The Philadelphia Flyers and San Jose Sharks limp into tonight's matchup as a couple of teams with pretty dreadful recent pasts and uncertain futures.
Both groups have performed poorly this season - an issue exacerbated by the plethora of talent permeating both rosters - and both squads have seemingly hung their coaches out to dry.
Craig Berube in Philadelphia took over the team last season and, using a strong defensive system, led the organization to a playoff berth. They've now lost eight of their last nine games.
Todd McLellan in San Jose managed to survive this past offseason despite leading one of the regular season's best teams - a team that managed 51 wins and 111 points - to a first-round playoff meltdown against the eventual Stanley Cup champion Los Angeles Kings. They've lost seven of their last 10.
Both teams are failing and both seasons are slipping away and the seats beneath each coach continue to rise in temperature. Which leads to the inevitable question - is a coaching change on the horizon? And, slightly less inevitable but much more interesting, could Dan Bylsma, the former Stanley Cup-winning coach of the Pittsburgh Penguins, be a fit for either squad?
"Talking to sources on both sides the time is now for both squads and both coaches and patience has almost gone out the window," writes Eklund of Hockeybuzz.com. "Just as the Blues may have gotten in at the right time on the goalie market, there is a bubbling up coaches market that teams have to look at right now. There is only one Dan Bylsma out there if you want to save this season. Someone is going to make that move in December. You can feel it."
Flyers owner and Chairman, Ed Snider, while blasting the team's lack of seconday scoring, issued something of a vote of confidence to Berube yesterday, per Sam Carchidi of the Philadelphia Inquirer, saying that he didn't blame the coach for the recent run of poor play.
McLellan on the other hand, has been given no such backing and when general manager Doug Wilson was questioned about his coach's job status recently, responded only by saying that the team and the organization were focused on practicing hard and winning their next game, according to David Pollak of the San Jose Mercury-News.
While it remains to be seen how tonight's game plays out and whether or not Berube and McLellan are actually in any real danger of losing their jobs, anything is possible when an organization with a lot of talent underperforms and, in the end, the finger of blame does tend to point squarely at the head coach.
