UPDATE 9:30 AM EDT
The Flyers announced this morning that Peter Laviolette has been fired as the Flyers' head coach. Craig Berube has been named the new head coach. It is NOT an interim title. The Flyers have agreed to a multi-year deal with Berube.
Am I surprised by the decision to lower the ax on Laviolette? Not at all. What I do question is why this move was not made at the end of last season when there was a plethora of desirable candidates available.
All coaches have a shelf life. Peter Laviolette is a good coach and his overall career record in Philly was a good one. He got the team to a Stanley Cup Final in 2010, followed by a pair of 100-plus point seasons and an upset playoff victory over Pittsburgh in 2012.
Even so, other teams adjusted to playing the Flyers and the counter-adjustments were simply lacking. The Flyers were unceremoniously swept by Boston in the second round of the 2011 playoffs, and then tried to add size to the back line to better cope with big opposing forwards. The next year, they got knocked out in five by New Jersey in the second round, because they couldn't handle the Devils' forechecking, defensive discipline and transitional play. Last year,in a 48-game season, the Flyers missed the playoffs entirely.
Was the personnel ill-suited to execute Laviolette's system or was the coach himself too inflexible to make sufficient tweaks to win with the roster he had? It is probably some of both.
Entering the preseason, despite a public vote of confidence in Laviolette from upper management, it was clear that the team needed to get off to a decent start for the coach to last the season. When the team went 1-5-1 in the preseason, followed by 0-3-0 to start the regular season, it was only a matter of when (not if) Laviolette would be fired.
Ironically enough, Laviolette coached his final game behind the Flyers' bench in Carolina. Laviolette led the Hurricanes to their only Stanley Cup in franchise history but then was steadily tuned out by his team.
When Laviolette was
fired by the Hurricanes on Dec. 4, 2008, general manager Jim Rutherford intimated that Laviolette's players stopped buying in to his hard-driving style of coaching. Rutherford's words sound rather prophetic to where the Flyers are right now, but also reflect the inevitable way the pendulum swings for all head coaches.
"It's really not about the last four or five games," Rutherford said. "It's about changing to get the chemistry back on our team, to get the confidence back on our team and make what I would say minor adjustments in a system that really worked in the Stanley Cup year. But teams have adjusted to it, and our team hasn't adjusted over the last couple of years."
Throughout the preseason and the first three games of the 2013-14 regular season, the Flyers had the look of a lost team. They looked like a team that was not competing properly for its coach or for one another.
Are there flaws in the Flyers roster? Probably. It should also be said that teams with less on-paper talent have made the postseason. However, I think there are still roster adjustments needed to add a little more mobility to the blueline, and both a little more speed and a little more grit up front.
One thing I know for sure about Berube is this: He hates to lose every bit as much as Laviolette does and is just as intense. The "Chief" is not going to be afraid to make players with whom he's unhappy quite aware of that fact.
I don't know yet what kind of style of play Berube will prefer. However, he's been in charge of the penalty kill for a few years, and it has been a team strength (even in the early going of this season). He played in 1,000 NHL games as an enforcer and checker, so he understands the concept of paying the price to succeed.
Whether that will help translate to more wins or not, we shall see. A coaching change alone isn't a panacea but this move was probably overdue. That's not a knock on Laviolette. It's just the nature of the business.
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GAME-IN-REVIEW: HURRICANES 2 - FLYERS 1
It is bad enough that the Philadelphia Flyers have started out the 2013-14 regular season with an 0-3-0 record after losing, 2-1, to the Carolina Hurricanes on Sunday. Three-game stumbles can happen to any team, but is the WAY these Flyers lose games that is most disturbing. Coupled with the club's 1-5-1 preseason record and missing the playoffs last year, there is reason to be concerned.
Last night's game in Raleigh saw the Flyers, who have scored just one goal in each of the first three games, struggle to generate back-to-back productive shifts. Players weren't moving their feet, and Carolina dictated the play for far too much of the night. The Flyers could not cope with the speedier Hurricanes players, especially Jeff Skinner. Despite being credited with a whopping 46 hits and preventing odd-man rushes, Philly could not generate nearly enough offensive zone possession time.
On some nights, shot totals are deceptive. Not last night. The Flyers got outshot by a 34-18 margin, with a 60-40 differential in attempted shots. Much of that differential was reflective of a lopsided first period, in which the ice was tilted.
In terms of positives that can be taken from the game, I can think of only a few.
