cma3585 wrote:They got outstanding rookie seasons out of a handful of players. How many of those types of players pull that off their next year?
They got an outstanding series out of a handful of players. Nobody was talking about Giroux for Hart, Couturier for Selke, etc. The Penguins made them look good through a combination of a lack of coaching adjustments on the PK and the flakiness of Geno and MAF.
The Flyers had a decent year, but unlike the Pens, they have sacrificed the future for the present. Their window is closing, not opening. Considering the contracts they are stuck with (Pronger, Briere, Bryzgalov,) even IF Simmonds, Schenn, Couturier, and Read continue to look as good as they looked against the Pens, there's no way they will be able to afford them.
Not to mention that Laviolette's in-your-face coaching style gets old really quick if it doesn't produce results.