John Stevens Fired

I know I haven't blogged in quite a while, but I've been a little busy. Philadelphia sports has been amuck with interesting stories so I figure this would be a good time to get back to the blog. News is coming in right now that the Flyers have fired their head coach, John Stevens. The Flyers have been slumping, losing 5 of the last 6. Still, this is a surprising shakeup.

TSN is reporting that Steven's replacement will be Peter Laviolette. According to the report, Laviolette will be behind the bench for tomorrow's game. Laviolette was the head coach for the Islanders from 2001-2003. During his tenure with New York, he took his team to the playoffs twice but never made it past the first round.

After that stint in NYC, Laviolette took over for Paul Maurice in Carolina. Laviolette lead Carolina to a Stanley Cup championship in 2005-06. However he was fired after last season.

I am not sure that this was the right move for the Flyers. I like Stevens for his calm and focused nature on the bench. He seemingly never let things get out of hand. I am not too familiar with Laviolette coaches, let alone how he'll coach the Fly Guys.

The Flyers are 13-11-1 and this season. They need to start winning more games do avoid falling out of playoff contention. So maybe a change was needed. Fact of the matter is that you can't really judge a coaching change until you see how the new coach does. Who knows? Maybe Laviolette is just what this team needs.