No, the goalies ARE the problem, Neuvirth was dinged all last year, even when he returned he wasn't 100%.
So ride Elliott, or use Neuvirth before he's ready and put him back on DL, or play Lyon who clearly wasn't ready when he came up.
As usual, all the decisions were crappy. Lose now or lose later.
When we have Hart and Sandstrom, it'll be easy to manage goalies (assuming Sandstrom can stay healthy).
Heck, if Lyon is the goalie we saw in the AHL playoffs, just keep three knowing Neuvirth will be on the DL by December.
That's why I don't get the gnashing of teeth around here, I never thought Lavi was the genius people think he is, when he had top talent he won, when that talent eroded and got injured he missed the playoffs, just like most coaches. Gallant got smart when he was handed a deep experienced team (almost every player between 25-30, a coach's wet dream) and a hot goalie. As Hatcher has pointed out, they're running a similar scheme to Gallant with similar results but without MAF. Give us MAF and we probably beat the Penguins.
Now if the Flyers had ended up with 88 points last year, then you'd have reason for complaint, they were a mediocre team, not a bad team, talentwise, so a bad season would be a reason for Hextall to reconsider whether he wanted a coaching change. But they performed up to their talent, they never folded when both goalies went down and Mrazek turned out to be a pumpkin, they took a far more talented team to six games in the playoffs despite atrocious goaltending from (drumroll) Elliott and Neuvirth.
We'll know if Hakstol can coach in two years when he has top ten talent.
It'll be a young team, but that's why he was hired in the first place, to coach up young players into winners.
This year's team is in transition, enough talent to compete, but too many holes to be a top ten team (though that could change by April).
Generally, the litmus test for a coach is getting a talented team to perform up to its talent, mediocre teams can fall in love with a hot season and everyone is kumbaya (they often crash the next year when talent will out), but on talented teams egos often erupt and chaos rules - and that's when a coach has to become a lion tamer.