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head coach: Roger Neilson

roster: C - Chris Gratton, Dan LaCroix, Eric Lindros, Joel Otto, Peter White. LW - John LeClair, Rod Brind'Amour, Colin Forbes, Dan Kordic, Shjon Podein. RW - Alexandre Daigle, John Druce, Trent Klatt, Mike Sillinger, Dainius Zubrus. D - Paul Coffey, Eric Desjardins, Chris Joseph, Dan McGillis, Luke Richardson, Kjell Samuelsson, Petr Svoboda, Chris Therien, Dave Babych. G - Ron Hextall, Sean Burke.

standings:

Eastern Conference - Atlantic Division   
Team           GP   W   L   T   PTS   GF   GA   
z-New Jersey   82  48  23  11   107  225  166  
x-Philadelphia 82  42  29  11    95  242  193
x-Washington   82  40  30  12    92  219  202  
NY Islanders   82  30  41  11    71  212  225  
NY Rangers     82  25  39  18    68  197  231  
Florida        82  24  43  15    63  203  256 
Tampa Bay      82  17  55  10    44  151  269  

x - Clinched playoff spot
z - Clinched conference

team news:

by Michael Dell, Editor-in-Chief

Our regular Flyer Correspondent, Eric Meyer, is off in Switzerland. That means I have to fill in and write Philadelphia's season review. That's trouble.

All you really need to know about the Flyers this season was that they were soundly beaten by the Buffalo Sabres in the first round of the playoffs. After last year's run to the Cup finals, a first-round exit is unacceptable. Whose fault is it? Two words: Bobby Clarke. The Philly GM made more errors than the Bad News Bears infield. Let's review some of his more memorable gaffes...

* Before the dust even settled on the Flyers' defeat at the hands of the Detroit Red Wings in the Stanley Cup Finals, Clarke fired head coach Terry Murray and replaced him with Wayne Cashman. No real problem there. But Cashman didn't last the 1997-98 season. With the club going in no particular direction, Clarke decided to demote Cashman to an assistant and replace him with Roger Neilson. There was talk that Cashman actually approached Clarke about making the switch, but that doesn't absolve Clarke of guilt. If Cashman wasn't up to the gig, Clarke should have never hired him in the first place. The way this whole situation played out just made Clarke seem like an idiot.

* Clarke made another mistake during the off-season when he decided to go after restricted free agent Chris Gratton. In order to acquire the big center, Clarke had to break up the famed Legion of Doom line and send Mikael Renberg, along with Karl Dykhuis, to the Tampa Bay Lightning. He also had to give Gratton a $9-million signing bonus. That's a steep price to pay. Plus the move overloaded the Flyers with centers and stripped the club of its best right winger. The club never did find anyone to fill in for Renberg on the top line, auditioning the likes of Dainius Zubrus and Trent Klatt in the role, while Gratton struggled trying to find his rightful place in the lineup.

There were just too many damn centers. Back in the day, the top line was Eric Lindros, John LeClair, and Renberg... known as the Legion of Doom to their friends. The second line featured Rod Brind'Amour with guys like Dale Hawerchuk and Pat Falloon. Then the Flyers rolled out the best checking line in hockey with Joel Otto centering Shjon Podein and Klatt. Thugs Dan Lacroix, Dan Kordic, and Scott Daniels would fill out a fourth line when needed. That's a nice balanced lineup. Everyone knew their roles.

It was a different story this season. Lindros and LeClair clearly missed Renberg. So much so that the duo was even split up at times. When they were together, more often than not Klatt was on the right side. This meant that the checking line had to be split up. In fact, Otto was relegated to fourth line duty. He wasn't the only person to find his ice time cut. Brind'Amour's playing time dropped, as Gratton centered pretty much the second line with newcomers Mike Sillinger and Alexandre Daigle. This left Brind'Amour with Zubrus and Podein on a third unit. The balance was gone. No one knew their roles.

* The glut at center was even worse before Clarke dealt Vinnie Prospal to Ottawa, along with Falloon, in exchange for Daigle. Everyone in Philly was amazed at Daigle's skating ability when he first arrived, but the charm wore off after he went like 20 games without a goal. He did get hot for a stretch late, but that, too, eventually wore off and he was a non-factor in the postseason. Oh, that wacky Daigle...

