Vigneault is unwilling to accept Flyer failure
PHILADELPHIA >> The Flyers spent 19 of their last 22 days on the road, traveling through four countries, flying 12,673 miles. And not 12,672, either.
If they had an excuse for beginning their season at 2-2-1, it would have been jet lag.
If they had an explanation why they lost their last three, including a shootout defeat in Vancouver, it would have been the organization’s strange approval, if not encouragement, of such a ridiculous schedule.
If they were in a mood to shrug it all off, consider two victories satisfactory, and brace to play the flailing, failing, 1-7-1 Dallas Stars in the Wells Fargo Center Saturday, they might have had reason.
Alain Vigneault, though, was not buying that sales pitch. And Kevin Hayes, who’d had experience playing for Vigneault in New York, didn’t have to ask why.
“We’re losing,” Hayes said.
That was enough. While it has never been a habit to tolerate on-ice failure for a hockey franchise that once fired a coach three games into a season, there was something refreshing about the way Vigneault reacted to that around-the-world air journey. He would refuse to keep his lines in an upright and locked position. Instead, he would bump Jake Voracek back up to Hayes’ line, recommit to a top line of Claude Giroux, Sean Couturier and Travis Konecny, and generally send a message: Do better.
“Some of these guys did play together in exhibition,” Vigneault said. “I just think it gives us the best chance. I’ve watched quite a few of Dallas’ last games. They’ve got some high-end skill and they’re a good team. I think with what we’re doing now we’ve got good balance. We’ve got to put it together and that’s what we’re going to do tonight.”
In that, Vigneault essentially became the second Philadelphia head coach in the week to semi-promise a win over Dallas. More significantly, he was going to do everything he could to deliver. It wasn’t even that his line changes were so dramatic as to demand robust analysis. His top line Saturday had played together for most of the preseason, only to be scuttled after a bad loss to a minor-league team in Switzerland. Voracek played with jump in Edmonton, and would be re-connected with Hayes and Oskar Lindblom. Reasonable hockey adjustments, all. But it was Hayes’ recognition of his coach’s disposition that registered.
“To be honest, it goes further that the losing streak,” Hayes said. “He really doesn’t tolerate bad play. He holds guys accountable, and you saw that. Guys that are NHL staples weren’t playing as much as the younger guys. It’s who he thinks is going that night. You have to be prepared to go every night.
“I think fans and players and this organization should be happy that he wants to win like that. It’s fun to play for a coach that wants to win every single night. He doesn’t accept losing. Obviously, you are not going to go 82-and-0, but he tries to lose as little games as possible. That’s also another reason why I came here.”
That was what the Flyers sought when, after years of mediocrity with entrylevel coaches, or in the case of Scott Gordon, one with only a short time behind an NHL bench, they hired a coach recognized for his demands for players to win every shift. While too early to put a label on the Flyers’ “start,” it is critical for them to break their habit of waiting too late to project urgency.
Last season, they lost seven of their first 11 and failed to make the playoffs. The year before, they lost
11 of their first 20 and lost their only playoff round. In
2016-2017, they lost five of their first eight and did not recover.
So despite circumstances that might have rendered the 2-2-1 understandable, Vigneault reacted.
“I’m not really surprised, honestly,” Hayes said. “He likes things to work. If it’s not working, he’s probably going to change it. I don’t think it will be the first time that you guys see that.
“A couple of times on that road trip he would switch things up and see if it would give us a jump. He switched lines up early in the Vancouver game, and then he switched lines up again in the Calgary game. I think the lines were the same in Edmonton throughout the game. I’m not sure.
“But, yeah, I think it’s pretty common. Whoever he thinks is going that night is probably going to play more minutes.”
Vigneault is not so impulsive that he will begin punishing players for small stretches of ordinary results. Carter Hart allowed four goals on 14 shots and was pulled after 34 minutes of the 6-3 loss in Edmonton. But Vigneault went right back to his 21-year-old goalie Saturday.
“It’s the same as when it happened in Lausanne when we had to pull him,” Vigneault said. “My understanding is he always bounces back real well. He’s a battler. He’s strong mentally. That’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to go right back with him. He’s a young player that’s growing like our team and we’ve got a lot of faith and confidence in him.”
He doesn’t trust a process. He is not ruled by analytics. Alain Vigneault coaches a hockey team. And Saturday, it took his team 43 seconds to respond to his newer alignments, Couturier scoring from Konecny and Giroux.
“We had a lot of travel,” Hayes said. “It’s hard to play in those games when you haven’t played a lot of home games and have been away from home for a while. Hopefully coming home for these next few games, it jump-starts us moving.”
If not, their head coach will keep circling until he finds a turbulence-free flight path.