The Puck Stops Here
John Stevens Fired For Flyers Goaltending
by PuckStopsHere on 12/04/09 at 08:38 PM ET
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One of the biggest surprises this season is that it took until December for a team to fire a coach. This makes faux rumors prediction that 25-50% of the coaches who started the 2009/10 season would be fired before game 82 look to be in doubt.
The first coach fired this season is John Stevens, who was fired by the Philadelphia Flyers. Stevens coached the Flyers for slightly over three seasons. He found himself coaching a team with a 13-12 record (with one loss counted as an overtime tie), that has his time in tenth place in the East Conference.
The Philadelphia Flyers have a talented group of position players including Mike Richards, Jeff Carter, Chris Pronger and Kimmo Timonen. Their forwards and defencemen are groups that look like they should make playoffs. The problem is that they do not have top level goaltending. Due to some poor choices that significantly limited their salary cap space, the Flyers were stuck signing Ray Emery and Brian Boucher to be their goaltenders this season.
Ray Emery has been slumping lately. He has a .861 saves percentage and a 3.91 GAA in his last six games. His overall season stats are much better than that due to a good start (.907 saves percentage and 2,65 GAA). It was Emery’s recent slump that provoked the John Stevens firing.
Brian Boucher has been the better of the two Flyer goalies so far this season, but he has had very limited play. Boucher has only appeared in six games, but has posted a .924 saves percentage and a 2.20 GAA. One solution for the Flyers, should Emery not find his game again, would be to use Brian Boucher more frequently.
The goaltenders the Philadelphia Flyers used last year have performed pretty well so far this season. Antero Niittymaki has some of the best numbers in the NHL so far this season. He has a .931 saves percentage and a 2.18 GAA for the Tampa Bay Lightning. Martin Biron has a .907 saves percentage and a 3.04 GAA (facing significantly more shots than he would with the Flyers) for the New York Islanders. His overall numbers are comparable to Ray Emery, but he has been more consistent (and also played behind limited offensive support which has limited his win total). The Philadelphia Flyers would have fewer questions regarding their goaltending has they stood pat with last year’s goalies.
Ironically, should the Flyers opt to change their goaltending via trade, the most available goalie is likely Martin Biron, who will be the odd man out on Long Island when Rock DiPietro returns from injury. Would the Flyers consider taking him back?
These goaltending questions are the main reason that John Stevens had been fired. If the Flyers had a legitimate number one goalie, he would still have a job. This is a failure of general manager Paul Holmgren. Holmgren is firing the coach to try to cover up his own mistakes.
The Philadelphia Flyers new coach is Peter Laviolette. He is probably a step up from Stevens as a coach. His most significant success is winning the 2006 Stanley Cup as coach of the Carolina Hurricanes. A minor improvement in coaching does little to change the likely direction of the Philadelphia Flyers. They clearly have the talent of a playoff team and have won more games than they have lost so far. That is likely to continue. The Flyers weakness remains goaltending. It could be a big enough problem to keep the team from a playoff berth. If they do make playoffs, they will likely be first round fodder, unless they can find a top goaltender by playoff time. A new coach does nothing to change that picture.
Filed in: | The Puck Stops Here | Permalink
Tags: John+Stevens, Martin+Biron, Paul+Holmgren, Peter+Laviolette, Philadelphia+Flyers, Ray+Emery,
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