1) Goaltender Steve Mason, despite allowing a soft goal in the first period, kept his team in the game and shrugged off the adversity of the bad one that sneaked between his pads.
2) The Flyers second line of Vincent Lecavalier, Matt Read and Wayne Simmonds continues to be the club's most effective line at five-on-five. Lecavalier was especially impressive and has easily been the club's top forward in the first three games.
Lecavalier's unit had two shifts in particular where they hemmed the Canes in deep for an extended period of time. There was one late in the first period in which Philly eventually completed a full line change and continued to forecheck. The Flyers need a lot more of that from all of their lines.
3) As the game progressed, the Flyers started to show some snarl and aggression. They may not have always done it in the most disciplined way -- three of the four penalties the team took were of the frustration variety -- but at least the team also started to make an effort to make an opponent pay a physical price for real estate.
In the second period and isolated moments in the third period, the Flyers started to go hard to the net. Scott Hartnell had a couple shifts where he tried to create havoc in front of Anton Khudobin, and Max Talbot was lurking near the net when Luke Schenn scored the Flyers' lone goal of the game. There was a shift where Matt Read made a strong inside cut toward the net as he circled out with the puck from the corner.
Apart from Lecavalier, it was "energy" players such as Zac Rinaldo (10 hits, three blocked shots, drew a penalty on Carolina and stayed out of the box himself) and Kris Newbury (four hits and an assist off a faceoff win in 10 shifts and 6:52 of ice time) who made the biggest positive impact among Flyers forwards last night.
If the Flyers are to start scoring goals, especially at five-on-five, they are going to need those sorts of plays with greater consistency. There hasn't been nearly enough of it, especially in that Montreal game.
Perhaps the most memorable moment of last night's game came at 5:08 of the third period. Nicklas Grossmann obliterated Patrick Dwyer (and nearly Mason as well) with a heavy cross check into the net as Dwyer set up shop on the doorstep.
Was it a blatant penalty? Of course. Was a very bad one to take down by a goal in the third period? No question.
On the other hand, coming off a game in Montreal where small Habs forwards buzzed the net with impunity and given the way the same thing happened in the earlier stages of last night's game, I didn't mind that a Flyers' player showed that he was getting sick and tired of it, too. Dwyer seemed OK afterward, and the Flyers were able to kill off the minor.
Frustration penalties are counterproductive. However, so is getting outnumbered around your own net. As far as the negatives from last night go, there are a slew of those.
The Flyers continually have problems moving the puck up the ice. On the whole, neither the defense nor the forwards show much speed or creativity (with a few exceptions). No one moves their feet. For the most part, I think the Flyers have defended their own zone reasonably well from a positional standpoint, but exiting the zone is a problem that often leads to transitional chances off forced and unforced turnovers.
Additionally, there are many instances where opponents -- all three the Flyers have faced to date as well as others they played during the preseason -- have had a lot of success on their forecheck. Blame the defensemen all you want, but where is the safety valve forward on many of these plays?
If the stretch pass isn't there, string a couple of shorter passes together. If you can't carry the puck over the blueline, wrap it around or flip it in softy and get your feet moving. Don't let opponents generate speed through the neutral zone, which forces the defensemen (who get blamed for it) to back into the zone.
That is all fundamental hockey. The Flyers struggle to do that, and it's NOT a new problem.
Additionally, I cannot help but wonder if Voracek's back and Claude Giroux's hand are fully healthy yet. Both players seem off their games thus far. Giroux's legs are fine but his shooting still seems weak compared to his norm. Voracek's extra skating gear isn't there thus far.
STARTING LINEUPS: ACTUAL VS. PROJECTED
The Flyers juggled three of their four starting line from the first two games. Voracek moved back to his accustomed spot on Giroux's right wing, and Brayden Schenn rotated down to the third line. This switch had been made in the latter portions of each of the first two games but not for the majority of shifts in the Toronto and Montreal games.
Enforcer Jay Rosehill was a healthy scratch last night, after dressing in the first two games of the season. Newbury started for the first time. Meanwhile, Talbot dropped from the third line left wing spot to the fourth line. Rinaldo moved up to the third line right wing spot, with Brayden Schenn on the left wing.
The Flyers skated seven defensemen in the warmup, with Erik Gustafsson participating. However, the starting defense pairings ultimately remained the same as the first two games. There was some juggling of pairings as the game went along, partially due to penalties and partially due to Peter Laviolette trying to make some adjustments.
