NHL insider rips Flyers management a new one after catastrophic first period.

The Philadelphia Flyers are having a really bad game on Saturday night and the pitchforks are coming out in full force this evening. 

The Flyers are in Toronto, Canada this evening where they are facing off against the Toronto Maple Leafs at the Air Canada Center and it has been a very rough evening for Flyers head coach Dave Hakstol and his boys. After the first 20 minutes of play the Flyers were already down by a near comical margin of 4 - 0 and unfortunately from the boys from the city of brotherly love things were not about to get any better for them. After coming out for the second period the Flyers were not able to generate any additional offense but they did allow 2 additional goals from the Maple Leafs, leaving them in a seemingly insurmountable hole of 6 - 0 after just 40 minutes of play. 

The issue for the Flyers this season has been one that has haunted for the Flyers for several seasons now, their goaltending. Now how much of the blame lays at the feet of the organization and how much lays at the feet of the goaltenders themselves is certainly debatable, but when goaltender after goaltender fails in Philadelphia you would be insane not to ask what it is about the Flyers that makes goaltenders falter so frequently? One NHL insider however was not even prepared to go down that road on Saturday night after seeing the display in the first period, instead flat out calling management for what he feels have been poor decisions between the pipes.

"Flyers now on their 5th goalie of the season in game No. 23,"began TSN NHL insider Frank Seravalli. "Team save percentage is by far the league-worst at .877 including tonight. That’s almost 3 goals against every 20 shots. Impossible to win with that. Utterly unacceptable - and you can’t say it snuck up on management."

Now if that looks an awful lot like someone calling out general manager Ron Hextall that's because it's exactly what it is, and Seravalli was not done there. Specifically Seravalli pointed to the organizations decision to continue to lean on goaltenders Brian Elliott and Michael Neuvirth instead of bringing in someone that could potentially mentor Flyers' goaltending prospect Carter Hart.

"Let’s put it another way: The Flyers have allowed 4 or more goals in 12 of 23 games. No chance to win when you need to score 5 every other night. A team poised to “take a step forward” needed a bridge to Carter Hart. Instead, Elliott + Neuvirth = Malpractice. No hindsight there."

Ouch.

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