Effective immediately, assistant coach and former NHL and AHL player, Craig Berube will take over head coaching duties for the Philadelphia Flyers from Peter Laviolette; who was fired yesterday by GM Paul Holmgren.
The move comes as a surprise to many, including Flyers’ fans, who thought Laviolette would realistically remain with the team much longer; at least into the season. The team’s only played three games thus far this season. They haven’t won a game yet in those three games and have a win-loss record of 0-3, including a 2-1 loss to Carolina yesterday afternoon.
Laviolette was in the midst of his fifth year as team head coach. In that time span, he took the team to a Stanley Cup Finals appearance in 2010 vs. Chicago. He also made the playoffs 3 out of the 4 seasons that he coached the team for most of the year (50 or more games). Laviolette also won 145 games as Flyers’ head coach (not including the playoffs), for a total winning percentage of .596. He came within two wins of leading the Flyers to their 3rd Stanley Cup victory in team history in 2010, and the first since 1975.
His tenure of five years as Philadelphia head coach is second only to Fred Shero, who was the team’s head coach for seven seasons from 1971-78. The former ranks 3rd in team history in head coaching victories with 145, behind only Shero’s mark of 308 and Mike Keenan’s 190 wins.
Paul Holmgren, in his morning press conference on Monday following the fire, claimed that Laviolette was not only fired because of the team struggling on paper this season — with an 0-3 record — but because the team had been struggling and losing focus continuously from last season, and that it was time and necessary for a change at head coach. He also said that it was a “gut decision” by the team to relieve Laviolette of his duties, and that the former coach had one more chance at redeeming himself after failing to make the playoffs in last season’s lockout-shortened season. The team last year finished with a 23-22-3 record, meaning Laviolette, overtime/shootout losses aside, had a record of 23-25 in the past one and a half seasons.
Tags: Head Coach, Hockey, interim head coach, Kyle Lutz, paul holmgren, Peter Laviolette, Philadelphia Flyers, TalkSportsPhilly.com
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