| Friday, November 3
By Al Morganti
Special to ESPN.com |
|
It's a good thing the Philadelphia Flyers won the first round of the
playoffs and will be the favorite when their second-round series opens on
Thursday night at the First Union Center against the Pittsburgh Penguins.
The Flyers management and ownership had better pray that the club also gets past the Penguins in the same manner in which it dispatched the Buffalo
Sabres. If not, the Flyers are going to have to deal with the perception that
they are the evil empire.
First, it was general manager Bob Clarke stripping the captain's "C" away from
injured star Eric Lindros. Now, it is the continued public relations disaster
involving recovering head coach Roger Neilson.
The latest installments of that soap opera played out over the past few days
as Neilson was again stymied in his attempt to return as the club's head
coach while recovering from stem cell transplant surgery in his battle against
bone marrow cancer. This time, the Flyers advised Neilson that the medical
staff had suggested it was not prudent for him to come back so quickly,
but he was welcomed back as an assistant to coach Craig Ramsay.
Thus, Neilson will be well above the ice surface on Thursday night, aiding
Ramsay as an assistant coach from the coach's box on the top level of the
First Union Center. It is a long way from where he wants to be, and he has
made that very clear.
Perhaps he made it the most clear on a Toronto radio station on Tuesday
morning when he suggested that he was not coming back to coach the team for a
couple of reasons. Neilson said the Flyers did not want a "cancer
patient, and a friend of Eric Lindros" behind their bench for the playoffs.
He also suggested that the club's management had bungled the whole issue of
his return.
Later in the day, Neilson backed off those statements, but only a little.
Given the lead by a question from the media as to whether or not he intended
for those comments to be taken as sort of a joke, he said he was trying
to "be light" and that he really didn't intend to broadside the organization.
The Flyers took Neilson's "light" angle and clutched it as a lifesaver, trying to spin the story that Neilson was just having some fun with the
situation during the interview. But anybody who listened to the interview
realizes it was hardly a yukfest.
"He (Roger) said it was light hearted," said Flyers general manager Bob
Clarke, "and I believe that."
What you have to understand here is that the Flyers management and ownership
are ultra-sensitive to any discussion about Lindros. Therefore, it was
unsettling to hear Lindros's name brought up again as the team prepared for
the next round.
You also have to read between the lines and listen between the sound bites.
Maybe Neilson did say he was being light-hearted when suggesting his friendship with Lindros was part of the reason the Flyers did not want
him back as head coach. But perception is a big part of a fan's reality, and
there are many fans in Philadelphia that truly believe Neilson's support of
Lindros is a sticking point with Flyers management.
After all, to this point, Neilson is still the only member of the
organization who has stated that the team cannot win the Stanley Cup without
Lindros. And Neilson has maintained all along that, if he had been healthy and been with the team, the huge fallout between Lindros and the organization
might not have taken place.
"There is no relationship between our decision on the coaching situation and
Roger's (friendship) with Eric Lindros," said Clarke. "It was a medical
decision, based on input from the doctors."
Well, partly. But it was based on the fact that the club is playing very well
under Ramsay. Whatever the feelings about Neilson, the Flyers want to
continue to win in the playoffs, and Clarke believes that chance is better
with Ramsay as the head coach and Neilson as an assistant.
Further complicating matters is the lack of agreement on Neilson's contract.
He insists there was a deal in place as far back as February for a
two-year extension. The Flyers do not agree, and all Clarke will say is that the issue will be dealt with when the season is over.
"It's not the time to deal with anything like that now," said Clarke. "Everything now is directed toward the playoffs. After the season, we'll talk
about it."
Although not as direct, Neilson is also suggesting the postseason will
be a time of great truth telling. "We'll address a lot of those issued when
the season is over," said Neilson on Tuesday.
In the midst of all this, the Flyers locker room remains calm. Perhaps the
organization has some bizarre game plan for the second round of the playoffs
that they used successfully in the first round. It's a simple plan to create
so much off-ice controversy that the team cannot wait to get back on the ice
and take out its aggressions against a real enemy.
One thing for sure is that the team will be more than ready to face Jaromir
Jagr and the Penguins on Thursday. At least after the game -- win or lose -- the
questions will be about hockey and not the continuing soap opera off the ice.
Al Morganti covers the NHL for ESPN. |  |
