A new rivalry: Alain Vigneault and David Quinn in the Metro

Fresh start in Philadelphia

Despite many teams firing their coaches during the past season, Vigneault was never picked up as a coach and had a whole NHL season off before being summoned by Philadelphia. If Vigneault has reconsidered his coaching style during the hiatus, which minimizes physicality and emphasizes offense, then the Flyers will benefit from this new hire.

This does not seem like a plausible outcome though. Before the Rangers released him, he said, “every year is the same thing. Once we know the team we try and put in a system” and his own words capture his resistance to change.

The same issues in Vancouver and New York contributed to his demise.  He did not hold the proper people accountable and he refused to change his ways. He was, however, able to drive up the number of total goals in New York, but in Vancouver, he was not capable of outperforming the averages from before.

We know that being an offensive team does not directly lead to wins. Following the defense-dominant St. Louis Blues’ capture of the Stanley Cup most likely supports Quinn’s admiration for a physical game. The fact that Vigneault can revive a team’s goal scoring but fail to have them advance in the postseason should also be a flag on his coaching resume.

His weaknesses tend to entail resisting change and refusal to value younger players and their vital development. However, Philadelphia’s situation is different, for a few reasons. With the recent news that the organization has just extended 34-year-old goaltender, Brian Elliott, for a year, many may speculate that Vigneault will lean on him, rather than the 20-year-old promising goalie, Carter Hart. Hart performed quite well given the circumstances when he entered the NHL unexpectedly last season on an almost emergency basis in a season when the team used an NHL-record eight different goalies.

Season speculation

Given the right pieces to the puzzle, Vigneault could help lead the Pennsylvania team to some success. How far they can keep the success rolling is a mystery, especially since Vigneault is in the equation.

As stated above, this is not exactly new territory for the coach. He knows the division and will be rejoined by former Vigneault protege Kevin Hayes. These two facts could give some Flyers fans some comfort. Fellow Blue Line Station contributor, Karly Redpath has an excellent analysis on the impacts of Hayes’ return to the division.

Keep in mind that Vigneault has had some time to hopefully step back and evaluate his past; perhaps come up with an adjusted game plan, since his old ways will not work there. Philadelphia’s reputation is as a team that is quite physical, so it is no shock some fans were surprised upon hearing about Vigneault’s hire.

A large aspect of the new Flyers’s agenda seems to be developing the young core, since Philadelphia had been run by many long-term Flyers such as: Claude Giroux, Jakub Vorachek, Michael Raffl, Scott Laughton, Shayne Gostisbehere and Sean Couturier.

This chapter for Philadelphia must involve working on the upcoming generation of players to succeed with the organization. If Elliott’s time as a professional athlete comes to an end soon, there needs to be a player to pick up where he left off, but without exposure Hart may not be able to pick up the slack. This is especially a more pressing issue, due to Vigneault’s history with goaltenders.

As the Flyers finished sixth in the Metro and 22nd overall last year, the organization hopes for improvement. After mid-June acquisitions of veteran defenders Justin Braun and Matt Niskanen, the organization appears to be attaining assets that could allow a deeper Cup run, if they can even make the post-season.

Much like the Rangers, the Flyers are in a stage of adjustment which makes  both teams hard  to place. Both teams could really end up anywhere in the standings, or have a promising run during the season and have it turn completely around. Given how unpredictable the league is in general, it’ll be interesting to see where they end up in the standings.