Flyers Training Protocol Needs Closer Look
Eric Lindros said a lot of things about the Flyers and many weren’t complimentary. But eight years later, everything Lindros said has panned out for the most part. Dizzy, yes. A liar? No.
The “one thing” he said that sent Bob Clarke over the edge was that the Flyers training staff were kooks. That they didn’t know what they were doing when it came to concussions and other assorted ailments.
It doesn’t take a Harvard law degree like Duck’s GM Brian Burke has to figure out that EVERY year, the Flyers lose more man hours to injured players than any other team in the NHL. That’s a truth.
So why hasn’t any of these hockey geniuses in the organization addressed that? Whatever you’re doing in Philadelphia when it comes to conditioning, etc., does not appear to be working very well. Every year, your players are injured more than any other team. You rush players back into the line up with serious head injuries, despite having a road map to follow paved by Lindros, Primeau, Roenick.
Why every year are the Flyers players injured more often than any other team in the league? Because they are physical? They are not physical when compared to many other teams throughout the league. The Ducks for example. Physical and healthy.
It’s not just happenstance. You guys are doing something incorrectly and you should address it. As fans, we’re all very tired of the parade of chronic injuries every year …
Wake up. Fix it. Get some pros in there with credentials and a track record of success.
Your players are not properly conditioned: hence the annual slide in the second half of the season. Well conditioned and properly conditioned athletes do not get injured every game. Teams do not lose a player every game or two. Well conditioned athletes play with energy for an entire game; do not take lazy penalties because they are a step behind, and have the stamina to close a game in the third period.
And more importantly: well conditioned athletes stay in the line up and recover from normal injuries and wear and tear quickly to enhance your team’s chances for success, especially down the stretch.
I like Holmgren but he highlights the mentality of the Flyers front office and training room. One of the most renown concussion specialists in the world recently told Simon Gagne to sit out the rest of the season and resume playing in September/October 2008 so that he could prolong his career. Otherwise, returning to the game this year, could sabotage his long term career. It sounds pretty cut and dry to me as far as his recommendations.
Yet Holmgren said he believed Gagne could suit up for the playoffs. Huh? Gagne replied No Way. Sorry.
It was the Flyers medical and training folks who misdiagnosed Gagne’s first concussion this season to begin with and he was rushed back onto the ice, not once, but twice. And injured again both times because it was recently unveiled that he never recovered from the original head injury. He was only aggravating the original head injury over a span of months.
Hey, maybe the franchise likes to play the injury card every year as an excuse. Woe is us.
Likely this is only the tip of the iceberg. If you can’t read an expert physician’s diagnoses then read the writing on the wall: you have systemic problems with the conditioning of your players. Until you fix that … you will repeat history every year … just as you have for close to a decade now.