Just some hours earlier than puck drop on the ultimate sport of the 2021-22 Philadelphia Flyers season, a clearly worn-down Scott Laughton sat down on the media availability desk within the auxiliary room within the NBA locker room on the Wells Fargo Heart and dropped about probably the most correct and concise description of the earlier 81 video games.
“I gotta be sincere, it was fairly depressing and never enjoyable,” he sighed.
Yeah, “depressing” about sums it up.
Fifty-seven losses. The top coach fired. An admission that they’d failed a franchise legend within the type of sending him to a locale the place he simply would possibly be capable to win a Stanley Cup (learn: not Philadelphia). A negative-84 objective differential. This wasn’t only a dangerous season. The Flyers have had them earlier than — the pre-Eric Lindros Nineteen Nineties, for instance, or the shock catastrophe that was 2006-07. This was past that. This was a proud workforce reaching a brand new low. This was, briefly, the worst season in franchise historical past, a failure on each single stage.
And nobody is with out blame.
It’s solely truthful to start out with Chuck Fletcher, the one who constructed a workforce which completed its season because the NHL’s fourth worst workforce. Except for the Jakub Voracek for Cam Atkinson commerce — which qualifies extra like a push than anything — it’s tough to discover a single important roster transfer made by Fletcher over the previous two seasons that qualifies as a win.
He largely stood pat within the 2020 offseason (apart from an terrible Erik Gustafsson signing) with the plan of trusting the youth on his roster, a plan that blew up in his face when nearly each single under-25 participant on the workforce regressed. He caught with Alain Vigneault as head coach too lengthy regardless of a quickly worsening state of affairs between gamers and coach, which helped to torpedo the primary half of 2021-22. The crown jewel acquisition of his offseason — Ryan Ellis — performed 4 video games and nobody appears to know when he’ll costume for an additional. Keith Yandle was signed with the data that scratching him could be almost inconceivable as a result of optics of ending his ironman streak, after which he performed just like the worst defenseman within the NHL, leaving the Flyers with an unsittable albatross on the third pair all season. He overpaid for Rasmus Ristolainen twice, first in commerce after which by doubling down through a five-year, $25.5 million contract. Derick Brassard was positive however struggled to remain wholesome. Nate Thompson wasn’t positive and struggled to remain wholesome. None of his commerce deadline sells have been notably inspiring, even when Owen Tippett has proven potential and Claude Giroux’s no-movement clause dramatically lower down on Fletcher’s negotiation leverage. In two seasons, the Flyers have gone from a workforce presumably on the rise within the NHL to one in all its worst golf equipment, and Fletcher has been unable to halt the fast collapse.
However what in regards to the accidents, some would possibly say? It’s a case that interim head coach Mike Yeo made Friday morning. And there’s fact to it: the Flyers have the fourth-most man video games misplaced to damage this season, and it’s not bit gamers who’ve missed time. Ellis, Sean Couturier, Kevin Hayes, Joel Farabee — these are prime of the lineup guys. Their absences matter.
By February, it had turn into a operating joke that Brassard would solely seem in a single sport a month, as he repeatedly tried and did not return from a hip damage. The medical doctors and trainers nonetheless apparently haven’t totally found out Ellis’ core damage, which looms like a darkish cloud over the entire workforce’s future given his significance to the lineup. It took three surgical procedures and who is aware of what number of physician’s appointments for Hayes to even come near getting again to full power. Gamers returning too quickly from accidents after which struggling re-injuries (Farabee is one other) or being pressured to take a seat out once more as a result of authentic one turned a operating theme of the season, and certain appears to talk to a failure of method on the a part of the complete medical workforce.
Carter Hart struggling an damage with six minutes left within the first interval so apparent that ESPN TV analyst Brian Boucher seen it however nonetheless being permitted to play out the rest of a interval of a meaningless sport stood was not a superb signal about the best way the Flyers take care of injured gamers, and why the “however accidents” excuse doesn’t work in any respect as a wave-away cause for this season. Positive, a few of the damage points have been dangerous luck. However that wasn’t the entire story.
As for the teaching workers, they fall someplace between “legitimately a part of the issue” and “incapable of discovering the solutions.” By the top of Vigneault’s tenure, communication between him and the gamers was near nonexistent, and the state of affairs had devolved to the purpose the place it was merely untenable. That’s on Fletcher for not recognizing it sooner, nevertheless it doesn’t absolve the Flyers’ former coach for letting it get to that time within the first place.
Beneath Yeo, communication was much better, and for a stretch in late February into early March, it did appear like the workforce was turning the nook from a course of standpoint. However ultimately, Yeo couldn’t repair the Flyers’ dangerous habits, regardless of harping on the idea from Day 1 of his tenure. When requested why he proved unable to vary these habits — dangerous line adjustments, blown coverages, low-percentage selections on the assault, a maddening unwillingness to shoot the puck — Yeo reverted to a proof very acquainted to those that lived by means of Vigneault’s justification for the workforce’s underachievement in 2020-21.
