The other shoe has dropped.
Ken Hitchcock coach of the Flyers for 3 seasons has been fired.
But what is more shocking is Bob Clarke general manager for the Flyers for 13 seasons has resigned.

Flyers Assistant Coach John Stevens was named the teams new head coach. Assistant General Manager Paul Holmgren was named as the interim General Manager.

John Stevens led the Phantoms to the Calder Cup in 2005 and has been assistant coach to the Flyers since June 5, 2006. Given that over a third of players were on that 05 Phantoms team gives Stevens some good familiarity with the players and the expectations from them. Stevens was for the most part a career AHL defenseman, but did play some games for the Flyers and Hartford Whalers. Stevens was forced to retire in 1999 because of an eye injury. He served as assistant coach of the Phantoms for 2 seasons before being named head coach of the Phantoms in 2000 which he served for 6 years.

Paul Holmgren played 8 seasons with the Philadelphia Flyers from 76-84. He was an assistant coach for the Flyers from 85-88, then head coach for the Flyers from 88-92 before leaving to coach and serve as interim general manager for the Hartford Whalers. Holmgren returned to Philadelphia and served various positions, director of pro scouting, director of player personnel and assistant general manager.

So who was more at fault Hitchcock or Clarke? It’s really hard to say. The signings of Hatcher, Rathje, Stevenson were just horrible. Trading Handzus for Calder, has not worked out so far, the signings of Murray and Cullen, keeping goaltending controversy in the locker room by not moving Esche. Clarke has definitely made some mistakes the past couple seasons. Hitchcock simply lost the team. With Primeau out of the picture no one was there to pickup and preach Hitchcock’s system. He couldn’t keep the players motivated, no heart. That is given with the players he had to work with. Hitchcock was and still is a good coach, but the chemistry for his style of coaching between him and the team simply disappeared. While Clarke will probably stay in the Flyers organization, Hitchcock probably will not. Good luck to Hitch I hope he does well in his next venture.

How is Stevens and Holmgren going to do? How are they going to clean up the mess and get the Flyers back on track? We shall see what happens this week. A clean slate and I am very happy to see it.

Some quotes

Owner Ed Snider

It’s difficult to let a coach of his caliber go. It was not done frivolously.

Over the last several weeks it has become clear that it was time to make a change. Bob came to me last week and told me that he had decided to resign. I asked him to take some time and think about it, and in the end we agreed that it was time to make a change. This is not easy for anyone involved, but we have to do what is best for this team.

Bob Clarke has been the heart and soul of the Flyers for nearly 40 years. Bob was the driving force behind our Stanley Cups as a player, and as president and general manager, he built the Flyers into one of the premier franchises in hockey. I will always think of Bob as the ‘Ultimate Flyer’ and there is always a position within our organization for Bob Clarke.

John Stevens has quickly proven that he can coach in the National Hockey League. He worked very closely with many of our younger players when he coached them as Phantoms. We believe that we have a core of great young talent and we think that John is the right guy to coach this team.

Bob Clarke

This is by far one of the hardest decisions that I’ve ever had to make. I met with Mr. Snider early last week and told him that I felt that it was time to step down from running the team.

I deeply regret not being able to bring a Stanley Cup here. I didn’t deliver.

I recognized myself that I hadn’t been very good. It wasn’t because of our record, I can guarantee you that.

The team has to come first and I was letting the team down.