Ok, so I’m a HUGE Flyers fan. I can remember going to games as a toddler with my dad as he and my uncle had season tickets. I used to crawl behind all of the rows of seats in the old Spectrum looking for loose change. One time I even found a silver dollar, which my dad thought may have been someone’s good luck charm. I have all of the old Flyers’ autographs, like Bobby Clarke, Paul Holmgren, Ron Hextall, and many others. Now, many of the Flyers that I used to watch as a kid are running the front office. Most Flyers fans were loving all of the great talent that the Flyers had been accumulating. After a few near misses in the playoffs over the past couple of years I was pretty confident that we had a great group of core players to build around. It felt like the Flyers were simply missing a few key pieces.
Now I don’t know what to think and apparently not many other local Montgomery County Flyers fans do either. Everywhere I go I hear people talking about “the trades” that went down at the end of last week. Paul Holmgren and the Flyers brass decided to ship off what some fans considered their two top players, or at least their two top forwards, Jeff Carter and Mike Richards. Carter was our flashy goal scorer while Mike Richards was our captain, the heart & soul of our team… I mean, did you see how he led us to the Stanley Cup Finals just two years ago? It’s like the guy simply willed his team to victory. Richards isn’t the fastest player, he’s not the greatest goal scorer, and he even gives up the puck more than we might like, but the man can play the game at a high level. He does so because he loves the game and wants to win more than most. Unfortunately for us, he’s now going to be doing that for another team and there’s nothing we can do about it.
The news came down last week, first that Jeff Carter was being traded from the Flyers to the Columbus Blue Jackets. Many were in shock, but could understand that the Flyers wanted to improve their team and Carter was simply caught in the cross hairs. Then, only minutes later the news came down that not only was Jeff Carter being traded, but our captain Mike Richards was also being shipped out. All of a sudden that feeling that we only needed a few more pieces to the puzzle in order to compete for the Stanley Cup next year went right out of the window. It almost seems like the Flyers are rebuilding. I mean, I LOVE Claude Giroux and James Van Riemsdyk as much as the next Flyers fan, but can these young guys really take us where we need to go?
Are you a big-time Philadelphia Flyers fan? What did you think of the Jeff Carter and Mike Richards trades? Are we going to be a better team next year or did the Flyers make two big mistakes? Leave a comment below or connect with us on Facebook and Twitter to share your thoughts.
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