The Philadelphia Flyers have made the decision – an odd and unpopular decision – to sit veteran defenseman Keith Yandle in Saturday night’s game against the Toronto Maple Leafs. Flyers interim head coach Mike Yeo confirmed the move in a media session this morning. Yandle is the current NHL record holder for consecutive games played, an ironman streak of 989 games. That will come to an end tonight at 11 games short of 1,000 as Yandle will miss his first game since March 22, 2009, his sophomore season in the NHL with the Phoenix Coyotes.
Why this decision is being made now is puzzling to say the least. Admittedly, Yandle has been sick and missed practice on Thursday. However, he was back at practice on Friday – noticeably skating on the “fourth pair”. Yandle has shown all-time durability in his career; if he is healthy enough to practice, he is healthy enough to play. Yet, Yeo and the Flyers have opted to sit him anyway, and with a healthy scratch designation no less. Philadelphia is 31 points outside of a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference with nothing left to play for this season, but will voluntarily end Yandle’s record streak anyway.
The major problem with the Flyer’s decision is the timing. Yandle joined the team as a free agent this summer in a move that Philadelphia hoped would help them contend for a playoff spot. Instead, the season went the complete opposite direction. Yandle is not without blame; he has been objectively poor this season, as evidenced by a league-worst -39 rating and complete lack of defensive impact. Yet, at no point was Yandle benched. His ice time was cut significantly, but the Flyers stuck with the veteran and allowed him to pass Doug Jarvis for the longest ironman streak back on January 25. So if respecting Yandle’s historic streak was important enough to keep him in the lineup early in the season when the playoffs were still a possibility, why has it changed now with nothing on the line? Yeo stated that the team wants to evaluate young defensemen like Cam York and the recently signed Ronnie Attard, which is valid. Surely the likes of Ivan Provorov, Travis Sanheim, Rasmus Ristolainen, and Kevin Connauton wouldn’t have minded taking a night off though, especially to help their teammate to extend a historic streak. Yandle needed just 11 more games to hit 1,000, which would stand as a legendary achievement even if it was eventually surpassed.
Meanwhile, Phil Kessel also passed Jarvis on March 25 and sits at 967 consecutive games played. With Yandle out, the all-time ironman streak is no longer a moving target. Kessel needs just 23 more games to pass Yandle, which seems like a foregone conclusion. By staying in Arizona through the trade deadline, Kessel may have missed out on a chance at a Stanley Cup run, but the respected veteran is assured of a spot in the lineup for the remaining 14 games of the regular season, barring injury. He will then hit the free agent market this summer and, with his massive cap hit behind him, will draw widespread interest and will surely be able to find a team willing to keep him in the lineup for nine more games to pass Yandle, another ten games to hit 1,000, and potentially much longer than that. It’s too bad that Yandle is losing his chance to make it a more interesting race.
NO MIKE YEO THE OPP
OPP ALERT
THIS IS WHY YOU WERE FIRED L
L COACH
Take your meds. They help.
Mike Yeo apparently needs to prove a point before he’s unemployed in a few weeks
In reality, isn’t Yandle awful now and the only reason they were playing him was to do him a favor to keep his streak alive?
Maybe I’m biased because I 1000% want Phil to own the record and then open the Ironman Hot Dog Shop, with it’s first location underneath Steve Simmons apartment.
Completely agree with everything you just said lol
100%. If they have young defenceman who need to play and may be a part of their future, this is the right call.
I mean there’s like 14 games left in the season. I could understand it if they were fighting for a playoff spot, but they aren’t. If the guy has been playing for almost 12 consecutive seasons just let him play it out. If he doesn’t get a new contract the streak ends anyway. You don’t think current players notice how an organization treats players? That’s a bad look for the Flyers org.
Absolutely d*** move by Yeo. What is he trying to prove? Who cares if Yandle isn’t playing well. The Flyers should be tanking for a better pick anyways. I guess Yeo really wants to lose that dressing room (not that he hasn’t already anyways). He’ll never be a HC in this league again. He wants the guarantee that. He doesn’t even deserve to be an AC at this point. He’s terrible at his job and I’m sure whatever shred of respect his players had for him is gone now.
A complete joke. So close to 1000. Garbage decision.
The joke is the way Yandle played this year. Stats are at the league bottom and the eye test was even worse. It was a total joke that he stayed in the lineup all season.
Is it a joke that he stayed in the lineup or is it a joke they didn’t have anybody better to play instead
If they want to see the younger players then release Yandle.
Mike Yeo still lives with his parents, everyone knows it
Maybe now they’ll disclose he tested positive for COVID about 47 times, but the results were magically declared “ambiguous.”
As if I needed another reason to hate the Flyers, truly a pathetic team that’s going nowhere fast. Like I know Yandle sucks now but so do the Flyers so do the right thing for your veteran player.
Classless move. Next game,is he in to re evaluate him? He’s not going back there,even if he gets hat tricks in each of the remaining games. If Snider was still alive,he would honor the 11 games. This is why some of my clients don’t like Yeo.
