, we've received a CV from Mr J Mourinho.
He's just applied for a job as pizza chef.
Please can you send through a reference. Thanks.— Pizza Hut UK (@pizzahutuk) December 18, 2018
The Saints edged the Panthers on Monday Night Football.
The Astros agreed to a two-year deal with outfielder Michael Brantley.
In the news, CBS is denying former CEO Les Moonves’ $120 million severance payout.
Alfonso Ribeiro is suing Fortnite and NBA 2K for overusing his “Carlton” dance.
Chris is the Morning Roundup writer on Crossing Broad. He recently graduated from Syracuse University and was the video coordinator for the men's lacrosse team. He's previously covered the Philadelphia Eagles for Philadelphia Magazine’s Birds 24/7 and KYW Newsradio 1060. Chris is also a Production Assistant at ESPN and the Managing Editor for the college lacrosse website College Crosse.