Are the Flyers Beyond Saving? Drawing Upon Lessons From the Past
Soon after the shortened 2021 NHL season plans were released, I wrote that no team could afford to fall into a slump if they have any intention of making the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Twenty-six fewer games is a massive discrepancy when compared to the standard 82-game schedule. As a result, I sit here today with a very negative outlook for the remainder of the year.
I try to be as optimistic as possible, as there have been situations where teams have been able to do a full 180 to go on a run later in the season- as I will discuss later. However, many of those cases occurred in a standard, non-shortened season where there was plenty of restraint allowed before hitting the panic button.
So, after Chuck Fletcher’s words today, where does the team stand? Is it really possible to avoid total collapse?
Fletcher assured reporters that at the moment, the team was not interested in being sellers at the deadline. He also reinforced the well-known fact that the team is in the hunt for defensive help, and they will be aggressive in making moves to improve the blue line.
Some may say I am stuck in the past, but I think it is important to draw upon lessons learned from the past. Above all, teams who have changed for the better have had a major shakeup at some point, typically around halfway through the year.
Here, I am not calling for any coach replacement, as I think much of the Flyers’ freefall has been to on-ice deficiencies rather than coaching issues. However, it is clear that the team needs a major jolt to change the tides; if Oskar Lindblom fighting against the #1 team in the NHL wasn’t enough to get it done, I’m not sure what will be.
Photo: The New York Times
In the 2009-2010 season, the team entered the year with +1400 odds to win the Stanley Cup but would sink much lower. John Stevens would be fired after an embarrassing trip out West and was replaced by Peter Laviolette. The post-Stevens era began dismally with a 2-7-1 record, and things appeared to still be sour. Injuries began to stack up, including to the late Ray Emery, and the team seemed destined to be in the basement of the league. The team began to battle back slowly and would inch into the playoffs as the seventh-seed in the memorable shootout in the final game of the season; a moment etched into Flyers fans’ memory everywhere. No matter the injury or the hurdle in the way, this team found a way to overcome and succeed while still falling short of the Cup. Also, keep in mind that the team stayed relatively quiet at the deadline; they did pick up Ville Leino, who ended up breaking rookie records and becoming a pivotal, under-the-radar contributor.
I wouldn’t expect the Flyers to be as quiet this year, as they have clearly made a commitment to making some big splashes. If that doesn’t happen, though, some quieter role players could make a large difference. Whether it was the coaching change or some internal resolutions, the Flyers clearly were woken up halfway through the season and changed for the better.
The St. Louis Blues were facing an even dire situation in 2018-19 before winning the cup, beginning the new year with a league-worst record which led to the firing of Head Coach Mike Yeo. The team was near extinction and faced public internal strife when a video surfaced of a fight ensuing at a team practice. How did they turn it around? Much of the success could be attributed to the incredible play of rookie goaltender Jordan Binnington, though certainly the team was jolted awake after replacing their head coach. There was also plenty of veteran leadership in the room with guys like Jay Bouwmeester, Ryan O’Reilly, and Robert Bortuzzo, among others.
Whatever the true reason was, the Blues were a concrete example of “worst-to-first.” They ended up living up to their pre-season expectations despite falling into a nearly insurmountable hole.
Do the Flyers need a coaching change?
Does the front office need to send shockwaves into the locker room by trading a veteran like Jake Voracek, who certainly has a contract that, by unloading, would open up opportunities for the team down the line?
Do they need to target the big fish this deadline (Ekholm, Ellis, etc.) in the hopes for a mid-season, win-now resurgence, or add depth pieces for future years? The answer is not clear, as the team has failed repeatedly to follow up horrific performances with bounce backs.
The next two weeks will be pivotal, and in this most unconventional year, we are approaching a now-or-never moment of truth.
Featured Image: The New York Times
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