Perfect Storm Brewing as Flyers Prepare for ‘Canes

A rough opening month for the Flyers reached its culmination with the news of forward Simon Gagne's two hernias. (Neat1325)

The Flyers already had the most difficult and rigorous opening month scheduled among all NHL teams going into the season. Nine of their eleven games were against 2008-09 playoff teams, and when added to the most bizarre scheduling the team had seen in years, it has made for some hard times.

The Flyers of course have not helped themselves much either. The team is everything that was advertised. They have outplayed, and often crushed, their opponents into the ground so far this year with a relentless, unforgiving forecheck as well as a calm, unyielding defensive pressure. So where are all the wins that elite teams would rack up under such circumstances?

Right now the Flyers find themselves in severe danger of falling to .500 for the month of October with only one home game left on Saturday, the 31st, against the struggling Carolina Hurricanes.

Coaching Issues

Under head coach John Stevens the Flyers have always played a frustrating brand of hockey. His system, or lack there of, causes problems with breaking out of the defensive zone, turning over the puck, and moving the puck through the neutral zone. While there are other problems, these are the reasons why the Flyers continuously show the other NHL teams just how to effectively blow leads despite outplaying opponents significantly.

The east-west brand of hockey that the defense tends to play in their own zone causes a lot of issues. In essence, what you see is that the Flyers can play 58 minutes of outstanding hockey and still lose the game over the course of 2 minutes spread out across all three the periods. Every single blunder creates a great offensive opportunity for opposing teams. Those are the kind of issues that will come back to haunt a team that is playing nine playoff teams in eleven games.

Another issue with Stevens is his emotionless attitude toward the games. His blank stare from the bench has become almost eerily iconic in Philadelphia where frustrated fans are calling for his head. Post-game attitudes reflecting that one loss is okay as long as the team gave their best effort have gotten stale. Everything seems okay to John Stevens from the perspective of fans watching in horror at blown lead after blown lead.

All of these issues are not exactly new to the organization either. They have been there for all three years of Stevens behind the bench. The team this year is the same 2006-07 NHL basement team with far more skill. The skill level of the team itself tends to mask the serious coaching deficiencies.

Those same people who thought Martin Biron was a major issue in Philadelphia will now begin to place the blame on Ray Emery, though in reality neither are at fault. Playing under Stevens’ coaching is a goalie’s worst nightmare. Biron, and so far Emery as well, have been constantly thrown to the wolves.

Recently, after two straight losses, one where the Flyers played their worst game of the season against the San Jose Sharks and the other where the Flyers outplayed a strong Capitals team despite blowing yet another lead because of preventable mistakes, it seems as though the ever calm, cool, and emotionless John Stevens has lost his patience. The Flyers were scheduled to have a break from practice Wednesday before preparing for their October finale against the Hurricanes on Saturday. Stevens had other ideas, and the team took the ice.

“We played against San Jose, and we played pretty good and we lose, and then we go on to Washington and we do a lot of good things, and we lose. Even though you are playing well, you are losing games and that isn’t good enough,” John Stevens mentioned while showing, perhaps for the first time in his coaching career with the Flyers, a true sense of urgency.

“These days off have to be earned, and it is not okay in our business to play well and lose night after night. You need to find ways to do the extra things necessary to win hockey games, especially close games.”

The opening schedule was tough, and good teams are supposed to take advantage of mistakes. The Flyers have a much easier November ahead of them, but if the same problems persist it could mean the end of the Stevens era in Philadelphia.

Injury Issues

The Flyers are not the most heavily injured team in the NHL, but there are some concerns. The most recent, most severe, and most problematic to the team has sidelined Olympic veteran Simon Gagne. While he was widely considered a lock for the 2010 version of Team Canada, his focus will now be turned to getting healthy as quickly as possible.

The Gagne injury saga started in May when he received surgery on his right hip after the Flyers’ early exit from the postseason.

Public enemy number one among Flyers' fans, defensman Randy Jones, has been placed on re-entry waivers; a move that brings along some serious risks. (Neat1325)

During the first day of Olympic camps he felt a tightness in the same region and had it checked out. He was sidelined for camp though nobody really believed this would hurt his Olympic chances at the time. He focused on his promise to be ready for Flyers’ training camp and was healthy enough to carry on with the Flyers all through September and October.

His skating started to slow down once again though. He was getting chances to score but could not seem to find the net. He scored his only goal of the young season in a blow-out win against the Panthers last Saturday but then had his worst game Sunday when the Flyers were crushed at home by the Sharks. He then had his right hip/groin area re-checked by doctors. They discovered two small hernias.

Gagne will be placed on Long-Term Injured Reserve (LTIR) effective retroactively back to Monday. That means his $5.25m in salary cap hit will come off the books.

Instead of calling up a forward to replace him, the team decided to put Flyer fans’ public enemy number one, Randy Jones, on re-entry waivers. There are a couple of issues with this.

In the summer of 2008 Jones received a hefty contract of $2.70m a year but was injured during preseason. That injury, along with the one to Ryan Parent for roughly the same time-frame, is the reason Matt Carle is even on the Flyers’ roster and the reason why Luca Sbisa ever got a chance in the NHL so quickly.

When Jones returned to the line-up he was never the same. Before the lower-body injury he was an overpaid defensive liability that could at least move the puck out of danger relatively well while adding a few points. After the injury he was almost completely useless and worse than before.

The pairing of his excessive contract and poor play earned him what many thought was a one-year trip to Glens Falls to play out the final year of his contract in the AHL. So far this season he has played terribly on the Phantoms roster even at the AHL level.

As soon as Gagne gets placed on LTIR, the Flyers have the cap space to call him back up. No one at the moment is sure if the Flyers even need an extra defenseman let alone whether or not Jones can even play at the NHL level anymore. He may not even play on the team by the time Parent returns from another minor injury sustained earlier this month.

Placing Jones on re-entry waivers though is a major risk. Should he get claimed, the Flyers, who once dumped him in the AHL to free themselves of his salary cap charge, would be responsible for half of his cap hit. Basically if someone bites on Jones the Flyers are short $1.35m in cap space for the remainder of the season which will effect the team when Gagne is able to eventually come back as well as at the trade deadline.

If he clears waivers it does not necessarily mean that he will play a game with the team. He could just be kept as an back-up plan in case the team has issues. Even so, the risk involved is high.

All of this is going on while the ever-underrated Blair Betts is waiting to make his triumphant return to the line-up. The team started 3-0-0 with him manning the fourth line and killing penalties. Since he has been out due to injury the team is 2-4-1.

A key cog to the Flyers’ third pairing has also been out lately putting more pressure on the top two pairings. Chris Pronger, Kimmo Timonen, Matt Carle, and Braydon Coburn are playing more than their fare share of minutes every game night because it is hard to trust a pairing made up of Danny Syvret and Ole-Kristian Tollefsen for more than 10 minutes of ice-time a game. Ryan Parent gave the third pairing at least some credibility, and still the Flyers wait on his return.

The Hurricanes will be coming into the picture Saturday hungry for a win. John Stevens is determined not to let a Stanley Cup contender fall to .500 after only one month of play despite the schedule and the injuries. The team is still performing far better than their record indicates. It may not be time to panic just yet, but there is certainly plenty to raise a few eyebrows.