Being a Philadelphia Flyers fan in Canada, where they get next to no coverage, I’ve been asked 2 very similar questions every year: “What’s wrong with the Flyers?” and “Why are the Flyers so bad? They shouldn’t be this bad”. Usually I had an answer, whether it was coaching or management or lack of on-ice personnel, however this year I’m at a complete loss whenever posed any of these questions; which led me to a worrying thought that it is alarming that the Flyers are so flawed with no obvious culprit or fix.
From just watching this team within the last 2 weeks, you can definitely see that there is something fundamentally wrong with the Philadelphia Flyers. Thursday’s game was another example of how they are one of the most inconsistent teams in hockey, let alone all of sports. We are always going to have to go through streaks and roller coaster of emotions because that’s how they’re built. They get points in 10 of their first 14 games, then go winless in 10 straight, then win 3 straight, then lose to the worst team in the Eastern Conference, while apparently on a “high”.
With their mini three-game winning streak, you could tell they were close to turning the tide but still very far off. The game against the Vegas Golden Knights was Carter Hart stealing the show, which they followed up with a game against the 32nd-ranked-in-everything Arizona Coyotes. Then they played the New Jersey Devils in what looked like their most complete victory of the season. They played a fantastic 60 minute game of hockey and maybe, just maybe, they found something that clicked.
We were wrong again because that was followed up with an absolute dud against Montreal, where they apparently took 39 shots, but that wasn’t even close to what the actual game looked like. Carter Hart faced 19 high danger chances against a 6-win team that had Cole Caufield in the minors for parts of the season, let alone the fact that they were mired in a seven-game losing streak in front of an empty building.
When the Flyers started the season 8-4-2, the ones who complained about the lack of scoring or the over-dependence of goaltending were quickly shut down by a faction that were resolute in their stance that the Flyers were playing well and still winning regardless of their “minuscule” flaws. Apart from their first 3-4 games, everything about their play went downhill after that and the common denominator was the loss of Ryan Ellis.
Injuries should never be the absolute excuse for a team’s downfall unless you’re the Pittsburgh Penguins playing without Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Kris Letang, and more. Funny enough (or sadly enough) they somehow find a way to win games with more AHL players than any team could imagine. The problem with Ellis’ injury, which also goes back to Matt Niskanen’s departure, is that the Flyers possess “partner-dependent” defensemen, but also the fact that they just acquired Ellis, how could he cause such a dependence in such a short while?
Provorov is a good defenseman but very inconsistent, and that happens throughout the year just as much as it happens during a game. Sometimes you see the player that resembles a Norris Trophy winner and then all of a sudden he looks like a 6th defensemen. In the first 3 games with Ellis by his side he looked like the 7th overall pick from the 2015 draft that everyone was hoping for.
After the injury and the sudden ascension of Justin Braun to the top pair, his play has dropped to a point where he tries to shoulder way too much and it backfires completely. He is our 1D but he needs to put less pressure on himself. He plays in all situations but should honestly focus more on 5 on 5 and penalty killing than anything else, which would put a lot less miles on his legs.
Taking Justin Braun away from Keith Yandle dropped his play as well after he was paired with Nick Seeler. In 3 games with Braun, Yandle had 5 assists. In 18 games with Seeler, Yandle went pointless and looked absolutely rudderless. Breaking up Travis Sanheim and Rasmus Ristolainen was never truly in the cards for the coaching staff until things really started going down hill. There were a few games where Ristolainen played with Provorov and Braun with Sanheim but they always reverted back. The Flyers were seemingly comfortable with one pair playing good-to-decent-hockey, while the other two were a hit and miss.
You can’t build a team with players that are so dependent on one singular partner because, as we have seen with Ryan Ellis’ injury, the top 6 when healthy is fantastic but one injury to a key member of the corps and everything gets turned upside down.
The Flyers never facilitated the rebuild to its fruition and then they went about retooling the team thinking it would work. What Chuck Fletcher did this off-season was rather remarkable and it had a large faction of the fans excited because on paper, they looked good. Seems to be that no matter who they bring in, no matter who they seem to draft, and no matter who is in charge, something goes wrong every time.
Three general managers couldn’t fix this mess, six head coaches have been placed at the helm, and the previous five couldn’t seem to keep this group ignited or motivated, and the core has changed a few times over the years and even they found it difficult to produce consistently. However, those very same coaches or core players exceed expectations and succeed elsewhere, almost instantly.
Peter Laviolette has coached the Washington Capitals to numerous division titles, Craig Berube won a Stanley Cup as head coach of the St. Louis Blues, and players like Mike Richards, Jeff Carter, Simon Gagne, and Brayden Schenn found success on new teams almost instantly. Jakub Voracek and Shayne Gostisbehere are thriving on their new teams this year, and whether or not the moves were warranted, they’re playing much better hockey immediately after leaving. Even the few goaltending cameos we’ve had over the years like Cam Talbot and Anthony Stolarz have found success on new clubs.
