It has been a frustrating season for the Flyers. The players know it, fans know it, the coach knows it. Everybody knows it. The team was always a step behind and didn't put things together as they are capable of. It sucks but there is no way to change it anymore. The season is already over and they're just waiting for it to end, way too far behind to have any realistic chance at making the playoffs.
The only thing that's left is to show some character and play as best as you can (particularly in two upcoming contests against the Penguins). Nobody appears to know this better than Steve Mason. He has received very little goal support over the last couple of weeks, but has kept the team in games by his lonesome for most of this recent period. He allowed 3 or more goals only four times in his last 18 performances as the goalie on record. He may in fact be the best player on this team, and his detractors and the people who laughed at the Flyers for acquiring him are finally seeing that this guy is actually a talented goaltender who perhaps was overused and ridden into the ground early in his career.
So why the hell does coach Craig Berube deem it necessary to chew the guy out? During last night's loss in Calgary, Mason got the hook more than 37 minutes into the contest after giving up the second goal on 16 shots. Those aren't particularly atrocious numbers and he was screened on the goal that got him pulled. Berube doesn't appear to believe that is a sufficient, telling the press "Well, you know, there are going to be screens. That's the way it is. You gotta find pucks."
Berube is on his way out. Some of his coaching decisions are just baffling, the system doesn't work properly and the way the Flyers completely fell down the well in terms of penalty kill during the season is not a good thing for him either. Berube was mostly hired as a stopgap after a dreadful start last season. A guy the players were already familiar with since Berube was an assistant coach with the Flyers for a long time, but even his time has come now.
To me last nights reaction appears to be a form of lashing out. Berube knows he is done, that he is already fired. Like the fans and the players, he is frustrated. That is understandable to a degree, but at least it could be done with grace and without basically throwing one of the best players, and the best goalie the team has seen in ages, under the bus.
Berube is toast and Hextall is going to put a new guy behind the bench next season, one of his own choice. I have no doubt that the Flyers are going to try and lure Babcock, though my personal favorite is still Tippett though it is doubtful he could be available. Paul MacLean's name has also been thrown around. In any case, it won't be Berube.
