I can't believe I had this reaction when I found out about this bit of news. And yes, it still baffles me up to now. I'm not a Flyers fan!!! When I woke up that June 23rd morning, I immediately logged on to my twitter account knowing that there might be some trade news. And boy was I shocked to see a hockey player (not from Philly) saying he was kinda surprised with the Richards and Carter trades. Well, Richards is a common name and there's more than 1 Richards in the NHL. But when you put Richards and Carter in the same sentence, you'll know that it's definitely a Flyers news. I had to scroll some more and look for more informative posts. I think I kinda found a link and there I found out about Philly trading Mike Richards to LA Kings. I'm not gonna elaborate on that because I know every hockey fan have heard about it by now.
The first thought that came to mind was... I'm not surprised about Carter because I've heard rumors about him about getting traded a couple of months ago. Although I must admit I haven't really found out which teams were interested in him. Carter is a rare commodity in the NHL, so I guess there's more than 1 team interested. However, I never heard any rumors about the Flyers' captain Mike Richards. I'm thinking, am I the only one shocked here? I've always thought of Mike Richards as the face of the Flyers. Yeah, others think it is Jeff Carter. So anyway, it doesn't really matter now, does it? So again, I'm thinking... why? Maybe it's a salary dump. Maybe it's because they got eliminated by Boston in the 2nd round of the playoffs, and mind you, it's a sweep. I don't think anyone predicted that. Maybe the management doesn't think that Mike Richards could lead the Flyers to the Cup. Never ever? In the beginning of the 2010-2011 season, I've always thought that LA and Philadelphia would go far in the playoffs. (Don't mind my bad predictions, I'm not good at it) Again, look at how the Flyers played against the Blackhawks in the 2010 Stanley Cup Finals. And of course, we all remember that win against Boston from a 3-0 deficit in the second round of the playoffs in that same year. I think Mike Richards has done a lot for the Flyers even if he may not be the highest scorer in the team. I also admired his performance in the 2010 Winter Olympics. The list goes on and on. So maybe he didn't have a very good performance last season. It came out that he was playing hurt the whole season and even got a surgery (hand) right after their exit from the playoffs. Is that an excuse, maybe, maybe not.
Like I said I thought that trading Carter and Richards are salary dumps. But after hearing that the Flyers were bidding for Brad Richards, that made me think. He's gonna cost at least the same as Mike, right? Probably even more. A few days after the trade, I listened to an interview ( a radio station in LA, sorry I don't have the link anymore ) and was very impressed with the interview. Mike Richards was very honest, saying he was extremely shocked to hear the news because he never really thought something like that would happen. Like what I was thinking before, there were no rumors about him getting traded. I think he even thought that Carter wouldn't be traded, saying management said that wouldn't happen. It seems like he's really disappointed and saying that he thought he would end his career as a Flyer. A reason he signed that long-term contract for less money. Yeah, way to go Mike! He also said that he was excited to go to LA because it is a good team...
I'm just rambling on and on, and I don't know if someone has an inside info on why this happened. Even if Ryan Miller referred to the Flyers (and I think he was specifically referring to Mike Richards) doing mass murder, I really like Mike Richards. I even have a Mike Richards Flyers shirt... so... Can we expect him to have an explosive season with the Kings next season?
The first thought that came to mind was... I'm not surprised about Carter because I've heard rumors about him about getting traded a couple of months ago. Although I must admit I haven't really found out which teams were interested in him. Carter is a rare commodity in the NHL, so I guess there's more than 1 team interested. However, I never heard any rumors about the Flyers' captain Mike Richards. I'm thinking, am I the only one shocked here? I've always thought of Mike Richards as the face of the Flyers. Yeah, others think it is Jeff Carter. So anyway, it doesn't really matter now, does it? So again, I'm thinking... why? Maybe it's a salary dump. Maybe it's because they got eliminated by Boston in the 2nd round of the playoffs, and mind you, it's a sweep. I don't think anyone predicted that. Maybe the management doesn't think that Mike Richards could lead the Flyers to the Cup. Never ever? In the beginning of the 2010-2011 season, I've always thought that LA and Philadelphia would go far in the playoffs. (Don't mind my bad predictions, I'm not good at it) Again, look at how the Flyers played against the Blackhawks in the 2010 Stanley Cup Finals. And of course, we all remember that win against Boston from a 3-0 deficit in the second round of the playoffs in that same year. I think Mike Richards has done a lot for the Flyers even if he may not be the highest scorer in the team. I also admired his performance in the 2010 Winter Olympics. The list goes on and on. So maybe he didn't have a very good performance last season. It came out that he was playing hurt the whole season and even got a surgery (hand) right after their exit from the playoffs. Is that an excuse, maybe, maybe not.
Like I said I thought that trading Carter and Richards are salary dumps. But after hearing that the Flyers were bidding for Brad Richards, that made me think. He's gonna cost at least the same as Mike, right? Probably even more. A few days after the trade, I listened to an interview ( a radio station in LA, sorry I don't have the link anymore ) and was very impressed with the interview. Mike Richards was very honest, saying he was extremely shocked to hear the news because he never really thought something like that would happen. Like what I was thinking before, there were no rumors about him getting traded. I think he even thought that Carter wouldn't be traded, saying management said that wouldn't happen. It seems like he's really disappointed and saying that he thought he would end his career as a Flyer. A reason he signed that long-term contract for less money. Yeah, way to go Mike! He also said that he was excited to go to LA because it is a good team...
I'm just rambling on and on, and I don't know if someone has an inside info on why this happened. Even if Ryan Miller referred to the Flyers (and I think he was specifically referring to Mike Richards) doing mass murder, I really like Mike Richards. I even have a Mike Richards Flyers shirt... so... Can we expect him to have an explosive season with the Kings next season?
