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Mike Richards heads Flyers off-season surgery list, some question his captaincy

Mike Richards

Philadelphia Flyers’ Mike Richards speaks to reporters Monday, April 25, 2011, at the team’s NHL hockey training facility in Voorhees, N.J. The Buffalo Sabres are scheduled to play the Flyers in Game 7 of a first-round NHL Stanley Cup playoffs hockey series on Tuesday..(AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

AP

When you consider all of the chatter directed at Philadelphia Flyers captain Mike Richards today, it would seem like his team was preparing for a playoff game. Obviously that’s not the case, but let’s take a look at some of the interesting Richards/Flyers bits.

The first is the most concrete news: Richards is among five players who are expected to undergo off-season surgery, according to the Associated Press. Richards and Andrej Meszaros will correct wrist problems, Blair Betts will have surgery on his finger and Kris Versteeg was dealing with a ‘stomach muscle’ issue. Three Flyers had hip problems this season/playoffs: Michael Leighton, Scott Hartnell and Jeff Carter. Leighton seems certain to undergo surgery for his issues while Hartnell and Carter will know if they need to do the same on Friday.

Combine those wounded players with a banged up Chris Pronger and you have a rather bruised Broad Street Bullies bunch.

The juiciest story of the day revolves around Richards’ comment about CSN Philly’s Tim Panaccio, though. Richards reacted to a story Panaccio wrote about his relationship with coach Peter Laviolette, clearly upset by a line in which Richards was described as occasionally “moody and withdrawn.”

richiebashespanaccio

Panaccio’s response was pretty simple:

tpantochresponse

That seems like a fairly isolated situation, but some media members wonder if the Flyers should downgrade Richards from captain to alternate captain. Their reasoning is founded on his squabbles with the media (this isn’t his first moment of criticism with scribes from Philly and beyond) and questions about his ability to communicate.

Both Richards’ teammates and his general manager disagree with the sentiment.

Danny Briere told Chuck Gormley that people shouldn’t question Richards’ strength as a leader.

Q: We’ve talked a lot about Mike Richards over the last couple of days. Can you give us an idea of what it’s like for him, not only having to deal with some criticism, but what he’s like in a room and what you see in him?

“I think, first of all, it’s not warranted, the question about leadership. Questioning Mike Richards, I think that’s totally wrong there. I think Mike Richards is a great captain. He leads by example, by the way he plays, how hard he plays, and the way he sacrifices his body. There are not a lot of guys that do it as well as he does around the NHL, so honestly I think he is the captain for this team. It is well deserved. Honestly I don’t understand what all of this talk is about. I don’t understand it.”

Q: If the head coach can’t communicate as well, won’t that affect the team in some way if he can’t communicate as well with his captain?

“That’s been between the coach and Mike. I am not aware of that, I wasn’t aware of that until Peter said that. That is something that needs to be resolved between them. Obviously, if there not getting along then is probably a little difficult for either party to…For Mike to let the coach know how the room feels and for the coach to let Mike know what he expects of his leader. It’s not just Mike when I say that, but the leaders around me while leading the team. Obviously, it’s not good if that’s the case. Like I said, I was never aware of that. I never saw anything to lead me to believe that before.”


Flyers GM Paul Holmgren was also quick to dismiss the criticism and rumors, as you can see from the video footage of his rather amusing press conference.
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Now that you’ve heard the Flyers side of the argument, do you think Richards should remain the captain in Philadelphia? Let us know in the comments.