A little bit of ketchup

Sam Donnellon started it all off for me. His piece in Friday’s Daily News -- right after the Flyers had acquired center Alexei Zhamnov -- praised Flyers’ GM Bob Clarke to high heaven. I almost couldn’t get past the first sentence. In what might be his most uncertain year as the general manager of the Flyers, Bob Clarke might be doing his best job ever. Ugh. Are you serious, Sam? How can you consider this season one of his best? Clarke has traded away two young defensemen who have oodles of potential. I find this especially tough to swallow when you consider that defense is generally regarded as the toughest position to develop players at. He has also traded away two young, skilled, speedy forwards when he himself said at the beginning of the season that the young players on the team would have to step up and take some responsibility for this team. I wonder how a player can take responsibility for a team when he is afraid of his GM’s track record of trading away young talent for older veterans. Next up was the Daily News' Dana Pennett O’Neil, with her article about the booing coach Ken Hitchcock took exception to after Thursday’s 4-3 loss to Boston. It was a total fluff piece, with no agreement or disagreement coming from O’Neil, and included this quote from Hitchcock. "It made us all pretty angry," he said. "Everyone in Philadelphia knows our situation. We've got a lot of guys out, and we're still fighting for first place. We're at the stage where we're just trying to stay the course, and we need everybody's help, including the fans in the stands. "This isn't going to be our team at the end of the season, and we need everyone to try to rally around us.” I would be happy to rally around you, Hitch, if you guys had any clue of what you were trying to do on the ice and in the front office. Clarke seems intent to love his team so much that he hates it, and your players skate with no heart whatsoever. There has been a distinct lack of effort on the ice ever since Keith Primeau and Jeremy Roenick went down with injuries. (More on them in the future.) So, how can you blame the fans for booing? And finally comes today’s column from Donnellon in response to Hitchcock’s complaints about the fans. His first two sentences say it all. "Here's a helpful hint for Ken Hitchcock: Zip it about the fans. This time, Sam, you hit the nail on the head.