Why Laviolette needs to be fired.

[habsguy26]

Mistake me if I'm wrong, as I do not watch a lot of Flyers' games, but it seems as so that Peter Laviolette, has lost the respect of his team. It seems apparent that the players have just had enough, as they have not been responsive. Many could put the blame of the Flyers' slow start on Homer, because he signed Bryz and let Jagr walk.. but it is more than that, at least how I see it..

When I brought this up in the game chat a few nights ago, many of you were content with the idea, and brought up the concern "Well who is out there that we can bring in?"

Well, ladies and gentlemen, meet the (should be) candidates of the next NHL job (with the Flyers' or any other team)

Dallas Eakins

Current Position: Head coach of the AHL's Toronto Marlies

I am a believer that Dallas Eakins SHOULD have been hired as the Leaf's head coach when the team decided to fire Ron Wilson. Instead, Burke decided to bring in old pal Randy Carlyle. Anyways, Eakins is leading arguably the best team in the AHL right now, and I believe much like Kirk Muller, he is the next young coach to get a job in the NHL. Also an interesting note, Eakins will be coaching the AHL all star game this season.

Guy Carbonneau

Free Agent

'Carbs' would be a great coach for the Flyers. He excelled in a defensive role in the NHL, after being a prolific scorer in junior (ala Coots?) winning the Selke trophy several times before retiring. While coaching Montreal, he lead them to a 1st place finish in the Eastern Conference when the team wasn't even supposed to make the play offs. He is an excellent defensive coach, good with the media and helped groom Carey Price into the goalie he is today, and Price, along with other veteran Habs' players will often speak of Carbonneau with praise and credit him for being a good coach. He is strict and disciplined, and isn't afraid to call out a slumping player. I wish Carbonneau was still coaching in Montreal.

Larry Robinson:

Current Position: Assistant coach of The San Jose Sharks

Larry Robinson, hall of fame defenceman, is also a name floating around that could soon be hired as a head coach. He is often spoken of by his peers and by the media as the best assistant coach in hockey right now, so he has something going for him. He led the Devils to two Stanley Cups in the late 90's and early 2000's as the head coach, and again led them to the Cup finals last year as an assistant coach. He is a ''player's coach'' and is good with younger players.

Steve Spott:

Current Position: Head Coach of the OHL's Kitchener Rangers

Spott was the coach of the recent Team Canada in the World Juniors. While the team did finish with a disappointing Bronze medal, Spott was a shining star on Team Canada. He has coached some of the best young players in the world, whether it be in Kitchener or in Ufa, Russia. He is an offensive guru, often creating plays that turn the other team inside-out and is the original mastermind of the infamous 1-3-1 forecheck system that we all know the Flyers' love.

Anyways, there you have it. Personally these four should have NHL jobs right now, but the Flyers' would be smart to snatch one of them up and I would guarantee that the Flyers' would be a better team.

[Podein25]

it seems as so that Peter Laviolette, has lost the respect of his team

First off, thanks for not bringing up "the system." For all the talk of Lavy's "run and gun" system, I can't for the life of me figure out what that is. Right now we're not a good puck pressure team, at least not very often. We don't "attack," our fore-check is not particularly effective - teams often come out on us easy-peasy - and we generally suck in the neutral zone. Anyway, I digress...

I don't necessarily see any concrete evidence that Lavy has "lost the room." The thing that bugs me most is how poor our fundamentals are and have been under his watch. Lousy passing, horrible at faceoffs, poor positional play. You name it. He should maybe be fired for those things.

[Orangecat]

First off, thanks for not bringing up "the system." For all the talk of Lavy's "run and gun" system, I can't for the life of me figure out what that is. Right now we're not a good puck pressure team, at least not very often. We don't "attack," our fore-check is not particularly effective - teams often come out on us easy-peasy - and we generally suck in the neutral zone. Anyway, I digress...

I don't necessarily see any concrete evidence that Lavy has "lost the room." The thing that bugs me most is how poor our fundamentals are and have been under his watch. Lousy passing, horrible at faceoffs, poor positional play. You name it. He should maybe be fired for those things.

I agree completely...almost.

To say he has lost the room is completely unfounded...

I agreed that the teams fundamentals are terrible...but I blame that on the architect (Holmgren).

What's that old saying about not being able to polish a turd?... I don't think this team is a turd, however, I think they are a borderline playoff club that needs another stud first line forward to take some heat off of Giroux.

Bobby Ryan.

