FLYERS SUNDAY ROUNDUP
* Team Canada will play Russia for the gold medal at the 2015 IIHF World Championships on Sunday. Game time is at 1:45 p.m. EDT. The Canadians, who have torn apart opponent after opponent en route to the finals, put forth an efficient effort in blanking the host Czech Republic team by a 2-0 score in Saturday's semifinal game.
A first period goal by Taylor Hall and a second-period tally by Jason Spezza were enough to win a game in which Canada controlled the puck for much of the game and outshot the Czechs by a 41-23 margin overall and 21-13 over the final 40 minutes. Mike Smith earned the shutout win with Ondrej Pavelec taking the loss.
Claude Giroux (three shots on goal, 17:07 of ice time, even) and Sean Couturier (three shots on goal, 14:56 TOI, even) did not records points in the game for Canada. Brayden Schenn was a healthy scratch for the seventh time in nine games. Jakub Voracek (three shots on goal, 13:15 TOI, minus-one) skated on an even strength line with Vladimir Sobotka and Jakub Klepis.
* The Czech team will play Team USA for the bronze on Sunday. Game time is 9:15 a.m. EDT. On Saturday, the Americans lost 4-0 to Russia. The game was scoreless through two periods until Sergei Mozyakin put the Russians ahead at 7:17 of the final period. That was followed by goals by Alexander Ovechkin, Vadim Shipachyov and Evgeni Malkin (empty net). Sergei Bobrovsky recorded a 35-save shutout and was credited with the secondary assist on the Mozyakin goal. During the preliminary round, the underdog Team USA squad beat the Russians by a 4-2 count but could not duplicate the feat in the medal round.
* Game Six of the QMJHL President's Cup Finals will be held on Sunday in Quebec City at 3:00 p.m. EDT. Flyers 2013 first-round pick Samuel Morin and the rest of the Rimouski Oceanic will try to continue the series-long pattern of the road team winning every game. If the Oceanic defeat the Quebec Remparts in Game Six, the seventh and deciding game will be in Rimouski on Monday (7:00 p.m. EDT).
* The Flyers are being extremely tight-lipped about the progress and candidates in their search for a new head coach to replace the fired Craig Berube. However, one small clue that general manager Ron Hextall did reveal after Berube's dismissal was that he is not in a rush and wants to explore an extensive list of possibilities before narrowing it down. If that's the case, the due diligence process could go for awhile longer.
Based solely on the circumstantial evidence and surface optics, the chances of Mike Babcock coming to Philadelphia do not seem very high at this moment. He's a very accomplished head coach but if he's truly as ambivalent as he says about where to coach next season, his best option is probably to stay put.
Babcock, who repeatedly referred to himself in the third person during a lengthy interview wit TSN's Darren Dreger, told the network that he expects to move up his decision date to May 20th after returning from the IIHF World Championships. He traveled to the tourney alongside Red Wings general manager Ken Holland. He also apparently did not meet face-to-face with the Flyers before his departure for the Czech Republic.
Nevertheless, it still seems likely that Hextall and Babcock have at least spoken by phone. After all, each side has to do its due diligence. If Babcock's Wednesday time line to announce a decision is genuine, that doesn't leave much time for a face-to-face meeting with the Flyers. He'd already have had to covertly committed to traveling here no later than Tuesday.
It would be highly unusual to hire a coach -- even a big-name one -- without so much as a single in-person meeting that lasts several hours. Regardless of what may been said in preliminary conversation(s), face-to-face meetings are usually the make-or-break point.
It's a two-way street: Teams want to hear the coaching candidate's plan for their club as much as the coach needs to hear about the organization's short-term and long-range strategies for giving the coach what he needs to win. That really needs to be done in person, not over the phone or video conferencing.
Something else to keep in mind: The Flyers are an "all-in or all-out" organization when it comes to expectations of whether someone wants to be here or not. They are also not an organization that is typically inclined to "sell itself" (even to big names) unless there is a clear indication of mutual interest.
It would be out of character for the Flyers to essentially beg an ambivalent Babcock to be their head coach. Even if he truly is the best coach in the business right now (many say he is based on his body of work but there are also some quiet dissenters) there are other worthy candidates; except those prospective hires would actively want to come here.
It would be a different story if Babcock has covertly conveyed to the Flyers organization that Philly is where he truly wants to be. In that case, the Flyers would be more likely to pull out all the stops to make it a reality, including parting with a third-round draft pick and signing Babcock to a multi-year deal to make him the highest-paid coach in NHL history.
Babcock's track record suggests he is one of the few coaches who has been a difference-maker in terms of squeezing extra regular season points out of his teams. He's had a few Detroit teams in recent years that pundits predicted before the season to (finally) be the squad that breaks the team's streak of reaching the playoffs every year since the 1990-91 campaign. Instead, the Wings have continued to get into the playoffs despite injuries, an aging nucleus, key retirements and other adversity. However, they haven't gone past the second round in the last six years and have gone home after the first round in three of the last four years.
Babcock owns one Stanley Cup ring among his three trips to the Finals (twice with Detroit, once with Anaheim). He did an excellent job at coaxing a massively talented Canadian Olympic team to gel at the right time, and also won an IIHF World Championship gold medal back in 2004.
There is no doubting that Babcock can effectively coach a bubble team to the playoffs and can get a talent-loaded team over the top. Is he the best in the NHL? Arguably. Is he a miracle worker? No. Is he leaps and bounds better than everyone else out there? No.
No tears should be shed in Philly or any other city if Mike Babcock decides that "what's right for Mike Bobcock" is to stay in Detroit or opt for some other destination with a coaching vacancy. There has been something distasteful about this entire process.
It is very strange that Detroit's management has played the public role of the faithfully devoted spouse who has repeatedly asked the partner to stay in the marriage, been met with no commitment and then understandingly said "by all means, play the field a bit and then decide." It seems equally odd that Babcock traveled to the World Championships along with Red Wings management -- he's there to give opinions on players, not to take an overseas vacation to watch some hockey games and then sip a few Czech beers -- while all the while talking to other NHL teams about their own plans.
I can't pretend to be in Ron Hextall's head or to know what Babcock is really thinking. However, I'd be just fine if the Flyers sat this one out and focused on finding the NEXT big thing in NHL coaching. It beats being one of the spurned teams in some coaching equivalent of the infamous LeBron James made-for-TV "Decision show."
Reading the tea leaves, it does not seem as if Babcock is coming to the Flyers. With that said, for all anyone other than Babcock and Hextall know right now, there could be a press conference later this week to announce Babcock as the team's new head coach.