“I do know that it looks like each time we sort of get going just a little bit, we’ve gotten right into a schedule, the place we’re taking part in so many video games in so many days the place we don’t actually have the chance to observe, and as quickly as we don’t observe one thing, it begins to slide,” he stated. “As quickly as we don’t present issues on video constantly, it begins to slide. So it’s regular that dangerous habits are going to sort of return when you’re not engaged on it.”
There’s in all probability fact to that. However the Flyers weren’t the one workforce coping with a busy slate. It was a actuality for the whole lot of the NHL, and no less than 28 different groups did a greater job of dealing with it than the Flyers did. That’s on the teaching workers for not taking advantage of the practices and video classes that they did have. And we haven’t even gotten to the league’s worst energy play, with entry methods and execution that may solely be described as painful, and the penalty kill, which at twenty seventh isn’t a lot better. The coaches, briefly, simply might by no means discover the options to even flip this membership right into a run-of-the-mill mediocre squad for greater than a pair weeks at a time.
In equity, nonetheless, the gamers didn’t give them a variety of assist.
It’s tough to muster the power to defend the gamers as a collective entire at this level. Positive, Travis Sanheim had a superb season. Hart bounced again from his disastrous 2020-21 marketing campaign with out a variety of assist in entrance of him. Among the children (particularly Noah Cates, however he isn’t the one one) are exhibiting early promise. However it’s powerful to say that very many gamers have made a robust case that they want to be right here. The workforce tuned out Vigneault by the top, which is partially on him but in addition on the gamers as effectively. Their dangerous habits — the late-season admission from Yeo that they’ve spent a variety of effort and time working towards line adjustments was astonishing, given how primary a component of hockey it’s — lingered, no matter how arduous their coaches tried to assist break them. Unhealthy second intervals, terrible PP entries, late-game collapses — all of them simply saved taking place. And that’s on a gaggle of gamers that, accidents or no, all too typically didn’t play to their (at instances fairly low) expertise ceiling.
Talking of that low ceiling, we now come to the workforce’s clear deficiencies when it comes to drafting.
It’s no secret that the Flyers as a corporation have lengthy prioritized qualities like hockey IQ and a perceived dedication to two-way play over taking riskier “large swings,” solely just lately adjusting that technique to yet-to-be-determined outcomes. However within the right here and now, the philosophy has left the Flyers bereft of high-end expertise, a workforce of middle-sixers and strong second pairing defensemen even when totally wholesome. However it’s not simply the philosophy. It’s unusual that in any case these years of drafting gamers who “do the little issues proper” in each spherical, that this Flyers workforce constantly fails to do any of the little issues proper that result in wins. We’re not simply speaking a few flawed draft philosophy; we’re speaking a few flawed draft philosophy that has apparently been poorly executed. This Flyers workforce simply doesn’t have sufficient good gamers, and on some stage, that’s on the scouts who’re employed to seek out them.
Although maybe it’s not the draft picks. Perhaps it’s how these draft picks have been developed.
Assume again to 2019-20. The Flyers appeared like they’d unearthed three homegrown gamers taking legit steps towards stardom: Hart, who was one of many NHL’s higher netminders by superior metrics throughout the season after which posted a .926 save share in his first style of playoff motion; Travis Konecny, who led the workforce in factors and seemed to be turning right into a line-driver and never merely a scorer; and Ivan Provorov, who thrived alongside veteran Matt Niskanen and was flashing each high-end ability and reliability in his personal finish. All three are in worse locations now than they have been then, for numerous causes. That’s an organizational failure.
And that’s simply growth on the NHL stage. It’s fairly straightforward to make the argument that since Shayne Gostisbehere, the Flyers haven’t drafted a single participant that has dramatically exceeded post-draft expectations. Oskar Lindblom is the one potential exception, on condition that he was trying like a fifth-round steal and his current regression was the results of unlucky components fully out of his and the workforce’s management. However past him, not one of the Flyers picks have really hit, within the sense that different GMs are racked by “want we’d have taken him” envy. Maybe that’s solely on the scouts. However it additionally might be argued that the prospects — who produced effectively sufficient at decrease ranges to earn the Flyers top-10 prospect pool rankings for years — aren’t being developed in addition to potential as soon as they do formally enter the group, due to an overarching tendency to suit gamers into conventional containers somewhat than really fostering their strengths.
Which brings us to the lingering old-school mentality within the group, and the idea of “Flyers tradition.”
Rasmus Ristolainen (Tim Nwachukwu / Getty Photos)
The Ristolainen extension, particularly, looms giant as a symptom of this. For a workforce within the Flyers’ place — means down the standings and so removed from rivalry that they might commerce their longtime captain (and greatest participant) just some weeks later — the logical transfer would have been to ship out Ristolainen for picks and prospects. His worth across the league was excessive, as a bodily rental defenseman perceived by many GMs as having a sport tailored for the postseason. Ristolainen’s pairing with Sanheim had been positive relative to the remainder of the workforce, however removed from dominant. It solely made sense — dangerous workforce trades away expiring contracts for future property.
