Phanatic Hockey Editor
So you want Rick Tocchet fired, do ya? Everyone wants to see the revolution, but nobody has a clue what to do on the day it happens, or the day after, or the day after that.
Just 20 games and 6 weeks into this season, there are rumblings from places you’d expect rumblings. There’s even some strange grass roots effort from someone nobody’s sure actually exists – with the possible exception of Paul Bissonnette – to scam money from unsuspecting dupes to fly a banner over Xfinity Mobile Arena on Black Friday.
Back in the real world…
What’s lacking this early, is a coherent plan for a switch or short list of viable candidates – let alone any hints from upper management that the man in question is in any kind of trouble – to fill any potential vacancy if things continue to trend downward.
The shortest coaching stint in team history from the start of a season, by a person who had not previously worked for the franchise and began his tenure with opening night, is 50 games. That was Bob McCammon, elevated from his post with the Maine Mariners after Fred Shero signed on with the New York Rangers, in 1978.
McCammon, who’d won the Calder Cup the previous spring, had no prior NHL experience and was thrust into the role of following a franchise icon, with a roster simultaneously too old to continue pursuing Montreal and Boston for tops in the league and not young enough to kick start a rebuild.
One of his least beneficial traits, in stark contrast to Shero, was clarity to the degree of bluntness. Shortly before his firing in late January 1979 after a 7-3 home loss to the 3-time defending Cup champion Canadiens, as told by Jay Greenberg in Full Spectrum, McCammon said:
“If the vets play well, the kids look good, it’s as simple as that. “We’re counting on (Rick) MacLeish for a line and he’s not going (Moose) Dupont’s not playing his game. And ever since he got injured in Detroit, (Bob) Dailey hasn’t played to his potential.”
Sound familiar?
Ultimately, McCammon reflected and blamed himself as much as the players who’d gotten used to the previous regime. Does anyone outside the front office believe Tocchet would be reflective enough and devoid of ego to publicly state the same if he’s cut loose?
Giving the premature heave is not something done lightly with this franchise. Here are brief summaries of the few times early trigger pulling on Flyers head coaches were necessary:
Peter Laviolette to Craig Berube (3 games, 2013-14): All these years later, the move is still a head scratcher. What was (or wasn’t) the 2006 Cup winner and 2010 Cup runner-up doing (or not doing) to open the season that had to be examined closer, when an off-season move would have made more sense and given then-GM Paul Holmgren more time to assess what the next bench boss should be?
Instead, with the Flyers scoring 3 goals in 3 season-opening losses, fans were treated to a panic move which elevated assistant coach Berube. After the switch, the club refused to score for most of the next 6 weeks, hitting bottom at 4-10-1, then miraculously recovered to reach the playoffs with 42 wins. Chief was bounced at the end of the following season for essentially doing what folks are fuming about with Tocchet – lineup roulette.
Ken Hitchcock to John Stevens (8 games, 2006-07): The second season after the NHL exploded was essentially doomed because president/GM Bob Clarke was either too checked out or too reluctant to make a coaching move when the roster shifted from veteran-laden to more youthful through attrition (release of Roenick, Amonte, LeClair, Recchi; retirements of Ragnarsson, Desjardins, Therien), injury (Keith Preimeau) or promotion through success (Calder Cup winners Richards, Carter, Umberger, Jones, Pitkanen, et al).
Their 1-6-1 record to begin the year included a 9-1 blowout loss in Buffalo and a complete breakdown in communication structure which Hitchcock required to be successful. On Bloody Sunday, Oct. 22, Clarke was allowed to step down in favor of Holmgren, while Stevens – the bench boss for the ‘05 Calder Cup – was given the reins. With the season a write off, Holmgren was smart enough to play chess with the roster as the team won a franchise-worst 22 games.
Paul Holmgren to Bill Dineen (24 games, 1991-92): It was a bit unfair for Homer to be entrusted with the head job and preside over a team in flux, given the reins to a veteran club that reached the semis in ‘89 only to see it dismantled and miss the playoffs the next 2 seasons. Nonetheless, after a March collapse which saw the Flyers slide out of a playoff spot, several longer-term players were moved due to their disinterest. Then, after an early 8-8-1 start with new blood began to unravel, he was next on the chopping block.
The nadir was a 7-3 Thanksgiving eve loss to Hartford paired with a Black Friday 9-3 loss to the Penguins, both at home, where near-sellout crowds howled for his removal. The actual move was delayed 2 more games and 5 more days because Dineen’s whereabouts needed to be confirmed. Dineen ended up going 4-2-4 through Christmas and ended up with a winning record (24-23-9) for a team that once again missed out on the postseason before landing former No. 1 pick, Eric Lindros.
John Stevens to Peter Laviolette (25 games, 2009-10): Although a more veteran-infused roster began the season at 10-5-1, stagnation and malaise took over due to stale messaging and a 3-7-0 slide including back-to-back shutout losses to Atlanta and Vancouver required a drastic change.
The taciturn Stevens’ dump-and-hunt was out, the fiery, player-attuned Laviolette was in. Things didn’t get better – what followed was a 2-7-1 stretch including an 8-2 home loss to Washington in Lavy’s debut – before an 8-1-1 run began to turn the tide. Even so, the Flyers struggled right up until clinching a playoff berth on the final day of the regular season before a miracle run to the Cup finals.
Tocchet’s tenure is 102 games and counting. If he’s let go soon, it will be the shortest full head coaching stint here since Bill Barber. Barber was hired in December, 2000 -- amidst the debris of a sticky situation between Bob Clarke's decision making, Roger Neilson’s cancer and Craig Ramsay’s status -- then unceremoniously dumped in the spring of 2002 after only 136 games and winning a Jack Adams Award.
A large part of what fueled Barber’s demise was repeated complaints from several key veterans directly to Clarke about Barber’s strategic decisions, or lack thereof. We’ll also never know the full impact of Barber losing his wife to cancer the previous December and continuing to work. That was on a team which made the playoffs both years but were embarrassed in first-round exits.
If the idea of letting Tocchet remain behind the bench continues to burn your insides until you must scream and be heard, ask yourself some questions:
Does Tocchet’s continual head-butting and suspected public leakage concerning franchise cornerstone Matvei Michkov rise to the level of “him or me” in GM Danny Briere's mind?
If so, how soon and if not, why not?
Does Michkov’s public comments from over the weekend about playing time push the needle in any direction?
At what point does Tocchet’s continued calling out of players grate on the right people?
If none of the above, what *will* it take in Briere’s estimation to make the move 95% of online fandom and 50% of offline fandom wants?
Why hasn’t Briere said anything about Tocchet’s status, at all, to this point?
Who could be an adequate replacement with one quarter of the schedule gone? Who would want to step into this mess?
Tocchet is working on something like 15 different lineups in 20 games. Injuries aside, how can any individual player or select line maintain any equilibrium? Is complaining about deployments accurate or a symptom of hyper-critical analysis?
Maybe, just maybe, Tocchet keeps spinning his wheels because the lineup Briere gave him is woefully incomplete and all of their weaknesses have been exposed.
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