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Spectacor Sports

In 'A Tale of Two GMs,' It's the Flyers Who Enjoy a Happy Ending

THE 76ERS sacked Billy King today, and the only possible reaction is "It's about time." The Sixers have been in a downward slide ever since Pat Croce was pushed out by Ed Snider, and King could not reverse their fall despite throwing everything he had against the wall to see what would stick. (Chris Webber's contract was about the only thing that did.) Ed Stefanski is getting good initial reviews in what he did with the Nets, but he has a hell of a mess to clean up here.

Elsewhere in Comcast-Spectacor land, the Flyers have been one of the NHL's biggest surprises this season. Paul Holmgren has been a revelation as general manager, engineering creative, effective trades, successfully trusting his young head coach, and overseeing a first-place squad. About the only blemish on his brief tenure as GM is his team's regrettable return to the cheap-shot hockey of its past. There are now plenty of skill players in Philadelphia; it's a shame the national headlines are about the Flyers' goons instead of their stars. S|C

Elsewhere in South Philadelphia

Surprising Flyers, Puzzling Sixers Appear Headed in Different Directions

WHILE PHILADELPHIA laments the Phillies' demise and scratches its head over what to make of the Eagles, the Flyers have quietly come roaring out of the gate. They shut out their old nemesis the Devils last night, notching their fifth win against just a single loss. With Paul Holmgren transitioning the team from the lumbering grinders of the Bob Clarke era to a squad that's younger, quicker, and more skilled, the Flyers have proved themselves worth keeping an eye on. It'll be fun to watch them come together this season.

Their Comcast-Spectacor siblings, meanwhile, have struggled through the NBA preseason. The 76ers have not been as swift as the Flyers to adapt to their new circumstances; in the case of the Sixers, it's finding an identity in the post-Iverson era. They did a nice job in the second half last year, better than a lot of people thought they would, but they have a lot of work to do in figuring out what kind of team they're going to be. The Sixers are 0-4 thus far, albeit in meaningless games. Samuel Dalembert is on the shelf with a foot injury, greatly limiting the team's defense, and the Answer's 25 points per night are showing up on Denver's scoreboard. There are good, likable, young players here, but they haven't coalesced yet. I don't envy Maurice Cheeks his job. | SC

Forsberg Flies Away

THE SIGNIFICANCE of the Flyers' unfortunate but necessary trade of Peter Forsberg is that it represents the team's tacit acknowledgment that the abyss in which it finds itself this season is too deep to climb out of anytime soon. If 2006-07 were merely an aberration, Forsberg likely would have made a commitment to Ed Snider to stick around. In keeping his options open, he indicated that he didn't expect to content in Philadelphia in the near future -- and the deal the Flyers struck with Nashville is exactly like those that sad-sack baseball teams make at the trading deadline when they have a stud in his walk year and are going nowhere fast.

It's a shame that Forsberg's tenure here was marked by injury and underachievement. He really is a breathtaking player, but, as so often seems to happen, wearing the orange and black was like a curse.

Of course, you realize that somewhere Bob Clarke is muttering under his breath that all of this is the Lindros family's fault.

Also, Rainy Days and Mondays Really Get Him Down

IN CASE you were wondering, Ed Snider, grand poobah of the Flyers and 76ers, "ain't happy" that the teams under his charge completely suck ass:

"Whenever it gets to the point that I don't want to win, I'm quitting," Snider said. "If that's the way I have to be responsible for the team, I'm quitting.

"If you think I'm sleeping well... I'm miserable. This is the worst year I've ever spent in sports, and I ain't happy."

A clear-eyed glance in the mirror might do Snider some good. He was the one who allowed Bob Clarke to eschew the NHL's evolution from big and slow to fast and skilled. While the rest of the league changed, the Flyers remained dinosaurs, and are now paying the price. And it was Snider who forced out Pat Croce, setting in motion for the Sixers an appalling series of coaching changes and roster makeovers, none of which have helped. Croce isn't everyone's cup of tea, but he placed results above all else, and when he didn't get them, he didn't waste time farting around; he fixed his mistakes quickly and moved on. Ed Snider did a lot of good for Philadelphia sports, but he is an executive whose time has passed.

Comlastic

HAVE YOU noticed that the two teams owned by the city's signature commercial enterprise -- an organization rolling in money, an organization I pay an obscene amount to monthly for the privilege of watching television and e-mailing my friends, an organization that's a true market leader in its industry -- suck? The 76ers have just traded one of the league's very best players, and if history is any guide, it will take them years to recover. Meantime, they have lost nearly a dozen straight games. The Flyers are busy discovering that their own very best player's legacy of injuries didn't stop the moment he stepped off the plane at Philadelphia International. In the course of a few short seasons, they have plummeted from the conference championship series to being truly, heinously awful. Both teams, of course, are part of the Comcast empire, which must regard them as nothing more than cost centers at this point. I spent a couple of years publicly hoping that the Robertses would pick up the Phillies and infuse them with cash. But as has been proven elsewhere and has become abundantly clear here, there's an enormous difference between spending a lot and spending wisely.

