Facing a growing distance between themselves and the contenders in the Eastern Conference standings, the Flyers made a change at head coach, replacing John Stevens with Peter Laviolette.  Unfortunately for the new coach, the Flyers lost his debut 8-2.

Peter Laviolette does his best tomato impression during his 8-2 debut loss (Photo by Len Redkoles/NHLI via Getty Images)

A couple weeks ago I wrote about how it might be time for the Flyers to start thinking about a different direction when it comes to the head coach.  Well, apparently the Flyers were already thinking that.  Late last week, the Flyers’ continued struggles cost John Stevens his job.  Soon after his dismissal, his replacement was named: Peter Laviolette, former coach of the 2006 Stanley Cup Champion Carolina Hurricanes.

Laviolette promises to bring a stricter mentality to the team, as well as a more open, attacking style.  In his past, he has not tolerated mistakes by players, and he would hold them accountable by taking away their ice time.  That is something this Flyers team sorely needs - they lead the league in penalty minutes, and that’s without the large number of fighting majors they usually earn.

The Flyers’ first test under Laviolette was against the Washington Capitals on Saturday, with one small caveat:  The Caps were without two time MVP (and widely considered the best player in the World), Alexander Ovechkin.  So, any success the Flyers might have would have to be marked with an asterisk.  That, of course, is assuming they had any success…at all.  Losing 8-2 generally means that not much went right for you.

For about three quarters of the first period, the Flyers were playing fairly well.  After falling behind 1-0 early, they took over control of the game, and eventually tied it up.  Then it happened.  In an 8-2 game, there is rarely a single moment that you can point to and say, “that’s when the game changed.”  Saturday had one of those rare moments.  Daniel Carcillo and Matt Bradley got into an altercation…sort of.  It was mostly Carcillo that got into the altercation.  At least that’s the way the referees saw it.  They handed the Flyers’ forward a five minute major for fighting, a two minute minor for instigating, a two minute minor for cross-checking, a ten minute misconduct, and, finally, a game misconduct penalty.  All Bradley received was getting helped off the ice, after being dropped by one of Carcillo’s punches.

Add all of that up - grab your calculator - and you get a nine minute power play for the Capitals.  Nine minutes - the first five of which were the major (which means the Caps would be allowed to score as many times as they could)!  Simply put, the Captials took advantage, scoring three times.  By the time the smoke cleared, the Flyers were down 4-1, and were clearly emotionally drained.

Now, as monumental as that series of events was, it was not what was most troubling about the game.  What was most troubling was the attitude the Flyers played with.  It was the same seemingly emotionless attitude that led John Stevens to get fired.  Even after an unprecedented penalty (at least in my viewing experience), the Flyers were only down 4-1 with more than half the game left.  They have come back from worse.  Instead of playing with the intensity that you’d imagine a team with a new coach would play with, they were flat.  And they went on to allow four more goals that can’t be blamed on anyone but themselves.

So here we are.  They Flyers (as of this writing) have lost seven of their last eight, have fallen to 12th place, and now they have a new coach and new system to learn.  Their goaltending has been subpar, and their special teams have been anything but special.  But…wait for it…it’s still early.  Yes, they are two spots removed from the bottom of the conference standings, but they are also “just” 14 points away from the first place Penguins with over 50 games to play.  And they still have four games in hand on the Penguins.  And if their position seems insurmountable to you, just look at those cross state rivals.  Last year - and much later in the season - they were in tenth place in the conference.  After a coaching change, they went on to finish the regular season in fourth place and eventually won the Stanley Cup.  Am I predicting a Stanley Cup for the Flyers?  No.  It’s just that I don’t expect this slump to last.  This is a good roster, and I think the new coach will turn them around before it’s too late.