I tend to agree. After Torts was fired, I really was skeptical with all the Tocchet bluster to the Flyers, even after he left VAN. If they were going retread route, I thought they would have pursued Sullivan a lot harder. It does seem like an old boy Flyers hire, which is sad. Rick Bowness came back to coach Columbus this year. 4 out of his last 5 years as HC his team made the playoffs. The ultimate win now coach with a better track record. A month after Tocchet was hired, Peter Deboer was fired by DAL.
For a front office that likes to show a public perception of being quiet and not say a lot, they sure seem to like to have HCs who do not know when to just shut up. Its a weird mixture. The Flyers will finish better in the standings then last season, but I find this team to be a hard watch most games. Just my opinion. The offensive output still stinks, so the concerns about the Tocchet hire do seem to be justified. Vladar has stolen them points this year and the goalie is part of the team. What track record is there to suggest Tocchet can turn the offense around? 1 year in now 10 years as HC his offense was not even middle of the road. The argument can be made well he never got to be a HC of a good team. Well, this is a league where HCs last about two years, so why did no good teams at the time hire Rick Tocchet. Seems like the relationship between Arizona and himself was mutually beneficial, both sides going nowhere. VAN ownership is known as not really stable. I would have thought that would have been more of a red flag for the regime.
I disagree with that perception but hard to disagree with the rest. DB and Jonesy have been here 3 years and every year they have to hold a major press conferences due to controversy
Year 1. Cutter. Whether or not people believe the Flyers had any fault in him leaving the PR media blitz was amateur hour. From Hilferty->Jones->Torts they just trashed this kid loudly and often. That was not professional at all.
Year 2. Torts abusing York and separately Torts publicly quitting on the team was a national PR nightmare for the Flyers
Year 3. Tocchet’s incomprehensible press conferences where he had to mention Michkov reported to camp out of shape, even if it wasn’t relevant to the question asked caused DB to call for a press conference just to address it. Not to mention Jonesy has had no problem discussing on the record that plan A this year was to buy an elite center/d in FA, that the plan predictably failed, and that there is no plan B.