About a week has past since the Flyers decided to part ways with now-former head coach Alain Vigneault and his assistant Michel Therrien. Therrien’s departure was long overdue considering the Flyers powerplay was converting at just over a 14% clip before his departure. During his tenure as an assistant in charge of the man advantage, the Flyers sat at 17th in the NHL over that entire span on the powerplay. They converted on 19.5% of their powerplays during that period in time.
Vigneault’s firing comes out of necessity. The Flyers were in the midst of an eventual ten-game slide. Every outing was uninspiring and the team looked flat our disinterested during those games. The move was made in the hopes of steering the ship in the right direction. That direction led to the lone assistant coach, Mike Yeo, taking over as interim head coach.
Yeo was the only man left with head coaching experience. Hell, he was the only one left that actually made sense. While the consensus was that Ian Laperriere would be groomed to take over after AV’s departure, it’s a bit too early to throw Lappy to the wolves. So now Yeo is at the helm with a team that’s sitting at 10-12-4 and one spot from the cellar of the Metropolitan Division. Low pressure situation, right?
Wrong.
If anything, Mike Yeo has an immense amount of pressure on his shoulders. Being thrust into his first stint as a head coach since November 19 of 2018 with the St. Louis Blues, Yeo is tasked with making this team competitive enough to bid for a playoff spot. If anyone has watched these Flyers over the past month and some change, it’s no surprise that Yeo is facing an uphill battle.
A team littered with injuries and players that just can’t seem to find their groove, the Flyers have already dug themselves quite the rut. The seven million dollar man James van Riemsdyk has five goals and four assists in 26 games played this season. Oskar Lindblom has one goal in 25 games and it came on December sixth against the Colorado Avalanche where it seemed like everyone had a goal. Ivan Provorov has reverted back to his less-than-stellar self while Keith Yandle and Travis Sanheim aren’t doing much to pick up the slack.
Derick Brassard, Nate Thompson, Ryan Ellis, Wade Allison, and Joel Farabee are all missing an extended period of time due to injuries. Kevin Hayes has missed 18 games on the year as well. Whether you view it as an excuse or not, this team is hurting due to injuries. What hurts more is the players who aren’t hurt not performing up to their standards.
Mike Yeo is now tasked with getting things back on track. That means figuring out how to put guys like Lindblom and JvR in positions to succeed. That means making tough decisions with the lineup when guys like Farabee, Brassard, Ellis, and Allison are healthy enough to return. It also means keeping this team afloat and not having them revert back to the team we saw between November 18th and December 8th. All things that are possible, but very difficult to attain.
On top of it all, rumors are swirling about the next permanent head coach of the Flyers. Rarely do situations like this happen where the interim coach remains onboard in a lesser role. If the Flyers bring in a guy like Rick Tocchet or John Tortorella to be head coach, Mike Yeo likely will not remain behind the Flyers bench. Imagine being asked to head your department while the company you work for searches for your new boss. You take that as an opportunity while the company that employs you looks at it as a low-cost temporary replacement.
Yeo is fighting for his head coaching life right now. If he succeeds and the Flyers have a semi-successful rest of the year, he puts himself towards the top of the list when it comes to head coaching candidates. If he has a less than stellar outing as head coach in Philadelphia, he remains an assistant. With who remains to be seen.
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