City of Pain

i’m sure we’ve all heard the story by now: paul holmgren has been talking to peter forsberg about signing up with the flyers once his feets are in order. it seems like the perfect time to introduce dr. philly, our little look at the fragile psyche of athletes and how seemingly innocuous goings on (like bringing back an all-time top 20 player) are filled with strife and pain.

while it sounds like a fantastic idea, the re-addition of forsberg creates some dangerous psychological situations. if you like it all the “leaders” that were already on the team (hatcher, gagne, richards) and all the new “leaders” we brought in (briere, timmonen, smith), the last thing we need is a former alpha dog coming back. while he may not try to carry any mantle of leadership when he comes back with 30 games to go, some level of deference is inevitable. after all, this is fucking peter “my beard has more hockey sense then you” forsberg.

this team is set up for a major bounce back. let’s not literally go back and put #21 back on the ice. it’s just not worth the mental confusion for our once and future stud players. yes, he was a point a game player last year, but you know what? guess who else sat at home for the playoffs?

It was hard to quantify just exactly what that Phillies game did to me yesterday on an emotional level. I may never come to grips with what happened. It was especially nice to hear that in the majors this year, teams leading by six or more runs going into the 8^th inning were 517-0. How you can be a professional athlete and allow yourself and your team to squander late season games like this is something we may never understand. I think the worst part about it all is that I was sitting at my desk at work, watching the game on ESPN Gamecast, my head spinning watching all the little yellow base runner dots go around in circles like some twisted Ferris wheel, and all I could think about was how much money I have given to this team this year attending these games. Watching the score go final, I felt as if someone had just broken into my car and stolen my radio….while I was sitting in it. I needed to blame someone or something. I decided to go home and evaluate.

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