1) According to the Flyers, Monday's schedule in Voorhees is as follows: "The Flyers will have an off-ice work-out [today] at noon (Voorhees) and once they are done they will practice on-ice. We don’t know how long off-ice work-out will be."From what I was told by team sources yesterday evening after the team returned from Vancouver, head coach Dave Hakstol will be running practice.2) In the often-brutal businesses of sports and journalism, sometimes it is easy to forget that actual human beings are involved as well as families. In regard to yesterday's situation with the Camden Courier Post, I can see both sides of the coin as someone who kind of has one foot in both worlds for my living but is not wholly a part of either. I can sympathize on various fronts.First, the Flyers side: When one is the figure or a colleague of the person being reported upon, times like these are brutal. It is part of the turf to face criticism and speculation about job security or lack thereof in tough times. The rough part is that one also signs his or her family up for that roller coaster ride, too. No matter what anyone may say, money doesn't make up for things that are hurtful to the people you love. Today's social media age is especially brutal and downright inhuman at times.From the player side: Talk about a test of leadership and unity in tough times. It doesn't get much tougher than this, but much of it is self-made. No one will feel sorry for you. But how the hell is it even possible at this point for a team that is already fragile and playing with zero confidence to focus on getting ready for a game on Tuesday? They'll need to find a way.The Skate Zone is going to be a zoo today and the Wells Fargo Center could be an ugly atmosphere on Tuesday night. So far, the team has not been handling the adversity very well on the ice. Regardless of who is behind the bench tomorrow or the next game or the rest of this season -- or who is moving in or out of that locker room -- the team's character is being severely tested right now.Now the reporter side: If one has multiple sources you trust telling you that something is imminent, you have to make a tough decision on when the right time is to publish it. When it comes to trying to break a big story, that is especially nerve-racking and can be risky.Even among experienced writers, a wave of doubt can go through your mind: What if your ducks really aren't in a row? What if it boomerangs on you? On the flip side, what if you hold off on publication and someone beats you to it? There's always been a race to "be first" with a big story because so much of professional reputation and upward mobility rides on it. Even though this is often a matter of luck and a difference of a few minutes to hours, the first one to report it usually gets the credit, the most clicks/reads and the other things your bosses care first and foremost about. But you'd better time it just right.All you can do is report to the best of your ability; as thoroughly as you can with the details as you have been told they are. Sometimes you are bound to catch hell for it, even when things later turn out to be true but especially when it's premature to go public. There's a baseball-like adage in journalism: Sometimes when you pitch, you're going to catch (or, alternately, "every one who pitches gets hit around sometimes"). All you can do is hang in, stand by what your sources told you, and move forward.To varying levels, everyone on both sides of the fence in this business compares notes with sources and colleagues. What are you hearing? Is that imminent or is that speculation or truly a done deal? Why would this happen now or happen later? What else might be involved?You learn quickly that "virtually done" and "likely" are not the same thing as actually done, because things change quickly. Often, when you take a little longer on it, conflicting information arises. Also, there is a very different meaning between "true" and "true as of right now". There are lots and lots of lines to read between and it takes mutual trust and understanding to know a) what is and isn't OK to put in the public sphere, and b) when such a time comes that this may be change and become relevant context to something that happened.When you are on the "fan" side, things often seem much more black-and-white than they really are. That was certainly the case with me. I've gone back sometimes and looked at things I wrote before I had a much wider circle of contacts, and things that I thought at the time were very clear-cut often ended up being much more complicated that I could have ever realized.The Ron Hextall firing is a perfect case in point of all the shades of gray there really are in any workplace but especially in the high-stakes world of pro sports. There are three sides to every story: Side A's, Side B's and the truth that is almost always somewhere in between. It's called the "Rashomon effect"; named after a famous Japanese movie in which the same story is told over and over again from different viewpoints and agendas, leaving the viewer to try to discern what actually happened because perception becomes reality in people's minds.On a different note, whether the fanbase-at-large thinks the Flyers need to make a change behind the bench or not and even whether one believes the coach is a good one or a poor one does not give a media outlet license to publish as a "story" a collection of social media posts of people rejoicing over reports of someone being fired. I am referring here not to the Camden Courier Post story but something at NBC Sports Philadelphia ran. The former is journalism, even if the time-of-publication was miscalculated and unintentionally caused hurt. The latter is lazy, malicious clickbait and nothing more.3) OK, back to hockey here. Regardless of if/when there are changes behind the bench or in personnel, these bottom-line numbers are unacceptable.* Among Flyers goaltenders this season, only the injured Brian Elliott (whose status will be updated today among everything else that is going on) has posted a save percentage that higher than 88 percent. Elliott raised his season percentage to .911 before a reinjury forced him back out of the lineup. Anthony Stolarz, now injured, too, is second-highest at .880.* The Flyers have given up the game's first goal in 21 of 31 games.* The Flyers rank last in the NHL on the penalty kill because they were sub-70 percent until an uptick in recent weeks.* The Flyers have converted just seven of the last 73 power play attempts.* Only the Florida Panthers (7) and Pittsburgh Penguins (8) have allowed more opposing shorthanded goals than the Flyers have to date.* Although the Flyers have scored four or more goals in 13 of 31 games, they have also either been shut out (four times) or held to one goal (six times) in 10 games. Given the goaltending issues, ongoing tendencies toward the "big" breakdown in front even if overall scoring chances yielded have trended positively after a rough start, and the struggles of the team's No. 1 and No. 2 most relied-upon defensemen along with "glue guy" Andrew MacDonald also having a poor season, the odds of winning on nights where you can't outscore team/goalie letdowns are not very good.* The team has won just four of its last 15 games overall (4-8-3).* The Flyers wake up this morning in the Eastern Conference basement.Yet, despite all of this, the Flyers are somehow still "only" eight points behind Pittburgh for third place in the Metro -- a guaranteed playoff spot that takes wildcard candidates from the Atlantic out of the mix -- with all of the most difficult travel in the season now out of the way. The Flyers travel no further than the central time zone the rest of this season.There are a host of major issues with this team, all referenced above. No matter who is behind the bench, vast improvements are needed. As for Dave Hakstol, there are issues with which I disagree with decisions he's made. I don't think he's handled Oskar Lindblom well this season, for example, and I would like to see Travis Sanheim entrusted with power play time. I don't think there's been much choice goalie-wise this season, but there were times during his first three seasons where I second-guessed goaltending-related decisions. I think he could stand improvement on his read on when to call timeout (vs. keeping a challenge in his back pocket) and in when to issue a goal challenge or not take the risk.Overall, though, it is my opinion that Hakstol is a competent NHL head coach. In general, I agree with Jay Greenberg's assessment of. It's rarely a matter of competence, but of the timing and the bottom line. The bottom line is that there is a new GM in place, and new GMs almost always bring in their own head coach -- if not right away, then in the not-too-distant future -- and the buck for a team's collective underachievement almost always ends up stopping with the head coach because it buys a GM time to try to sort out personnel issues.Aside from the head coach being in an untenable spot, this current Flyers team has holes in the roster, starting with, but by no means limited to, goaltending. The goalie play apart from Elliott has been so poor overall that it's not even really possible to be the streaky sort of team the Flyers have been for the duration of the Hakstol era heading into this year. The team got hot this year around Elliott and a (too rare) good start or two from Cal Pickard among his mostly poor outings. Even an upgrade in goal would not magically solve the many other issues but it is a starting place.