FLYERS
19 Scott Hartnell - 28 Claude Giroux - 93 Jakub Voracek
24 Matt Read- 40 Vincent Lecavalier - 17 Wayne Simmonds
10 Brayden Schenn - 14 Sean Couturier - 36 Zac Rinaldo
25 Max Talbot - 45 Kris Newbury - 18 Adam Hall
44 Kimmo Timonen - 5 Braydon Coburn
32 Mark Streit - 22 Luke Schenn
8 Nicklas Grossmann - 41 Andrej Meszaros
35 Steve Mason
[29 Ray Emery]
Hurricanes
19 Jiri Tlusty - 12 Eric Staal - 28 Alexander Semin
14 Nathan Gerbe - 11 Jordan Staal - 39 Pat Dwyer
53 Jeff Skinner - 20 Riley Nash - 18 Radek Dvorak
42 Brett Sutter - 16 Elias Lindholm - 21 Drayson Bowman
27 Justin Faulk - 4 Andrej Sekera
73 Brett Bellemore - 65 Ron Hainsey
44 Jay Harrison - 7 Ryan Murphy
31 Anton Khudobin
[30 Cam Ward]
FIRST PERIOD: Key moments
Much like Saturday night's game in Montreal, the Flyers had trouble coping with the speedy and skilled players on Carolina's forward corps. Skinner in particular turned the Flyers' defensemen and forwards inside out on several occasions.
Despite the entire period being played at even strength, the Flyers got outshot by a 17-5 margin. Physical play was NOT the issue. The Flyers were finishing their checks and got credited with a whopping 20 hits in this period alone, but it had zero effect on puck possession.
Mason came up big several times for the Flyers in this period, but also gifted Carolina a weak goal on the only tally for either side in this stanza. At the 8:11 mark, Jay Harrison's routine point shot squeezed between Mason's pads and dribbled into the net. There was light traffic in front but Mason saw the shot and had the angle. Ryan Murphy and Skinner drew the assists.
Perhaps the most frustrating aspect of the opening period was the fact that Carolina's team defense didn't seem to be doing anything special. There were seams. The Flyers just couldn't find them.
After getting dominated for about the first 15 minutes of the period, the Flyers showed a forechecking pulse. The Lecavalier line generated arguably the best shift of the season to date, although they didn't score. The Flyers drew a bit of momentum from it and closed out the period solidly.
Just as the first period was about to end, the Flyers had an odd man rush. Hartnell got the puck from Giroux and, realizing he had to get the puck off immediately, fired a shot on net. Khudobin knocked it aside as the buzzer sounded.
1st period stats
ATTEMPTED SHOTS: Flyers 12 - Carolina 28
SHOTS ON GOAL: Flyers 5 - Carolina 17
BLOCKS: Flyers 4 - Carolina 2
MISSED SHOTS: Flyers 5 - Carolina 7
POWERPLAYS: FLYERS 0-for-0, Carolina 0-for-0
FACEOFFS: Flyers won 7 of 17, 41%
CREDITED HITS: Flyers 20 (six for Rinaldo, three for Grossmann) - Carolina 10
CHARGED GIVEAWAYS: Flyers 4 - Carolina 2
CREDITED TAKEAWAYS: Flyers 4 - Carolina 5
2nd PERIOD: KEY MOMENTS
This was the Flyers' best period of the game, especially over the first eight minutes. Building on what they began to establish late in the opening stanza, Philly generated its best sustained forechecking pressure of the game during this segment. Forwards tried to jam the net and, in general, the team moved the puck and their feet.
At 3:01, the Flyers got rewarded. Newbury won a left circle faceoff back to Luke Schenn. With Talbot going to the net and the Carolina defense giving him plenty of room, the big defenseman skated to the bottom of the circle and snapped off a shot that found the net for his first goal of the season. It was also the team's first even-strength goal of the young season and the first tally by a defenseman.
After a brief replay delay to ensure the puck entered the net legally on the Luke Schenn goal, play resumed. Philly carried the majority of the play until disaster struck. This time, Luke Schenn was the goat.
From a stationary position behind the Flyers' net, Schenn tried to go up the middle on a breakout pass intended for Sean Couturier. The pass deflected off Skinner's skate and right into the medium slot, where an alert Radek Dvorak picked it off and picked a spot. He roofed an unstoppable shot over Mason at the 8:20 mark. Skinner was credited with an assist and Schenn was NOT charged with a giveaway by the official scorers, but that one was on the Flyers' defenseman.
