5 Philadelphia Flyers' Storylines That Won't Go Away During 2014-15 Season

The Philadelphia Flyers have not had a good season. They have been mostly below .500 and are essentially eliminated from playoff contention.

That has led to a lot of different stories and subplots that are not necessarily positive, but there hasn't been any positive change over the past few months to make these storylines different.

Here are five storylines that just won't go away during the 2014-15 season.

Vincent Lecavalier has been a complete failure in his one-and-a-half seasons in Philadelphia, but he still has a couple more years before he becomes a free agent.

There's been no silver lining to his 2014-15 campaign, as he's struggled to score and was even benched for a period of time in December.

This NJ.com article sums up the situation with Lecavalier: He's a respected veteran who is being paid a lot and wants to contribute, but he just can't get it done on the ice.

His future is completely up in the air. Waiving him isn't really an option, but a trade or retirement are still possible scenarios this offseason.

With a bad season comes a lot of coaching questions. Those questions are made all the more legitimate when there is a lot of talent on a roster, like there is in Philadelphia.

Jake Voracek and Claude Giroux are two of the best players in the league, and Wayne Simmonds and Sean Couturier are very good players as well. 

Craig Berube's team has come out flat in many big games and has had multiple long losing streaks. At one point, things got so bad that Ed Snider had to come out publicly to say that Berube's job was safe.

Things may be OK right now, but once the playoff picture begins to shape up and the Flyers are on the outside looking in, people will get back to calling for Berube's departure.

This is not a new storyline, as it has dominated Zac Rinaldo's NHL career thus far. The only problem is he's been incredibly ineffective in 2014-15, and the Flyers have been a bad team.

His critics have just grown louder over the past few months and are reaching a boiling point after his most recent transgression.

He received an eight-game suspension, the longest of his career, for an awful boarding penalty against Kris Letang. It wouldn't be a shock if this is his last season in Philadelphia.

I have to admit, I have provided plenty of these storylines during this disappointing season. Check out the most recent one here.

But the Flyers are not only a bad team right now, but they are a bad team with enormous cap issues and no promising end in sight. 

Paul Holmgren has to take the brunt of the criticism. Andrew MacDonald, Luke Schenn, Mark Streit and Vincent Lecavalier are all his acquisitions and all are being paid far more than they are worth, to say the least.

The Flyers have not been a good overall team, but most of their problems start from the back end. 

Philadelphia has missed Kimmo Timonen even more than everyone thought it would. Its woeful talent has mostly been shuffled in and out of the lineup with different players being healthy scratches. 

Braydon Coburn and Mark Streit have been solid, but Luke Schenn, Nicklas Grossmann, Andrew MacDonald, Nick Schultz, and Carlo Colaiacovo have all been in and out of the lineup without contributing anything good.

This storyline will hopefully change in the next year or two with so many talented prospects coming up through the pipeline, but that remains to be seen.