By Mary Cunningham
The Flyers’ season again ended in failure to make the playoffs and the normally mild-mannered players are largely silent about who’s to blame.
Except Shayne Gostisbehere!
As a rookie in 2015-16, he jumpstarted the Flyers’ otherwise lackluster offense from the blue line.
Head coach Dave Hakstol didn’t appreciate his free-wheeling style this past season, opting to tag Gostisbehere with the healthy scratch designation multiple times.
At the time, the second-year defenseman said all the right things, but perhaps that wasn’t exactly how he felt.
“I’m going to make plays and I don’t care if I get yelled at but I’m going to play my game and make my plays,” Gostisbehere said at his exit interview, as quoted in the Metro. “People can look at is as risky but most of the time it works out for me.”
A similar discussion happened when both goalies, Steve Mason and Michal Neuvirth, took the podium and essentially dismissed how the team (Hakstol) handled the netminders.
Neuvirth said, “We’re sitting here and we didn’t make the playoffs. That’s all I have to say.”
Mason, who enters the offseason without a contract, let his displeasure about the two-goalie system be known.
“I think every single team needs to have a defined starter and a backup goalie, and just having that clarity would have simplified a lot of things,” Mason said. “At the end of the season there was that clarity and the result showed for it.”
