Last week, the Flyers had an opportunity to beat three of the top teams in the Eastern Conference and they absolutely blew it. I truly believed that they could pull out at least two wins and I was proven wrong. What makes this situation worse is the fact that the losses were bad losses. The game against Pittsburgh was a terrible collapse, as well as a terrible decision on Coach Peter Laviolette to pull Ilya Bryzgalov and replace him with a goalie that should not even be in the league, in Brian Boucher. The New York game was also a game in which the team collapsed and couldn’t hold a lead to finish the game. The Boston game, however, was an embarrassment to watch. I understand that Boston is probably the best team in the East right now, but to play with zero heart and get shut out is just embarrassing.
There obviously has to be some sort of change in the locker room to fix this, but I do not think firing Lavy and Holmgren and trading away young guys is the answer. Many fans our demanding these firings and are looking to trade away a 20 year old Sean Couturier, who is only in his second year in the league. Couturier is not the first player in NHL history to have a bad year after a good rookie season. He actually overachieved last season, so to even considering trading him at this point in his young career is a very uneducated, and just flat out bad consideration. Long ago, Patrick Sharp was a member of the orange and black at a young age.
Unfortunately, he was traded away for Matt Ellison. Who is Matt Ellison you might ask? Someone who didn’t make any impact on the league or the Flyers at all. Imagine if the Flyers did not go through with that trade. Sharp might still be a Flyer today. In saying this, now is not the time to demand your top prospect to be traded for someone at the end of their career, or even another young player.
I will continue to preach that the Flyers are only two players away from being a contender for the throne of the east. They need a pure goal scoring first line winger for Giroux to play with, and a true top two d man. If they are able to obtain these types of players and still keep the young guys like Voracek, the Schenns, Couturier, Simmonds, and Giroux, they will have all the pieces to be a Stanley Cup contender.
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