Philadelphia Flyers
Flyers Can Learn from Penguins Firing Todd Reirden
The Pittsburgh Penguins fired another coach from the organization on Friday, this time dismissing Todd Reirden, one of Mike Sullivan’s assistants. While this was assuredly a tough decision by Pittsburgh, the Philadelphia Flyers can learn a thing or two.
This is also not to say that the Flyers should be firing John Tortorella or any of the members of his coaching staff. In fact, the opposite.
Time waits for nobody; when it’s time for change, it’s time for change. The Flyers have had the NHL’s worst power play for three years in a row, and it hasn’t shown any signs of improving. Not even a little bit.
At his exit interview, Flyers general manager Danny Briere named Patrick Sharp, Dany Heatley, and John LeClair as voices in the organization the team can turn to for fresh ideas for the power play. But, if assistant coach Rocky Thompson excelled at coaching the power play, that wouldn’t be necessary.
Thompson has, however, excelled at developing some of the team’s younger forwards. Players like Morgan Frost, Owen Tippett, Tyson Foerster, and even Travis Konecny have made strides under Thompson’s tutelage.
For the Flyers, it would make much more sense to reduce some of Thompson’s responsibility by outsourcing a coach specifically for the power play. Indeed, the Flyers are not meant to contend next season or even the year after that, but you cannot develop a group of players into their prime years with none of them knowing how to play on a real power play at the NHL level.
Teams like Vegas, Colorado, and Tampa Bay don’t rely on their defensemen to jack up shots from anywhere as their main scoring look with an extra player or two on the ice. Part of it is natural offensive instincts, yes, and confidence plays a big part in that, too.
If the Penguins felt that the 30th-ranked power play was unacceptable enough to potentially infuriate Sullivan by firing one of his coaches, the Flyers’ standards need to be even higher to catch them.
Sullivan won back-to-back Stanley Cups in 2016 and 2017, but has now missed the playoffs in each of the last two seasons. When it’s time for change, it’s time for change. The Flyers cannot run from this.
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Good article, and I agree that Thompson should be relieved of his power play duties.
The part of the article that makes me cringe, however, is the statement that “… the Flyers are not meant to contend next season or even the year after that…”
Maybe we have different definitions of “contending”, but the expectation should be that the Flyers will be making the playoffs going forward. They missed out going to the playoffs this year on the last games of the season, and there should be no excuse next year – particularly if the power play improves even only slightly.
Ersson needs to work this off season to be able to carry the workload of a number 1 goaltender, and that should include the workload that playoff games bring. Hopefully, the backup situation is now solved as well. Other players need to make a jump as well.
Teams can only compete for the Cup by making the playoffs, and after last season that’s a reasonable expectation going forward.
My point about contending is moreso that the Flyers simply cannot hang with any of these teams in a best of 7 series. They’re just not talented enough – yet. Danny Briere even said in his press conference that they don’t necessarily expect to be in this same position again next year. It’s a volatile league but the Flyers are who they are as a team and as an organization right now.
Man, can you pass me what you’re smokin? The Flyers are 100% NOT a playoff team and not a cup contender, YET. How do you figure they should be in the playoffs going forward when the team was expected to be one of the worst in the league this past season? Do you think that everyone in the NHL misjudged the amount of talent they have? No, they didn’t, including the Flyers, and their lack of talent showed when they lost eight straight games when in a position in late March that had them at around an 85% chance of making the playoffs. They only ever came that close to making the playoffs this past season because a Tortorella-coached team is rarely going to be outworked during in a regular season game night. This is because Torts always has his teams in top physical shape, playing a heavy forecheck style that causes turnovers, demanding 100% effort from each of his guys every night, and they’re held accountable if they don’t give it to him. 99% of NHL coaches don’t demand that of their players night in and night out, especially all regular season. This is why Torts usually has a limited bench life because pro athletes are now babies that get upset if you hold them accountable for too many years. The Flyers overcame talent deficiencies this past season by outworking teams, not by outworking AND out-talenting them. The eight game losing streak from late March to almost mid-April is was what showed EVERYONE, well almost everyone, 🙂 that even if they had made the playoffs by outworking teams alone, they’re not even close to competing for a Stanley Cup. They came into that eight game losing streak having just gone through a gauntlet of top teams amd even pulled out some wins against thos top teama. But after that gauntlet, the reason they crumbled against bad teams and into losing 8 straight was because they got through the entire season, then that gauntlet, by again, otutworking teams. That final gauntlet took everything they had left in them just to be competitive and that was it. Once they were exhausted they didn’t have enough talent to carry them through the rest of the season and into the playoffs. No, they will not be a playoff team next season.