Photo Credit: Amedeo Grassia
When Chuck Fletcher took over as the General Manager of the Flyers, he envisioned a long-term commitment to the Draft, while preaching a swift moving rebuild. Fletcher is committed to keeping prospects, but wants to win asap. He originally inherited a young Flyers team, to which he has flipped them into one of the most oldest teams in a matter of one offseason.
One would think this veteran presence heavy team would be consistent, but they are anything but consistent. For that main reason yesterday Fletcher fired former Head Coach Alain Vigneault and he relieved Michel Therrien of his duties as Assistant Coach of the Power Play Unit. In Vigneault’s place Mike Yeo will serve as the interim Head Coach temporarily. Most Flyers fans are asking at this moment, why did Yeo get saved over Therrien, why didn’t Fletcher fire the whole coaching staff?
Why was Michel Therrien so reluctant to go with what worked in the past with this Flyers team on the Power Play (PP)? This unit has struggled mightily throughout Therrien’s tenure, so predictability should go out the window. How many more games had to go by until Therrien finally saw the light that he should reunite faces that worked together in the past back together? It’s bad when the Head Coach Alain Vigneault says he should have “Denied” the man advantage at one point during his tenure.
Therrien Inherited a power play that was ranked 24th in the league (17.09% success rate) the year before he began his tenure with the Flyers. He tried to make the power play less predictable during his first year, and it was up and down like a roller coaster, as it was ranked as low as 22nd at one point. However, the Flyers figured things out and settled with the 14th best power play in the league with the success rate of 20.89%.
However, the power play dictated to Flyers fate in his second season, as it was up and down like a roller coaster once again going from one of the worst in the league, and settling for the 18th best power play in the league at a success rate of 19.16%. moreover, the Flyers finished one game away from the Eastern Conference Finals, but their power play was horrible. They settled with the second worst power play in the playoffs going 4-52 in the bubble with a success rate of 7.89%. If the Flyers had a successful power play unit that playoffs, they could have made a serious run for the Stanley Cup.
It just isn’t good enough to make the Flyers a contender, and that’s exactly what they were supposed to be that training camp following the playoffs in the bubble. However, the Flyers started out their first 10 games to the 2021-22 season strong, but their power play has been abysmal, and that is one reason why the Flyers endured in aching losing streak to end the Vigneault and Therrien era. These two were glued to the hip, as Vigneault said “I’m the big guy, I call the shots” when explaining the lackluster power play a few weeks ago to the media. Therrien finished with the 30th worst power play in the league this season.
A change had to be made, but the stubborn Therrien was reluctant to make the necessary changes to better the power play and this Flyers team. However I thought it was odd that Fletcher back to the coaching staff to include the abysmal power play last week during his media availability:
“It’s interesting,” Chuck Fletcher said. “We haven’t had a good power play since ’14-‘15. That’s the last time. I think it’s six years, seven years. We’ve had a couple of 14th place finishes, 17th, 18th and 24th. We were 14th in the first 10 games. We were 29th in the last 10 games. Power play since I’ve been here has been an everyday question and clearly going back to ’14-’15, it has been an everyday question here. It’s something personally, I think that way too much blame or even credit gets attached to the power play coach. I think there’s certainly things we can do. When I look at our power play right now, the biggest thing to me is just our entries. We’re really having a hard time entering. I think in-zone, we need to shoot the puck more. There are certain things we need to do, but when you can’t enter and successfully set up, you can’t shoot the puck because you’re not in there. We’re spending a lot of our power play going back retrieving pucks and coming down. The biggest thing to me that we have to fix right now, coaching is a part of it. A lot of it is execution and mindset. We have to find a way to enter the zone more successfully. That’s clearly something that’s dropped off for me the last year or two. In-zone, there’s up and down. I don’t think we’re getting enough shots, but yet the first 10 to me, there were signs of good things happening. In the last 10, nothing’s happening. We got to get it going. Again, it’s been an issue since I’ve been here every day, the power play. We talk about it internally. You guys ask about it. It’s spent seven years, so it’s something that probably goes above and beyond the coaching.”