Yeo again showing how bad of a coach he is. He and GM Fletcher should never be allowed near a hockey team again.
I hope one of his teammates have a “mysterious illness” and give up the slot on a game time decision.
I’m surprised so many people are upset at this. This is the highest level of hockey in the world, they shouldn’t be wasting games that could be valuable to players who could make a future impact for the club just because of some side show attraction. Are we just going to give Yandle a free 82 games every season when he might not be one of the teams top six defenceman?
They aren’t going anywhere, what does it matter? They are already eliminated from the playoffs. Teams were willing to do it for Marleau.
This is just a classless move from a classless organization.
Disagree 100%. Like I said, where does it stop? Does the next team that brings him in have to play him every game? This isn’t classless at all by the Flyers. They are well within their right to do this if it is in their best interests, which it entirely is. If he’s not one of their better players and is taking time from young guys, this should be expected. It’s not that hard.
They have the worst record in their division and are eliminated… you could healthy scratch literally any other veteran that hasn’t played for almost 12 consecutive seasons…
Maybe I’m just in the minority but I don’t think bad players need to play just because they don’t get injured…
It’s a little thing called respect.
Regardless of the man’s skills at this stage of his career, he made history.
If Keith Yandle had respect for the game he would have retired years ago. He’s shied away from contact as much as possible, to the detriment of his team. He and his streak are an insult to the game.
Go tell him that
I’m pretty sure I just did, Keith. I know it’s you. Besides, this streak has become a joke, he was scratched in the playoffs because he doesn’t help his team win. If it was an eligible games played streak the farce would’ve ended a while ago.
Realistically, Yandle has been so bad that he would be hard pressed to find a job next year anyway, which would have allowed Kessell to pass him by the middle of next season.. The only thing really to be disappointed about is the streak will not reach 1,000 games.
bingo. it wasnt going to last longer than 15 more games unless a team like PHX gave him a deal to get to the floor.
Yeah but let the league make that decision, not some interim head coach that’s not even gonna be there next year. I can only imagine how that went down in the locker room
Isn’t this the same organization that gave up a first and extended Ristolinen recently???? Lmfao yeah so this really makes a ton of sense. Ruin a guys Ironman streak to look at defensemen that can’t even beat out Risto. Woof good luck
Unfortunately it is
Come on. Yandle hasn’t been an NHL player at all this season, and if his name was Joe Blough he’d have been playing in Allentown since November. There’s only so long the Flyers have to martyr themselves.
But heck, how about this? If keeping the streak going is so important to some of you, are you cool with the Flyers trading Yandle to your team, right now, and YOUR team can put him in the lineup? Sure, he’d be playoff-ineligible, but that doesn’t matter to the streak. How about it?
Circumstances are completely different man. Flyers have nothing to play for. If Joe Blough played almost 12 consecutive years in the league then Joe Blough should play the last 14 games of the seasons for a last place team.
If the Flyers were contending it’s a different story, but they’re just not. It’s such a donkey move that I’m sure other FAs will notice. Do you think another veteran will want to sign a short-term deal for the organization that clearly doesn’t care about their players?
I hate to break it to you all, but this is ripping off a band-aid. you have to do it eventually. he hasn’t just been bad, but I can tell you in goof authority he might have been in Lehigh at this point if not for the streak. Most of Philadelphia is actually quite relieved by this.
and let’s be realistic – a streak like this means nothing if you’re just playing a guy just to play him.
It’s called respect. And if he’s been so bad this whole season like everyone has said, isn’t even more embarrassing that you have had nobody better this whole time to replace him? And you want to wait until now to give some young player a chance?
Let the man play the season out and reevaluate what you have in the offseason. There is nothing wrong in doing that.
if you’re not playing well enuff to make the bottom pairing on the Flyers then…
and all streaks aside, Yeo can’t not address a player being a sandbag on his bench… Yandle’s wheels are shot.. if he were still in Arizona he could play another 250 games and not get (healthy) scratched.
have people watched him play. He has not been real player for a couple years. He only was playing because of streak. At least kessel can still play. I did not like the one shift game but Kessel deserves record more then yandle.
To reach 1,000 consecutive games in a grueling sport like hockey is quite the achievement. To say one guy deserve it over the other is petty
Yeah, looking at the numbers … Yandle has the worst plus-minus in the league, and he’s only playing 14 minutes a night. (Nick Leddy’s second worst, and he’s playing 22 mpg. Seth Jones is third worst, and he’s playing TWENTY-SIX mpg.) He’s got exactly 5 points five-on-five. He’s got the third worst shooting percentage of anyone who has any goals at all. Only four regular defensemen have fewer hits.
Last year he was merely mediocre and ripe for the boneyard. This year he’s a strong contender for the worst player in the league.
Funny this will be yeo’s legacy
So if respecting Yandle’s historic streak was important enough to keep him in the lineup early in the season when the playoffs were still a possibility, why has it changed now with nothing on the line?
This pretty much sums it up