In most cases, when you take over as an interim coach, you very likely were switched to a new poker table where you have the shortest stack of chips and you were just dealt a bad hand.

That was certainly Mike Yeo’s experience when he took over for Alain Vigneault back on December 6. In the 13 weeks since, the Flyers players have tested Yeo’s patience. Always considered a player’s coach, Yeo had opened lines of communication with the players that might not have been there under AV. He re-committed the team to video work, something that had become a bit lax under the former coach.

He was willing to try new things, hand out new responsibilities, and help the locker room develop a sense of accountability toward each other.

Vigneault was fired when the team was 8-10-4. Yeo has gone 10-20-7. And when you lose 27-of-37, the frustration is certainly going to mount for the coach. But it was the latest loss, the 27th, that was the breaking point.

The Flyers blew another late lead and lost in overtime, in both instances because of poor puck management, and fell 4-3 at Wells Fargo Center Sunday night.

But it wasn’t that it was just another one of those collapses – it occurred against the team with the worst record in the NHL, the Montreal Canadiens.

The Habs have been the laughing stock of the NHL for much of the season, but Montreal hired a permanent coach in Martin St. Louis in mid-February. Although he had no coaching experience, St. Louis has the Canadiens playing a decent brand of hockey, as they are now 8-2-1 since he took over.

His players are becoming more accountable to one another and playing for one another. They’ve all bought in, even though it’s a lost season. and now, even though they still have the fewest wins of any team in the NHL, they’ve climbed to within two wins of the teams in front of them – expansion Seattle, should-be-contracted Arizona, and the Flyers.

This brought Yeo into his press conference last night with a full head of steam ready to unleash fury on his team.

Here’s a breakdown of his press conference, which is regularly better than anything else involving the team on the ice:

Q. Can you take us through that play that ties it with 42 seconds left?

“When we were on the power play? Yeah. Obviously you guys saw it I’m sure, first off we got beat off the ice. We got two D men that are in the corner and I think that our mindset is more let’s get on the move, and we’re obviously not protecting that area.”

Q: Did somebody fall down?

“Risto. First off, they got a pretty darned good look off the hop, so Risto has to go play long body or slide to deny that play. So he ends up in the corner. I think that maybe we still have the chance to be first on the puck, but we end up losing it. Instead of coming into the house and stopping, we play on the move.” – 

Yeo was specifically pissed because the Flyers are on the power play in the final minute of the game with a one-goal lead and let this play happen.

First, you have Cam Atkinson losing a puck battle. Then Claude Giroux can’t get in the way of a Rem Pitlick outlet pass up the wall. Here’s where the first question comes in… why are the Flyers playing so conservatively with a man advantage? The defensive pairing of Travis Sanheim and Rasmus Ristolainen drifted all the way back to just in front of their own blue line. The gap between Giroux and Sanheim is massive. Yes, I understand that you don’t want to give up the tying goal, but playing that conservatively ends up costing you because you give Montreal time and space to generate speed coming at you into your own zone. Nick Suzuki takes the puck there and slides it nicely to a hard-charging Jeff Petry, who has the momentum advantage coming down the wall.

Sanheim makes a feeble attempt to knock the puck away, but once Petry blows past him, Ristolainen is left with no choice but to slide to block the pass out in front.

So many fans, who really are just looking for things to blame Ristolainen for, wanted to point the finger at Risto for taking himself out of the play, even though his play blocked the pass, took the puck with him to the corner, and gave Sanheim a second opportunity to gain control of the puck afterwards.

But even Sanheim admitted it was his mistake and that Ristolainen did the right thing and make a heck of a play trying to cover for him.

“(We lost) it in-zone and we knew that they were gonna try and push us out of the zone and try to stretch us out and they did.   They were able to get possession coming in and Risto made a good play defensively, sliding. I go to get the puck but I didn’t realize (Ben) Chiarot was that close to me. I turned the puck over and it winds up in the back of the net.”

Chiarot stole the puck from Sanheim and found Pitlick all alone in front. Derick Brassard had made it back to the defensive zone at this point and could have done a better job covering that passing lane to the front of the net, but instead got caught in no man’s land just watching the play.

It was a complete and total breakdown by the Flyers at the wrong time.

OK, back to the coach:

Q: These questions keep coming about the team not being able to finish late in games, but have you ever seen anything like this amount of times?

“I haven’t. And I also haven’t seen the reluctance to… I mean we spent a lot of time (Sunday) morning talking about showing a team like Florida, showing a team like Carolina. It’s the things that you do to win games, and still before that moment in the game, I’m sure you guys probably agree, it’s not like we all felt real good about our game. Even when we had the lead. So, again, we’re going to have to keep finding ways to get players to understand that you can play the way you want to play, or you can play winning hockey. Again I think that there were things that you can look at, our defensive game is getting better, and blah blah blah that’s nice but that’s what you have to do, that’s what you’re supposed to do. And there’s a way to play with the puck where you’re not turning it over and giving free ice and giving freebies to a team that has skill. We still refuse to do that.”

The emphasis here is mine. First, Yeo starts to say the team is reluctant to play the right way, but then stops himself and goes into greater detail.

