Flying the Coop

The Philadelphia Flyers are one of the longest tenured organizations in the NHL. They have rich history of success and don't sit around waiting when expectations aren't met. Clearly. This lead to the firing of head coach Peter Laviolette a mere three games into the NHL season. The Flyers revamped in the off season bringing in talented veterans Vincent Lecavalier and Mark Streit to help improve upon a very disappointing 2013 season. Well, an 0-3 start, goaltending issues and a complete lack of goal scoring and, you get the idea.

Peter Laviolette is a good head coach. He won a cup in Carolina in 2006 and lead the Flyers to the finals in 2010 where they lost to the Blackhawks. That said, something clearly isn't right with this organization and the writing seemed to be on the wall. A quick look at their roster and even the most casual fan would realize that they should be a much more competitive team. Injuries played a big role in last season's struggles but they are now healthy and have the talent to be a force in the Eastern Conference, or at the very least not the doormat they've become.

The top lines have talent like captain Claude Giroux, a better than point a game player over the last few seasons, Maxim Talbot, Jakob Voracek, Wayne Simmonds, Sean Couturier, Scott Hartnell and the aforementioned Lecavalier, so why haven't they been able to generate offense? Through three games they've scored a paltry three goals. Guys living in their grandma's basements have less trouble closing the deal. With their roster and high priced talent something had to give and as is usually the case it's the guy steering the ship.

Assistant coach Craig Berube was given the reins as new bench boss and it will be up to him to get things moving in a more positive direction, quickly I'd imagine. Ed Snyder was prickly with the media when asked about why they didn't go outside the organization, as the Flyers like the Edmonton Oilers have a long history of keeping things in house ie: Ron Hextall, John Paddock, Bobby Clarke, etc. when it comes to staffing positions. Nepotism aside it seems the time had come for chance and as Berube told Hockey Central at Noon they need to start working better together as a team in order to have success. He reiterated that the overall team game wasn't good enough and that's where their biggest problems lie. Time will tell if they are able to correct this or if it will be the roster that is shuffled in order to accomplish this. The press conference with GM Paul Holmgren was that of a frustrated and disappointed group who seemed to be looking for answers they didn't have. The Flyers have been successful and should be with this lineup so it's understandable that management wasn't happy with the way things were going.

Whatever the case, you know the fans in Philly want to see evidence of progress, and soon. For a city know as that of 'Brotherly Love' they seem to have no problem showing people the way out of town.