News coming out of Philadelphia is indicating that Paul Holmgren, general manager of the Philadelphia Flyers, has informed press that he has relieved Peter Laviolette of his duties. Assistant coach Kevin Macarthy was also let go. The move comes extremely early in the season, and was stated as a 'gut call' by Holmgren. The Flyers are off to an 0-3 start and, Giroux, Voracek, Simmonds, Hartnell, and Schenn are scoreless, while Lacavalier is the lone goal scorer in their top six. There are only two other Flyer players that have scored in that span.. thats pretty bad.
"Right from the first day of training camp I was concerned with how our team looked." General manager Paul Holmgren said at a press conference Monday. "Things have to get better and they will."
In all honesty, this line up is not terrible up and down. The defense is suspect.. and the goaltending obviously is as well, but its really not a bad team. It doesn't help that Pronger's career is probably done but, the fact still remains though, you're the guy that put this team together Paul.. if you're not happy with it, change it. If anyone should have been fired, it should have been Holmgren, the best call he's made in the past couple years was signing an offer sheet for Shea Weber.
In my opinion, if Nashville didn't match that offer sheet, this would be a verryyyyy different looking Flyers team. The call to get rid of Jeff Carter and Mike Richards was questionable. Obviously they had a few off ice issues.. but what player in their 20's is not gonna go out in a city like Philly when they're an athlete? Look at how awesome that roster would be with those three names.. two of them cup champs since leaving Philly. Obviously with Carter and Richards, you don't get to keep Voracek, Schenn, Simmonds, and Couturier, but what have those four done, in comparison to Richards and Carter? Production wise, it doesn't even compare.
So Mr. Holmgren, you've assembled this team, and it is what it is. Is Laviolette really to blame here? The guy was just working with what he was dealt, and has one better coaching records in the NHL amongst active coaches. A lot of people are to blame, but Laviolette got hosed here.
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