He indicates that this message has been repeated hundreds of times to the players and yet they can’t put it into practice. That instead, players are more willing to try and do something risky that could come back and bite them rather than do the simple thing that leads to wins.

Yeo is also tired of hearing how the team is playing better defensively, because it’s simply a matter of doing what you’re supposed to do and not really going above and beyond. It’s almost as if he were saying “We can’t celebrate the fact that we’re doing our jobs. Because that’s simply what we are getting paid to do.”

And on the game-winning goal, you find a play where the risky play rather than the simple play is what costs the Flyers the game:

“A bull-lay!” What a great call on the goal in French by Pierre Houde.

But here’s an example of what Yeo is talking about. Morgan Frost has the puck. in overtime. At that point in the game, it’s all about puck possession. There’s no reason to feel like you need to rush a play. Just carry the puck and possess it.

Instead, at the first sign of pressure, Frost tries to throw the puck forward to Joel Farabee, who certainly isn’t expecting the pass. Frost is hoping against hope here.

Unfortunately for Frost, the puck hits the back of Farabee’s skate, Pitlick sees it, grabs it, and slides it to a wide open Cole Caulfield who ripped one past Carter Hart for the game-winner.

It’s a shame too, because Frost had an excellent game prior to that gaffe. Moved back to the wing and playing with Giroux at center and Travis Konecny on the other wing, that line was the one line that seemed to be going all night for the Flyers. They even scored a nice goal:

It was Giroux’s 900th point in his career, one of only 120 players in the history of the sport to reach that total. It was also his 291st goal, which moved him past Eric Lindros for 8th on the Flyers all-time list. It also may have been his last goal as a Flyer. More on that in a bit.

But back to the play by Frost. He knew right away, he never should have tried to pass the puck there.

“I’ve got to watch it again to see what I did,” Frost said. “Obviously it was a bad turnover… Maybe (we’re all) just afraid to make a mistake at the end of the game. I think even last game I was really guilty of that when they scored the winning goal, so, I don’t know.”

Sounds like a young player who is dealing with a lack of confidence.

O.K., back to Yeo one more time for a biggie:

Q: You said that a few times now- ‘keep finding ways to play winning hockey’, how many more ways can you try to drive home the same message over and over again?

“Just keep finding ways. Again, take ice time away, put guys on the fourth line, scratch guys if we have to. I don’t even know if we have enough to call guys up. There’s veteran players we’re going to have to do it to, too. We got to get the job done.”

Woah!

Yeo’s finally had enough. Less responsibility. Veterans getting benched. It’s all coming. I have to think that the list of veterans he’s not happy with includes James van Riemsdyk and Keith Yandle – which would be interesting, if Yeo decides to put an end to the Iron Man streak because of poor play.

But it also includes Ivan Provorov, who has been a shell of himself, not the greatest teammate, as we discussed last week, and also a guy who, at times, seems to have given up on the season. Look at the game-winning goal by Caulfield again. Could Provorov have done more? There are a lot of people who would say yes.

A benching of Provorov may not come until after the trade deadline, especially if the Flyers think they can trade him. But if the plan is for No. 9 to still be in orange and black beyond next Monday, then maybe Provorov does take a seat sooner rather than later.

The Giroux Decision

We all know Giroux is going to be traded. It won’t be until after Thursday though. The Flyers have a big night planned to celebrate Giroux’s 1,000th game – and likely his last game – with the Flyers before being traded.

Giroux has a lot of family in town this week in preparation for Thursday. The Flyers are starting the “celebrate Claude” festivities today with a press conference featuring Sean Couturier, Ian Laperriere, and Scott Hartnell.

This is why, after his goal Sunday night, I tweeted this:

Then again, maybe it won’t be his last as a Flyer.

Giroux had an interesting comment at the end of his press availability after Sunday’s loss. Here’s what he said:

“I didn’t think I’d be put in a position to make a decision. It’s probably been the worst year since I’ve been here. It’s been a tough year. Obviously there’s been a lot of injuries, but I’m not going to start making excuses. It’s been a tough year. … I don’t know what else to say. It’s not a position I really want to be in. Obviously there’s still some meeting and some things to talk about with the management to see what the game plan is, not just for this year, but for the future.”

Again, the emphasis is mine. I really want to focus on the last part – “not just for this year, but for the future.” That sure sounds like a guy who wants to be back here next season, doesn’t it?

Maybe Giroux would be willing to come back on a team-friendly deal. Would the Flyers want him? At what cost? Do they need to completely cut ties to move into the next phase, or would having Giroux back, even in a smaller, more affordable role be beneficial to this team?

It’s a great question, and one that likely won’t be answered until mid-July.

But it’s also an answer that might scare off some teams who are worried that Giroux might be homesick for Philadelphia if they trade for him. I know Colorado had cooled on him last week, although with captain Gabriel Landeskog going down with a knee injury that will require surgery and keep him out indefinitely, maybe they circle back.

Giroux would prefer Carolina, but Florida is also in that conversation.

It’ll be interesting to see where this goes.

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