Newsflash
Bobby Clarke’s kind of a tool.
From The Hockey News:
“We were allowed to spend the money, we always tried to win,” Clarke said. “We didn’t do what Pittsburgh did; lose seven years in a row so they could get good. They did it twice, in fact. They went through six or seven different owners. We’ve had one owner.”
Clarke finds the strategies of some current teams appalling when considering the way other organizations have built competitive teams.
“It’s somewhat embarrassing that three of the last teams (in the 2009 playoffs) missed the playoffs six or seven years in a row; Washington, Chicago, and Pittsburgh,” he said. “Now they’re good and the teams that try to win all the time get penalized. Our philosophy has never changed since 1967.”
Sure…because that whole rebuilding, growing your own talent, developing chemistry thing is overrated. All the Penguins and Wings have to show for it is a handful of Cup rings over the last two decades. All Washington and Chicago have done is suffer for a few years so they could become teams that are considered contenders.
This isn’t baseball, you can’t buy championships in the NHL; and if you could, it seems that being able to draft high when you’re bad would serve as some sort of balance for those teams who, unlike the Flyers, maybe don’t have owners with pockets that run as deep.
(Of course, lest we forget that one of the worst seasons in Flyers’ history was just a few years ago and resulted in Philly snagging a very promising #2 pick, James Van Riemsdyk.)
But no, Clarke’s right. That “spend until you can’t spend anymore” philosophy’s working really, really well for the Flyers. 1975, was it?
Yeah. Keep talking, Bobby.
Update: And of course just as this is posted the Flyers do what they’ve been hinting at doing for the last few days and sign UFA defenseman Ole-Kristian Tollefson. Salary cap? What salary cap?
I’m not sure what the cursing policy on this blog is, so I’ll leave it at [expletive] Booby Clarke.
Comment by J.P. — July 30, 2009 @ 5:15 pm
Yeah, screw all this delayed-gratification crap.
Comment by Jimmy Jazz — July 30, 2009 @ 5:16 pm
JP: Usually I’d ask for civility and family-friendly language but…we’re talking about Bobby (or Booby? Nice) Clarke here. Let the f-bombs fly, my friend.
JJ: Damn the torpedos! Bring me a 4 foot tall spearing midget we can sign to a 30 year deal at $10 million per, stat!
And talk about delayed…the Flyers haven’t won the Cup since the Caps were founded. At least we had the excuse of being a crappy expansion team for almost a decade since then, too.
Comment by CapsChick — July 30, 2009 @ 5:23 pm
CC: I’m with you, the Flyers formula for success, i.e. throwing money around in a reckless manner, certainly seems to be working. Not. And if at first you don’t succeed, hide your mistakes on LTIR (see Hatcher, Rathje and Briere). Considering their track record, this righteousness from Clarke stinks to high heaven.
By the way, I love, love, love that nickname for Briere. Let’s all savor the words. Magical. Spearing. Midget. I also despise that little rat so I’m glad the Flyers are stuck with his cap-crippling contract and now they have Stompy “Elbows” Pronger too! It’s an easy team to dislike although I do have Mike Richards envy.
Comment by Lisa — July 30, 2009 @ 7:18 pm
He and Lindros really deserved each other. I dislike each tremendously, but they were a hell of a duo.
Comment by Jimmy Jazz — July 30, 2009 @ 7:22 pm
Well I wouldn’t say the Flyers don’t grow their own talent. Their three biggest stars- Mike Richards, Jeff Carter, and Simon Gagne came up with the Flyers. I’m not saying Bobby Clarke is right in what he said, but the Flyers have drafted some good talent, even without the losing seasons and high draft picks. Actually, for that exact reason, I don’t get what his problem is. How many teams get three superstars up from their farm system at the same time? And they have 2 more on the way in Giroux and JVR.
Comment by Mike — October 6, 2009 @ 9:35 pm