Peter Laviolette: Can He Lead the Philadelphia Flyers to a Championship?

It has been less than two years since Peter Laviolette was given the Philadelphia Flyers head coaching job, yet he has already coached the team to 18 playoff wins and gotten within two games up hoisting the Stanley Cup.

The success of his first season, when the upstart Flyers made the playoffs on the last day and came back from a 3-0 deficit to the Boston Bruins en route to a Finals appearance, would not be duplicated in the second playoff year, when the Flyers needed seven games to defeat the Buffalo Sabres and were swept the following round by the eventual champion Boston Bruins.

There is no denying that Laviolette has been a great coach for the Flyers, but history has shown Philadelphia that great coaches do not necessarily win championships.  Since Fred Shero won two Cups in the 1970s, the Flyers have seen Pat Quinn, Mike Keenan and Terry Murray make the Finals without bringing home a championship.

For a city as Cup-hungry as Philadelphia, playoff accomplishment is defined only by winning 16 games in the postseason. 

Murray was fired immediately after his Finals appearance because he shuffled between Ron Hextall and Garth Snow during the Finals and commenting that his team was in a choking situation.

Laviolette, for all his coaching merits, looked like an amateur last playoffs as he cycled between Sergei Bobrovsky, Brian Boucher AND Michael Leighton in the first round. 

Perhaps his unexpected season the year before made it a little easier to forgive Laviolette’s indecisiveness, as well as the addition of Ilya Bryzgalov as a bona fide No. 1 netminder. 

But the fact remains. The bar is high, and patience in Philadelphia is a rare occurrence.

Is that to say that Laviolette is on the hot seat right now?  No, he is not.

But he set a precedent for success in his first season and he now has many of the tools he needs to be victorious in the next two or three years. 

The excuse of the locker room problems caused by the Olde City Crew is null and void now; beginning with Ben Eager and ending with Mike Richards and Jeff Carter, all the problematic players, no matter how loved, have been traded. 

Laviolette now has the locker room he needs and it looks like the overzealous partying lifestyle will not be a factor on the impressionable young minds of James van Riemsdyk, Brayden Schenn and Sean Couturier. 

For the first time since Laviolette came to the team, he will have a united locker room with responsible leadership.  This Flyers team may not be as overtly talented (yet) as the team from two years ago, but this is finally Lavy’s team, and Flyers fans will see what he is capable of producing.

During his tenure as head coach of the Carolina Hurricanes, it was in Laviolette’s first full season that he won a Stanley Cup with his team. 

Obviously, that time has passed for Philadelphia, but it is conceivable that finally having full control of the locker room means that this is Lavy’s “first full year” and he has a chance to duplicate that success in Raleigh.

Laviolette’s system is one that Flyers fans love.  It encourages strong forechecking and defensive responsibility, and the team is becoming stacked with players who excel in these facets of the game. 

The power play has been a concern for quite some time, but the addition of Jaromir Jagr and the emergence of JVR may offset the PP problems of the past.

Still, the question remains. As much as we may like the system, can the team win with it?

Laviolette’s track record would say yes, but the reputation of the Flyers to give up on key members of the organization prematurely (coaches, goalies, etc.) may mean that Laviolette will feel the heat before he has a chance to lift the Cup.

Unfortunately, 2011-12 is going to be somewhat of a rebuilding year for the Flyers, who should make the playoffs but certainly are not getting the attention of the past two years.

So much remains to be answered for this new-look Flyers team, but the Philly faithful believe the familiar face behind the bench is the first step on the path to glory.