The Philadelphia Flyers have no one else to blame but themselves because they have allowed themselves to be stuck in hockey purgatory. Ever since they gave Claude Giroux the team they have allowed themselves to think they’re in a win-now mode or competitive-mode on a yearly basis because of one player. As long as Giroux is on the team, they’re going to do whatever it takes to win and be competitive as they try to win him a Stanley Cup.
The Flyers are the only team to have flip-flopped between making the playoffs in a 10-year span in North American sports history. Their core players have always flipped flopped in performances on a yearly basis as well. Jakub Voracek went from 81 points to 55 to 61 to 85 to 66 from 2014-15 to 2017-18. In his last 4 seasons, Travis Konecny has averaged 0.6 points per game to 0.92 to 0.68 to 0.53 currently. James van Riemsdyk has gone from 0.72 points per game to 0.61 to 0.77 to 0.39 currently. From 2014-15 to 2017-18, Claude Giroux had seasons of 73 to 67 to 58 to 102. It’s hard to find consistency from this team and it starts at the top.
The Midas touch alluded Flyers management time and time again and everything they touched just soured and combusted. They could never seem to hold onto the good coaches and chose the wrong replacements. The year that hot commodity coaching was available they either whiffed or were giving a replacement the reigns to the team, only for them to lose their job a few years later, letting the more sought after free agent succeed elsewhere.
Ron Hextall’s drafting had us believing for four years that we were on the right track and then most of his picks either left, got hurt, languished in the minors, or made very little impact. He had nearly 50 picks in 5 years and 8 of them in the first round, yet roughly 8 of his 50 actually did something worthwhile. Yes, players like Provorov, Konecny, Carter Hart, Joel Farabee, Morgan Frost, Travis Sanheim, Oskar Lindblom, and Wade Allison are good players but they represent a fraction of that inconsistency.
Ivan Provorov is either a 1D or 5D on any given night, Travis Konecny hasn’t been able to translate his aggressiveness and feistiness to where the Flyers expected it to be, Morgan Frost has been injured a lot, Wade Allison has been injured more than Frost, the jury is still out on Travis Sanheim because he’s like Provorov where you don’t know which one is going to show up, Oskar Lindblom is still trying to find his form after the cancer diagnosis, and Joel Farabee is on the up and up but has been streaky the last two seasons (long goal droughts during both seasons).
Prominent free agent signings were few and far in between but the ones they were able to nab, like James van Riemsdyk and Kevin Hayes, haven’t been able to play unto their contract or value. Trades and signings during the Hextall era were about dumping salary and depth respectively and then during the Fletcher era it was about ameliorating the present; both philosophies led us to the same result, which was nothing.
The next step is essentially waiting this out until the trade deadline or at the very least, close to the deadline and then decide as a group whether or not they’re “contending” or calling the season off. Fletcher wanted to stand pat and keep his head coach until the injured players returned but it was evident that that couldn’t happen. Kevin Hayes has returned, mum is the word on Ryan Ellis, while Derick Brassard and Joel Farabee are close to returning. Will a healthy lineup change the trajectory of the season?
Anything is possible and common logic would dictate, yes. However, the Flyers don’t run on that train of thought, when you think they’re turning right, they make a sharp left turn. You think they’re going in a straight line, they reverse and make a U-turn. It’s a sunny day and the forecast shows no sign of rain or cloud but then they’re hit by a thunderstorm. Nothing ever seems to make sense.
It’s not just this year, it’s not just last year, and it’s not just the year before. It’s been the same way for over 10 years with no end in sight. It looks like Chuck Fletcher’s job is safe for the time being as Dave Scott and Paul Holmgren have showed no inclination of letting their general manager walk. We also have no idea whether or not Scott would be willing to signal a rebuild. If that is the case, then Fletcher is going to have to undergo another re-tool in the off-season but doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results seems to be the M.O. of the Flyers.
In previous years, you could’ve blamed Paul Holmgren’s mismanagement of the salary cap and future assets, other years you could’ve blamed the Ron Hextall/Dave Hakstol combination, other years you could’ve blamed it on the lack of depth. What’s the excuse this year? Are we going to pin it on the general manager again? The coach is already gone, Mike Yeo is most likely going to remain the interim head coach until season’s end, you can’t do much with the on-ice personnel for a variety of reasons, so what gives?
Sadly, the answer is nowhere to be found because you can equally fault every single department that is in charge of this team including the players. When everyone is equally at fault, how do you fix such a colossal issue? Is it to clean house throughout the organization? That would take a lot of work, would be increasingly messy, and probably still won’t do much. Thursday night’s game was a stark reminder that a rebuild is most likely the way to go and it is going to be painful because we seemingly already went through one, so why would this be any different?
No more should the Flyers’ focus be to just make the playoffs. Making the playoffs will only hinder their chances of getting in a good draft position, gives the management a false narrative to run with to avoid a rebuild, and it gives the fans this hope that everything is okay for a few games before they’re handled in the first round of the playoffs. Maybe they squeeze by and win a series but this is not a group that can win it all.
