Mike Yeo
As Flyers management – head coach Alain Vigneault and GM Chuck Fletcher and chairman Dave Scott – met the media on Tuesday, the trio rested on excuses for most of their comments, sounding more optimistic in hopes of a normal season than the work that may need to be done to a roster filled with holes.
Depending on how his offseason goes for the Philadelphia Flyers, Chuck Fletcher might end up seeing his way out the door if he isn’t careful.
The Flyers may be sitting fifth in the East, three points out of a playoffs, still very much mathematically alive. But their defense is in shambles. Almost every core player that was expected to produce on the higher end offensively has shown struggles. The goaltending has been questioned. To put it simply, the Flyers are a mess right now, and it’s become clear that the current system is just not working.
For the entire season, Ivan Provorov and Matt Niskanen have been united together. Assistant coach Mike Yeo, who runs the defense, said that they have been the quickest to get up to speed.
With the Flyers on a six-game winning streak and in second place in the heavyweight Metropolitan Division, it feels like night and day compared to just a year ago.
Alain Vigneault sees his new job with the Flyers as an opportunity to satisfy his own hunger and a starving franchise and fan base. That may not happen in the short term, but the goal of the upcoming season is to have Vigneault continue a trend that has become familiar in his coaching career.
The 2018-19 season was another year in what has been a roller-coaster career for Shayne Gostisbehere, who followed up a career-high 65 points with a career-low 37 points. So the question arises again: which version of Gostisbehere will the Flyers get this season?
The St. Louis Blues used two first-period goals to get an edge on the Boston Bruins and never looked back, finishing off an incredible run to a championship with a 4-1 win over Boston in Game 7 to claim the first Stanley Cup in franchise history.
Alain Vigneault provided more insight into the hiring of Michel Therrien and Mike Yeo as assistant coaches, including the roles each coach will have with the Flyers. Experience was obviously a key in Chuck Fletcher’s decision to hire Vigneault and the decision to hire Therrien and Yeo.
When the Flyers announced the rest of Alain Vigneault’s coaching staff on Monday, it was clear experience was a key factor.
