Last week, Craig Berube threatened benchings. On Saturday, they began.
First, it was Andrew MacDonald and Pierre-Edouard Bellemare who took a seat on Saturday.
The benchings continued as the West Coast trip began. This time, Vincent Lecavalier was a victim. And so was…Michael Del Zotto? Wait a minute, the Flyers most consistent defenseman all season was benched too?
"To me, his defensive play has dropped off a little," Berube said.
Really? It's always frustrating in Tankadelphia.
For the first time for as long as I can remember, the Flyers didn't put the best team on the ice that they could in San Jose when injury wasn't an excuse. If Berube thinks Del Zotto's play "dropped off a little" then maybe he should evaluate the rest of the team. He's benched four different players. The result remains the same.
In the meantime, this creates a frustrating scenario. You don't build chemistry changing the playing roster on a daily basis. You don't build confidence by benching players, even if that's the measure you have to take for underachieving players. And you certainly don't help matters by putting players that really aren't underachieving in the press box.
So, for the first time for as long as I can remember, the Flyers looked like a team trying everything they could to lose on paper on purpose. No team that I know of in Flyers history has ever tanked.
But it seems to be all the rage in Philadelphia. And it's not what Flyers fans deserve.
Flyers fans should not be in discussions about Connor McDavid or Jack Eichel. But they are. And rightfully so.
The Flyers entered Tuesday with 19 points. That put them in the bottom five of the NHL, rapidly approaching the bottom three.
There are no guarantees, but the Flyers chances of getting a stud out of this draft are greater as bottom-feeders. But never have the Flyers opened embraced that result.
It started with benchings. It will eventually send heads rolling. It might be Berube. It might be a player.
But this period of benchings in between is causing daily frustration, especially when the wrong players seem to be off the ice.
There's nothing wrong with sending a message. But on Tuesday, the Flyers looked like they were guessing. Who should we keep off the ice tonight? Del Zotto? Sure.
At some point, it stops being an attempt to start a fire and becomes a farce. The Flyers got dangerously close to the latter on Tuesday.
Every game of late has been hours of frustration. Before the Flyers could even take the ice on Tuesday, they added more frustration, a lack of knowledge for the guys they have and the effort level of their players in recent games.
It only added to the frustration. Thus, it's always frustrating in Tankadelphia.
Kevin Durso is managing editor for Flyerdelphia. Follow him on Twitter @KDursoPhilsNet.