Improvement
Inconsistencies got Vigneault and Therrien dismissed, rather improvement is how Mike Yeo is the last one standing from the Vigneault era. Yeo inherited a penalty kill that was the sixth worst in the league in 2018-19, with a success rate of 78.08%. In just one season, Yeo commanded the Flyers penalty kill to become a respectable unit that was the 11th best in the NHL at a rate of 81.90%. This is not surprising, as Yeo IS known to be a defensive first-minded coach.
However, the bad season that 2020-21 was, the Flyers penalty kill sank to the 30th ranked penalty kill at a rate of 73.05%. These numbers indicated how terrible a season it was, and just why the Flyers fell flat of making the playoffs while underachieving. At the accident reviews Fletcher blamed the struggling penalty kill on the losses to free agency of Nate Thompson and Tyler Pitlick most notably.
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There is a bright side, as Yeo has commanded a very respectable unit during this roller coaster of a season that 2021-22 apparently is. The Flyers sat with the 17th best penalty kill at a rate of 80.25% at the time of Vigneault’s and Therrien’s firings. This penalty kill unit of the Flyers are able to pressure their opponents, and they have become a threat while short-handed, as the Flyers had three short-handed goals at the time of the firings, as well.
Yeo may not be the greatest assistant coach, but he appeared to right the ship from the debacle that last season was, so much so Fletcher gave him kudos with last week’s media availability, “I look at the first 10 games, we were 6-2-2,” Fletcher said. “Goaltending was great. PK was good. Power play was 14th in the league, I think 21%. We weren’t perfect. We didn’t have the puck enough for me. We’re chasing a little bit that way, but we were defending well. Everything we talked about this summer, goaltending, defending, PK, competing, having the puck a little bit more.”
Goodbye Alain
Vigneault (NHL coaching record 714-479-35) was hired by Fletcher on April 15, 2019, as he formerly coached the Vancouver Canucks, Montreal Canadiens, and the New York Rangers. Vigneault eventually groomed Roberto Luongo, Kevin Hayes, and Henrik Lundqvist. However, in year three of his tenure as Head Coach of the Flyers, they are inconsistent once again early in the season, in a season the orange and black were supposed to take the next step in terms of their rebuild. Vignuealt said last night:
“We are looking for solutions to our situation. We all have a job to do and need to get to work and do our part. The guy that is the leader of this group who has both his hands on the steering wheel is me and I have to find a way to get this group to play better. We are in a bad skid right now and we need to end this. We have an opportunity tomorrow night and hopefully we will play better.” – Alain Vigneault
The three year coach of the Flyers in Vigneault forced Fletcher’s hand into making this coaching change mid-season. After being pummeled 7-1 by the Tampa Bay Lightning on Sunday night, and enduring a never ending eight game losing streak it appeared (Now a nine game losing streak). Moreover, the Flyers were supposed to ahead of two of these teams they lost to in the New Jersey Devils and New York Rangers in terms of the rebuild process. The timing of this change is right, and hopefully the orange and black can move in the right direction now.
“This is a league of results and I don’t think our team has performed the way we want to. Changes were made and it is tough to see those two guys go. They are great guys. I got to know Michel these last three years and he has helped me a lot. He has definitely had an influence on my time here in Philly. I have been with AV pretty much my whole career. He is a guy that helped me be the player I am today. He is the coach that gave me my first opportunity in this league and I can definitely say that I wouldn’t be where I am today without his help. He has held me to a standard and I try to reach that standard every day. He expects a lot from his players and I owe a lot to him. I have nothing but respect for AV. Like I said he is major reason why I am in the NHL and have stuck around for so long. He’s a friend of mine. He helped me become a true professional. He has helped me through a lot, especially with the loss of my brother.” – Kevin Hayes said about Alain Vigneault following the game
Hopefully, Fletcher can right the ship, and eventually lead the Flyers proud organization to the promised land. It may take a year to two, but who knows, right? The Flyers finally made some moves, and this puts everyone on notice, to include the players. The players share some responsibility for the lack of success this season too, not just Vigneault and his staff. One thing is certain Flyers fans, time will tell how this move pans out.
I personally like the author, but this is the same old same old. It’s time to trade everyone. Fire Clarke and Holmgren. Bring in people who understand how to build a team. This franchise is a joke. They will do nothing. They strive for mediocrity.