Flyers head coach Alain Vigneault: “I've let everyone down”

Philadelphia Flyers head coach Alain Vigneault knows what it takes to compete for the Stanley Cup. After all, he's guided two separate teams to the Finals, only to come up short in heartbreaking setbacks with the Vancouver Canucks in 2011, and then with the New York Rangers in 2014. 

He's now in the City of Brotherly Love, who have not enjoyed Stanley Cup glory since Richard Nixon resided in the White House. During his season-ending presser, Vigneault lamented the fact that now both of his two years with the Flyers have come up considerably short of his stated goal. 

“I came to Philly to win a Stanley Cup,” he said. “I told Chuck last week or the week before when we were officially eliminated that I sort of felt like I’ve let everyone down here, from him to ownership to our fans to our players. Just after the start that we had, got the team playing better, and then like I mentioned, goaltending, COVID, and no practice time. I wasn’t able to put the ship back on track.

“Like the rest of society, it’s our first pandemic that we went through. There’s obviously some things reflecting on that we might want to change how I handled and how I did things. On a personal level, I’m going to need some time to get the emotion out of the way and analyze this properly.”

Vigneault offered what he called "a couple of theories" about what went wrong for his team this season, ranging from "shaky goaltending" followed by the COVID-19 pandemic. 

“COVID hit us, and after COVID, all we basically did was play games and not practice," he said.

Naturally, teams aren't going to improve much between games without proper practice time. 

“I’m not saying that’s the reason,” he said.. “But I do think that played a part in our game slipping the way it did.”

However, one particular factor stuck out in Vigneault's mind, and that was the lack of available offseason training sites for the players who went back to their native Canada to train. 

"This is just our team," he said. "I can’t reflect throughout the rest of the NHL, but on our team, the Canadian players that went back to Canada had a challenging time.”

He continued by discussing the "difference between Joel Farabee, an American who stayed in the States and was able to train, and our Canadian players, all the ones that went back to Canada.”

Take forward Sean Couturier, for example. According to Vigneault, it wasn't a typical season for the 28 year old who finished with 18 goals and 41 points, despite having earned the Bobby Clarke Trophy as the team’s MVP Monday night.

He “didn’t have a Coots-type season like he had with me last year. If I look at all the other players that went to Canada, they struggled. Whether it’s because of lack of training possibilities, lack of skating possibilities, [he wasn’t sure]. One of my questions when meeting with the players this afternoon is, ‘What are you doing this summer?’ If things stay the way they are right now in Canada, they’re going to have to make some adjustments to their summer plans.”

The Flyers are heading into another early offseason, and there will be plenty of time to make decisions necessary to ensure the team plays longer into the calendar next year.