John Stevens Out As Coach Of Flyers

The Philadelphia Flyers have announced that head coach John Stevens has been fired and replaced by Peter Laviolette. Flyers' General Manager Paul Holmgren stated "this was one of the hardest decisions of his career." The Flyers have lost 3 straight and six of their last seven games and importantly, haven't scored in the last 8 periods, losing 1-0 to the Atlanta Thrashers last Saturday and being shut out by the Vancouver Canucks 3-0 at home. Philadelphia last won 2-1 over the New York Islanders November 25th, and had lost the 3 previous games.

Unfortunately it is usually the coach who takes the brunt of the pain when his players aren't playing as ownership and the fans expect of them, but that is the price of coaching at a high level like the NHL. I would be more than willing to accept those risks if I stepped behind the Flyers', or any National Hockey League bench as head coach, but I didn't get the call from Holmgren (thankfully for Philly fans), but if I offered the job, I wouldn't hesitate, as most hockey fanatics wouldn't, to leap at the chance to guide a team.

Stevens played 53 NHL games before suffering a career-ending eye injury in an American Hockey League game in December, 1998. He was named Head Coach of the AHL Philadelphia Phantoms 2 years later, making the jump to the big club after the 2005-06 season. He was named Philadelphia's head coach in October of 2006 replacing Ken Hitchcock. As coach of the Flyers, Stevens had a record of 120 wins, 109 losses, with 34 overtime losses in 263 games.



Stevens is replaced by Peter Laviolette, a former defenseman, who spent the majority of his career in the AHL from 1982-2000, but did play 12 games for the New York Rangers in the 1988-89 season, with no points. Laviolette was named Head Coach of the Carolina Hurricanes in 2003, taking over for the fired Paul Maurice, and lead the Hurricanes to their 2006 Stanley Cup win.

Laviolette was let go in December last year after a disappointing 2007-08 campaign and a similar slow start the following year. He also coached the 2006 United States Olympic Hockey Team in Turin, Italy. Recently, Laviolette could be seen as a member of the TSN hockey panel.