Sunday, May 22, 2011
Posted: 11:49 a.m.
By Sarah BaickerCSNPhilly.com
When players in any sport enter contract years, facing extra scrutiny is all but a guarantee.
Take Flyers winger Ville Leino, for instance. Come July 1, Leino will be an unrestricted free agent. But if the Flyers decide to re-sign him, how much in salary does he deserve? He was reportedly in search of around 3.5 million, but that was before his on-ice performance dipped.
As the 2010-11 season carried on, one could find nary a story about Leino that didnt discuss whetherand for how muchthe Flyers should bring him back.
OK, so the same cant exactly be said for coaches. Thats especially true for Flyers coaches, who tend to have notoriously short careers behind the bench in Philadelphia. But Peter Laviolette, the current head coach who carried the team to within two wins of the Stanley Cup a year ago, will enter the third and final year on his contract when the first puck drops next season.
So of course it must be asked: Hows he doing?
This past season, Laviolette led the Flyers to the No. 1 overall spot in the Eastern Conference, which they held from December until the closing weeks of the regular season. He appeared able to do no wrong, and clearly had managed to sell his players on his system.
NHL
But something happened as the season drew to the close. Suddenly the Flyers seemed fatigued, disheartened, unable to win games that should have come easily. Presented with numerous chances to clinch the Eastern Conference, they failed on each occasion.
And then, in the playoffs, Laviolette was simply outcoached.
First, against Buffalo, he made puzzling decisions on whom to start in goal. Laviolette kept an arguably too-tight leash on Sergei Bobrovsky, quickly demoting the rookie netminder from No. 1 to healthy scratch. After that, he erroneously elected to start Michael Leighton, further helping the Flyers dig themselves into a series hole.
Then, against Boston, the goaltending confusion continued. But something else happened when his team was facing the BruinsLaviolette suddenly elected to send curious matchups out onto the ice, even going so far as to mysteriously pair Danny Brieres line up against Bostons Flyer-killing David Krejci line.
All along, the Flyers' special teams struggled, but the power play was particularly bad throughout both playoff rounds. Not all of the responsibility lies in the coach's hands, of course, but he does bear some of it.
He seemed somewhat immune from criticism at the timebut the future for Laviolette might not be so rosy.
Of course, theres no doubt the Flyers coach can win it all; he proved that in 2006 with the Carolina Hurricanes, leading the club to its first Stanley Cup championship in his second year coaching the team.
But still, though he might not occupy as much of the spotlight as Mike Richards and Bobrovsky are sure to during this off-season and the first few months of the 2011-12 season, Laviolette will certainly face questions and criticism.
And, seeing as hes the third head coach Richards has had since he became a Flyer in 2005, its entirely possible the clock has begun to tick down on his career here.
E-mail Sarah Baicker at sbaicker@comcastsportsnet.com
Related: Figuring out the Flyers: GoaltendingFiguring out the Flyers: Defense