Polemic Hockey

For a Flyers guy, this is probably the most intelligent thing written about the Julien matter. In fact, this is probably the best piece bar none.

I hope they don't cancel Eklund's season tickets in Philly for having written that. Even though this guy obviously gets spun on trade rumors, he must be talking to at least some real insiders, because this dovetails with everything I know.

I think this is mostly right:

Did Marty Brodeur and the leaders on this team apparently want this change? Yes they did. But why did they want the change? Usually you always hear about coaches getting fired by players because they are too tough on them and have lost the room. A source today told me that, "Perhaps Claude was too easy and lost the room."

The Ranger-fellating New York media wants you to believe this was a player-led coup driven by a loss of respect for Julien because he was getting reversed by Lamoriello---anything to paint the Devils and Lamoriello as evil. Of course, that's hogwash, and they are just covering for their terrible bunch of bumbling idiots who have run the country's most important franchise into the ground over the last 13 years. That includes everyone from the Cablevision board down to the AHL players. It's no mistake that the fortunes of the NHL have declined when the league's three most important U.S. markets can't field respectable teams. (NY metro, Chicago, and LA metro.)

You can continue to believe whatever you want about the Devils, but, with the possible exception of the Red Wings (whom I hate as a fan, but dearly respect), no franchise has a more proven track record of recent success and dedication to excellence. The Julien firing is therefore meaningless.

Labels: Devils, media, rangers