Photo Credit: Jared Silber/NHLI via Getty Images
The Philadelphia Flyers are in a spiral. After a seven game losing streak the fanbase is up in arms and the team seems to be out of answers. After such a promising offseason and high hopes that the team could once again be consistently competitive, the wheels have begun to fall off. While last season the team couldn’t stop the opposition from scoring goals on them, now they can’t seem to buy a goal as they have not scored more than 3 goals in the last fifteen games. There doesn’t seem to be much hope for the orange and black if they cannot score more goals than the opposition.
The most recent loss to the New York Rangers was more of the same as the team went down 3-0 in the seconds into the second period and was never able to recover. Even after a five minute major powerplay, the team was unable to get a crucial goal to swing the momentum. Instead they continued to prove how ineffective and detrimental their powerplay has been all season. Once a position of strength for the Flyers, has now turned into a disastrous momentum stopper as they are constantly shut down with the man advantage. This is shocking considering the decade’s best powerplay producer has been Claude Giroux. It’s difficult to fathom where the team would be without him at this point.
Not only has the team been struggling mightily, but it also seems that Chuck Fletcher had his own disastrous press conference that was riddled with insecurity and inaccuracies showing the fan base, that for now, he is complacent in the losing streak. Scared to be reactive after a strong off-season, Fletcher now stares down the difficult decision of firing the head coach, Alain Vignault, and his staff after two season of mediocrity and inconsistency. Despite the frustration of the fanbase, there is talent here. There are pieces here to battle for playoff position. That must be the most frustrating part about this. On paper this is the best the squad has looked in years, yet the results on the ice are not there. Even with the injuries, the team should have enough talent to score more than two goals a game.
On this episode of Gettin Gritty Wit It, I welcome Vasili Gianarakos from the Flyers Nitty Gritty team. Vasili lives in Toronto, but happened to grow up as a Flyers fan in hockey mecca, something I think we all can agree on is a good idea and respectable. Vasili is very knowledgeable about the game and brings his critical thinking skills to the show. You will see more of his work release over the upcoming months, but he has been writing consistently. Check out this straight to the point episode of the Flyers strong start to the NHL regular season.
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IMHO you guys nailed it. You asked the right questions and came up with imho the right answers.