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BLOG: Laviolette Must Take Responsibility

By: Bill Campbell

It may not have been the main story but the wildly inconsistent goaltending had much to do with the Flyers' failure against Boston. The equally inconsistent juggling of three goaltenders didn't help. And for that the coach must take responsibility.

Peter Laviolette has earned much praise for his overall handling of the team through most of the past season. But its problems didn't suddenly appear in the playoff series against the Bruins.

One could see them coming as the regular season wore on. The Flyers blew the Eastern Conference number one seed by losing 14 of their last 21 regular season games. They had no picnic in the Buffalo playoff series, but managed to hang on and win in seven tough games.

The goaltending shuffle presented itself for real in the playoffs which seemed to have an effect on the whole team as well as on the goalies who played poorly. But there were many other problems to consider.

Mike Richards had one goal in 11 postseason games and three goals in his last 20. We didn't know for sure until the season was over that he was playing with an injured wrist.

Jeff Carter, playing on a bum knee, had one playoff goal in six games.

Kris Versteeg and Scott Hartnell virtually disappeared: one goal for each in 11 playoff games.

Now we learn that Andreas Nodl missed the last nine play-off games because of concussion symptoms. The Flyers had called it an upper body injury during the playoffs.

And the Chris Pronger business is too mind-boggling to even consider. Everyone seems to be still waiting for a confirmed diagnosis.

In trying to assess all this negativity, it should not be forgotten that the Flyers finished with the second best record in the Eastern Conference – 47-23-12 – and did win the Atlantic Division.

The rookie goalie, Sergi Bobrovsky, did gain some needed experience and probably found a place on this team as a back-up providing the Flyers can deal for a solid Number One guy – which is a must.

Brian Boucher's days as a saver should be forgotten and he probably becomes some other team's back-up guy.

One note of approval remains: James Van Riemsdyk, who Boston finally shut down in the decisive playoff game, did score seven goals in 11 play-off games and has been added to the U.S. National Team that will compete for the World Championship in Slovakia.

I choose to close about one of my favorite people in sports: does the name Mike Scioscia mean anything to you? Probably not much unless you've been a long-time Dodger baseball fan – and there aren't many of those around here who have not contracted some severe cases of Fightin' Phillies Fever.

Mike Scioscia used to catch for the Dodgers. If his career had ended as a catching instructor somewhere in the minor leagues, it would have been okay with him, but he became a big league manager. And last Sunday, when his team – the Los Angeles Angels – defeated the Cleveland Indians 6-5, his players formed a circle surrounding him in the on-deck slot as he was doing a post-game TV interview. In the middle of the interview, he felt a cold shower of ice water from head to toe. One of his players had celebrated the victory with a Gatorade shower, which come frequently to players but never to a manager. You see, the victory was Number 1,000 for Scioscia and all in the same uniform as the manger of the Angels, during which he has been as humble and as grateful as the day he first came to the major leagues.

Tori Hunter, the player who dumped the cold, wet stuff on Scioscia, said that everybody does the pie in the face stuff on college coaches and in the NFL. But, said Hunter, "We wanted to do something different. And then I started running and he ain't gonna catch me."

Scioscia is only the 23rd manager in major league history to reach 1,000 victories with one team, which probably meant more to the unassuming manager than the ice cold shower.

Willie Mays, who turned 80 last Friday, set a lot of records when he played. But one I'd never heard about was the record he set for the most home runs in extra innings: 22. Imagine how many the right-handed Mays might have hit except for Candlestick Park in San Francisco, which was a paradise for left-handed hitters.

Just ask Willie McCovey. I once asked Mays in an interview if that became a mental annoyance, that inviting right field. I'll never forget his reply. He said, "I really had no choice. I was never asked for an opinion."

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