Flyers axe head coach Hakstol in midst of 4-game skid

The house cleaning continued in Philadelphia on Monday as the floundering Flyers fired head coach Dave Hakstol three weeks after general manager Ron Hextall was let go.

New GM Chuck Fletcher made the call with the NHL club in the midst of a four-game skid and last in the Eastern Conference with a 12-15-4 record, 10 points shy of a playoff spot. Fletcher joined the Flyers for the last four games of a just-completed 1-3-1 road trip during which they allowed 22 goals.

"To my eyes there was a disconnect between what he was preaching and how the players were playing," Fletcher told reporters. "We need a new voice. We need to have the coaching staff (give) the message to the players and hopefully have the players receive that message and that's why I decided to make the move."

Scott Gordon, 55, was named interim coach. The former New York Islanders bench boss was in his fourth season behind the bench with the Flyers' American Hockey League affiliate in Lehigh Vallley, where he guided the Phantoms to a 15-9-2 record this season.

"He's got some creative ways of thinking the game," said defenceman Andrew MacDonald, who played for Gordon with the Islanders. "We had a really young team in New York when I was there — he was trying to bring in new ideas with speed and some of his philosophies. He's a good man, he's got good systems and I think he'll do a good job for us."

Upon his hiring Dec. 3, Fletcher said he wanted Hakstol to succeed but the final straw was a 5-1 loss on Saturday in Vancouver — the Flyers' 11th defeat in a 14-game stretch and the fourth-year head coach's 277th game behind the Philadelphia bench.

"It's been four years and you build relationships," captain Claude Giroux said Monday. "I think for one guy to kind of pay the price for what's going on, it's not fair, but it's the business side of it."

"[Hakstol's] a great guy," winger Jakub Voracek said. "We made the playoffs two of three years. We had ups and downs. He was a new coach, first time coaching in the NHL. You learn obviously over the span of those years. It's always tough when somebody's let go."

Surprise hire

The third-longest tenured coach in franchise history lost his biggest backer in Hextall, who was dismissed by Flyers president Paul Holmgren on Nov. 26 after four-plus seasons because of "philosophical" differences concerning the direction of the team.

Hextall stunned the league in May 2015 when he hired the 50-year-old Hakstol, a coach with no NHL experience from Drayton Valley, Alta., out of the University of North Dakota and watched him guide the Flyers to a 42-26-14 mark last season and two playoff appearances in three years that were followed by first-round exits.

In recent weeks, former Chicago Blackhawks head coach Joel Quenneville's name has been linked to the Flyers because of his familiarity with Fletcher. Cliff Fletcher, Chuck's dad, made Quenneville a player/coach with the AHL's St. John's Maple Leafs during the 1991-92 season when he was GM of the parent Toronto Maple Leafs.

Chicago fired the 60-year-old Quenneville, a three-time Stanley Cup-winning coach, on Nov. 7. He is second all-time in NHL coaching wins with 890.

Despite some success, Hakstol wasn't free of criticism, with the Flyers struggling in several areas that led to the team's downfall:

• The NHL's worst home record this season at 5-7-2.
• A power play that ranks 29th out of 31 teams (12.9 per cent) and a 30th-ranked penalty kill (73.5 per cent).
• Inconsistent goaltending — ranking 29th in goals against per game (3.74).
• They have allowed the first goal in 21 of 31 games.
• Philadelphia has been shut out or held to one goal in 10 of 31 contests.

Entering the season, Flyers management's expectations were to win a playoff series for the first time since 2012, but some have said Hakstol and the players never seemed to be on the same page.

Regression

The belief was that Hakstol, having worked with similarly aged players at North Dakota, could help develop the team's many prospects. While defenceman Ivan Provorov and forward Travis Konecny improved during his tenure, many young players have regressed in the first half of this season.

• Defenceman Shayne Gostisbehere, who posted a career-best 65 points last season, has three goals in 31 games, is on track for 34 points and has a league-worst minus-18 rating.
• Centre Nolan Patrick, the second overall draft pick in 2017, has one point in his last 14 starts and 10 points in 28 games overall.

Another knock on Hakstol was the Flyers routinely starting slow in games and unable to recover as evidenced by their winning just six times in 21 games after allowing the first goal.

According to the Courier-Post, a newspaper in southern New Jersey near Philadelphia, it wasn't uncommon for Hakstol to reduce a player's role in-game "and shelter them from certain situations or opponents," further damaging their confidence.

"It's been four years and you build relationships," Flyers captain Claude Giroux said. "I think for one guy to kind of pay the price for what's going on, it's not fair, but it's the business side of it. It's a tough day."

Philadelphia hosts the 14-15-5 Detroit Red Wings on Tuesday before tougher home matchups against Columbus (17-12-3) and Nashville (22-10-1) later in the week.