PHILADELPHIA, Pa – Oh no, here we go again.
At least twice a year, two things are given. One, that right around the trade deadline the Philadelphia will be questioned as to whether or not they have enough goaltending to win the Stanley Cup. The second is that in the off-season, Flyers fans will ask the question “Will the Flyers finally address their goaltending situation and get a proven number one goalie?” The answer to both questions almost always results in one huge “maybe”. Well, here we are getting closer and closer to March 4th and already the cat calls in South Philly have started to get a new goaltender. If you know nothing about how tough it is to be a goaltender in Philadelphia, just ask former Flyers goaltender Sean Burke how it went for him during his brief stay in South Philly. When asked in an article on ESPN regarding the kind of pressure comes with being a Flyers goalie, he had this to say. “The most excited I ever was in my career was going to Philly. The second-most excited I ever was, was to get the heck out of there.” Do you get the picture now? This time around, the fuel to the fire was put on none other than by Flyers goaltender Martin Biron. It was not intentional on his part mind you, but this past Saturday, Biron made one of the biggest blunders in Flyers history against the hated Pittsburgh Penguins. With a little over two minutes left to go in a 4-4 game, the Pens tried to get the puck up to Pascal Dupuis who split the Flyers defense at the Flyers blueline, but the puck got beyond Dupuis. Biron came out of his net to beat Dupuis to the puck. He beat him to the puck, and at first tried to just fall on the puck at the top of the face-off circle. Instead of just waiting for a whistle, Biron decided to get up and play the puck. The puck fell out of his glove which was behind his back, and Dupuis wasted no time moving the puck up to Sidney Crosby who was near the Flyers net. Flyers defenseman Matt Carle could have saved the day by getting to the puck before Crosby, but no, Crosby became the hero by putting the puck past Carle and into the net. And so, Biron goes down in Flyers lore, but not in a good way. Flyers fans once again shake there fists at the hockey Godz and scream, “Why us oh great hockey Godz? Why, why, why!!!” Yeah well, get over it. Bleep happens. Life moves on. The Walt Whitman bridge will still be there to jump off of when your done crying. In the mean time, fans and media alike are asking our favorite question once again. “What do the Flyers finally need to do to settle the goaltending issue once and for all?” Well, let’s deal with the reality of the situation, shall we. It looks more and more that Biron and Antero Niittymaki are not the answer, not for this years playoff run, not ever. Despite Biron’s gaffe, he has been solid if nothing else all year long, but has had some bad stretches that have made everyone question him all over again. While Niitty has had a slightly better season, whenever he has been given the chance to steal the starters job away from his goaltending partner over the past four seasons, he has failed to do so. Still, if there was ever a chance to win the starters job once and for all, now is his chance, especially since he and Biron are free agents at the end of the season. Holmgren has two tough decisions to make now that the deadline approaches. He has to decide how he can improve his defense without having to blow up the team for one major impact player. He also needs to decide if he wants to upgrade the goaltender position now or in the off-season. Here is how we see this thing happening. Holmgren will try to upgrade the defense now and take care of the goaltending situation in the off-season. The reason he can’t do both is simple: The salary cap. With Daniel Briere set to return to the lineup on Friday against the Montreal Canadiens, just getting under the cap will mean a move or two. That’s one or two less assets Holmgren can move at the deadline. Also, in order to upgrade the defense and get an impact defenseman, it will mean getting someone who makes a boatload of money. That two will require trading current roster players to not only get the defenseman, but stay under the cap. Another major reason Holmgren won’t be able to get a proven goaltender is simply because teams don’t move goaltenders at the trade deadline that will be a major upgrade over Biron or Niitty. In other words, the Flyers will have to wait until the off-season to address the subject. Fortunately for Holmgren, if he decides not to resign any of his current restricted and unrestricted free agents, he will have a little over 19 million in cap space to play with. The bulk of that money will come from not resigning forwards Mike Knuble ($2.8), Scottie Upshall ($1.225), defenseman Derian Hatcher ($3.5) who is on long term IR and who’s cap number will finally come off the books, as well as Biron ($3.5) and Niittymaki ($1.225). With $19 million dollars in the back of Holmgren’s mind, it should be more than enough money to not only get his high priced defenseman now, but also get his free agent goalie (see Niklas Backstrom, Tim Thomas, and Manny Fernandez for details) in the off-season. Two summers ago, Holmgren needed to turn his team around in a hurry after having one of the worst teams in franchise history. He did it in part by being creative and aggressive by trading for the rights to Kimmo Timonen and Scottie Hartnell before the free agency period began, and it paid off. Hartnell has been a pleasant surprise, and is a prototypical Flyers power forward. Timonen is the Flyers best defenseman, but could use the help despite having some solid defensive partners in Braydon Coburn and top prospect Ryan Parent. Would Holmgren be willing to trade assets before free agency opens like he did for Timonen and Hartnell? Well, the rule of thumb is, if your willing to do it once, you would be willing to do the same thing again. The thing is, the Flyers don’t have to this time around. After all, it’s just money they would have to give up for a free agent, not players. Besides, what is a free agent like Jay Bouwmeester’s incentive to sign in Philly when he can wait until July 1 and get more offers, and potentially more money? If you said none, pat yourself on the back. In the game of poker, there is something to be said about being smart, and not so arrogant into thinking that you’re the only one in the game with a great hand. In hockey, so does roughing 29 other GM’s. Still, the Flyers are always about the here and now. So are the fans. With the recent memory of Biron’s big boo-boo fresh in their brains, we console them and tell them to take heart, and be patient. It will all be over soon. Maybe sooner than you think. At this point and time, you can bet Flyers fans wont care of it happens today or before the end of the free agent frenzy this summer, just that it gets finally gets resolved one way or another. The author can be contacted at BRIAN.JENNINGS@PROHOCKEYNEWS.COM
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