Q & A with Paul Holmgren

New Flyers GM Paul Holmgren sat down recently with Philadelphia Inquirer reporter Tim Panaccio for an interview. Most of the questions and answers were about what you'd expect, though this exchange has me a little worried: Q: In your conversation with John Stevens, did you tell him the mission here is to save the season or just get this team situated to win some games? A: In my conversations with John, we have not clearly identified what we want to do or what is expected. You mentioned earlier that we all believe we're not as bad as we've played. We have talked about that. We do need to play better long-term if we're going to make the playoffs. We have a lot of catching up to do. Which comes first? Well, you've got to crawl to walk. So, we have to take some baby steps and try to improve our play. If we do that, we should put ourselves in position to win some hockey games, and then we'll see where we go next. I understand that Holmgren's been the general manager for less than a week, but come on. Holmgren has been the assistant GM under Clarke for seven-plus seasons and, by Clarke's own admission, was performing most of the general manager duties by the end of Clarke's tenure. If that's the case, how has he "not clearly identified what we want to do or what is expected?" This is the very nature of his job. Talk about starting off on the wrong foot.