Sadly, the head coach of the Philadelphia Flyers is sacked due to the mis…
Philadelphia After eight straight losses, two short of matching a team record of ten in a row, and with the team far from ending a 47-year Stanley Cup drought, the Philadelphia Flyers fired head coach Alain Vigneault on Monday.
One of the NHL’s biggest failures thus far this season is the Flyers. Their most recent setback came on Sunday night, when Tampa Bay defeated them 7-1, ending Vigneault’s career. Michel Therrien, the assistant coach, was also fired.
As of right now, Flyers general manager Chuck Fletcher stated, “We’ve lost our way.”
The Flyers are in seventh place in the Metropolitan Division with a record of 8-10-4. With the Flyers, Vigneault went 147-74-54, and the previous season, he was not in the playoffs.
Mike Yeo was named the Flyers’ temporary head coach. The team plays Colorado on Monday night.
Fletcher attempted to attribute the team’s recent losing streak to injuries sustained last week, but as the defeats mounted, it was obvious that something had to happen.
“We let up over the last ten. Without a doubt,” he declared last week. It is now our group’s responsibility to retrieve it. It is easier when players who have been injured return. No one can fool us. We must improve.”
After a promising first season in which he guided the Flyers to the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference in the NHL’s restart bubble, Vigneault lasted just two and a half seasons in Philadelphia and was never able to steer the team in the right direction this season.
“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,” he stated on Sunday. “We have to stop now as we are in a terrible skid. Tomorrow night is our chance, and hopefully we’ll perform better.”
In Philadelphia, where the Flyers haven’t won the championship since back-to-back titles in 1974 and 1975, Vigneault was attempting to repeat the success that he had shared with the New York Rangers and Vancouver Canucks in the Stanley Cup Final.
Rather, the Flyers are attempting to avoid losing ten games in a row for the first time since the 2018–19 campaign.
Before Monday’s game, captain Claude Giroux stated, “Last night was a good example that our game wasn’t good enough, and getting embarrassed in your own building is not acceptable.”
After making his professional debut with the Flyers in 2007, Giroux has spent his entire career with the team. He has led the team in most offensive categories during his tenure under coaches John Stevens, Peter Laviolette, Craig Berube, Dave Hakstol, Scott Gordon, Vigneault, and Yeo.
In the last year of an eight-year, $66-million contract, the 33-year-old center has the option to waive his no-movement clause and request a trade to a contending team.
“Right now, you look at our group, and we don’t have an identity,” Giroux stated. “After we concede a goal, we sort of give up on the game. We must rediscover our confidence in this group. We have to think that we just need to keep playing our game, regardless of who scores the first goal.”
Yeo has to figure out how to turn things around for the Flyers, at least temporarily. In November 2018, Yeo was let go by the St. Louis Blues. After spending five seasons with Minnesota, he became an assistant with the Blues in 2016. Of Yeo’s four full seasons, the Wild made the playoffs three times. He was fired 55 games into the 2015–16 season.
“This is an opportunity for me to prove that I’ve grown,” Yeo stated.
When Yeo was the Wild’s coach, Fletcher was Minnesota’s general manager. The new coach will probably get some opportunities to show that he can lead the Flyers to a postseason run.
“Scheduling interviews and hiring a head coach quickly is not the main goal. To help Mike, that is,” Fletcher remarked.
After Vigneault led the team to a 25-23-8 record (58 points) the previous season, Fletcher made major roster changes. Joel Farabee and Carter Hart received lucrative contract extensions from the Flyers, while Sean Couturier signed an eight-year, $62 million deal. Fletcher signed Keith Yandle and Derick Brassard and acquired defensemen Ryan Ellis and Rasmus Ristolainen. In addition, the Flyers acquired forward Cam Atkinson through a trade and signed backup goaltender Martin Jones.
Fletcher remarked, “I still don’t really know what we have here.”
Once more in Philadelphia, the adjustments were insufficient to elevate the Flyers to title contender status.
Since their 2010 Stanley Cup Final defeat to Chicago, the Flyers have not advanced to the Finals.
“For the past ten years, I have been unable to speak. Fletcher remarked, “Most of these guys haven’t been here that long.” “The current procedure isn’t correct. We must resume playing the correct way.
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