Is Flyers Problem Talent or Coaching?

(Kate Frese/Sports Talk Philly)

By Kevin Durso, Sports Talk Philly editor 

Two weeks after the deadline, with a four-game points streak now a distant memory, the Flyers 2016-17 season is 14 games away from ending as a complete disappointment. There will be no playoffs in Philadelphia this season, that's becoming the reality with each passing regulation loss.

A popular topic for discussion lately regarding the Flyers has been if the problem with the team in its current state is the talent level of the roster or the coaching of Dave Hakstol. There are arguments being made for each being the dominant problem.

Here's the problem for the Flyers: it's both. Dave Hakstol has proven to be a capable coach with noticeable flaws in his second season in the NHL, while the Flyers talent level — capable of making the playoffs — is also not there with the rest of the teams in the NHL.

It's hard to pick a side to begin with, but the talent level seems to be the focal point.

Talent is really a horrible word for judging player ability. What does it mean to say a player is talented? Does that mean skilled, does it mean a player is more of a scorer, or is it meant to define the overall attributes of a player as a whole?

Too often, talent level gets tossed around as an excuse that the more well-known a player is, the better he should play. That's not how this works. 

Here's the issue with the Flyers "talent." Talent has the ability to succeed and the ability to fail just as easily. There are teams with talented players — look no further than the Edmonton Oilers and their perennial high draft picks — that don't always succeed.

The thing about a team's talent level is that you have to surround yourself with the best players in the best roles. The Flyers certainly could have found a third-line role, at least entering the season, for Sam Gagner, especially on such a low price tag. But after watching Gagner go through individual struggles last season, take a demotion to the minors and all, that relationship was going to be severed. Gagner opened the scoring in Monday's 5-3 loss with his 18th goal of the season. Only two Flyers have more.

Ryan White is another example of this. When the Flyers let Gagner and White walk after the 2015-16 season, it was presumably to open up cap space to make changes to the roster for players the Flyers saw as bigger and better acquisitions, even if those new additions were from prospects within their own system.

The Flyers signed Dale Weise and Boyd Gordon on the first day of free agency, at a combined salary of $3.25 million for the 2016-17 season. Gordon is currently recovering from an injury suffered while playing in the minors. Weise hasn't been in the lineup since Feb. 28. In 50 of the Flyers 67 games this season, Weise has two goals and three assists. Gordon had one goal, in the first game of the season no less, and played in just 13 games for the Flyers.

Back to Gagner and White. Gagner signed with Columbus for $650,000. He has 18 goals and 26 assists for 44 points — which would rank fourth on the Flyers. White signed with Arizona for $1 million and was later traded by Arizona to Minnesota at the deadline. He has nine goals and seven assists on the season for 16 points. 

Think about this, it took the Flyers until the trade deadline and the acquisition of Valtteri Filppula to actually have three legitimate forward lines on paper. It put a true second-line center on the roster. It dropped Sean Couturier to the third line, a role more suited for his skill set. Lately, the Flyers have put Travis Konecny on the second line with Jake Voracek, Jordan Weal on the top line with Claude Giroux and Brayden Schenn on the third line. Again, right fit for these players.

Weal is creating chances better than pretty much anyone on the team. You want those guys on the top line. Konecny has looked good with Filppula and Voracek. Schenn hasn't generated much of anything offensively at 5-on-5, so you put him on a line where offense isn't demanded near as much.

But the fact that the Flyers had to go four and a half months without that kind of structure is the reason they are even in the position they are now. 

It's very difficult to make a comeback in the standings when so many of your games down the stretch come against complete teams — Pittsburgh, Columbus and Washington — you're not going to rally. I have no doubt that when the Flyers were grinding through January, struggling to score and desperate for a win to snap their free fall, this kind of lineup structure would have won a few more games. But they lacked that then. They're paying for it now.

A big reason they are paying for it now is coaching.

Dave Hakstol has done well in his first two seasons with piecing things together. It's hard to come into a situation where expectations are still focused on being a playoff team when you know that not all the pieces are in place. So while there are certainly lineup decisions that are questionable from Hakstol, it's also hard to find players now that could do any better without forcefully tapping into the minors or making some drastic move.

When you go back to the benchings of Travis Konecny and Shayne Gostisbehere, while it may help those two players individually in the long run, it did not help the team's success over the course of the season.

A place where talent and coaching merge is in making adjustments. A perfect example of this is the Flyers current power play struggles.

When your top power-play unit has the top two in power-play goals in the NHL for the season, it's hard to argue that there's a lack of talent there. There's not. But there is a lack of adjustments.

A perfect play to show this came on a late third-period power play against Columbus on Monday night, when the Flyers were 1-for-8 on the power play. The Flyers were set up in the offensive zone, Claude Giroux has the puck and it's noticed then that a Columbus player has lost his stick. As he goes to the bench to retrieve a new one, Giroux tries to set up Gostisbehere with a one-timer from the point, a rather predictable play on the Flyers power play. Not missing a beat, the Columbus PK reads the play and gets the puck out to center ice by blocking the pass. The Flyers never got a shot on that power play.

Quite frankly, the Giroux-to-Gostisbehere one-timer has become so predictable. And the Flyers don't try to execute such a play with speed. They methodically move the puck around the perimeter on the power play, allowing the opposing penalty kill to not only get into position, but to put pressure on the puck carrier, leading to more missed passes and mistakes that end a potential scoring threat.

In the same sense, the Flyers have not made the adjustment on the penalty kill to try to counter quick puck movement with pressure that could force a mistake. It's made it a fairly easy task to score on the Flyers when on the power play of late.

Where Hakstol is struggling is in his preparation against teams. There are opposing players being left unmarked that should never be lost in coverage. There have been no adjustments to floundering special teams that has become so vanilla and predictable.

Overall, the Flyers have roster talent. They always have. This is the same roster that put it together for 10 straight games and had a winning streak that made the Flyers look like a contender. But all the talent in the world doesn't always make you a playoff team. You have to be able to execute and preparation is a key part to that.

The Flyers are far from the most-talented team in the NHL. But they have the potential to stack up against any team on any night. We've seen it in the games against Washington and Boston recently, games where the Flyers had the game there for the taking and let a late mistake change the result.

The problem is recurring mistakes. The problem is an overall lack of preparation for opponents and adjustments when things aren't working. It's why the Flyers are going to spend the offseason trying to figure out solutions to these questions again, as an ongoing rebuild continues.