At Least 'Invincible' Was Good

Meanwhile, On the Field, All of Philadelphia Continues to Underwhelm

MOST TROUBLING about the Eagles' woes are what they mean for Philadelphia's championship possibilities in the foreseeable future. If any of the other major teams seemed poised for a parade down Broad Street, the Birds' precipitous drop would be far more palatable. But the Eagles have spent the better part of 10 years representing our best hope, and their shocking and sudden implosion leaves no one to pick up the slack. The Flyers have revealed themselves to be a drifting mess of a franchise, the 76ers are about to start their umpteenth unpromising campaign, and the Phillies have done nothing to warrant any kind of optimism. So, great -- we're left to root for the Kixx. Insert your own "kid-tested, mother-approved" joke here.

The Commitments ... or Lack Thereof

News Flash: Owners May Care More About Money
Than Winning; Also at 11, Dog Bites Man

WOW, DID Bill Conlin wake up on the wrong side of cranky Monday. Still stinging from Sunday's stunning Flyers purge and gut-wrenching Eagles loss, and then mystified, understandably, by the Phillies' decision to shovel eight figures at a 43-year-old pitcher who was, at best, moderately effective last year, Conlin yesterday went all Malcolm X on Philadelphia fans, telling them, "You been hoodwinked! You been flim-flammed!" Local ownership, OneChair reveals, is less interested in winning championships than in lining its pockets with concession revenues. To which the only possible response is: Tell us something we don't know. The WIP vitriol, the corrosive cynicism, the acid-tongued booing -- none of this occurs in a vacuum. Conlin's solution is for fans to shake ownership awake by walking away -- by making them pay, through nonattendance, through a refusal to buy licensed merchandise, through shutting the TV off, for their mismanagement. I'm a step ahead of him, having decided midway through the 2006 campaign that Phillies season tickets are a bad investment, and one I will not repeat. In the end, though, Conlin's thoughts are hardly revolutionary; haven't Philadelphians been crying in their Yuenglings about this, bemoaning detached ownership and overpaid players, for something approaching forever?

Pucked Up

The Flyers Are Revealed as a Franchise in Free Fall

IN THE grim fallout of one of the darkest days in Flyers history, a day that saw their Hall of Fame GM and Stanley Cup-winning coach lose their jobs, Ed Snider praised the former, his protege, Bob Clarke, for having the stones to walk away on his own. I do believe that Clarke gave his heart and soul to the orange and black, and he deserves accolades for keeping the Flyers competitive for many years. But while other teams were adapting to new styles and hoisting gleaming silver hardware, the Flyers have spent three decades trying to recreate glory by channeling a brand of hockey that simply isn't played anymore. And much much of this lumbering failure occurred on Clarke's watch. More, he admitted Sunday that he had delegated critical decisions last off-season to his lieutenants because his heart was no longer in the task of running the day-to-day matters of a pro hockey team. And so instead of repairing the holes that showed up so vividly in last spring's first-round playoff loss to Buffalo, the Flyers ambled through an uneventful off-season, then tripped over the skates as the 2006-07 season got underway.

Grounded

Flyers Shut Out by Pittsburgh in Season Opener

HOW EXCITING that the Flyers, in their opener last night, showed themselves to be in late-season form. Most teams need a few weeks to warm up, to shake the rust from their skates, before they begin to hit their stride. Philadelphia, though, put 40 shots on Pittsburgh's net without lighting the lamp once in a performance that channeled countless first-round playoff collapses. There's no truth to the rumor that Bob Clarke responded to the 4-0 loss by immediately signing three 6-5 defensemen who can's skate but are "tough at the blueline" and "good in the corners."

Flying South

The Orange and Black are Booted by a Quick and Skilled Buffalo Squad

BARRING AN unexpected World Series win by the Phillies, 2006 will go down as yet another year without a championship for Philadelphia to celebrate. The Flyers' meek loss to Buffalo last night eliminated the Orange and Black from the Stanley Cup playoffs, capping yet another season of regular-season distinction followed by post-season disappointment. I saw not a second of the series, but the unanimous consensus is that lumbering Philadelphia was simply too slow for the swifter, more talented Sabres. Apparently the only time the Flyers were able to keep up with Buffalo was during the post-series handshake.