Donnellon: Too soon to know whether Dave Hakstol's approach is succeeding or failing
BRETT BROWN is out of the woodshed. For now. Pete Mackanin is in Year 2 of a contract extension he signed last March, before his Phillies team lost 91 games. No problem; no one expected much from them last season, we expect only marginally better this season, and there's a club option for 2018. Right now, Pete's a repeat.
BRETT BROWN is out of the woodshed. For now.
Pete Mackanin is in Year 2 of a contract extension he signed last March, before his Phillies team lost 91 games. No problem; no one expected much from them last season, we expect only marginally better this season, and there's a club option for 2018. Right now, Pete's a repeat.
The jury is out on Doug Pederson, of course, the Eagles' surprising 3-0 start dissolving through injury, suspension and some mind-numbing coaching decisions. But he's not going anywhere yet, not this soon, so chill.
Neither is Flyers coach Dave Hakstol, who was lured from a comfortable for-life job at the University of North Dakota by first-year Flyers general manager Ron Hextall two summers ago in what was, for him, his first signature decision. Hextall said when he signed Hakstol to a five-year deal that he loved the "culture" the coach had instilled while in Grand Forks, a popular sports catchword at the time that now is as likely to produce smirks as "process" does.
Chip Kelly saw to that on his way out, but now it is Hakstol's culture with the diminishing returns. Shayne Gostisbehere, by far the most significant integer in last season's surprising run to the playoffs, watched Thursday night's 3-1 victory over the Montreal Canadiens sitting aside rookie Travis Konecny in the press box. Both were healthy scratches - Gostisbehere for the second time in less than three weeks.
Gostisbehere has not scored a goal since Nov. 25. He has four goals and 17 assists after undergoing right hip and abdominal surgery in the offseason. Gostisbehere said that he has experienced "no problems" where the surgery took place, that he had "no excuses" for his play this season. And Hakstol often expresses a belief that offensive struggles trace to defensive ones.
"I don't see him pressing in the offensive side," the coach said when asked before the game whether that led to his player's benching, leading to the obvious and only conclusion:
Gostisbehere is a lost soul right now. And that's not supposed to happen when you've hired a head coach to usher in an era of homegrown players.
Gostisbehere was minus-2 in the Flyers lifeless 5-1 loss in Carolina Tuesday. He's a minus-19 this season. He's gone from a recurring reason why they won a year ago to one of the more noticeable culprits in their mistake-prone losses this year.
While that's eye-popping, he is far from alone. The entire Flyers roster has been a symphony of subtraction this season, a big reason they entered Thursday night with a minus-19 that matched their talented, but confused 23-year-old defenseman - a runner-up to rookie of the year last season.
They are the only team in the Metropolitan Division with negative plus-minus. They have allowed 18 goals more than the next worst defensive team (Pittsburgh). Including Thursday night, they have allowed the first goal in 34 of the 52 games they've played.
And yet . . . they hold the second wild-card spot in early February. Their 10-game winning streak was filled with come-from-behind wins like Thursday night's, their checking tight, their goaltending solid, their puck possession suggestive of a top-tier team.
Like Gostisbehere's struggles, such elacticity in their game belies what we believed would be the coach's main strength, a no-panic consistency. How can a coach who preaches consistency have such an up-and-down team?
Hopefully that's going to change," defenseman Mark Streit said. "I think it was the same last year. Building towards it, working and working on it."
Searching for something, and not losing the room in the process. Hakstol has thus far avoided any hint of revolt or even resistance. Rather this team, which is more veteran than usually described, appreaciates an approach low on histrionics but high on accountability.
"I'm not a big believer in yelling and screaming," said Streit, 39 and in his 11th season. "But he gets very assertive. He tells guys when he's not happy. He tells guys you've got to be better in a good way. You've got a lot of young guys on this team. When you start yelling and screaming on the bench, it doesn't help them."
The question is, when you bench them occasionally, does it? Konecny vowed "to work hard to get back in the lineup," and "to learn from my mistakes."
Gostisbehere called his repeated benchings part of "a learning curve." The coach praised the players who replaced them for their energy and effort, giving no clue whether that would earn Nick Schultz or Dale Weise a repeat engagement instead of reinstating two of the players he was hired to integrate into a bright future.
Maybe the culture he is instilling here requires - demands - he do it this way. For now, all we can do, as we did for three previous seasons with Brown, through Mackanin's first uneven season and Pederson's, too, is hope that it is working, that it will lead to a more consistent effort down the road.
Because the evidence for now, two seasons in, is far from conclusive.
@samdonnellon
Columns: ph.ly/Donnellon