* It's been public knowledge that Philly's biggest weakness has always been in net. The tandem of Ron Hextall and Garth Snow was not championship material. Yet Clarke never addressed the situation over the off-season. Instead he waited as long as he could before trying to get something for nothing in trading Snow to Vancouver for Sean Burke. This would have been a great trade ten years ago, but Burke is beat. He's better than Hextall, but not by much. The Flyers needed a superstar and Clarke delivered a has-been.

* Clarke's final move of the season was perhaps his most stupefying. After refusing to trade Janne Niinimaa all last year in order to acquire Curtis Joseph, Clarke turned around this season and dealt the super skilled Finn to the Oilers for fellow blueliner Dan McGillis. Clarke said he made this move to add more size and toughness. Yeah, like the Flyers need more size and toughness. McGillis has his share of offensive talent, but he's nowhere near Niinimaa's class when it comes to mobility and puck movement. Those are two things the Flyer defense could not afford to lose, especially since Paul Coffey became persona nongrata around Philly.

All these moves by Clarke left the Flyers a bewildered mess. They'd play hard for spurts at a time but rarely put together 60 minutes of hockey. The whole franchise seemed enveloped in a sense of indecisiveness... sort of like Zippy trying to buy a new car. Indecisiveness is not something that characterizes a winning hockey team. But it characterized the 1997-98 Philadelphia Flyers.

Of course, matters weren't helped any by the continual health concerns of Lindros. The big guy missed 19 more games this season, falling victim to a devastating open-ice hit by Pittsburgh's Darius Kasparaitis. The collision left Lindros with a concussion and put him on the sidelines for several weeks. He returned to action just prior to the playoffs but never seemed to regain his form. Lindros has only played more than 65 games in a season once in his six-year career, and even then he only appeared in 73 contests (1995-96). He's as fragile as a stocking-clad leg lamp one would win in a contest for knowing the name of Tonto's nephew's horse.

TEAM MVP: While Eric Lindros is often out of the lineup, John LeClair is a constant. The enormous left winger played in all 82 games, marking the third consecutive season he has failed to miss even a single game. This was also the third consecutive season that LeClair hit the 50-goal plateau, matching his career high of 51. He also led the club in points (87), power-play goals (16), game-winners (9), and plus-minus (+30). He may have had a disappointing playoffs, but LeClair definitely carried the club during the regular season.

SURPRISE: Hey, get this, one move that Bobby Clarke made actually paid off. He was able to acquire center, there's that word again, Mike Sillinger from Vancouver for little more than a cup of maple nut crunch. Sillinger arrived in Philly and immediately started scoring, finishing with 21 goals and 41 points while playing mainly on a line with Gratton and Daigle. So let's see, that makes Clarke about what, 1-for-50?

DISAPPOINTMENTS: There were plenty. Chris Gratton did start to score late in the season but he still only finished with 22 goals and 62 points in 82 games. Those numbers aren't worth the disruption his arrival caused. He also took more stupid penalties than the Bad News Bears infield. Hey, I liked it so much the first time...

One reason Clarke decided to trade Renberg was that he felt Dainius Zubrus was poised to step in on the top line with Lindros and LeClair. It didn't happen. The 19-year-old wasn't ready. He ended the year with just eight goals in 69 games.

When Paul Coffey goes into the Hall of Fame he'll have a ton of jerseys to choose from, but chances are he won't be going in as a Flyer. Coffey, or "The Doctor" to his friends, seldom played over the second half of the season and posted just two goals and 29 points in 57 games. For some reason he just fell out of favor with the Flyer brass. He didn't even make an appearance in the playoffs.

OFF-SEASON CHANGES: Who knows what Clarke will do next? He's already gotten rid of Coffey, sending him to the Blackhawks for a mid-round draft choice. Rumors are flying that he'll try and sign one of the prominent unrestricted goaltenders, namely Curtis Joseph or Mike Richter, but we've heard this sort of thing before. I'll believe it when he actually puts his name on the contract. And he better deliver that superstar goaltender in a hurry. Because if the Flyers don't make another run this coming season, their window of opportunity will likely close. A club can only fail so many times with the same core players before it has to be stripped to the ground and rebuilt. That's why it was no coincidence that Lindros and the Flyers agreed to just a one- year contract for 1998-99. If Clarke and Lindros don't make it happen next season, they likely won't get another chance.

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