Opinion: Are the Philadelphia Flyers contenders this year?
By Joe Walls
A month and a half of hockey capped off by a nine-game winning streak last season has drastically altered the view locally and nationally of this Flyers team. A team that has a lot of work to do to be considered among the NHL’s elite.
It’s amazing how a week can change things. Sean Couturier’s rib injury and the loss of Phillipe Myers have completely derailed the Flyers’ hot start. But the team was playing the same brand of disorganized hockey that was displayed against the Bruins and you can’t blame injuries in sports because every team gets injured.
Couturier just happens to be the guy that hurts the most but they need to rely on their depth. Nothing has changed. They have been out-played, out-shot, out-hustled, out-schemed, out-gulp-coached, out-everything so far this season.
It’s quite obvious – the Flyers are not good right now. If it wasn’t for that big winning streak and a torrid last 25 games of the 2019-2020 season in which they were 18-6-1, they would be looked upon as a young team waiting for all the pieces to mature and fit together. That is basically what they are right now. Going beyond the six games to start this season and looking back at the NHL playoffs and the Flyers performance, you find a team that has been failed by their coaching.
The talent on the roster has not changed. As a matter of fact, one could argue it has been improved with the return of two players, Oskar Lindblom and Nolan Patrick, who missed last season. Coaching is the problem on this team right now.
It was considered a “dream team” of coaching hires to quote Vince Young when the Flyers assembled Alain Vigneault, Michel Therrien, and Mike Yeo. The thought was having two assistants with NHL head coaching experience would take the pressure off Vigneault.
Something is not quite lining up, and the Flyers play on the ice has suffered immensely. The talent hasn’t changed so that leaves only one thing… coaching.
Vigneault is not the problem but maybe the team has too many alphas in one room and the messaging is becoming hard to interpret. That is certainly how it appears watching the product of the three coaches. It looks as though the Flyers skate around not exactly knowing what their job is, or how to operate in the system at any given moment.
The defensive zone play has been particularly egregious. The main problem is when they are in their defensive zone, they have no recognizable game-plan on how to get the puck out and keep it out.
The Flyers run around like their hair is on fire. It makes no sense, and it is difficult to watch.
They have time to get this figured out, not much time but they have time. All I can say is that if these issues have not been corrected and in a month’s time the Flyers are losing largely because of it, Mike Yeo should have a talking to, and figure out if the current system in place is going to be the answer. I believe the Flyers are a Contender, but right now they are playing like a Pretender.