[Orangecat]

My only problem with a trade for Bobby Ryan is that it shows the team regrets trading JVR. We would probably have to give up Coots or B. Schenn for Ryan..

So instead of trading JVR when we did, we could have kept him and traded Coots or another young forward for L. Schenn. Then we are pretty much exactly where we would be if we add a forward like Ryan.

[Adamflyers]

Fire Lavy so that we can have yet another coach on the chopping block 3 years after he starts? No thanks! You can only blame it on the coach so many times from 1975 until now. Eventually, the team philosophy has to take some of the blame. I'm all about "Flyers hockey" as much as the next guy, but if that style of hockey doesn't win Cups, then it needs to be adjusted. The front office needs to held just as accountable as the coach, if not more so at this point.

[Podein25]

@Orangecat

You make a good point re: the polishing of turds. I agree with your 2nd post re Ryan. Plus we should have gotten more than L Schenn for JVR, at least a pick (3rd rounder). JVR is proving that, although L Schenn has played better than I expected (paired with Kimmo though)

[Mad Dog]

First off, thanks for not bringing up "the system." For all the talk of Lavy's "run and gun" system, I can't for the life of me figure out what that is. Right now we're not a good puck pressure team, at least not very often. We don't "attack," our fore-check is not particularly effective - teams often come out on us easy-peasy - and we generally suck in the neutral zone. Anyway, I digress...

I don't necessarily see any concrete evidence that Lavy has "lost the room." The thing that bugs me most is how poor our fundamentals are and have been under his watch. Lousy passing, horrible at faceoffs, poor positional play. You name it. He should maybe be fired for those things.

Hard to argue with much of this. The only thing I would say is I am not even sure if all these things (poor passing, bad faceoffs, etc.) are even on him. I mean I am sure he has to take some responsibility for it, but one thing I suppose we need to at least consider is that this group of players is simply not good enough. Before the season has started, *even* before we found out that we would be missing Meszaros, Gustuffson and Bourdon, I was trying to warn everybody that this group of blueliners will struggle with getting the puck out of their zone and organizing a quick rush. Foster and Gervais are simply not NHL material. They should actually feel honored to be playing in the AHL. That is certainly not Laviolette's fault. How much coaching can you really do with guys who simply do not have it in them? Coburn has potential, but he is one frustrating player to watch. Either he just doesn't pay attention or simply doesn't have a high hockey IQ... I lean towards the latter. Luke Schenn and Grossman are not terrible defensemen, but they are far from being fast and that's a probelm both defensively and in the neutral zone.

Our forwards have done very little to earn any praise, but they are not getting much help from their d-men, which hurts a transition game tremendously. And I really start to believe that the forwards, every time they try to be aggressive upfront, always look behind because they just don't seem to have any trust in their defensemen.

To sum this up, I really don't think it's a lack of effort.

So with all this, I don't know how much of this is on Laviolette. Some of it is, I am sure of it. But I am just seing a fairly big gap in talent, to tell you the truth. And that's a pity.

[mojo1917]

I agree completely...almost.

To say he has lost the room is completely unfounded...

I agreed that the teams fundamentals are terrible...but I blame that on the architect (Holmgren).

What's that old saying about not being able to polish a turd?... I don't think this team is a turd, however, I think they are a borderline playoff club that needs another stud first line forward to take some heat off of Giroux.

Bobby Ryan.

ugh, with the bobby ryan, why not pay the stud on that team to play on Giroux's wing a lot of the chairman's money and keep all the good young guys, Perry has not accepted an extention, and the flyers have money and the "grace period" contract buyouts...

Perry>Ryan...

[Podein25]

@Mad Dog

Yeah, those are fair points. What happened with the D prior to the season starting could not have been predicted, but this is the punishment you can expect to get when you have not done anything for years to ensure depth at D. And then screwing up the Carle thing on top of it all. If we had gotten Weber, we'd still be in trouble and people would be griping about Weber, like some no doubt are in Nashville right now. We should hire a former D-man to coach in Adirondack so we can finally get started on developing D-men.

[Orangecat]

ugh, with the bobby ryan, why not pay the stud on that team to play on Giroux's wing a lot of the chairman's money and keep all the good young guys, Perry has not accepted an extention, and the flyers have money and the "grace period" contract buyouts...

Perry>Ryan...

Perry has whopping 6 pts right now (1g 5a) to Ryans 11 pts (4g 7a). Now, I dont see many Ducks games so there may be a reason for this. Also, those numbers could very well even out by year end. Ryan, however, is also two years younger.

