The announcement made on the Flyers' new goalie should have come on April 1, instead of July 1.

What a joke!

The Flyers are now in serious trouble between the pipes. Last year, the Flyers had the best team goals-against-average in the league. I'll bet a bag of donuts they have the worst goals against average this year for a Flyers team since the days of Tommy Soderstrom.

I don't want to be too hard on Soderstrom, hockey's answer to Bobby Hoying. He was young when he posted his 3.66 goals-against- average in 71 games for the Flyers in the 90's.

But we have a different problem now, with the acquisition of the 30-year-old Jeff Hackett, who apparently will be the Flyers' starter. In Soderstrom we had horrible numbers, but hope. In Hackett we have terrible numbers and no prayer. I bet Hackett or goalie Robert Esche will be traded by the trade deadline next season.

Hackett has been in the NHL since 1988 and has played for five teams - the New York Islanders, Chicago Blackhawks, San Jose Sharks, Boston Bruins and Montreal Canadians. Despite the fact that he has played for two successful and historical franchises -- the Canadians and Bruins - he has never, that's right, never, won one stinking, lousy playoff series. Not one.

His career goals-against-average is around 3. Asking him to contend for a cup is like asking Mike Tyson to write a thesis on the correlation of Shakespeare's writing to today's society. Ain't gonna happen!

Hackett is 156-234-50 lifetime with a 2.93 GAA a .902 save percentage.

Hackett had his best year of 1996-97, when he posted a 2.16 GAA in 41 games with Chicago. But 14 seasons into his career, he's 3-7 lifetime in the playoffs with a 3.5 GAA. Yikes!

The man he replaces, Roman Cechmanek, had a 33-15-10 record in 58 regular season games last season and a 1.83 GAA.

Cechmanek had a career GAA of 1.96, lowest among goalies with at least 150 regular season games since 1943-44. He has 20 career shutouts.

Hackett has played 11 more seasons, but only has three more shutouts than Cechmanek. That says it all.

Cechmanek also has more playoff series wins - one.

I was baffled by the acquisition of Hackett. I thought Clarke would pull through again this year with a blockbuster move like he usually does and get us a goalie that can win a cup.

When Detroit picked up Dominik Hasek's option, I thought for sure the Flyers would pick up Curtis Joseph somehow, maybe by unloading some of the slumping veterans.

Even that trade kind of scared me, because Joseph failed to get a great team passed the first round last year and has never been to a Stanley Cup Final.

But now, comparing Hackett to Joseph is like comparing Rosanne to Ashley Judd in a beauty competition. It's so disappointing.

Esche held his own as a back-up last year, compiling a 12-9-3 record and a 2.20 GAA in 30 games Flyers. But he needs major agility work. He seemed to look sluggish as the game went on and that's when he was playing less than half of the season. If he's to be the man, because trust me Hackett won't be, he's going to have to mature.

But the silver lining here is that with Hackett as the
Flyers' goalie, the 25-year-old Esche will have time to mature and maybe he'll be ready to battle for a cup by next year. Some goalies just need time - look at Jean-Sebastien Giguere last season. He couldn't win a starting position with the lowly Calgary Flames the year before, but matured and took the Ducks to the Stanley Cup Finals.

I think former Flyers Goalie Brian Boucher could have been one of the best goalies in the league if he was brought in more slowly. The mental aspect of the game is so much more intense for goalies, because they're the last line of defense. If they burn out early, look out.

So maybe Clarke is doing something good, by slowly developing Esche instead of throwing his feet to the fire this year. I do have faith in Clarke.

The Flyers underachieve every year, but Clarke does a great job of producing a roster that could potentially win the cup. Usually.

Clarke's decisions and moves last year got the Flyers into the second round for the first time since 2000 and for only the second time in six seasons.

Gone from the 2001-2002 roster are one-dimensional and soft players such as Adam Oates and Jiri Dopita.

In are grinders like Claude LaPointe and Tony Amonte, who can also score.

Out is former coach Bill Barber, who didn't even practice special teams all of last season.

In is a one-time Stanley Cup winning coach – Ken Hitchcock, who realizes that special teams win playoff series.

Clarke signed Hitchcock after the 2002 first round exit despite the fact that several other teams wanted him. It mirrored the free agent signing of Jeremy Roenick the year before.

Defensemen Eric Weinrich and Kim Johnsson, both acquired last year, were also huge for the Flyers last year.

Johnsson, acquired by Clarke two summers ago in the Lindros trade, had the most jump of any player on the ice in the series against Toronto last year. Johnsson, who didn't show up on the radar screen until he was in a Flyers uniform, dominated defensively in the series and was the Flyers best power play player. Good eye Clarke.

Johnsson's vision and quick shots (wrist shots, not slap shots) at the point on the power play created many scoring opportunities. Meanwhile an overweight and undetermined Lindros, who was acquired by former Flyers GM Russ Farwell in 1992, now a New York Ranger missed the playoffs again.

Dmitry Yushkevich and Sami Kapanen were also big pickups.

But you can add big name forwards and defensemen until you're blue in the face. In hockey, the number one tool towinning the cup is goaltending. We saw that this year in the finals, which matched the NHL's best goalie, Martin Brodeur of the Devils against the NHL's hottest goalie at the time, Giguere.

Unless Esche develops before May, kiss the Flyers' Stanley Cup chances good-bye for this season. But if Esche is actually given time to mature, and Clarke continues to add talented forwards and defensemen to the roster, they might be a contender on the ice, not just on paper, in the very near future.

If you have any questions, suggestions, or want to contribute please send e-mail to feedback@geoclan.com.