As a substitute, the Flyers doubled down on him, paying him like a strong second pair defenseman when each goal metric grades him out as a third-pair man at greatest. The explanation? Nicely, it’s true that Fletcher has preferred Ristolainen as a participant courting again to his time in Minnesota. However it’s a near-certainty that Ristolainen’s dimension and bodily fashion of play was a significant factor. And it’s additionally a near-certainty that the older voices within the mind belief have been very a lot in favor of bringing again a participant who screams the standard notion of what Flyers hockey ought to be. Throughout a season where scoring is up to pre-neutral zone trap levels and offense and ability are very a lot in vogue, the Flyers are spending $5.1 million per 12 months on a defenseman who embodies the other, from his throwback mentality to his constantly terrible efficiency by analytics. Largely due to Flyers tradition.
Which lastly, in the end, brings us to possession.
The present incarnation of Comcast Spectacor as run by Dave Scott has been underneath hearth for years from traditionalist followers, irritated by the emergence of Gritty, rising ticket costs, a perceived lack of care towards longtime season ticket holders, amongst different offenses. However right here, let’s follow the selections on Comcast’s half that immediately affect the play of the hockey workforce.
And from this vantage level, it seems to me that Comcast is within the worst sort of center floor: they desperately need to be liked the best way that Ed Snider was, however as a consequence of their inherent company nature, they’ll’t be. And consequently, they’re not making anybody completely happy.
It was abundantly clear within the second half of the season specifically that they have been listening to the critiques been throwing their means about not dwelling as much as the excessive requirements set by Snider: the pageantry surrounding Giroux’s closing sport, the $400,000 donation to Snider Hockey to assemble a brand new out of doors hockey rink in Kensington, the Lou Nolan fiftieth anniversary celebration, even Scott’s public pronouncement that he would pay the positive to permit Nolan to take a seat at ice stage (in violation of the league’s COVID-19 coverage) for his large evening. It screams that Comcast cares very a lot about how they’re perceived by the fan base at giant. And that’s not a foul factor. Flyers tradition means quite a bit to the fan base, and it could’t be tossed apart.
The issue is, in relation to the hockey workforce, we’re getting all of the dangerous elements of Flyers tradition with none of the nice. The folks in cost are being allowed to promote {that a} Ristolainen overpay is important as a result of the Flyers have to stay the Flyers. A rebuild apparently isn’t being thought of no less than partially as a result of “it’s not what the Flyers do.” However these drawbacks — overpays based mostly on intangibles and a win-at-all-costs mentality that usually led to counterproductive, short-term considering previously — aren’t being counteracted by the perfect elements of the tradition: the heart-on-sleeve sincerity from possession (inconceivable from a company entity, notably this present day), Snider’s large persona and unscripted honesty, the aggressive, star-hunting roster strikes that signaled to the followers that the workforce really was at all times going for it, and eventually, the unmistakable notion that the folks on the prime actually, really care. Current shifts apart, that’s simply not there anymore for a not-insignificant a part of the fan base.
And that’s why it’s not simply the losses that made this the worst season in franchise historical past. It’s as a result of there isn’t a stage of this group that doesn’t look like failing at their jobs proper now. It’s as a result of issues are dangerous, and regardless of the “aggressive retool” idea pitched by Fletcher and Scott in January, there’s not a variety of hope that they’ll be getting higher anytime quickly.
Nobody’s jobs ought to be protected within the wake of this catastrophe. That’s to not say that each single member of the group ought to be fired; that’s sports activities discuss radio nonsense. However it is to say that each single side of the group — possession, administration, scouts, growth, medical workers and, in fact, the gamers — should be given an intensive analysis. Now not can or not it’s assumed that anybody is clearly good at their job just because they’ve been right here for many years or performed for the workforce or simply is extraordinarily likeable personally.
This isn’t working. None of that is working. And the very last thing the Flyers want proper now’s a reaffirmation of the established order that put them on this predicament within the first place.
Final offseason, after his first try at aggressively retooling the roster, Fletcher delivered a telling quote. “ what, we simply can’t preserve bringing the identical gamers again 12 months after 12 months and count on totally different outcomes,” he stated.
And he was proper. However he didn’t go far sufficient. As a substitute of “gamers,” he in all probability ought to have used the phrase “folks.” The discuss over the following few days will doubtless encompass the thought of aggressively retooling the roster. The reality is, although, the complete group must be aggressively retooled. Out of date mentalities should be rooted out. Accountability must be re-implemented. Flyers tradition doesn’t should be destroyed, nevertheless it does should be reworked to suit the realities of recent hockey.
And if it’s not, “depressing” seasons like 2021-22 are destined to turn into the brand new establishment right here in Philadelphia.
(Photograph: Jonathan Kozub / NHLI through Getty Photos)
