Often, when Alain Vigneault was asked about the tumultuous 2018-19 Flyers season, a nightmare that summoned him to Philadelphia, the head coach mentioned how he was not here at that time.
Essentially, Vigneault was focused on helping Flyers to turn a new page in 2019-20; he had little desire or reason to discuss the previous season, nor did he want to publicly criticize what had happened before his arrival.
But don’t think he doesn’t know the story. Oh, he knows that – and he knows it very well. Vigneault wants to change the image of the Flyers’ playoff. After all, he was hired to end the Flyers’ seven-year stagnation period.
Before Vigneault took the Flyers to the second round of the Stanley Cup 2020 Playoffs, the Flyers had not won a post-season series since 2012. In those seven seasons, they missed the playoffs four times, going every two years. Vigneault in that period, despite not training in 2018-19, had more playoff appearances (five) and series wins (six) in his name than the Flyers since 2012-13, when the club’s drought had started.
Since 2010-11, the season after the Flyers’ last appearance in the Stanley Cup final, Vigneault attended the Cup final twice and won 10 series of playoffs. The Flyers, on the other hand, won three series (one with Vigneault) and did not pass the second stage.
Vigneault knows the story. He has not yet crossed the Stanley Cup victory off his wish list and knows what the essential pieces of the Flyers still need to achieve in Philadelphia. For a player like Claude Giroux, he is losing only the Cup, having gone to the final in 2010 with the Flyers. For a player like Jakub Voracek, the second oldest Flyer active alongside Sean Couturier, he never made it past the second round.
Throughout his career, Voracek, 31, played 49 playoff games – 45 of which came with the Flyers – and won two series. Vigneault, who was never shy about being frank with his players, reminded Voracek of the previous playoff that led to this unusual but anticipated 2020-21 Flyers season.
Call it a motivational tactic by history class.
“I talked to Jake about it and challenged him about this season, about the next year,” said Vigneault on Friday in a video interview. “There is a man who has been in the league for some time and basically won two playoff rounds – one in his first year with the Flyers in 2011-12, and last year with me. So, I challenged him in this, I challenged the whole group The Flyers haven’t been in the playoffs in consecutive seasons since I think ’10 -11 and ’11 -12. So making it to the playoffs is not negotiable here; we’re getting in. We know it will be a challenge, but we’re getting in. .
“To do that, we need Jake to take his game to the next level. I think there are a lot of young players who are pushing him, he is going to have to win that freezing time he has achieved in the last few years. But I also want him to challenge himself ; we are not in it to win a round, and if our expectations are to win, he knows that he will have to perform at the top in the role assigned to him. Our expectations for Jake are very high. “
Voracek had a very good season in 2019-20, after some initial growing pains with a new head coach. From November 23 until the end of the regular season, Voracek recorded 43 points (eight goals, 35 assists) and a 17-plus mark in 47 games. Overall last season, Voracek added 56 points, 44 assists as best of the team and 14 assists as best of career in 69 regular season games.
Voracek, who is entering his 10th season with the Flyers, felt that last season’s club was one of the deepest and best in his management so far. With the return of Oskar Lindblom and Nolan Patrick in 2020-21, the Flyers could be deeper and better this season.
“I hope so,” said Voracek on Wednesday in a video interview. “We lost in the second round. You have to see it this way: we definitely showed some progress compared to previous years, but unfortunately we were unable to close the deal in the playoffs. Obviously, when you have a healthy Oskar and a healthy Nolan, when you there’s a Philippe Myers, Travis Sanheim, a year older, [Travis Konecny], [Ivan Provorov], they are in their cousins now. This will be useful for us and I am very excited to see them work. “
During the team’s victory in the first phase of 2020 over the Canadiens, Voracek scored seven points (four goals, three assists) in six games. During the second round defeat of the series to the Islanders, he had a point (goalless, an assist) in seven games.
“Last year, it took a while to start, but he did it and was playing really well when the game was stopped [happened]”Said Vigneault.” When we got into the bubble and into the playoffs, I thought Jake played well in the first round against Montreal. I thought he was not as effective against the islanders.
“There is no doubt that Jake, with his level of talent and size, can be a force in our team and in this league. I think your last season was a good one. It took a while to get started, I’d like to say that it probably took October. More or less when he recovered his pace, our team started to recover a little. I hope that this year, right away, he will be where he needs to be. “
For a while, the way the Flyers were built, the goal became to reach the playoffs and hope for the best. A kind of false hope attached to the unpredictable nature of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
This is not Vigneault’s mindset. Finally, the Flyers seem to have been made for more. The head coach is letting his main players know that expectations have changed – and so has the story.
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