If Ron Hextall still ends up firing Dave Hakstol, the line of Fred Shero wannabes will run the full length of the old Stanley Cup parade route. After they are uncovered in archeological digs, that is. Yeah, it’s been awhile in Philly, and now it is even five seasons since the last playoff series win. But the Flyers are going to be good, maybe better than just good, whether Hakstol is still their coach in two years or some other fortunate soul gets a dream job.

Already in place is an anchor defenseman in Ivan Provorov, a stable of big, mobile, if callow, young blueliners with more on the way, a consummately talented high No 1 pick in Nolan Patrick, and a potential franchise goalie in Carter Hart.

Also on the way, to lengthen a lineup too dependent on the revived Claude Giroux and Jake Voracek, the emergent Sean Couturier, plus the currently struggling Wayne Simmonds, are more forwards who will make the same whiners who complained that Brayden Schenn never scored at even strength shut up about the Flyers having traded him.

They moan as if Hextall, on the brink of a cup, gave Schenn away for nothing. The Flyers, whose scouts have a two-decade record of finding stars later in the first round, made that move to draft Morgan Frost, see him becoming another undersized Claude Giroux or Simon Gagne with a big brain for the game. And there still is another No. 1 pick from St. Louis to come.

That's two first round picks in exchange for a good-but-streaky complementary player. While Schenn is off to a great start in St. Louis overall, he is also pointless in his last five games as the team has run into some of the tighter-checking clubs (and two-way centers in head-to-head matchups) they'll face. That was a little taste of what most games are like come playoff time. Schenn, who was also pointless against Couturier's line and the Provorov pairing in Philadelphia's shutout win in St. Louis, is going to need to fare better in such matchups.

As for Philadelphia, the dark November of 2017 will eventually be as forgotten as Erik Gustafsson. The Flyers may have just one win in their last 11 games, but they have more than just a plan, actually talent.

Nobody promised the fans a Cup this year, not with a defense of two rookies (Travis Sanheim and Robert Hagg), a second year guy (Provorov) and a mistake-prone third year guy (Shayne Gostisbehere) plus three second-year forwards. For those of you uncovering treasure in Corsi numbers, here is our own statistical analysis: The Flyers currently have seven first and second-year players, more to come when injuries strike. That fact has also some limited role players into bigger, tougher minutes while the kids are being slowly groomed toward their eventual bigger roles that they aren't quite ready to handle yet. No wonder why this team has had trouble closing out games.

In Philly, the R word is dirtier than Radko Gudas when he loses it. It was the intention of Hextall, in his fourth season on the job, to maintain a competitive team while building one that can take a good five-to-seven year run at another Cup. It seemed like a plan when the Flyers rallied from a 7-10-5 start to make the playoffs in 2016 and again when they won 10 in a row a year ago. But here they are 12 months later, at 9-11-7. In the cap era, what franchise has been able to maintain good while gradually morphing into great?

Chicago made the playoffs once in ten years before being reborn around this nucleus of a three-time champion. Los Angeles had seasons of 27 and 28 wins in a streak of six years without postseasons and two years later won it all. How do you think Pittsburgh got Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, except as jackpots for extended incompetence?

Certainly the odd playoff spot every other year to keep the fans from turning on you doesn’t seem much to ask of the Flyers. But maybe it is when you are transitioning in so many kids. We like what Hextall is doing, just, when the season started, didn’t like the chances of his team blossoming just yet as a contender. Considering the level of inexperience on that defense, even the playoffs seemed like a reach even longer than Sam Morin’s. And he is 6-foot-six.

The Flyers are not good. Yet. They do annoying things. They are 26th in penalty killing, not a good thing when you have taken the 12th most penalties. They make bad decisions at bluelines, take the wrong guy, or no guy, in front of their own net and don’t go to the one at the other end as relentlessly as they should. You almost have to go game by game in the ten straight they lost to explain that only in two of them were they uncompetitive, otherwise just repeatedly found ways to do themselves in with brain locks in third periods and overtimes.

You can’t blame it all on the kids. Dumb decisions by Voracek and Gostisbehere in three overtime losses potentially cost them the opportunity to hide at least some of the issues that become fully exposed when you lose 10 straight. Streaks like that get attention. Go 2-7-1 (the mathematical equivalent in the standings) and the optics are of an ugly but correctable stretch.

The addition of Val Filppula at the last trading deadline appeared to be a good, if temporary, solution to a severe shortage at center. While his stats were modest, the lineup was lengthened and. though too little, too late for 2016-17, the Flyers hit a 6-2 stretch in March that appeared to fix their acute offensive woes.

But Filppula started well this year and then became invisible for 17 minutes a night, which is hard to do. Patrick, coming off surgery, missed three weeks with a concussion and now does not look ready to be in the NHL and certainly not prepared to center a second line, where Simmonds has remained an unfired gun.

What else is now? Finding a center to make Simmonds more productive at even strength is a search that goes back to almost since the Flyers got him. Schenn got opportunities at center, his preferred position, and, for lack of a Jaden Schwartz and Vladimir Tarasenko to play with, proved more productive for the Flyers on the wing, mostly in spurts.

When Pierre-Edouard Bellemare was lost in the expansion draft, opportunity came to build a fourth line that could chip in the odd goal at least once a month or so. But it wasn’t happening in November, leaving the Flyers just killing time until the first line took its turn again.

Hakstol, who made a very smart move at the beginning of the season to free up Giroux on the wing and unlock the offensive potential from Couturier on the first line, isn’t much of a tinkerer during games, much to the mob’s displeasure. But what he did Monday night in Calgary–moving up Simmonds to the top line and dropping Voracek to a unit with Filppula and Micheal Raffl–worked like a lot of things the coach has done. Voracek snapped out of a slump, Filppula played his best game in a month, and Raffl, who went a virtually impossible 44 games without a point playing on third and fourth lines, finished off a beautiful give-and-go with Voracek.

Eureka! Chemistry. The fourth line anchored by Scott Laughton actually scored, too. If these guys can make it last, you will see an improved team.

Brian Elliott was terrific, reminder that goaltending is down the reasons why the Flyers have been losing. And so is coaching.

Hextall desires to fire a guy he went outside the box to hire about as much as Hexy wanted to give up goals to the ’87 Oilers. His impulsive days ended with that whack to Kent Nilsson’s leg. Hextall learned to have a low panic point as assistant GM of the Kings. But when anxiety sets in on a team and a transformative trade is not available–is it ever when you need one the most?–you know who pays. However sincere was Hextall’s Monday night vote of confidence in Hakstol-actually it sounded more like a vow–if things get bad enough, the coach will go.

It is not necessarily the relationship between coach and player that causes a team to slip into the catatonic state the Flyers demonstrated in home losses to San Jose and Boston for losses No. 9 and No. 10. It’s mostly just the losing. Good coaches too often lose their jobs because frankly, a change–if only for change’s sake–can break that tension and provide a fresh start.

Mike Sullivan and Darryl Sutter being exceptions for teams that were a lot more ready to win than these Flyers, such moves do not often work in the long run.

The oft-voiced complaint is that Hakstol has not yet watered Travis Konecny, who is all of 20, into full bloom, but it has taken Couturier until Year Eight to consistently play like this. So everybody in Philly should just grit their teeth and calm down. Sometimes it is darkest before the dawn.

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