I don't want to give up our young talent either, but I have a hard time accepting the "we'll get `em next year" mantra so soon. I'm not saying I want the Flyers to make a move like this I'm just trying to put my "GM hat" on to try to come out with ways to improve this team. We all know Holmgren, he's sure to make some sort of splash.

In addition, Ryan is just an example...It doesn't have to be him. But I think it's pretty obvious the help we need is offensive...

Get it?...Offensive.

[mojo1917]

@Orangecat

Giroux needs a finisher . no question.

[Mad Dog]

@Orangecat

Giroux needs a finisher . no question.

It really starts to look like Homer significantly underestimated the ramificaitons of losing Jagr.

[OccamsRazor]

NO to firing Lavy....sorry at some time in their careers they have to be held accoutable...THEY ARE ADULTS AND NEED TO ACT LIKE IT!!!!

Time to look in the mirror...i think next time on my job when i get in trouble for not doing my job properly i am going to suggest firing my boss and see how that flys!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[radoran]

It really starts to look like Homer significantly underestimated the ramificaitons of losing Jagr.

Don't worry. They had an offer out to Parise.

[jammer2]

I'm not coming out necessarily coming out defending Lavi....but what role to the players play in this whole thing? These are pros that are paid millions of dollars to carry out basic tasks like playing sound positonal hockey, shooting, passing....pure basic fundamentals of the game. It's kind of a prerequesite to being a pro. Lavi should not have to drill in shooting or passing, it's supposed to be engrained skills that are already developed. It's like an Olympic swimmer and not knowing a particular stroke or breathing technique.....it's outrageous really. For me, this lies at Homers feet more than Lavi, he's the one that hand picked this entrie team, if they are weak on fundamentals, it's on him the most.

[flyerrod]

We should hire a former D-man to coach in Adirondack so we can finally get started on developing D-men.

Isn't Sjell Samuelsson a coach on the Phantoms? And I thought Derian Hatcher was supposed to be working with the young D-men too.

Injuries have played a part in this season so far and so have scoring droughts by star players. Lets pull one of the top pair defensemen and 3 of the top 2 line forwards and see how other teams do.....The Flyers are one game away from .500 and while having absorbed personnel losses that would have destroyed most teams. I think Lavi deserves more credit than what he is getting and in no way should be fired for the performance thus far.

[Podein25]

Isn't Sjell Samuelsson a coach on the Phantoms? And I thought Derian Hatcher was supposed to be working with the young D-men too.

Dunno. I thought Desjardins was also supposed to be helping the D out at some point, that was a few years ago. They gotta do something about the developing of D-men on the farm, for all our sake.

[radoran]

Dunno. I thought Desjardins was also supposed to be helping the D out at some point, that was a few years ago. They gotta do something about the developing of D-men on the farm, for all our sake.

They have a plan. They draft forwards and then deal them for defensemen.

Problem solved.

[DaGreatGazoo]

Regarding system, one of the games earlier this year...maybe the Rangers win...the Flyers played a left wing lock. And that was one of the best games they've played all year. I don't claim to know a ton about systems, but didn't the Red Wings win a few cups playing that system as well. Granted, it's only one game, but to @Podein25 point....they don't look like they do much of anything consistently right now.

So, why not try and play that? Cut down on the scoring chances against-protect our lousy blueline, and play in the offensive zone more.

[Mad Dog]

Lavi should not have to drill in shooting or passing, it's supposed to be engrained skills that are already developed.

Sure. Unless, of course, the players simply don't have those skills, like I mentioned earlier. Do you really think Foster has a first damn clue what passing is?

[Mad Dog]

Lavi should not have to drill in shooting or passing, it's supposed to be engrained skills that are already developed.

Sure. Unless, of course, the players simply don't have those skills, like I mentioned earlier. Do you really think Foster has a first damn clue what passing is?

[JackStraw]

We should hire a former D-man to coach in Adirondack so we can finally get started on developing D-men.

You mean like John Stevens?

[JackStraw]

Isn't Sjell Samuelsson a coach on the Phantoms? And I thought Derian Hatcher was supposed to be working with the young D-men too.

It would probably help if there was some actual talent in the system. Have the Flyers actually used a 1st or 2nd round pick on a defenseman since Sbisa?

[DaGreatGazoo]

It would probably help if there was some actual talent in the system. Have the Flyers actually used a 1st or 2nd round pick on a defenseman since Sbisa?

Have the Flyers had a pick in the 2nd round since Sbisa was drafted?

Edited February 13, 2013 by DaGreatGazoo

[Podein25]

You mean like John Stevens?

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