Fresh off an emotional press conference welcoming Allen Iverson back to Philly, the building still belongs to the Flyers tonight. The Orange & Black host the Canucks, and they have a few huge questions of their own to answer.
The team slid down the points column into December, and after a long layoff, they're ready to start another treacherous stretch of games with short breaks in between. Over the course of the next couple of weeks, we should see if they truly are contenders, or if we're in for another postseason of early golf. Here's a very brief look at the big-picture questions that will define the course of the season.
First, who's the boss?
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We Flyers fans have taken a lot of pride in our captain Mike Richards, but at the same time, when the team has seemed to lack direction, flat out given up in periods, and ultimately fallen short of the Cup, we've given him the benefit of understanding that he's still young, and it's not easy to lead a group of guys out there every night. Which is to say we've made excuses. This is not like Philly fans at all, but we've really taken to Richie.
But now, with everyone getting a little restless about the direction of the season, questions have emerged as to who the vocal leader is and should be. After the acquisition of Chris Pronger, who surely leads by example on the ice and has already won a Cup, there is the potential for a power struggle. Fortunately, neither Pronger nor Richards seems to want any part of that, and what we'll probably see is Pronger taking the reigns from time to time, giving some veteran direction to Richards, but leaving the captaincy to the guy with the C on his sweater, the guy who has been here for a while:
“He’s been here four years and sees how things have progressed from being a shitty team to a pretty good team, to having even higher expectations. I would think he has a better read on some of these guys than I do."
Seriously, Pronger is a treasure chest of brilliant quotes. Read the article by Timmy P linked above the quote. He speaks exactly like he plays—just puts it all out there. By the way, check out this post by James Mirtle, showing that Pronger has been the NHL's best defensive defenseman. With 18 points in 25 games, he's no slouch in the offensive end either. But at least for now, Richie is still the man here, and he does in fact lead the team in goals. Now we just need the wins to follow.
Are we going to have another goalie controversy?
We don't really know any other way, do we? For the first quarter of the season, it looked like Ray Emery had a tight grip on the starter's role. He's struggled more lately, and Brian Boucher has finally gotten a few starts after coming in to relieve a shelled Razor. Boosh will start tonight—his first back-to-back start of the season, which is particularly interesting because the team hasn't played in four days.
The schedule is about to tighten up, so we'll need both goalies ready to go. In previous seasons, John Stevens has routinely stuck with the hot goalie, and although Ray Emery is probably still firmly this team's starter, it looks like Stevens will continue his past habits. For how long, we don't know.
How hot is that seat, Mr. Stevens?
We'll probably be discussing this more over the next couple of weeks, but coach Stevens is definitely hearing the questions about his job security after the team has failed to gel into a dominant Eastern Conference powerhouse. "Job security" is a relative term for NHL coaches, because almost none of them lasts very long. With the Flyers' record only a little better than it was this time last year, despite the core being together for another year and the addition of a Hall of Famer who is still playing in his prime, Stevens won't hear the end of it until the Flyers rip a long winning streak (or he gets fired).
The players, for their part, publicly take the blame for those losses and don't like any of it being placed at Stevens' feet. And I'd have to agree, it's not Stevens' fault. One of the hardest things for fans to do with any real accuracy is determine the actual on-ice impact of head coach. It's easy to point to bad penalties and say the coach doesn't have control, or lackluster play and say he can't motivate them. But those generalizations are hard to actually prove, and usually these guys get canned simply to shake things up and change the perspective. The players' defense of Stevens is correct—he's not the one out there playing (and losing) the games.
Still, it'll mean his job if they don't turn it around soon. Like, really soon. Peter Laviolette's name has already been whispered.
None of this is to say that things are so bad in Philly. The team has actually played better than their (winning) record would indicate, and they should be able to turn it around as quickly as it fell apart. They're tied for last in the division, but they're also tied for third. It's very tight in the Atlantic, and the Flyers have some games in hand on the teams they share that 27 point mark with.
Now's the time to shed the peloton and go catch the leaders, to clumsily apply a cycling metaphor.
(We don't know who created that picture, so we can't give it cred. If it's yours and you want your name in this space, just leave it in the comments or email me. Update: Should have known... The brilliant folks at Flyers Goal Scored By are responsible for that Richie-Pronger photoshop. Not sure how I missed it there.)