Flyers

Imperfect Ten: Thoughts after Devils 3, Flyers 0

By Anthony SanFilippo

Published: Dec 9th, 2021 · 9:38 AM EST

---

In a game where the New Jersey Devils trotted out their alternative uniforms for the first time, a black sweater with the word “Jersey” scripted across the front (and the team joked and mocked the new design by wearing hats in the locker room that said “hat” and “mask” for the goalie), they probably could have done their opponents a solid and put the word “net” above to goal to help the Flyers find it.

That still might not have been enough.

Exhibiting far less effort than I did writing that lede, the Flyers played their worst game of the season thus far. A completely listless and disinterested game in which they barely showed up to play, losing their 10th consecutive game, 3-0 –

How many games have the Flyers lost in a row? pic.twitter.com/KuNhEMVStM

— Russ Joy (@JoyOnBroad) December 9, 2021

It’s the fourth time they’ve been shut out in the first 24 games of the season. It’s the first time they’ve lost six consecutive games in regulation since February, 2008. And the losing streak is tied for the third longest in franchise history.

It can’t get any worse, can it?

The Flyers are showing us that, oh yes, it can.

Usually when a team is struggling this bad, you look for rock bottom. Most of us assumed that was Sunday – catching a shorthanded Tampa team coming into town after traveling on back-to-back nights playing their backup goalie and the Flyers seeking desperation to come out of a funk – and then no-showing and losing 7-1, an outing that got their former coach Alain Vigneault fired.

They followed that up with a better effort, but still a loss, to the Colorado Avalanche, losing 7-5, and the feeling was that maybe, this game had a few positives and that the team would continue to take strides forward and maybe win a game and snap the streak, especially catching a New Jersey team that was struggling almost as badly.

But no. The Flyers showed there were deeper and darker places to go. An embarrassing home loss that got the coach fired was not the floor. Nay, nay. The Flyers are spelunkers, friends; they know greater depths than we can imagine. They will find the deepest, darkest, most cavernous environment, don’t you worry.

Twenty players put a uniform on Wednesday. Three of them showed any signs of caring to play. Carter Hart. Claude Giroux. Morgan Frost. That’s it. Apologies to Martin Jones, because he was the backup goalie and didn’t play, but the rest of the team was simply dogshit.

Hart allowed two goals. One, was when he was taken out of the play by his own defenseman, as Travis Sanheim had a circus clown performance on the Devils first goal:

The first Jersey jersey goal belongs to Bratt. What a play by Bratter and the Captain. 1-0 Devils pic.twitter.com/nkOvrgZV8w

— Duck Duck Gusev 🇺🇸 (@DuckDuckGusev) December 9, 2021

Yep, that’s Sanheim completely misplaying Jesper Bratt along the wall. But then he gets up and inexplicably skates across the ice through the crease and takes out Hart’s stick in the process.

The Devils could have scored that goal from anywhere, really. Look at how wide the Flyers gaps are. Just watch the replay again. They are all of the place. There is no structure. There is no concept that they know what they are doing at all. It’s pee-wee hockey nonsense.

The second Devils goal came on a perfectly-executed tip drill on the power play and the third goal was an empty-netter.

Ergo, Carter Hart was fine.

The only chances at all that the Flyers seemed to generate where when Giroux and Frost were on the ice together early in the game. Interim coach Mike Yeo switched up the lines eventually, and the duo didn’t play together the rest of the game, but when they were on the ice early, there seemed to be a little chemistry that was working and that maybe, possibly they would break through and score on MacKenzie Blackwood, but once the lines were scrambled, so were the Flyers brains.

Truly, this is an indictment of the entire organization. The Vigneault firing occurred at a time the Flyers couldn’t afford to fire him (and assistant Michel Therrien) because of their schedule and the lack of time to practice.

The Flyers had another assistant coach out there for this game, this time it was player development coach Nick Schultz filling in as Yeo’s assistant. Schultz will stay on the trip while the Flyers search for a new assistant.

But why are they concentrating on finding an assistant when they should be concentrating on finding a new coach?

None of what the Flyers are doing makes sense. We know the business side of things is a Mickey Mouse operation, and the guy with the ears who made the call on Vigneault – Dave Scott – found a way to bumble something on the hockey operations side and make the team worse in the short term.

But let’s be honest, this isn’t all on Dave Scott. This is a collection of players who are not playing like they care. It was put together by a general manager who isn’t a dolt, but also doesn’t have the most stellar track record in the NHL, and the guy who is now in charge of coaching the team, Yeo, decided they needed a day off Thursday before playing Friday and Saturday.

Come again?

No practice? The one day you have an opportunity to get some things fixed structurally and you’re going to punt? No one is asking you to bag skate the team. No one is telling you they need to be punished with a hard practice. No – just get the simple stuff fixed.

Instead, let’s have a flight to Vegas and a relaxing day off before playing tomorrow.

No urgency. Not from anyone. Not a player. Not a coach. Not the GM. Not the Chairman.

If it doesn’t matter to you, then why should it matter to the fans? Oh, right… nobody is buying tickets right now, so it doesn’t.

[the_ad id=”103880″]