While Ilya Bryzgalov was venting two seasons’ worth of frustrations on the Philly media on Sunday, Philadelphia Flyers GM Paul Holmgren took another opportunity to state that head coach Peter Laviolette will be back in 2013-14.
“Peter Laviolette is the coach,” Holmgren said. “I don’t know where all this [expletive] came from.”
He praised Laviolette for his deftness with X’s and O’s as well as his ability to rally the troops.
“Our team played hard until the end,” he said. “Peter is a strong motivator and a strong tactician. I expect him to lead our team back into the playoffs next year.”
Still, there’s that word: expect.
The Flyers organization hasn’t always been particularly patient with coaches, which partially explains the speculation. CSNPhilly.com’s Tim Panaccio points out that Laviolette’s 269 games behind the bench only trails legend Fred Shero (554) and “Iron” Mike Keenan (320).
Then again, maybe Holmgren isn’t making promises because he’s not 100 percent about his job security, either.
Here’s video of Holmgren’s commentary, via CSNPhilly.com: