At the moment, Chuck Fletcher’s status is status quo. It’s rare at this point in a season that an organization decides to make wholesale changes at any level. There is one month until the trade deadline. There will be just 31 games remaining on the Flyers schedule when they return from the All-Star break. At this point, it’s going to remain Fletcher’s job through the remainder of the season.
Whether it should be his job is an entirely different discussion. It’s no secret that Fletcher’s standing with the fan base is unharmonious. It’s also no secret that the group that helps call the shots – from governor Dave Scott to senior advisors Bobby Clarke, Paul Holmgren, Dean Lombardi, and Bill Barber – heavily influence the decision that would involve dismissing Fletcher.
That’s the real story here. It’s not about Fletcher alone, but the group that continues to stand by him as general manager and President of Hockey Operations for the franchise. Rather than focus on the makeup of the roster that can’t compete with the elite teams in the NHL, rather than focus on the shortcomings of Fletcher’s work over the last several years, they are more content to focus on a six-point deficit from a playoff spot at the All-Star break. It’s complacency with mediocrity. It’s being stuck in the NHL’s mushy middle. It is a franchise that continues to spin its wheels until it makes a clear-cut decision about the direction it wants to go.
The John Tortorella Effect
About that six-point deficit from a playoff spot…you can thank John Tortorella for that.
The new head coach had his team get off to a strong start with a 7-3-2 record through 12 games. It shouldn’t come as a surprise, as Tortorella’s camps tend to drive home the intensity level needed to catch the attention of the coach in a positive light.
But a 10-game losing streak and struggles that prolonged beyond it suddenly had the Flyers at an 11-17-7 record. From Nov. 8 to the holiday break on Dec. 23, the team had a 4-14-5 record in a span of 23 games.
Since the holiday break, however, the Flyers have returned to hockey .500 with an impressive 10-4-2 record. There are players starting to emerge. They are starting to find ways to win games instead of lose them. They are remaining competitive in a vast majority of the games they do play.
John Tortorella tends to do this in his first year at the helm of a new team. He’s definitely getting the most out of this Flyers team in the last few weeks.
Building from the Net Out
A common theme to this season’s victories for the Flyers have centered on goaltending. At the beginning of the season, it was all Carter Hart, who opened with a 6-0-2 record and a .946 save percentage.
Hart’s had some stellar performances since, most recently a 40-save shutout win over Winnipeg to enter the break, but he’s not the only one turning heads.
Samuel Ersson made his NHL debut in the final game before the holiday break. Upon returning from the break, he won his next five starts, including posting his first career shutout on Jan. 9.
If a common theme is that you build from the net out, the Flyers have found two strong candidates.
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