It took two days longer than expected, but Ron Hextall reached his decision last Friday, announcing what seemed imminent as the Flyers early offseason began. Craig Berube was fired as head coach of the Flyers.
Berube assumed the head coaching position three games into the 2014-15 season and at that point, helped complete the shift of coaching changes across the city’s sports teams. The longest tenured coach at the time was Chip Kelly, a whopping eight months into his coaching career in Philadelphia.
There are many times where the coach takes the brunt of the team’s performance, almost a mercy killing of sorts. The Flyers have gone through a carousel of coaches lately.
Make no mistake about it: this was not a mercy killing. This was a justified parting of ways.
The Flyers certainly underachieved across the board. They didn’t look motivated in key games where points were up for grabs. This would be their inability to get points in games against teams below them in the standings, when they were there for the taking.
While they looked like a motivated team against the teams whose seasons are still ongoing and have continued in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, they couldn’t seem to put it together.
As much as it was not Berube’s fault players underachieved or struggled to fit into roles and he may not have had the best roster on paper, part of the coach’s job is to keep his players motivated and energetic for every game.
As Hextall said upon the firing, it falls on the entire organization.
Or does it?
Hextall assumed the GM role after Berube’s first season at the helm. In most cases, a new GM wants to start over with personnel that were selected himself.
This is Hextall’s first chance at that.
Through all of Hextall’s pending changes, one thing seems to be clear: the Flyers want to shed the enforcer image.
You’ll hear a lot of people talk about the need for gritty play because that’s what defines the Flyers organization. There is a big difference between grit and goon.
The Flyers had a goon at heart behind the bench in Berube. That’s not to say Berube didn’t do some things well as a head coach and didn’t stress a style of play that certainly strayed from the culture. But he didn’t do it well enough to keep his team motivated, to keep his team believing that they could compete night in and night out.
He always told the media – and therefore the fans – that. It never showed.
So that is why Berube was fired.
It was not the passing of the torch, the time running out on another coach because, like clockwork, the Flyers run through coaches. This is about a GM with a vision getting the coach he wants to lead his team.
It is all in construction and it will take time, but this is a move meant for the long term.
The GM that could help lead the Flyers to a Stanley Cup may very well be in place, even if it takes another five years or more to build.
By the time the Draft commences, the coach to lead them there could be in place too.
Kevin Durso is managing editor for Flyerdelphia. Follow him on Twitter @Kevin_Durso.
