This doesn’t really have to do with the firing of Peter Laviolette, but it was part of the dumpster fire that was the Philadelphia Flyers on Monday, so we should talk about it.
From TSN’s Darren Dreger, via Bruce Arthur of the National Post:
So @darrendreger just told us on TSN Radio that a Philly source openly wondered whether Luke Schenn can even play anymore. Hoo boy.
– Bruce Arthur (@bruce_arthur) October 7, 2013Setting aside for a second the fact that Darren Dreger is basically on the Maple Leafs’ payroll as a member of their PR staff, and that anything that would make the Leafs look good (like trading away Schenn!) should be taken with a grain of salt, this is … a bit odd, and weirdly timed.
Luke Schenn’s struggled for most of his career to date, but by all accounts, his 2013 season was respectable, if not impressive. He’s looked pretty damn bad so far this season, with that bad-ness reaching a crescendo on his turnover that led to the game-winner on Sunday, but seriously, what skaters on this team haven’t looked bad through these first three games? Isn’t that why the coach got fired?
By all accounts, the Flyers seemed quite pleased with the progress Schenn made last year, and justifiably so in my opinion. If what Dreger’s saying is true, and someone in the organization has soured on him that much that quickly (and, in fairness, who knows who the “source” is or how important they are within the organization), that’s looking like what would be another big swing in opinion based on three games of data.
That’s more troubling to me than Luke Schenn’s (or anyone’s) bad play through three games.
