John Smallwood: The cold, hard truth about Flyers, Sixers
SPRING IS the season of revitalization, and with its arrival the Delaware Valley soon will snap back to life after a brutal winter.
SPRING IS the season of revitalization, and with its arrival the Delaware Valley soon will snap back to life after a brutal winter.
Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the region's winter sports scene.
There have been more disappointing winters for Philadelphia sports fans. There were those early years in the 1990s when the Flyers were bad and the Sixers were even worse.
Still, remember how bright things looked when their seasons of discontent began in October.
The Flyers had traded for Hall of Fame defenseman Chris Pronger, and even though they were admittedly rolling the dice with goaltender Ray Emery, this was a squad that looked primed to make a run at the Eastern Conference title.
There were no serious championship expectations placed on the Sixers, but there was optimism that a young team had matured enough after consecutive playoff appearances to make a little bit of noise in the Eastern Conference.
Nobody was picking them to move past the Cleveland Cavaliers, Orlando Magic and Boston Celtics, but continued growth and advancing a round in the postseason didn't seem like too much to ask.
Now it's March.
Instead of lions, the Sixers and Flyers came in like lambs and both are going out the same way.
The Wachovia Center is a cold-looking structure on a sunny spring day when it's dark. But that's where the building appears to be headed before the end of April.
We knew a long time ago that the Sixers had severely underachieved and were all but officially eliminated for the playoffs.
With 11 games remaining after last night's 109-93 loss to the Magic, the only questions involving the 24-47 Sixers are these: How bad will their record be? Can the two Eds (team president Ed Stefanski and coach Eddie Jordan) survive the "evaluation" that will begin once the season ends on April 14?
Frankly, anything could happen after a disastrous campaign like this.
The loss to Orlando was the Sixers' 11th in 13 March games. What's most troubling about this Ides of March is that the Sixers had started 2010 playing their best ball of the season. They went 13-13 over January and February.
A collapse of this magnitude after finally gaining a little hope represents a serious character flaw in the competitive makeup of the team. As the coach, Jordan should and does shoulder most of the heat, but it's difficult not to question the effort of the players.
That's what also brings the Flyers into this equation. Barring an absolute shutdown, they are going to make the playoffs. But after this weekend's pathetic, back-to-back losses to the Atlanta Thrashers, the unthinkable can no longer be dismissed. The Flyers were so uninspired in Sunday's 3-1 loss at the Wachovia Center, it's not hard to imagine an unbelievable collapse.
Coming out of the Olympic break, the Flyers had a chance to establish themselves as a legitimate player in their conference. Instead, they have remained as inconsistent and mediocre as they've been throughout most of the season.
I don't doubt the sincerity of Pronger when he says on the Flyers' Web site,
"Really, our playoffs start right now; if they didn't start earlier, they do now.
"I think everybody understands that and we need to focus on each game."
That sounds like the correct attitude to have, but what have the Flyers shown to indicate they are capable of that kind of consistent focus? They should make the playoffs, but there has been nothing to show that they can make a sustained run in what is called the toughest playoffs in sports.
And now they have to try to get things together without leading scorer Jeff Carter, who is going to miss up to 4 weeks with a nondisplaced fracture in his left foot.
Right now, the Flyers look more like a one-and-done playoff performer than one that can challenge for the conference crown.
This isn't as bad as the early 1990s, when both the Sixers and Flyers missed the playoffs for three straight seasons.
It's not as bad as 2006-07, the last time neither team made the playoffs.
Last year, the Wachovia Center went dark before the end of April with the Flyers getting eliminated in the first round by Pittsburgh and the Sixers being put down for good by the Magic on April 30.
This year, it will be a bit more disappointing if the Flyers don't make it out of the first round and the Wachovia Center is limited to ice shows and concerts starting in May.
No one knew how brutal this winter was going to be, but at the start, both teams looked like they could provide an extended spring thaw.
Now, it looks like both will come up cold.
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