Wow look who’s back after some time away to cool down and clear my head.

I bet you guys were starting to think Pasq was running a one man show. No, Jerry was just demoralized with minimal will to live after the events that took place on May 1st. But the past is the past and we’re looking forward (kind of) to the upcoming fall for some more heartbreak hockey.

As I’m sure you all saw, Gallant’s tenure in NY has come to an end after the early exit. Was it his fault? No, not exactly. While he wasn’t necessarily the problem, he wasn’t the solution either. Many players on the team were voicing displeasures during their exit interviews leaving Drury and co to have to make a change. It’s also pretty on brand to what he’s been doing, two years on a team one year over performing against expectations one year under performing against expectations and then it’s back on the carousel. I personally had no problem with GG, many were calling for his head on multiple occasions but I thought he was doing a fine job. He was no Torts (very unpopular opinion, Torts is the goat) but he was also not David Quinn.

There was already going to be a ton up in the air during this off season personnel wise not involving the coach. Will we keep Kane and/or Vlad? Will we look to ship Laf and/or Kakko while we can still get a return? Did Panarin really cut his hair or was it a photo shop? And now added to the mix, who will be behind the bench for us come October.

The rumor mill was swirling hard for the past few weeks with a lot of uncertainty and not a lot of confidence in the leading candidates (more on that in a bit). People were throwing names around like Mike Babcock, who I would’ve been ok with he has the same style as Torts. Patrick Roy, who I also would’ve been ok with because fuck it why not he brings fresh new ideas to the ice like pulling your goalie with 6 minutes left and having it work. Kris Knobluach, who is currently the coach of the Wolf Pack. With Knoblauch, while this would’ve made sense, I wanted to see him stay in Hartford selfishly so hockey close to home can keep being meaningful and he can keep developing those who need it correctly in the AHL. Joel Quinenville, who despite recent controversy I really wanted because he lead the leagues greatest dynasty of the 21st century and was showing great promise in Florida before having to step away for some bad stuff that happened in Chicago. And then John Hynes who I don’t know a lot about other than he looks like Caillou but people really seemed to hate.

Rumors are always fun, but they’re just rumors. Drury decided to go with the one name I absolutely wanted to avoid. Peter Laviolette.

Now before I get into why I wanted to avoid PL, I just want to preface things with this. I’ve naysayed Drury early and often quite a few times before, but his decisions always seem to pan out for the best of the club and he has earned my trust. This is just incase the best scenario happens and we’re marching down Broadway next summer.

PL to me just screams mediocrity, like really really loud. When I think about him, I just picture the Flyers team he coached back when we played them in the Winter Classic and things were covered on one of the greatest shows ever NHL 24/7. This is the equivalent of trading in a 2005 Honda Civic for a 2007 Honda Accord.

I get the attraction, he’s experienced and does in fact have a ring with that Carolina team that people forget won post lockout. But that was many many moons ago in a much different league than we’re in now. I’m not going to sit here and scream how we need development, someone I saw on the interwebs said the time to develop is over, and they’re not wrong. The kid line is coming up on their 4th, 5th and 6th seasons in the league and at this point you have to think what we see is what we got despite lying to ourselves about all this untapped potential. He also took the Flyers to a cup finals as well as the Predators, but hasn’t won since Carolina. Going is great, but we don’t just want to go, we want to win and I’m not entirely convinced he’s going to be able to do that for us. He’s certainly taken every team he’s coached to the playoffs and that’s great, but again we’ve already been there, we want things to matter.

All in all, I’m not happy about it. But upon a closer look at his resume I’m also not too mad about it either. Everywhere you look you’ll see commentators saying the Rangers busted their load too early and how our win now window shut just as fast as it opened. I don’t agree with that at all. Sure we have some aged vets (some of which were newly acquired and are doubtful to be sticking around) but I still think the future is our friend. We have some young talent that’s starting to hit their prime years, how they’ll capitalize on that I’m not too sure but that’s another blog for another day. I guess with this just we really just need to trust Drury to do what he’s been doing and that’s make the correct decisions to better the team. We have a lot of time to sit and think and speculate between now and when they take the ice to open the season, I just hope this is one of those things I get more excited about as I think more.