The Flyers were unable to put the icing on the top of a potential dream season. The Chicago Blackhawks saw to that. Philadelphia lost in overtime of game six of the Stanley Cup Finals when Patrick Kane slipped the puck past Flyers goalie Michael Leighton. From the time the puck first dropped, Chicago looked like a team who wanted to claim Lord Stanley’s Cup on foreign ice. The Flyers did not match their [Chicago’s] intensity for much of the first period and the entire game for that matter.

The Blackhawks pelted Leighton with 41 shots as opposed to the 24 they allowed their goalie, Antti Niemi, to face. Leighton did not play great, but the Flyers defense, which had been pretty reliable for the rounds leading to the Finals, was not very good in this game six.

But let’s face facts here. The Blackhawks are a hit squad. They came at the Flyers from every direction at top speed. They are loaded with snipers on each line. And they hit everything that moves. The Flyers did not handle Chicago’s speed on the offensive or defensive end. Philadelphia was unable to get into their comfort zone from an offensive standpoint. There were too many costly turnovers on the Flyers part. And the Blackhawks made them pay.

Could the Flyers have won this series? Yes, if they played their “A” game in 4 of the first 6 games. They did not. If Michael Leighton had played better in game one, I think it could have been a different series. But the Orange and Black needed to get one of those first two games in the Windy City. I felt game one was the contest that slipped away. Leighton gave up some bad goals in that game.

Now the Flyers must regroup in the offseason and fortify their weak areas.

The team has three really good defensemen in Chris Pronger, Matt Carle, and Kimmo Timonen. Braydon Coburn is a pretty good fourth defensemen, but he is not a top-flight back-liner. Coburn is shaky with the puck far too often. He is not a great passer. He had several key turnovers in the Finals. Coburn does possess a fairly good shot from the point on power plays when he gets it off. He has not matured into the elite defenseman the Flyers brass had hoped he would. Coburn finished with a -6 plus/minus rating in the regular season. He finished at -2 in game 6 of the Finals. Not good. I think it is clear that the team needs a fifth defensemen to replace Lukas Krajicek. He [Krajicek] is beaten on far too many occasions. He does not do a very good job of keeping his man away from the net. Krajicek finished with an unacceptable -14 plus/minus in the regular season. I don’t see how the Flyers could be happy with his play. He shouldn’t get a sniff of the ice on a good hockey team.

I also feel this team needs to somehow get a top-flight goal tender. While Leighton played great when he replaced Brian Boucher in the series against the Boston Bruins and through much of the series against Montreal. He was exposed against the Blackhawks. He let too many shots that he had a clear look at get past him in the Finals. That is not the mark of a Stanley-Cup caliber net-minder. This team has a small window (about 2-3 years) to take advantage of the play of Pronger and Timonen. They are each older than 35. A reliable goal tender is needed to complement them. The Flyers showed this year that you can win with great defensemen in your top two pairs and an average goalie. But it will be difficult to win the Cup in that fashion.

The great news is that Mike Richards took a hold of the role of captain in the playoffs. I don’t think he will be letting go anytime soon. Claude Giroux grew up big-time in the playoffs as well. The Flyers have a lot of good forwards. If they add a goalie and one more solid defenseman, this team will contend for the Stanley Cup again next season.

A Blast From The Past

The Philadelphia 76ers hired Doug Collins to be their new head coach. Collins has not coached since 2003. He has been the head coach of the Chicago Bulls, Detroit Pistons, and most recently the Washington Wizards. The former Sixer first round pick has a reputation for being a defensive-minded coach. Everywhere Collins has been, his teams have been in the top ten in defensive ranking.

Collins has coached players such as Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Rip Hamilton, and Grant Hill. Are you listening Andre Iguodala?

The passionate coach knows a fair amount about this Sixer team already. He knows that they are much more talented than the 27-55 record they posted this past season under Eddie Jordan, who Collins is replacing.

This is a good hire for the organization. Collins will bring some fire to this team. Which was an element that was clearly lacking this past year. More importantly, Collins will insist these guys play defense. Another element that was not present last season.

Collins comes with no system in particular. He insists that he will play to the strengths of his players. Once he sees what he has, he will implement the proper system. I am sure he will come to the realization that this team is at its best when it runs the floor. As there is an absence of consistent shooting in the half court.

“I have a very active mind, sometimes too active," Collins stated.

"You can't say, 'I'm going to take this group and play this way.' What you have to do is say, 'What do I have?' And then you've got to build your team around that. Every year that I coached I ran a different system because I've never had the same team. And that's what coaches have to do. They have to adjust and they have to play to their personnel."

He [Collins] talked about some of his players.

"I think Jrue Holiday has a chance to be a terrific on-the-ball defender, that's where it all starts. Andre Iguodala should be an all-league defensive player at the small forward position. Thaddeus, I've got to get him back. He had a tough year, but the year before he played terrific.

"Obviously, Elton is going to be critical, and I've got to get him playing the way he is capable of playing. Sam [Dalembert] with his shot-blocking and rebounding. We've got good guys coming off the bench who can do some things in [Marreese] Speights and Lou Williams and Willie Green. Jodie Meeks played well at the end of the year. There's some pieces, now it's up to me to put it together." Doug has a tough task ahead of him in coaching this team. But we have been told that he enjoys a good challenge.

It will certainly help that reinforcements are on the way. In the form of the second pick in this coming draft. It appears the Sixers will select wing player Evan Turner, my college basketball player of the year from this past season. Turner has a chance to be a fabulous pro. It doesn’t look like the team will make any major moves through trade or free agency this offseason. It had been mentioned that the squad may look to move Iguodala. But it seems as though the new head coach is intrigued by Iguodala’s talent. Collins mentioned that he wants Iggy to drive to the basket more and not shoot so many jumpers. He [Collins] sees no reason why the athletic small forward shouldn’t get to the foul line more often. I second that emotion.

There will be some growing pains with this Sixer team. But I think Collins will get them back on the right track. It is certainly a positive that he has kept his hand in the NBA as an analyst for TNT for the last several years. He knows what it takes to win in this league. It starts on the defensive end. And winning teams must be efficient in the half-court from an offensive standpoint. Because that is what wins in the playoffs. It will be extremely interesting over the course of next season. We will learn which players on this team Collins feels are championship-caliber players. And who he doesn’t think so highly of.