Another road game for the Philadelphia Flyers, another stunning late collapse. San Jose scored with just 11.5 seconds remaining to claim the 2-1 victory Tuesday. Eight games without a road win. A serious lack of scoring from everyone not named Claude Giroux or Jakub Voracek. Good goaltending (for once) but too many mental mistakes and a horrendous penalty kill. All of these have combined to derail the season for the Flyers.
The discontent is growing throughout the organization and the fan base. There have been players'-only meetings, rants by the ownership and management and rumors of players wanting to be traded. Nothing has helped and it now appears that the Flyers are in full meltdown mode. Owner Ed Snider commented that he'd never seen such a lack of secondary scoring from his team and last night Sean Couturier scored to help alleviate that problem but a late mental lapse once again cost the team at least a point.
The team has battled injury problems and is missing their best defenseman, Kimmo Timonen, who was diagnosed with blood clots during the summer. It is clear that the team misses his leadership on and off the ice. Coach Craig Berube seems to have no answers and has been shuffling the lineup trying to get things going. That hasn't worked and now the players are getting frustrated.
To their credit, the players have yet to blame Berube and instead have blamed themselves. However, it is clear that they are unhappy with some of his decisions. These include benching Vincent Lecavalier, a healthy scratch for the first time last night, and Michael Del Zotto, who was brought in to cover Timonen's absence. Lecavalier has not been very good so far but he's hardly the only one and it seems strange for the coach to single out both he and Del Zotto when there are many others who are playing just as poorly. Both players will also sit out tonight's game in Anaheim.
Lecavalier was given permission during the summer to negotiate a trade but he ultimately returned to the orange and black. There are rumors that he has asked to be traded but he has denied the reports. There are rumblings of potential trades that are growing louder with each loss but nothing has come about yet. If things continue this way, however, it is only a matter of time before the team makes massive changes.
Many are now calling for Berube and general manager Ron Hextall to be fired but it is not clear if either is in danger of losing his job. As Hextall just got promoted this summer to clean up the mess from years of salary cap mismanagement, it seems he would be safe. Berube may not be safe though. He took over for the fired Peter Laviolette after three games last season. He may be the fall guy but no matter what happens, changes will need to be made soon before they fall too far behind.