Peter Laviolette was on 97.5 The Fanatic with Mike Missanelli this afternoon, and he talked about the whole “Dry Island” thing that blew up this morning with Mike Richards and Jeff Carter. I’m paraphrasing here because I only heard the interview live and don’t have a transcript, but it’s nice that he provided a bit of context around the situation.
Let’s revert back to December 2009, when the Flyers were at the bottom of the league and in desperate need of a quick turnaround. Laviolette said that he asked (note: not a demand or an order) everybody on the team — whether it’s somebody having a casual glass of wine with dinner or a guy going out to a bar on a Friday night — to curtail the alcohol use. It was about discipline at a time of the year and a point in the season when the Flyers absolutely needed to be 100 percent focused on the task at hand: getting back into respectability, let alone striking distance of the playoffs.
I get the sense that a lot of people looked at the original report from the Daily News this morning, and the idea of the “Dry Island,” as the manifestation of Peter Laviolette’s displeasure with the drinking and the partying of Richards and Carter. From what he said on the radio today, that’s not even close to true. It was just a way to help get everybody back on track and focused.
Granted, Laviolette did dance around some of the questions in the interview, but frankly, I don’t blame him at all. This whole thing is total BS and really, it should end right here. It’s getting old, and I still don’t believe for a second that Mike Richards and Jeff Carter enjoying themselves at a bar on off nights is the reason they were traded. It’s an insane idea and one that we really need to stop perpetuating — like, right now. Unless somebody can honestly sit there with a straight face and believe that — then, by all means, go right ahead.
Sometimes, what happens in the locker room is best staying in the locker room. As long as these guys are performing on the ice, who really gives two shits? We’re a bunch of hypocrites for caring about this stuff.
