Craig Berube is out as head coach of the Philadelphia Flyers after two seasons on the job. The club announced Friday that he has been relieved of his duties.
Berube took over the team early in the 2013-14 season after the team abruptly fired Peter Laviolette three games into the campaign. He led the Flyers to a 42-27-10 record that year. This season was a much different story however. The Flyers went 33-31-18, finishing sixth in the Metropolitan Division and missing the playoffs by 14 points.
In one form or another, Berube has been a part of the Flyers organization for 18 years. He played for the team and has spent his entire coaching career within the organization. He was an assistant coach for six seasons before getting the head coaching job, and was also an assistant and head coach for the team’s AHL affiliate for four years. As a player, Berube appeared in 323 games for the Flyers over seven seasons.
A lot of strange things happened throughout the year, including a mysterious dismissal of the goaltending coach netminder Steve Mason had grown extremely close with. That led to reports that the relationship between Berube and his starting goaltender had frayed. Both denied that, however.
Berube was slammed in the media after the season by NHL veteran Vincent Lecavalier, who may not be long for the organization himself. The Flyers forward said “things changed” in the organization when Berube took over the bench and basically said he wanted Berube fired.
Vinny Lecavalier confirms he can only be successful here in Philly if Craig Berube is no longer the coach. #FlyersTalk
— John Boruk (@JohnBorukCSN) April 13, 2015
This season was a disaster for the Flyers and perhaps a good portion of that should fall on the coach. The team squandered the efforts of Mason in a solid performance this year and two of the most productive forwards in the NHL in Claude Giroux and Jakub Voracek. That said, the Flyers’ defense as constructed was a huge trouble spot for the team. That’s not as much on the coach as it is on the general manager (both Ron Hextall and Paul Holmgren had a hand in that).
Considering Flyers owner Ed Snider still believes his team could compete and should be a winner again, it’s not a surprise that Berube was let go. Now the club has to decide who can come in and fix a team that looks pretty fragile internally right now.
Hextall has a huge decision to make heading into his second full season as GM to find the right coach to lead the team out of a difficult situation. The core is strong in Philadelphia, but there’s still a lot of work to be done on the lineup if the next head coach is to be successful.
It was a pretty uncomfortable year in Philadelphia, but making a move behind the bench could help trigger some much needed change organizationally.