Philadelphia Flyers: What the new coaching change brings

After a dismal first quarter of the season, the Philadelphia Flyers have fired head coach Dave Hakstol and replaced him with interim Scott Gordon.

Dead last in the Eastern Conference, third last in the league, 3-5-2 in their last 10 games, the Philadelphia Flyers have been struggling all season. Back in November, they fired their general manager Ron Hextall in hopes to ignite a spark, but the Flyers have been 2-5-1 since that happened. Now, they’ve fired their head coach Dave Hakstol and replaced him with interim coach Scott Gordon.

The Flyers can hire and fire all the personnel they want. But at the end of the day, there is a very obvious solution to their problems – get a goaltender. This team is yet another example of what happens to an NHL team when they have no dependable netminder. This is happening to the St. Louis Blues, the Carolina Hurricanes, and the New Jersey Devils, just to name a few.

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The goalie position is the most important position in hockey. It can make or break your team. Look at the Anaheim Ducks, for example. The Ducks are incapable of scoring and are second last in the league in goals a game (2.5).

And yet, they are third in the Pacific Division. Why? Because John Gibson has a .927 save percentage and is putting this team on his back.

As of today, the Flyers have iced five different goaltenders in 31 games. None of them have proven that they deserve the starting role. Brian Elliott is out with a groin injury while the rest of the goalies have combined for a .817. No amount of scoring can compensate for that.

The Flyers have a solution on the horizon in the form of Carter Hart. Drafted back in 2016, he is seen as the potential savior for this franchise. He has put up great numbers in the WHL, posting a .947 save percentage in 41 games played.

With Anthony Stolarz out with injury, general manager Chuck Fletcher called Hart up to the big leagues, something Hextall was adamantly against during his tenure. Perhaps he will be what sparks this team, but Flyers should not be rushing his development as it will only hurt them in the long run.

As for the new coaching change, it will be interesting to see if the Flyers change their style of play. When Hakstol fist took over the coaching job, he stressed the importance of having the defensemen involved in the play and having quick transitions.

Well, Philadelphia has a weak defense right now, allowing the third-most goals against (116), but a lot of that can be attributed to their porous goaltending.

Gordon has had a lot of coaching experience as he has coached for the Providence Bruins, was the head coach of the New York Islanders, and was an assistant to Ron Wilson in Toronto before being hired as the Flyer’s AHL head coach.

When he was hired to coach the Lehigh Valley Phantoms, he talked to the media about the importance of playing as a team, rather than as individuals.

"“I think the biggest thing is getting the players to understand that were all in this together and whether you’re playing down here or playing for the parent team you’ve got to learn to play a certain way and more can get accomplished when you play as a team than as individuals … That starts from day one just making sure that message is getting across.”"

His track record has proven that he gets goalscoring out of his team. When he coached the Providence Bruins from 2000 to 2008, they saw a massive increase in goals for. In 2005-06, they were 13th in the league in that department and in his last season with the club, they jumped to second in the league, scoring 280 goals that year.

When he took over the Lehigh Valley Phantoms, the team was 10th in scoring and they soared to second in two consecutive seasons, as well as made the playoffs twice. Gordon could be the breath of fresh air this organization needs.

This team can’t stop a puck but hasn’t had much luck in the scoring department either, as they are a middle-of-the-pack team when it comes to goals a game (3.0). With offensive weapons like Claude Giroux, Sean Couturier, James van Riemsdyk, Jakub Vorachek, and etc, they should be scoring way more. Hopefully, Scott Gordon can bring some of his scoring magic to the Flyers to help them get out of this mess.

If not, Joel Quenneville‘s name is still circling around.