On the next shift after the Dvorak goal, Voracek took a hooking penalty. The Flyers killed off the minor but could not regain control of the flow of play once even-strength play resumed. Neither side could sustain much momentum for the remainder of the period, but the Canes looked like the better team on the whole over the latter 10 minutes.
Philly had its first power play of the game late in the period on a Jordan Staal roughing penalty at 17:52. They were unable to capitalize.
2nd period stats - Period (40-min totals)
ATTEMPTED SHOTS: Flyers 16 (28) - Carolina 21 (51)
SHOTS ON GOAL: Flyers 10 (15) - Carolina 10 (27)
BLOCKS: Flyers 8 (12) - Carolina 4 (6)
MISSED SHOTS: Flyers 2 (7) - Carolina 8 (12)
POWERPLAYS: FLYERS 0-for-1 (0-for-1), Carolina 0-for-1 (0-for-1)
FACEOFFS: Flyers won 13 of 25
CREDITED HITS: Flyers 10 (30) - Carolina 10 (20)
CHARGED GIVEAWAYS: Flyers 1 (5) - Carolina 3 (5)
CREDITED TAKEAWAYS: Flyers 0 (4) - Carolina 2 (7)
3rd PERIOD: KEY MOMENTS
The Flyers were plenty physical in the third period, just as they were in the first 40 minutes of the game. Alas, it produced little in the way of offensive zone pressure or scoring opportunities.
Down by a goal, the Flyers had to kill off a pair of penalties on the aforementioned Grossmann crosscheck and a questionable boarding penalty called against Andrej Meszaros, which canceled out the remaining 38 seconds of Philly's second power play of the game. Rinaldo created that man advantage opportunity, drawing a retaliatory high stick by Alexander Semin as Rinaldo followed through on a hit.
Carolina, which blew a lead in the third period of its opening night game against Detroit, had little trouble slamming the door on the Flyers. Philly pulled Mason for an extra attacker but did not even come close to scoring.
The Hurricanes skated off with a 2-1 win, and the Flyers fell to 0-3-0 on the season.
3rd PERIOD STATS: Period (Final Totals)
ATTEMPTED SHOTS: Flyers 12 (41) - Carolina 9 (59)
SHOTS ON GOAL: Flyers 10 (32) - Carolina 7 (34)
BLOCKS: Flyers 2 (14) - Carolina 5 (11)
MISSED SHOTS: Flyers 4 (11) - Carolina 0 (12)
POWERPLAYS: FLYERS 0-for-1 (0-for-2), Carolina 0-for-2 (0-for-3)
FACEOFFS: Flyers won 4 of 18 (overall 24 for 56, 43 percent; Hall led with 3-for-5)
CREDITED HITS: Flyers 16 (46, Rinaldo led with 10) - Carolina 9 (29)
CHARGED GIVEAWAYS: Flyers 0 (5) - Carolina 1 (6)
CREDITED TAKEAWAYS: Flyers 3 (7) - Carolina 2 (9)
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OFFICIAL THREE STAR SELECTION (Fox Sports South)
1. Jeff Skinner - Carolina
2. Radek Dvorak - Carolina
3. Ryan Murphy - Carolina
My THREE- STAR SELECTION
1. Jeff Skinner - Carolina
2. Steve Mason - Flyers
3. Ron Hainsey - Carolina
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VIDEO HIGHLIGHTS
NHL.com
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NEXT GAME: Flyers host the Florida Panthers on Tuesday at the Wells Fargo Center. With the team off to an 0-3-0 start and playing for the third time in three cities in four nights, Philadelphia will not practice on Monday.
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ANOTHER BIG GAME FOR LAUGHTON
Looking for a bright side to what has thus far been a horrendous start to the season? Scott Laughton has played like he's possessed ever since the Flyers made the decision to return him to the OHL's Oshawa Generals for further seasoning.
Last night, the Flyers' first-round pick in the 2012 NHL Draft struck for a power play goal, a power play assist and an even strength assist in Oshawa's 4-1 win over the Guelph Storm. He also provided strong defense, especially in the third period. In the process, Laughton more than acquitted himself for taking a pair of bad penalties in the first period; the first of which led to a Guelph power play goal that opened the scoring.
In his three games since returning to the Ontario Hockey League, Laughton has nine points on three goals and six assists.
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