BREAKING: The Philadelphia Flyers Fire Alain Vigneault After 8 Straight Losses And A Franchise On The Brink Of Perpetual Irrelevance
Jeff Vinnick. Getty Images.The Flyers got their dicks kicked in by the Tampa Bay Lightning last night. That much was more than expected. This team is a complete and total disaster who haven't won a game since November 16th. 8 straight losses in a row for these losers. Two of them were in overtime but the rest? Not even fucking close. A 3-goal loss to the Bruins, a 4-0 shutout by the hands of the Lightning, a 3-goal loss to Carolina, a 3-goal loss to the Devils, a 3-goal loss to the Rangers, and then last night's shit kicking by Tampa again.
It would be one thing if the team was just getting terrible puck luck during this stretch. It would be one thing if the team was competitive, playing decent enough hockey, but just not getting the results. But the reality of the situation is that this team fucking sucks. They are impossible to watch and they're not even close. It's not bad luck, it's just a really bad team. One in which has no clue which direction to turn the wheel in order to right the ship.
So the first order of business was to fire Alain Vigneault. And I'll be honest--I'm shocked the organization actually went ahead and pulled the trigger on this move. Especially when the Flyers get right back at it tonight against the Avs. Maybe it was a desperation move to at least trigger some sort of motivation to the team to get on track with a win tonight. But Comcast-Spectacor can't love having to buy out the remainder of AV's contract. They're a bunch of pricks who have run this organization into the ground and would rather just sell you some new Gritty plush toys and stuff the Flyers Santa Sacks down your throat than put together an actual Stanley Cup contending hockey team. I figured the team would just ride this shitstorm out for a little longer but everybody has their breaking point. And last night was the Flyers.
Now here's the thing--the Flyers are not just one head coach firing away from being a team who can figure it out and turn things around in the long term. This team is fundamentally broken from the top down. The ownership sucks. The management sucks. The roster looks great on paper but for some reason this roster sucks as well. And when the Flyers don't turn things around after this decision has been made, well then what's next?
It pains my soul to say this. Truly it breaks my heart. But this team needs to go into a full rebuild. It's just not working with what they have right now. And somehow the Flyers prospect system has been totally dismantled as well. There was a point where the team sucked but at least the organization had one of the best prospect pools in the league. Now everything sucks. So it can't just be a retooling. It can't be a restructuring. It can't be a quick rebuild. The Flyers need to go full rebuild or else they'll be stuck in the same exact misery of perpetual mediocrity until the end of time. Trade Giroux soon while his stock is at still the highest it'll ever be again. I think as far as guys who shouldn't be hitting the market anytime soon go, it's maybe just Carter Hart and Sean Couturier. Other than that, everybody should be on the table.
But that's where we get back to the biggest issue here--Comcast. They won't sign off on this shit because they can't afford to have the team suck for the next few years. They need to sell tickets. They need viewership. They won't go for a full rebuild and take the necessary risk for this organization to actually contend in a few years. So basically we're fucked. The AV firing was a necessary move. You can't lose 8 in a row with your 8th loss being an absolute ass kicking at home after 3 days off and then not fire the coach. But as nice as it is to at least see something happen with this team, it's not even close to enough. Unless more changes are on the way soon, just get ready for Gritty to be the only identity this organization actually has for years to come.
Sidenote: Michel Therrien fired as well. So hopefully the Flyers can at least go from the league's worst powerplay to only like…the 3rd worst powerplay.